Goodbye

Jen here. Moving is bittersweet. I could feel the end of our time in HK coming to a close...and I was excited and sad. The lasts began happening in June: last Chess classes, last Chess tournament, last youth group meeting...

At our last "Encounter" (youth group meeting) Marcus asked students to share testimonies of God's grace and work in their lives. Students got up and shared for the next 90 minutes! Wow! God is at work in these kids' hearts; they are learning from their leader's, friends and on their own. Praise God! After testimonies, we had a fun dance party. Those who didn't want to dance could play video games, foosball, ping pong, Chess or just chill and chat. Dancing was a blast, everyone having a great time. Another leader and I brought our cameras and let students shoot photos. Enjoy.


During my last week in Hong Kong I hung out with a few of my small group girls from youth. We met in Times Square (not NYC...Hong Kong has a smaller Times Square) where there were tons on Toy Story aliens, and of course we had to take some photos with them! Next we went to get some Bubble Tea, which I've only had a few times. I wanted to have it one last time before moving back to the US. One of my girls taught me how to order my own, so I did and we walked around Causeway Bay, talking and drinking our bubble tea(see photo at top). We found a place to sit down and thought about what was ahead. I was sad to be leaving and the girls were sad to see me leave. One of them kept offering to help me unpack (in HK). :) We cried and prayed together and it was time to head home.

Scholastic Chess Championship

Jen here. I've almost caught up with our HK adventures...I don't think I could ever write all of them down.

Our last tournament that we put on was the Hong Kong Scholastic Championship, held in June. It was an interesting tournament, as we had many new staff present in order to be trained. Many university students were looking for jobs for the summer and we had lots of camps scheduled. Perfect fit! It was a good tournament. Roy was the man in charge and he delegated duties to the other staff. I helped Roy in whatever ways worked best--taking photos, being a floor tournament director, keeping kids quiet, organizing the trophies, etc. It was a good time. :)

All students received a trophy at this tournament--see the large trophies in the top left picture, down to the small trophies in the top right photos. This tournament was similar to all our others: three age divisions for trophies, 5-6 rounds (depending on age). One difference: this was Coach Roy's last tournament in Hong Kong this year! He announced it to parents and many wished he would stay. He's an excellent Chess coach and he works well with the students. They have improved so much--I would want Roy to stay too! :)

But, not to worry, Roy still had about a month of classes, camps and quads until he would be leaving HK in July.

Hang Time

Jen here. I got to hang out with a few of my small group girls and one of my co-leaders one day in Sai Kung. It was a good time. :)

The outing was a culmination of many conversations, facebook messages and desires for a long time. We wanted to get all our small group girls together and hang out in HK. In March I sent out a facebook message asking when the girls wanted to hang out. One girl said she couldn't hang out until after May 27th because of exams. That's two months away...HUH? Generally, students are very serious about their studies in HK. Yes, there's a spectrum of zeal, but it seems to be higher than in Southern Ohio. :)

We made a plan, and as the day approached the girls dropped off like flies. Oh no! Not to worry because it was great to spend time with just the 4 of us.

Kaishi and I traveled together to Sai Kung (We had to take the MTR and a bus...about a 60-90 minute commute) and met up with our girls. We scouted the area for a good place to eat and settled on Steamer's (or something like that). Good food. Then on we went to walk along the water. I brought my camera, so I let the girls run around with it and take photos of whatever. Some of the photos I posted were taken by them. :)

One interesting thing I had never seen before was along the sides of the pier, there were several boats selling fresh seafood. A customer would look down into the boats where the seafood was alive and sorted into baskets. One who tell the person in the boat what she wanted, and the worker would kill it, gut it, etc and pass it up to the customer in a net. The customer would then put the money in the net and end of transaction. We watched this for at least 30 minutes.

We concluded our hang out time with real Italian gelato and a quick photography lesson. Great time!