Making Food

Greetings! Jen here. Here's a lovely photo of Roy and a dinner we ate one night: BBQ chicken, fried potatoes and corn on the cob. Mmm...it was good. I enjoyed eating the corn...it's the first time we've had it here. It's in the store in packages of 3 cobs. I paid $10.90HK for 3 cobs, which would be about $1.60US. There's my little food thought for the day.

I'm still quilting with Donna and now I am making a quilt! The going has been slow, but there is progress. Indecisiveness is not good in this arena, as there are so many decisions to be made! What pattern of quilt to make, what color fabrics, what fabric prints, which one to go where...My final decision: A quilt with stars on it, the stars will be black and white, with diagonal red "lines" (really red squares that make red lines) running between the stars. It should be interesting. My plan is to make a queen-sized quilt, but we'll see how it all goes. One day of quilting consisted completely of picking a pattern and looking through different fabrics. The next day consisted of ironing all the fabrics (they had been washed since last time) and deciding exactly which fabrics I would use and which not. On day three I cut, sewed and ironed many red pieces and some black and white pieces. I have yet to decide exactly how I'll put together the black and white fabrics to make the stars...soon.

More later.

Silly Israelites

Sunday, a day of rest. I like Sundays. We sleep in, spend time with Jesus, go to church and usually go out to eat with people. Fun.

IECC (the church we attend) is going through a 5-week series on the 5 Pillars of IECC. Let's see if I can name them all: worship, community, growth, service and outreach. Today's sermon was on outreach. Pastor Brett focused on us going "outside the camp", and one of the Bible passages we read caught my heart.

Numbers 13:31-14:4-"Then the [men who were sent to spy out the Promised Land and bring back info] said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.' So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, 'The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim...and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'

"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?' And they said to one another, 'Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.' "

Wow. This is a classic Israel moment. I separated it into two physical paragraphs for a reason. Upon reading it, I was reminded of how amazing and powerful God is. He gives a child to a couple who is barren...He heals people...He delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego from the midst of the burning fiery furnace. He is AWESOME. And even to the Israelites...He has been so good to them. He delivered them out of Egypt, gave them manna to eat every morning and quail to eat in the desert. He caused water to pour from a rock and made a bitter stream...not bitter. He protected them when Pharaoh changed his mind and tried to chase them down with his chariots. Come on! Why don't the Israelites remember the awesome things God has done? Why don't they realize how amazing God is?

Rather than freak out and grumble, why didn't they say something like this? "Wow, God will surely deliver this land to us in a mighty way. He promised it to us and He is faithful to his promises. I can't wait to see how he kills off the giants or runs them out...He'll do something because He said He'll give us this land. He can do anything! Just think of the mighty things He's done for us already! We are His chosen people, and He loves us. This will be fun to watch."

But, no, the old Israelites respond with no faith, no trust, no delight in God, no knowledge of who God is (faithful, loving true) or what He's done for them already (mighty, powerful), choosing death instead of life. Don't they get it yet? God is doing all the work! He made them prosper and multiply in Egypt, He raised up Moses, He turned Pharaoh's heart to let the people go, He rescued them from Pharaoh and parted the Red Sea so they could walk through on dry ground, He led them through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night, He protected them from wild animals, He walked them to the edge of the Promised Land and HE will be the One who delivers the land into their hands. Not them. They are but weak and frail humans. They can't do it! God is the One. Not me. Oh sure, I flew on the airplane to Hong Kong, I am living in an apartment, assisting Chess classes, meeting a few people, but God is accomplishing it all...and preparing for His purposes. Not me. Silly Jenny, learn from the Israelites:trust in God, for He is the Everlasting God, Creator of the ends of the earth. Amen.

Sunday Dinners

Jen here. We've been in Hong Kong for seven weeks. Wow! Sundays name each week for me. Oh that's the week we went out to eat after church with the Alabama kids. Oh that was after we met the Lau family and had a large Chinese meal. Etc. I want to tell you about our Sunday meals with people. It's one of the few days where we have consistently met with people...but not the same people. I'll do my best to recall...

1st Sunday- We did nothing afterwards, but Kathy Hamilton (who I found out lived in Lake Stevens, Washington for 3 years!) introduced herself to me. She's the women's director at IECC, and I could tell. She was so sweet, kind, loving and welcoming toward me.

