Feast your eyes...

Volunteer Pat with a mixer during our free Bible class

Fellow volunteer missionaries hanging out during a free Bible class.

Finally, a picture with me in it! This was taken at another English center with some of the students I bonded with. That's the same weekend I went grass-skiing at a local park with the other missionaries, but that's another (humorous) story...

A very...um...festive car I saw on my walk to work one day.

Alongside the steep, long walk to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas (Hong Kong suburbs), I saw this gate swathed in green, and had to stop and take a picture.

The Chinese library in Macau, which I pass everyday on my way to work.

A picture posted in the bathroom of the local movie theater!

Hong Kong

Just as I'd never known all the nuances of the words "sweat" or "hot" before coming to Macau, I can now say I didn't know the name of "tall buildings" before coming to Hong Kong. These things are massive!

The Hong Kong Island cityscape in the foreground, with Kowloon across the bay. I'm standing, I feel, on the top of the world. More accurately, I was on "The Peak," the nickname given to the steep hill behind Hong Kong's financial district. However, I did feel a bit like Jesus when Satan had taken him to see all the kingdoms of the earth. The visionary wonder of seeing Hong Kong like this is not easily forgotten (helped by the fact that there is a mall at the top of the mountain). It is not often you can see an entire city of 7 million spread out before you.




















Buddhas, all with a different aspect of Buddha emphasized. They lined the steps on both sides in a dizzying array of gold.

I took a little jaunt over to Hong Kong and spent two days touring the city briefly. The size of the city combined with lack of building land has compressed people upwards. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you have never seen hundreds of high-rise buildings in one place, go to Hong Kong! Beyond the epicenter of Hong Kong, where the really, really tall buildings are, the coast continues with more tall apartment buildings. Your eye naturally follows the coastline to see where the buildings end, but they never do! Hong Kong now has the distinction of being my second favorite city in the world, right after London. It is very easy to get around in Hong Kong; helped by the fact that I could read the signs for the first time in over a month.

A temple inside Hong Kong. The overpowering incense made my eyes water! Not only do they pay for incense, but in some temples they also pay for the priviledge to light the incense to their gods. The temples especially make money during school exam times by anxious parents. The incense is sold inside the temple.

The first day, Sunday, I went over to HK early in the morning, and toured some of the sights alone. I was joined the next day by another teacher (nobody has the same days off because we are open throughout the week). The first day, however, was my favorite because I was able to see more sights and I met many other "foreigners", mostly from the UK. And, I spent some time with a couple of Americans I met on the metro. The Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas has been my favorite temple so far! Some of Buddha statues, if you look closely, are downright comical! I also walked all over, and saw a history of Hong Kong exhibit. One of the first errands, I admit, was to eat BEEF, as I had not had it in five weeks.

On Monday, I was joined by another teacher, and we continued to tour around, only to arrive back in Macau exhausted at 1 am Tuesday.

My life as a star

Well, if you can't tell, I'm on the set of a commercial. That's right, move aside Jennifer Aniston, and make way for the new rising talent! I was asked to participate in a commercial for the local cell phone company here in Macau, CTM. I was sitting at home a few days ago when the phone rang. The woman on the phone was an American and she identified herself as another missionary here in Macau.
"This is going to sound so odd," she said, "but would you like to be in a commercial?"
I was so shocked! Of course I said yes, even if it is just for two minutes of glory!

Apparently, the phone company had seen her on the street (not hard to spot foreigners in Asia), and asked her to join them for a commercial. Western faces sell products, as many want to be "just like us". They were specifically looking for blondes in their twenties, so she called up our Vice-Principal at the center, and she gave her my phone number.

The whole shoot only actually took about an hour. We pretended that we were receiving this great image of our friends/relatives who were traveling in Macau on the cell phone. After many cheesy takes of us grinning and pointing at the phone, and we were finished. Since I'll be out in the States when this commercial comes out, the missionary couple said they would email me the finished product.

It's not everyday you can say that you were in a commercial, huh?

Baptisms and Questions

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. " (2 Colossians)

I think it is a great thing to be able to use my knowledge of the Bible (as little as that seems!) and my Theology degree in Macau. It is constantly amazing to me how interested the people are in the Bible. They ask all the hard questions in the book, and even more! Sadly, many people want to believe but are afraid of being disowned, being weak, or not respecting their own culture or family. So, we have an odd mix of people. Many understand alot of truths and sound like they are Christians, but do not believe. If they do, most want to believe in secret, and not change their lives. Also, if they believe, many refuse to confess what they believe because they are too afraid. Some are tied to organizations that frown upon believing any religion. And, as I've said before, many just worship ancestors, idols, have folk beliefs, or are Buddhist or Taoist; and most have not ever heard anything about Christianity (which is so different from America).

Habakkuk (2:18-20)
"Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.
But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."

