Archives For global journey

Closing Reflections from Hong Kong

Chris —  June 23, 2009

It’s been an interesting week in Hong Kong. Even as I look back on it now, I’m struggling to really digest what I’ve been a part of.

The city is quite overwhelming. It is completely westernized-American style dress, TV, advertisements, malls, etc.- yet very different. It has, along with much of China and the developing world, experienced hyper-industrialization. On a pennisula and a few tiny islands are packed 8 million people. Every square inch seems like a jumbled assortment of advertisements, a vendors, or a high rises. Get out of the city a little bit and you’ll encounter beautifully manicured fung shui style parks, and hillside villages with rice patties and ancestral shrines.

The church does has a presence here, analogous in many ways to the suburban US Church. However, as we saw in the beautiful, yet disturbing monasteries and shrines, there are still millions of Buddhists, Taoists, and Confuscians who need to meet our Daddy.

The ministry we assisted is not your typical outreach. Your typical missionary is someone who moves to a place, learns the culture, and tries to present Daddy’s Son to them in ways that are culturally appropriate. The friends we made here have a very different mission: serve and equip the Chinese Church.

In many ways it is an immensely fruitful mission. Whereas a typical missionary spends years before he or she sees any progress, this mission, you know that your actions have immediate results. The downside is, you could spend years and never actually see the results.

I am immensely grateful for the team here and their willingness to serve thanklessly. The Chinese church, and the whole world as a result, will be indebted to them for years to come.

Time to go to Delhi.

In God, Life ,
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Stats

Chris —  June 22, 2009

We’re leaving China tonight.  Over the last few days, we’ve moved 1.5 TONS of Bibles into China.  That’s about 3,500 Bibles, which are being shipped to 6 provinces across the country.

Our friends here still need to ship tens of thousands of Bibles this year.  All they’re waiting on is some help.  If you’d like to learn how you can help, drop me a line.

In God ,
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Hong Kong Weekend Recap

Chris —  June 21, 2009

It’s been a good, but long, weekend here in China.  I’ll keep this to just the facts, and give you some reflections later.

So far we’ve made six trips across the border.  Daddy has blessed us with a lot of success.  Our main problem has been from extremely tight due to the ongoing swine flu scare.   This has resulted in one of our girls being sent back to Hong Kong once, and me being detained for an hour.  Only once did security check our bags. Even then, many books got across the border.

Our hosts here always take the weekend off.  So we spent yesterday hiking to beautiful waterfalls and watching a light show in the Hong Kong harbour.  This morning we visited a local church, ate an authentic Chinese lunch and visited a tourist trap called Victoria’s Peak.  Tonight we cooked a special dinner (left over spaghetti) for our hard working hosts , and followed it up with my favorite game Telephone Pictionary.

We’ll make 3-4 more trips into China before we leave on Tuesday for India.  I plan to share my reflections and some pictures soon.

In Life ,
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Sleeping Well

Chris —  June 18, 2009

sleep-learningSleeping well has always been a problem for me.  Since I was a kid, my ADHD brain has kept moving a million miles an hour, even when I’m covered up and the lights are off.

The most I’ve ever consistently slept well was the summer I spent interning with Dry Bones.  The combination of 100 degree days and emotional outpouring to our homeless friends gave me a magical ability to fall asleep as soon as my eyes closed.

Since arriving in Hong Kong, I’ve gone to sleep between 8-10pm every night.  I’ve tried to stay up and read or journal to no avail.  The sleep is restful, although far from sound, and I wake up about 4-5am for an extended quiet time.

Why is it that my sleep patterns have suddenly changed?  Well, I’m sure that jetlag and spending the day hauling books around plays a role.  But I also believe that part of it is due to having spent the day serving God.

Most of the time, I lay in bed thinking “oh yeah, Father…how are ya?”  But having spent my day ensuring that follower’s of Daddy’s Son have books to read makes my bedtime prayers sound more like “we did pretty good today, huh?”  Living on mission helps me sleep well.

In God, Life ,
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Days 1 and 2

Chris —  June 17, 2009

It’s Day 2 here in the Far East. Suffering from jetlag has allowed me to wake up at around 4am and have lots of quiet time. I’ve been reading Romans and Proverbs, and also working through N.T. Wright’s Suprised By Hope.

There’s not much that I can tell you.  We met our friends and are really impressed by their hard work on behalf of the followers of Daddy’s Son in China.  We spent the afternoon making two successful deliveries of books into China.

This is a bigger need than you might imagine.  It is “legal” to print Bibles in China, in fact, about 70,000,000 have been printed since the revolution.  However, about 20% were printed for export.  There are about 60,000,000 registered follower’s of Daddy’s Son.  When you add in those who can’t register, it’s more like 140,000,000–and growing daily. Clearly, they need the Word.

This morning, Kara, Sage and I went on an adventure.  We navigated the buses and trains by ourselves, and climbed a trail that had walled villages and ancestral shrines, some dating back 500+ years.  I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

We’re cooking lunch now, then we’ll to spend the rest of the day making deliveries.  Pray that Sarayu will give us a clear safe path to get these books where they need to be.

In Church, Life ,
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