2nd Sunday- After church I randomly introduced myself to a woman named Renee, who then introduced me to her old friend Donna. Roy and I were then invited to eat with them. We carpooled to the restaurant (Yes, we rode in cars! Wow!) at the American Club. For the first time since we came to Hong Kong, we were served ice water (ahh...) and could choose from Chinese dishes or American dishes. Roy ordered a cheese burger and fries and I ordered a club sandwich. Ah, American food. Love it. Our group was 10 people, 6 women and 4 men, and I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the women. Praise Jesus!

3rd Sunday-After the 11:30am service, we met up with Donna and joined her for lunch, along with Merrien and Patrick. We ate dim sum (which are like little appetizers...little dumplings, filled with meat and veggies). I enjoy the traditional Chinese way of eating. The table orders a bunch of different dishes, then everyone can eat anything. It's how we eat at home. You take food from the serving dishes and put it on your plate, then eat it. I like this better than just ordering one dish and eating it. Roy and I got to share how we met...and Merrien and Patrick shared how they met. It was fun to just chat with people. Merrien is in charge of the Baking Ministry, which provides snacks after church and other events. Maybe I'll serve there!

4th Sunday-It's official. The 5pm service is our service of choice. The kids from Alabama (who are starting campus ministries on two university campuses here) sat near us in church, so we got to meet them again and chat with them. Some of them just radiate southern hospitality! :) They invited us to go out to eat with them at "The Flying Pan", a 24-hour diner that serves breakfast. Of course we said yes! Reminiscent of Flint's coney islands, we went and enjoyed ourselves, ordering omelets and getting to know the Alabama kids better (by kids, I mean people my age or slightly older...). I enjoyed chatting with a few of the women, and Roy got to chat with some of the guys. Yay. People.

Sundays 5-7 coming soon...
Ciao!

Meet the Mooncake

What is that? You eat it? Why? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are supposed to eat that. And that is a moon cake. I am late in posting this photo, but here are the moon cakes we received as a gift. To my knowledge, moon cakes contain lotus seed paste and a salty egg yolk...and it is said the more egg yolk in the moon cake, the better!

I did not eat this moon cake...I just cut it open to see what it looked like on the inside. I am not sure if they are going bad or not...so I didn't want to take a taste. A few weeks ago I had the experience of tasting a moon cake...I took one of the slices that had little egg yolk. It tasted like lotus seed paste...which almost tastes sweet and good, but then takes a turn for the worse and isn't so good. Donna said the moon cake is an acquired taste. Yep. Agreed.

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Unsure of what to write, I just wrote nothing...

Thursday morning I attended another women's Bible study from our church (IECC). Kathy Hamilton's love and welcoming heart drew me to check this one out. They are studying Daniel with Beth Moore...I joined on week three of the study, which happens to be the week they study Daniel chapter 3. YES!

Daniel 3 is about Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, King Nebuchadnezzar, his huge gold statue and crazy decree to worship the gold statue or else be thrown into the burning fiery furnace. What an awesome example of faith and boldness and backbone we see in these three men! I look forward to pondering it this week. :) I plan to continue with this study...praise Jesus!

More later, I promise. Now to go up to the roof to throw the clothes in the dryer...or, I mean, to take the clothes from the washer and put them up on the clothes line. :) Ha, same thing.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Jen here. The past few days have been unique. The kids were out of school Thursday and Friday, which meant Roy was on holiday as well! Our holiday was fun, but I was reminded that we don't have many friends or family in HK with whom to celebrate holidays. :(

Thursday was the People's Republic of China's 60th Anniversary. Really? China is only 60 years old? Wow. (Have a told you I don't know much of world affairs?) Roy and I walked amongst the masses of people, toured the Carnival in Victoria Park and later attempted to watch the fireworks. The carnival was different. Many decorations, including tons of lanterns, little game tents with mile-long lines of people, clowns, magicians, a clown and Mario (yes, a Chinese Nintendo Mario)making balloon animals...it was a fun event. I was so excited to see Chinese fireworks (would they be the same as US ones?)but tired of being around people, so we decided to watch them from our end of the island. They're fireworks...huge...you can see them for miles, right? We waited, and waited, and waited... :( There are two options: 1. We did not see or hear the fireworks because we were too far away from where they launched them, or 2. They did not happen. I imagine if #2 was true there would be 7 million people bothered at the PRC for lying to them...so probably #1 is correct. :(