It is very exciting, however hard it is sometimes, to tell people for the first time what baptism means. We attended a baptism of about 50 people in a sister church. Wow! Lutherans in America are almost never baptized as adults; yet there were a wide range of adult Christians there. I'll have to show you pictures soon. We invited some students to join us for the baptism and so there were many questions. I guess baptism would seem very strange--as they said--to someone who never grew up in the Christian church.

Those who were baptized had the choice of whether or not to be dunked or have a cross (with water) placed on their forehead. There was a large pool that they used, and each person was covered with a gown--very symbolic. We were in the balcolney (so many people showed up, it was fantastic!) right to the side of the pool, so we were able to see very clearly.

One college student watching with us I had translate some of what the pastor was saying. He told me that he had a Bible given to him by the English center. He said he liked to read his Bible; which had English alongside the Chinese. "Oh," I said, "It probably helps your English when you read the Chinese words and then the English words so you can understand what it means." The ulterior motive, of course, is just to have them read the Bible as much as possible. Bruce replied, "Actually, I mostly just read the Chinese"
"Which book is your favorite?"
"Mark"
"Mark is one of my favorites too, it is simple to understand"
"I read that Jesus was baptized in the river, why do you use a pool? It looks very strange."

And so on. Bruce is not a Christian, and resembles what many other are like. Many read the Bibles they are given and ask us questions but it takes a lot of time for them to actually believe. So, that was an example of one of the many conversations we could have; including the hard questions about unbelieving ancestors, the Da Vinci Code, and more.

Our team always prays that we are diminished and that Christ is glorified; and that the Holy Spirit is strongly working in our team and on the hearts of the students.

Pictures to come, I promise!

Names and Knock-offs

Names in Chinese are great; each name means several different things, and names are given in order to help one exemplify the traits or things they are named after. Perhaps it is like in the Bible when God/Jesus would re-name a person. The funny part comes in when the Chinese create names in English with the same intent in mind. A word in English may sound pretty to them, have special meaning to them, and so they name themselves after that thing in English. Here are some examples:

Apple
Being (as in "human being)
June
Jim (a girl)
Jackie (a boy)
Good
Freedom Panda (she likes freedom and pandas, so that is her name)
Bleach
Nice


My name is Fang Hui Ming. Fang is a common family name; I guess Polish names are too hard to translate! Hui means caring, wise, helpful, graceful, etc. Ming means a motherly person that would take care of her house, children, and husband.

It shouldn't surprise you that we also see many knock-offs of original name brands and titles. Because many do not know the alphabet--just a bunch of squiggles--they frequently misspell things or mix up some of our idioms.
BNA--we saw this on our flip-flops with the NBA logo when we went in for a massage
NKIE--Nike
"Impossible is Nothing"
"No Smoding"
"Catch me if you can't"
"For healthy, do not smoking"
I also saw a very girly shirt with a big Mickey Mouse picture. Above the picture, the shirt read "Abercrombie;" a breach of copyrights, I'm sure!

The great cockroach escapade

Ok. I love all of God's creatures. Fuzzy kittens, cute little ducks, whatever. I cannot, however, conjure up any sort of love for the cockroach. Last night, for example, I returned home from watching "X-3" and going to a cafe. It was peaceful, I turned on the TV to see what was on the English channels, etc. I was just about to go upstairs to my room when I saw it. There was an evil Godzilla-sized cockroach scampering across MY floor. I must admit...Ahem...that even though the Godzilla-cockroach was about 1000th of my size, I was scared out of my mind. Yes, scared. The first thought out of my mind was not to kill it (that followed a millisecond later), but to run upstairs and to hide in my room. Which of course I did. My hope was that it would scurry into someone else's apartment. After about five minutes, however, I realized it was rather foolish to hide in my room when the humongous beast of a cockroach was having a party downstairs in my kitchen. Gathering courage and turning on all the lights I could find, I headed downstairs to meet my opponent. I'm sure I was saying Philippians 4:13 over and over in my head to help bolster my flagging spirits.

The first thought of attack I had was to grab one of the big 1940s books that adorned my bookshelves. This was not to whack it, by the way--that would put me much too close to the beast. Instead, I was thinking of throwing it at the roach. (No good--what if I missed and my weapon was in the hands of the enemy?) I wisely, however, looked in the bathroom to see if previous missionaries had left some roach spray. They did!

Since my kitchen is the size of a regular-sized bathroom in the States (much more effective!), I tried the "random spray around the floor" method. This did nothing. I jiggled the door against the trash can. Presto! My enemy was in sight. I sprayed the Godzilla roach, and NOTHING happened--it just ran faster. So, I decided the "Spray until I inflict pain" method would be more reasonable. Thus, the Godzilla roach finally met its end. I can't say I felt sorry.

Actually, I was really scared to put the roach in the trash--and after the whole drama was over, I was shaking all over. My knees were shaking, my hands were shaking, etc. I also, by the way, had a nightmare about a cockroach infestation in my FL apartment!

Envy the missionary!

"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is -- where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." -- Robert C. Shannon

The next time I kill a cockroach, I'll have to remember this!