Over Halfway There!!!

I just had to do our taxes this year as I was expecting a fairly good return from last year. We just got our T4's at work and I finally did the hard part tonight and the total we are getting back puts our total at 51% (you can follow the counter on the sidebar for updates). This includes cash in hand and committed funds. This is exciting news for us and it really seems to pull the curtain back just a little bit more. Kind of like spring after a long (if you're from Kelowna) winter.
I shared with a friend at work today about the journey that God has had us on ever since we have been married and it was good to look it over again from that perspective. It is somewhat like reading through the bible and realising that the stories we read have so much more spaces between the lines than there is life lived in the lines. Our lives have been so much like that with seasons of God just downloading on us and moving us around the globe at what sometimes seemed to be His whim. In between, though, there have been much longer seasons of holding patterns and 'cloudy sky' waiting. Abraham knew what this was like. He tried to make it happen and had Ishmael. God actually gave us the leeway to call the company that I worked for in China back in '04, and nothing happened. I think He just wanted to assure us that that door was firmly shut. I can thank Him now, but it sure hurt back then (that was 2 years ago). I thank Him because we don't have an Ishmael now. I thank Him because He let us see.
So now we work towards the goal of getting to Hong Kong this year and He encourages us everystep of the way. He really doesn't have to, but He does anyway. He's a good Dad. I love Him. I want to show Him off to the boys in HK. I want them to know they can have a good Dad too.

Mario As A Family Cohesion Substance

So we have been playing Super Mario Galaxy with the kids for the last month or so and have found that it is actually a pretty cool interactive kind of activity. It does lack the shoulder jarring athletics of some of the Wii family of games, but we all have fun. The latest breakthrough was when Sammy finally collected enough stars to get the observatory flying through space again. The excitement was off the charts as Sammy came charging upstairs to declare his final victory over the evil Bowser. What a moment. That was just today so now he has a whole new realm of galaxies to explore and levels to conquer, most of which will require at least some parental aid. Drat, you mean I have to play Wii again =] .

Not Sure Who We Sent This To

Here is a Youtube video of a report that the South China Morning Post did on the school I will be teaching at. It is a very accurate account of what is currently going on there. I believe it was done shortly before I was there last September.



A friend of mine had a dream about me before we had heard of this school and he said that he saw me leading a squad of young men in the jungle. Hmmmm, you think God was telling him something??

My Son's Murderer

I know that is a bit of a heavy title, but it is the thought that was on my mind today. There was some music playing that spoke about the love and holiness of God, and while I gathered up the tools for the job this thought came careening into my heart. It saw the Father watching His Son as He formed the first human being from the dust of His newly created sphere. The Son, by, for and through Whom all things were created crafted the limbs and shape of this man. This dust that had never known the pulse of life received the very breath of Yahweh, and it responded by breathing in, and out, and in again. The eyes opened and at that very moment they looked up into the eyes of eternal love, but this is not what set my tears to flowing. It is the eyes that looked down with love on the one who would ultimately murder Him. Somehow this context had eluded me until today.
This is one of the ones that will be shined up and safely tucked away in my pack. Perhaps the next time I get up and brush the dust off I will take a moment to remember the One who knew from eternity past the cost of loving me, and yet belied not a hint of regret when His eyes first laid eyes on me. And you.

Homework (here too)!!!!

Homework abounds and the time slips by so stealthily. The course load is a bit heavy for me but not completely unmanageable. There is just so many other things to do and to want to do.
Sigh....I was told to prepare well. This means that I must, and not with a heavy heart. So I remember that it is my Father who calls me and He will make me able.
If you are a praying person and you read this, please pray for this week as I will be doing some catching up and also prepping for my research paper.
When we are in HK it will be so worth it. Even now it is so worth it; just a lot of it to do.

Resolution

As a photographer the word resolution means a lot to me. It gives me the ability to crop and zoom without losing focus and clarity. I think a true resolution at the New Year should do the same thing, bring clarity to the smaller matters of one's life. To resolve in this fashion is to make a strong determination while in the camera it is to bring the viewer as close to reality as possible, again a great crossover. I really want to find myself closer to reality this year than last and that means I will need to set my sights differently.
A friend said that he felt that God has been shifting His people's focus off of the things of this earth in a renewed way lately. The first thought that popped up was that this is the business that God has always been in and perhaps it is just a place we (40+ years old) are in where we start to take in our perspectives with the goal line slowly coming into view. Not to say that there isn't a lot of track still left to lay or that we are at death's door, but the view ahead is seen with the understanding of how quickly the view behind us has already passed by. This puts the mind onto things of eternal value and also shines a disturbingly bright light on the temporal things that surround us and take so much of our time and considerations. It seems that any time I spend time thinking about our finances, our vehicle, the house we'll never afford and all the other stuff clambering for my attention this light slowly breaks through and the gleam or gloom starts to fade away. Of course if I don't pay attention to the light all that I am left with is the stupidity of bending myself out of shape for things that will never last. There is also the despair that awaits my thoughts when I ponder all this without the eternal in mind. Really, what would the point be then anyway! It might seem grandiose to think that my life has made some impact on the future, but that only assuages my anxiety in the now and is completely pointless from a personal standpoint if who I am ceases to exist in the end. It's like the people who think about suicide and then fantasize about the people's reactions at their funeral. Pointless. Pointless because it has to involve two or more people to actually mean anything at all.
Blah, blah, blah.
Point is that I want to keep the eternal in focus and live it with other people. That to me is resolution. Eat your hearts out Nikon!