Saturday was the Mid-Autumn Festival. The closest American holiday to this may be Halloween. People buy glow sticks and lanterns and go out at night to see the moon (the fullest moon of the year) and to do something...it is still mysterious to me. We went to the park near our home and there were tons of people. Kids covered in glow sticks were running around everywhere. People were picnicking on the open grassy area. Some people were eating, many were burning candles in moon cake tins, some were putting up food offerings. Interesting. There was a talent show or dance recital going on, so we watched the remainder of it, seeing some talented dancers. On our way home we bought slurpees from the 7-eleven (me-coke, Roy-sour apple), saw one family of our neighbors picnicking outside the entrance of our building and we went up on our roof to finish our slurpees and enjoy the not-so-hot weather. We sang songs to God (sweet MHC songs...) and chatted. I am fascinated by Chinese holidays and Chinese people, so every once in a while I would peek over the edge of our roof and see how our neighbors were celebrating (I sound like a creeper, but...I'm not!). So, here's a photo I took. :) This aerial shot shows their little camp, the little guy in the center of the photo is their ADORABLE 2 year old boy. At the top of the photo you will see a horizontal line of lanterns, most of them are lit. There are also glow sticks on the ground. See the red bucket on the top right of the photo? Later on they opened it up, lit some incense stuff on fire and put it in there. Offerings to some god? No idea.

So there, Mid-Autumn Festival. Roy's boss bought us 6 moon cakes, but we haven't tried them yet. There's something about a pastry filled with lotus bean paste and a salty egg yolk that doesn't seem appetizing, you know?

Ciao!

Cookies and Neighbors

Jen here. Wow, what a tiring few days it's been. God is good; He keeps being more than faithful...praise Jesus.

I woke up yesterday hearing the sound of raindrops on our air con. Oh no! I left the clothes out on the line! I ran upstairs and quickly removed them from the line and hung them up on our window guards, my rainy day clothes dryers. The A/C dries them out quick...sometimes when the clothes are outside, they don't dry out completely...must be all the humidity.

As those of you who are married know, marriage is challenging at times. Well, now is one of those times. Poor communication, grumpiness, sin, etc are at their best right now...ugh. I would appreciate prayer for Roy and me, for our relationship. Pray that God would teach me to be selfless and loving, and that God would guide Roy as a shepherd.

Ok, so now I will explain the photo at left. Here is a small snapshot of my kitchen, and more specifically, the half of the kitchen that has a range in it. The white pitcher is standing on the range (the stove). Our stove has two burners and I enjoy using it now that we have metal pans. Above the flowers is a hood thing...so I can vent out smoke or heat or whatever. Today I baked Snickerdoodles (cookies--you can see two of them on the right side of the photo) to give to our neighbors. My kitchen is small, so counter space is a commodity. I realized that the vent is metal, and we have a magnet, and I could take the recipe out of my book and stick it to the vent, so I can use the counter space that my "Better Homes and Gardens" cookbook usually takes up. Thus, that paper hanging from the vent in the photo is my recipe. Yeah!

Oh, and the flowers...Roy bought me flowers today!!! :) I did not expect them (remember I told you we have had a rough couple of days)...praise Jesus. They are purple roses...and smell like roses...mmm. The last time I smelled roses was in Washington, on a Sunday, after the 11:30am service at Mars Hill Church, after I walked Mildred to her apartment. There is a rose garden by the senior living apartments; it contains beautiful roses of all sorts of colors and sizes. Mmm... nature. So Roy chose to remind me of his love for me by buying me roses. Aww... :) I often miss Roy's other actions that declare his love for me, like working hard, letting me know when he'll be home, taking me out to eat, confronting me about my sin, serving Jesus, being generous with me, letting me bake freely, eating and enjoying the meals I make for him, etc. I need to broaden my view of love and how love is expressed.

