Mid HK Trip Blog Entry

It's been four days since I've arrived in HK and I only have four more days here, so I figured I should recap what's been going on so far. I've spent parts of 3 of the 4 days visiting my grandpa and just talking to him about general life stuff and just random small talk. It's been great to here about how he's doing at the nursing home. It's actually quite boring to be in there because you're basically at a state where you can't take care of yourself, so you can't really do anything unless the nurse helps you. Therefore, whenever he gets visitors, it's a blessing because he can converse with non-nurses! Obviously, if you get visitors from another country whom you haven't seen in almost 2 years, then that's even more special. That was the case (almost) each and every day my brother and I visited my grandpa. You can literally see him smile whenever we approach him and he says he has been anticipating our visit for the past few weeks. I'm so happy and grateful that my brother and I were able to visit this year and to make sure he's doing fine! I really hope that he'll continue to stay as healthy as he can and just be able to manage living in the nursing home as best as he can, even if it is boring or whatever.

Another part of my visit to HK has been the time spent with my Aunt, Uncle, and their four daughters. It's always lots of fun to visit my GWOO JEI, GWOO JEUNG, BIEU JEHS, and BIEU MUIS. We always go out to random places to shop and eat and it's always a blast joking around with them and catching up with the past few years. The only thing I would pray for would be their faith because they aren't Christians, and it's hard to bring the message across, and so each time we visit, we try to be good examples and somehow invite them to church. This time was no different, but once again, they were busy on Sunday, and so we'll just have to keep trying and wait until it is God's time for them to realize that there is something more to the amazing HK life they have right now.

Also, another aspect of the HK trip would be shopping and visiting friends. Shopping has been great so far, but more to come because I still have some stuff to buy. I already bought a bag and some shirts, so I'm already pretty satisfied. I just need to buy souvenirs, and there's a lot to buy! Visiting friends has been great. Got a chance to see some Toronto people who are also in HK right now, but I would have to say the best visit has been when I met up with Pierre for afternoon coffee and conversation! It's amazing to see my former high school fellowship counsellor doing good in HK, and even though he still likes Toronto more than HK, it's still refreshing to see him managing life in HK. It was also a blessing to be with him on his one year anniversary since his brain surgery operation, and it's all thanks to God for keeping him safe and healthy throughout the rehab. I pray that God will continue to bless him and his family as he continues his life in HK and hopefully his job struggles won't hinder his faith.

Lastly, I had a chance to visit "The Vine" today for Sunday service. I've heard a lot (good and bad) about this Christian fellowship / church, but you don't actually get the chance to know the church until you experience the service. I would have to say that the church is amazing. The worship felt a bit like a Hillsong concert, but the worship songs were real and genuine, and I really enjoyed worshipping with people of various nationalities (yes, you get Asians, Blacks, Whites, etc. in HK! It's just hard to spot them when there are so many Chinese people in the city!). There was one cool thing that is happening at The Vine, and that is the fact that they are preparing to move their church to a new location in Wan Chai. It's similar to the land extension project back in SCAC. Both of these projects require lots of prayer and funds and I really saw a connection in terms of what was going on with The Vine. They spent a lot of the time praying and asking God to bless their church as they undergo the time of change, and I feel that's also another thing that connected me to SCAC. Amidst the autonomy and all the issues that come along with that, we need to continue to pray for the church to be a radical force impacting what's going on in the city of Toronto. We can't just settle down and only say that God will take care of everything because even though He will, we need to take the extra step to move forward to pray for our church to continue to provide opportunities to serve the city and to expand it's missional projects to reach out to the lost. I really felt God reminding me to keep the missional focus in mind even though I'm in HK, and I feel that the service at The Vine this morning has prompted me to do even more when I return to Toronto.

Anyway, that's the recap I have so far for the first four days. I'll recap the next four days when I get home!