Me Again

I am starting to feel like our cat. If you've seen my picture lately you know I'm not talking about the fuzzy part, rather I speak of his infrequent visits with our family. If you actually stop by here now and again you know what I mean. Like our cat though, please understand that there is a deep and underlying love for any of you who come here looking for a morsel of my attention. PURRRRRR.

Anyway, I will be late for work now so I will say what I came to say.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
My honest resolution is to frequent this blog (your collective laps so to speak) more often in the new year and help my wife with pertinent posts on our other blog. Look for a new post on one of them by the weekend. I have so much drivel to driv it is almost insane.

Back In K-Town

So after a week back in the lala land of the north I feel like I have ruefully re-acclimatised to the spiritual atmosphere here. Like globs of mayo on the sandwich of life this town saturates my spiritual arteries with its insipid life messages and self promoting ad slogans. The familiarity bred over the years has formed a conduit that means I must constantly be on guard or slip down the slope into a generally cynical point of view. This is not to say that Hong Kong is a spiritual oasis, far from it. Kelowna is only a microcosm of Hong Kong's insanity. The familiarity is the key. You know what they say about familiarity.

I am filled with an anticipation for what lies ahead though, daunting as it is. We have a lot of money to put together in a short time to cover the costs of getting our family over to HK and set up in an apartment. Having done this before we are thankfully aware of some of the pitfalls and hidden costs. We also have friends living there who moved out over a year ago and know full well what is necessary. They found the rental market to be astronomically different from here. In fact to rent their 750 square foot apartment cost them $56000 HKD for the first month due to all the common fees charged by landlords and agents. They will recoup a substantial portion of that when they move, but ouch, what a welcome.

There are also the hurdles of getting some extra schooling while still working so that the government will be satisfied that we are not there to steal their jobs. I will be doing Tuesday evenings and two Saturdays a month from November until March to get my TESOL certification. On top of this education we will tackle, once again, the task of learning Mandarin Chinese and teaching our kids until we can get a tutor in the spring.

Some folks do this kind of thing naturally and may see this as a pretty easy schedule, but we are fairly laid back people so this is quite a change for us.

In my next post I will go more into what the Zheng Sheng school is about and what role we will lay there. There is also a video that I will try to embed which gives an excellent and brief account of the school in its current state. I may even get this done before the weekend....will wonders never cease?

Oh yeah there should be pictures of my trip up very soon on our Flickr site.

Hello From HK

Hey all, this is me from Hong Kong. It has been a crazy 10 days here being with friends and checking out the Christian Zheng Sheng school on Lantau Island where I will be working in a year or so. I flew out here on Wednesday afternoon Kelowna time and arrived Thursday evening HK time after a 2 hour layover in Vancouver. First thing the next morning Mr. Chan whisked me away to go to Cheung Chau Island where we would catch a sampan to the school. We toured around and met a lot of the students and some of the staff members for about three or four hours and then returned to Cheung Chau to see the area where we may end up living when we come here. 

After that day I also have gone to the church my friends attend on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour and had a great time worshipping there. They have a great pastor, Sam Song, who is Korean and schooled extensively in the US. If you want to check their website it is at Solomon's Porch HK.

I have has a chance to see many sights here and I will post a link when I get back to a Flickr set from my trip. 

One of the cooler things (not according to the thermometer though) was staying for three days and two nights at the school. I had a great time connecting with the kids and meeting the staff. The facilities are very spartan so it added a new dimension to roughing it and I finally feel like I have tasted a small slice of the missionary life. I will give some more details in two separate posts to come, one on HK and one on the school. I need to go now though as I am meeting one last time with Mr. Chan and his boss Mr. Lam.

See you again soon.

Days Like These

I used to sing the tagline from a John Lennon song quite often just because it fit so well into my life. The line goes 'Nobody told me there be days like these/Most peculiar momma, whoa'. Most of the time I feel adrift in the waves of days going by wondering if the tethering line will ever tug me back and hold me in place for a season. Doesn't seem to happen that often though. It's not that I don't have aims or dreams, but it doesn't seem that I'm the one that shot the arrow at the target, rather I am the arrow. I rocket along through a life that passes quicker each day looking around to see what on earth I am supposed to hit. This shouldn't come as a surprise to me since I long ago left my life at the mercy of a God who is notorious for leaving out what I deem to be pertinent details and schedules. My wife and I both chose to submit our lives to the Father and let Him lead us rather than living our lives as we saw fit and hoping God would stamp His Okee Dokee on it all at the end. This has left us with a constant meandering as we try to descern His leading in the midst of all the flotsam and jetsam of our days. I know He will work it all out, it's just a little disconcerting at times.

Just a quick post to let you peek inside. I gotta get back to work.

(More later)