So I baked cookies today...Snickerdoodles to be exact. I made them to give to our neighbors. Once the last ones came out of the oven, I divided them into three groups and put them on two plates and in one bowl (we only have two small plates...). Off I went to ring doorbells...the first doorbell I rang, no one answered...and I am pretty sure I heard noise in the apartment before I rang the doorbell, but after I rang it, no noise. Hmm... :) I rang two more doorbells, but no answers. Okay...it's 8pm at night, is everyone really out? Not to worry, though, we have many neighbors.

The next door has a creepy red light over it (but a red light is probably not creepy in Chinese culture) and one of those little pots with Chinese burny sticks in it...I don't know how to describe it. It's either a shrine to a god, or to ancestors, or something. It is something spiritual and we see these little shrines tucked in buildings everywhere. In the evening, we'll see food sitting by the shrines; sometimes the food has sticks stuck in it and the sticks are on fire. A burnt offering? Feeding ancestors? No idea. To clarify, our neighbor's little shrine never has food by it and is never on fire...it is just there. I ring the doorbell and an old lady answers (about 50 or 60?). I awkwardly try to introduce myself to her through the metal gate in front of her door, but she does not understand english (and I don't understand Cantonese...), so she gets her son to come over and interpret. He seems to understand, but then he goes and gets his sister. She is nice...and they all seem surprised by the cookies. They accept them and say thank you and bye. I know they understood that I lived upstairs...

I made two more cookie deliveries, and on both of them an older person answered the door...but when they heard me speaking english, they called a teenage kid over to interpret. The third apartment's teenager didn't really get it... but they eventually understood that I didn't need them to let me in to our building, I wanted to give them cookies. The mom and dad turned away the cookies at first, saying ng gaw (thank you)...but they eventually accepted them as a gift. They had an ADORABLE little 1-2 year old son...he was so cute!

What an experience it is to communicate with people without using the same language! The people at Babel must have had a terrible time. I so want to learn Cantonese...

Oh, by the way, the other day our doorbell rang. Roy answered the door and there was a Jehovah's Witness! What? IN HONG KONG? They're everywhere! Those JWs...I hope our neighbors didn't think I was a JW...maybe that's why some didn't answer. Good thing God is sovereign...He is at work, even if people may think I am a JW and not answer the door.

Pray for us to be able to build relationships with our neighbors. After delivering the cookies, I have a desire to teach people english(and to learn Cantonese!)...people who don't have much opportunity to learn it. Kids who go to international schools pay big bucks to attend and most, if not all, instruction is in english. But I bet students who attend local schools have more of an exposure to english as kids in the US have to spanish. "Yeah, I took Spanish for four years...but I only remember Hola, como estas!" Just a guess, I have no evidence to support such a claim.

Thanks for reading...and as always, I love to hear from you, so send an e-mail or leave a comment!

Sewing Madness

This is Jen, once again. On Thursday Donna invited me to quilt with her and her friend Madeline. I enjoy sewing and would love to make a quilt, so I attended.

During lunch I got to meet Madeline. She is in her late 20s or early 30s (according to my observations, which are usually off), very friendly and very joyful. She smiled for most the afternoon. She was sewing together the pieces of her quilt that she cut last week.

I ended up making a purse, because I need a new one. I only brought a few small bags to HK, one that is too small to hold very much and another that is worn and tearing! Donna knew I wanted to make a purse, so she suggested it.

She already had some fabric that coordinated well: three kinds that all had black backgrounds, white flowers and red berries. Two of the fabrics were sewn together back-to-back with batting in the middle and had diagonal stitching to hold the batting in place. I drew up a few designs, bounced ideas off Donna and Madeline, then began cutting the fabric. I knew if I was indecisive and unsure I would never make a purse, but if I just went for it, I just might begin and finish a purse. :)

We began sewing at 12 or 12:30pm and I finished at 7:30pm or so...with a purse! It took so much thinking...Donna helped me think it through and work out the complications. It is reversible and has pockets on both sides. The horizontal strip across the front of the bag is three pockets of different sizes. One pocket I designed to hold my octopus card (for buying things and for public transportation), another for my wallet and another for extra cash or something small. There is another horizontal strip (of pockets) on the inside as well. One of the pockets works well for pens...

I enjoyed sewing. It was fun, inspiring, and satisfying. It is fun to design and create something. I think God gives us this blessing...but I'm glad my purse can't rebel against me and hate me like humans did to God! Made in the image of the Creator, I like to create...with fabric, with food, with words. Think of all the things humans create: movies, books, art, clothing, buildings, music, food, etc. Everyone is reflecting God...every time they create something. Imago Dei. Amen.

Dragon Fruit

Dragon Fruit. One of the many strange fruits I have seen here. I'm pretty sure I have seen it before moving to HK, but I have never known what it is called. Apparently it is the fruit of a kind of cactus. Some say it tastes like a cross between a kiwi and a pear (both are fruits I don't like yet...). It looks so cool, though; how could you not try it?

Today I was grocery shopping at our local Park N Shop and I saw a few women rummaging through a pile of packaged dragon fruit. Each package held three fruit and was marked down to $4. Sweet! That is about 60 US cents. I figured I would take this as an opportunity to try a new fruit (just for the record, I did try a piece or two a few weeks ago in a restaurant...but I want to cut into one for myself!). In typical Asian fashion, the women were surrounding the fruit, so I waited for an opening (not what I should do if I really want to get some fruit). I reached in and grabbed one package and mimicked the other Asian women, turning the package over and examining the fruit (what was I looking for?). Then a Park N Shop worker rolled up a cart piled high with more on-sale dragon fruit. As she marked them and added them to the original pile, a cute little old asian lady smiled at me and pointed at a few dragon fruit on the cart, and said something to me in Cantonese. I think she was pointing out the good ones to me, but really I don't know. The Park N Shop worker saw me waiting and handed me a package of fruit, then another...maybe she saw the confused look on my face...so I chose the best of the two and bought it.

On the home front, Roy went to a Men's event at IECC. We had some delicious lasagna (MMM!!)...then I cut up one of the dragon fruit (as pictured above). I tried maybe 3 pieces and eww...it was not appetizing. There was little flavor or sweetness, tons of seeds, and the texture was the worst part...kind of like a kiwi. So, the Jen votes "No" on eating dragon fruit by itself. Maybe I can find another way to eat it? Any ideas?

Newcomer's Coffee

Jen here.

Take a look at the view from the steps of the Repulse Bay Club, a private club where Roy teaches a Saturday morning chess class. Beautiful. You can swim in Repulse Bay, or just lay out on the beach. If you don't like that, however, you can become a member of this club and swim in a pool, having a view of the bay. And if that's not good enough for you, the RBC has an indoor pool! :) The view is the closest thing to Washington's beauty...when we visited HK in April, this was my favorite place in HK. :) Roy and I took this photo on the way to his Chess class there. I went with him and got to chill and read. I love the view. :)

On a different note, through a series of God-ordained events, I was invited to a Newcomers Coffee event held at the home of a woman named Vicki last Friday. Vicki is from Houston, Texas, but has lived in HK for 4 years so far. She attends a Baptist church here, and runs this Newcomers ministry with two other women. There were about 10 women there, four of us were newcomers. We chatted, drank tea/coffee, and snacked on fruit and desserts. Mmm...it was such a welcoming atmosphere. The women cared about me; they showed an interest in getting to know me. It was a strong contrast compared to Thursday's Bible Study...now granted, the purpose of Thursday's Bible study was not to welcome newcomers...but I think loving people and inviting them into community should be part of our heart all the time, even at a lunch-time Bible study.

The women gave us some helpful books and resources for HK. I have been studying the sweet map book almost every day, and I look forward to reading the other books. What a great idea for a ministry for a church! Praise Jesus. :)

Day to Day

Jen here. The days are becoming more normal. I am running errands, shopping and working to be a blessing to Roy. I want to do a good job at keeping the home, you know? Keep the laundry caught up, make delicious food, keep all 400 square feet clean, figure out how to make this place look like a home.

I ride the bus or tram daily, depending on whether I want to pay an extra $1.50HK for air con or not (tram=$2, bus=$3.40). I took this photo today on my way home from a Bible study(I'm on the tram).

The sun is back; we had a lot of rain since the typhoon level 8 warning (the equivalent of a snow day!) last Tuesday. Roy's first snow (well, typhoon) day in Hong Kong! If I hadn't heard about the typhoon warning, I would have just thought we were having a bad rainstorm. Not a Washington rain, but an Ohio rainstorm. I can't even remember if there was thunder and lightning.

For laundry, we do have a washer, but no dryer. In fact, of all the apartments we looked at, only one had a dryer. The norm in HK is to hang your clothes out the window to dry. We have a clothes line on our roof (our outdoor patio which is on the roof...), but everytime I've done laundry so far, it has been raining. So, here's my dryer when it rains...pretty sweet huh? Many a cloth has dried here on our window guards.

As I mentioned earlier, I checked out a women's Bible study from IECC on last Thursday. God brought me right to the place we met, a random conference room in a skyscraper downtown. I got off the tram and wandered into a building looking for the street number so I could know whether to walk north or south on the road to get to the right address. I showed the guard the address and he told me to take the elevator around the corner. I was in the right building!

The Bible study is going through a workbook called "Staying the Course with God". It is a study on the life of Joseph and taking different topics that he dealt with in his life and drawing applications out of them. Most of the women knew each other well...so well that they enjoyed chatting amongst themselves and catching up. It was an awkward time before the actual Bible study began...people said hi to me, but made no effort to carry conversation further. Instead, they seemed to scaredly jump into conversation with an already-made friend. My mind was running and full of criticism...Remember, I am the person who loves to know the names of everyone she comes in contact with. I even want to meet the people I sit by on the tram or in an elevator (that doesn't mean I do it, but I want to...). I kept asking God to take away my critical mind. Reminds me that when at church or a Bible I need to welcome new people rather than chat with my friends.

To their credit, at the end of the Bible study, I did get to chat with a few ladies. They seem nice...I am not sure if I'll keep going to that one or not. Ciao!

Baking Fun

Jen here. The kitchen has had an exciting few days, receiving 3 cast iron pots and an oven. This is a joy to me. :)

Roy's boss Grace let us borrow an oven (from her cooking program), so now I can bake! Yay!

Check out the oven...it is tiny. The pan in it is an 8 in x 8 in square pan. And yes, that is our microwave underneath it...It is not an illusion, the microwave is bigger than our oven. :) The oven is small, but mighty. In only two days it has made 34 mini muffins, 3 loaves of banana bread, one baked apple and one 8 x 8 pizza. Mmm... What a blessing to be able to bake...and to cook meals.

And to the right you will see some of the mini muffins I made along with two loaves (all banana bread recipe). The kitchen isn't completely outfitted yet--we have no silverware. We do have at least 4 or 5 pairs of chop sticks, so I used chopsticks to get out the muffins from their pan and move them to the cutting board to cool. Fun.

On a scale from 1 to 10, my chopstick skill used to be 3. After 3 weeks in Hong Kong, my chopstick skill is about a 7. Sweet.

More Salmon Pizza.

by Roy

Today Jenny has been using her new oven and been making delicious treats.

Banana bread, baked apples. And my personal favorite salmon pizza. Homemade crust, white cheddar, ning xia - some type of Chinese flowering cabbage, onion, and half a beautiful salmon fillet we got for $HK 28, about 3 & a half bucks US.
Thanks Jenny :)

That's one thing I look forward to about our time in Hong Kong - fresh, delicious, not to expensive seafood.

Kitchen Blessing

Jen Here. How are you? No photos of our apartment yet. We want to get things arranged and decorated...then we'll show the world. :)

Yesterday we got some furniture delivered to our apartment. Props for Roy, who helped carry the stuff up our tiny staircases. We now have a bed on which to sleep...and the bed has the coolest storage underneath it...maybe I'll put it in a photo later. :)

While Roy was teaching a chess class and moving furniture into our apartment, I was relaxing in an air-conditioned building on the other side of HK Island listening to a Beth Moore Conference. The women of our church gathered to watch it...and it was pretty sweet. Beth did it as a simul-cast on August 29th, so it felt like we were involved in the real simul-cast. We walked through Psalm 37, learning about delighting in God and the heart of our desires. It was funny to hear little southern Beth Moore relating to HK women (of course a decent # of our women are from elsewhere)...but it worked. We're all women...regardless of nationality, of one blood as Paul says in Acts 17.

I met a range of people. A fun-spirited group of 20-something women who's full time jobs are to smuggle Bibles into China. Sweet. A group of southern-accented 20-somethings who uprooted from Auburn University in Alabama and are rooting down in HK to start campus ministries on college campuses that have NO Christian ministries. Katie told me Auburn had about 10 campus ministries. So much more need here. Awesome. A few middle aged women with grown-up kids (if my age is grown up!) who moved to HK with their husbands 20+ years ago. God is faithful...giving me courage to introduce myself to people, rather than to wait for them to make the first step.

What a blessing it would be to have women approach me, eager to know me and to be sure I am known and loved in the body of Christ. So far, the older women are beating the younger women at this: 1 middle aged woman has introduced herself to me. 0 women of any other age.

Next time you see someone at church you don't know, go up to them and introduce yourself!

God is faithful and is providing, as He always does. It is humbling, but good. A woman named Donna has been tremendously friendly and generous toward me. Wonderful. Today after lunch after church, she invited me over to her home to go through her kitchen stuff and have whatever she has extras of. WHAT? Yep, that's right.

When we walked in the skyscraper she lived in, I didn't know what to expect. She is established, been here with her ishi for 26 years. Their home felt like a home! It felt like a house...except looking out the windows I didn't see a lawn and mountains, I saw the HK skyline. Wow. It smelled like a home. They had a dog. Can you tell I am amazed? When we first arrived in HK I really longed to just set foot in a "home". Not an hotel. A home. And here I was. Thank you Jesus.

You know how kitchen stuff is. After enough years, you end up with 2-3 sets of plates, 5 loaf pans, an extra set of pots, 4 pie pans, multiple glass bowls, 6 cute country jar glasses you don't use...so she gave me her extras, as much as I wanted of them. Awesome.

The ways that God provides...He has done this for us continually. After Roy and I married, God worked through people's generosity to pay my tuition, stock our freezer with pork sausage (which was really lean ground pork--delicious!), provide Roy with work, etc. He is faithful and is active. Sweet!

God continuing in his faithfulness, he provides Donna and her husband David. I think Donna and I will become friends. I enjoy chatting with her...and I love knowing older women. They've lived life, you know?

We still have a few things to get for the kitchen, but much of it is covered. And, I really did get 6 country jar-glasses. My parents have the same glasses at home. :) They make me smile, reminding me of splitting a Coke with one of my siblings back in the day. Ahh...

Life is good, God is great. Praying for direction...not sure what to commit to as far as my time goes. I have many interests, but what does God want me to focus on?

We love to hear from people, so feel free to e-mail or comment on the blog. Pray for protection from sickness, especially with Roy working in the schools. The swine flu is a bit more prevalent here than in Seattle...but then again there are tons more people here. :) Bye!

Moving on up!

Hey, Jen here. What a day today was. I woke up early out of excitement/nervousness for what lie ahead--we signed our lease today! Roy was on top of it, taking care of things by God's grace...what a blessing to be able to trust Roy and God. Roy bought me breakfast before met with our new landlord--he still thinks of my hungry belly. :) Nancy, Grace's right-hand woman came with us just to make sure things were right and went smoothly. It all went great and by the end of it we were left in the apartment with the keys. Yay. Our new home. :) I'll post pictures sometime...don't want to get out the card reader now.

The kicker of the day was that we needed to check out of our hotel by 3pm, we had TONS to pack up, and Roy had to teach a Chess class at 3pm (but leaves at about 1:30pm)...so plan was I would stay and finish packing and have the concierge hold our bags. Guess how many bags we had held? 7. Yes 7. 4 rolling suitcases, and 3 duffel bags. I probably looked like a crazy woman-"Hi, could you please come and bring down my SEVEN bags? I have enough clothes for 3 months..." haha... oh well. Slight lapse in the story here...I taxied with all our luggage to the bottom of the stairs we must climb to get to our apartment building; Roy met me at the curb. And there we were, two people on the side of a random sidewalk in Hong Kong with seven luggage bags around us...people watched, probably thinking, "What are those strange people doing? And how are they going to move all that luggage? Why did they pack so much?"

My strong ishi grabbed the three duffel bags and slung them around his shoulders, and with each hand grabbed one rolley suitcase. This left me with two rolley suitcases. Off we went toward the massive stairs. ugh. Where's our Mars Hill move in crew? We scaled up two portions of steps and paused for a break. Roy was probably carrying at least 100 pounds and pulling 120 pounds or so up stairs. We rethought our plan. Roy took a smaller load up to the apartment while I stayed back with the luggage. Sounds fine. I got some funny looks from people walking up and down the steps and one old lady stood on her porch and watched our trek (though we did exchange smiles because of the humor of the situation). As I watched them walk by I wondered, "Why don't any of these men offer to help?"

So, moral of the story is: If you see people trying to move more luggage than they can handle, offer to help! Don't just give them a funny look and keep walking. Or, if you know of someone who is moving, help them because it is a big job! And we only brought a fraction of our stuff to move!

While I waited, it began to sprinkle (we're on a Level 3 typhoon warning...level 8 means no one has to go to work, so we can all hang out with our friends...when we make some...). More people walked by. Here's how I describe the rest of our trek. Stairs, sweat, pause, sweat, stairs, sweat, pause, sweat, stairs, sweat, stairs, made it to our building, sweat! Now only 4 flights of sweating stairs left (why did we rent a walk-up???)...sweat, gasp for air, stairs...and AIR-CON! Ahh! Where's that cold juice in the fridge? Oh I wish we had a bed on which to collapse! Ah...

And here I am, hours later, my belly full, my thirst quenched, all 7 bags in our apartment, lying on a makeshift bed with my tired ishi, reflecting on the day. I fretted and worried so much about the lease-signing and rent-paying yesterday...and it went well. Roy took care of it wonderfully. God is faithful to provide...and I was stressing. Silly Jenny. Hope in God, trust in God, for He will never leave you or forsake you!

Praise Jesus for a place to dwell. I pray that we will serve and glorify God in this place. More to come later...

A God-incidence

More from the Jen:
Jesus gives life and hope, as is evidenced by my testimony of our time in Hong Kong. Life is difficult, I’ve been lonely, I’ve been grumpy (Roy can attest to that!), I’ve been sad…but God keeps reminding me of truth--I need Him. So as He holds me and reminds me, I run to Him and today is proof that God is truth. I ran to Him this morning in prayer…

The day didn’t seem to be going great, but I need to run to God for hope, not to my circumstances. Roy and I ventured to Central to the IFC Mall for lunch, and received a free sample of chocolate mousse! Mmm…delicious. Then Roy left for his chess class and I sat down to read at a table with two chairs. As is normal custom in Hong Kong, a woman came up and sat down (but she asked if she could first). I wanted to talk with her…that must be a God-given desire because it happens all the time--in the elevator, at a restaurant, at church, in a store, in the pool--I always want to talk to people. Or at least I want to introduce myself and find out who they are. So anyway, I saw her looking at the book I was reading (Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney), and then I asked her if she worked in Central. She replied and we ended up chatting for about 30-45 minutes! She was very sweet, probably about 40-45 years old, could understand English pretty well and speak decently. I had a great time. She didn’t mind talking…I think she wanted to chat. Praise Jesus for setting up that meeting! We parted ways and I headed for the tram.

I got off the tram at a Park n Shop and bought a few essentials (bread, jam, canned fruit) and a few snacks for Roy (juice and dried raisins). Yay, I get to serve Roy and love him by keeping his PB&J sandwich stash full and by buying him extra treats, like juice! We mostly drink water so far…it will be so nice to have an apartment!

We made an offer on an apartment; we may have it! We’ll fill you in on the details in good time.

Thank you, those of you who are praying for us! God blessed Roy and me to be invited out to eat after church on Sunday--what a blessing it was for me to chat with women!!! I miss that! Haha… I can’t express how great it was; what a relief. Ah!

Keep praying for these things:
Christian community for Roy and me
Apartment stuff to go smoothly and the move in to go well
Guidance and motivation for a job for me (Jen)
For us to love people like crazy for Jesus
Our marriage as this time is a strain for both of us as we are getting situated
Wisdom and spunk for Roy in his job, recruiting schools, teaching kids of all different chess levels, planning and running events, etc.
That we would cling close to God