These two words were beaming at us from the display on the coffee machine.
The us here were from four different places: the USA, Denmark, Norway and Hong Kong. The coffee machine needed filling, so Miss Denmark went to seek help from the office, while the rest of us formed a crescent and talked about the worship service yesterday.
Miss Denmark and I enjoyed seeing other "suddenly", unplanned, just let life be our guide. We met each other suddenly yesterday while I was walking up hill and she was going in the same direction in a taxi. Today was another nice surpirse; and she brought with her Miss USA and Miss Norway.
Coffee brought us today; love brought us together.
Coffee beans filled the machine; friendship filled my heart.
(On, In and Around Mondays here.)
25 Oct 2010
20 Oct 2010
Idling at TFS while a typhoon's approaching
The weather today looked lovely though. Sunshine, cool breeze, and I was in absolutely no hurry.
Birgitte's pots are blooming again. Regeneration, renewal, life is fragile, but it also refuses to leave too easily.
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| Suddenly blue. Did someone put a new patch here? |
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| The flowers have come back! |
Birgitte's pots are blooming again. Regeneration, renewal, life is fragile, but it also refuses to leave too easily.
19 Oct 2010
From hectic to calm, with N.T. Wright in between
Mondays are busy days. Work in the morning and class at the seminary in the afternoon.
I usually like a cup of coffee before class starts. I need the aroma to wake me up.
This Monday was a even more hectic day. Working on a very important proposal while my not-so-understanding colleague who happened to have the idea that he's the most important person in the department refused to leave me alone to my work. I am afraid I lost some of my cool demeanour when he insisted on his right to jump the long queue after I had explained the him for the thousandth time that first-come-first-serve was the rule. Ok, if you wanted to be served first, please talk to the head.
I needed to get out of the office for the group presentation in class. I was going to be N.T. Wright to have a dialougue of the meaning of justification by faith with a rather charismatic pastor.
Anyway, I managed to finish that proposal, got my coffee and had a group presentation that was kind of fun. We ended up having three N.T. Wrights (I nicknamed them Right, Righter, and Rightest.) and a Paul who read the Epistle to the Romans in Greek.
The class finished at 5:20 pm. I dropped in to Best Friend's office before heading home. His office was locked so I couldn't just walk in. I decided to knock on his windows instead. We exchanged a few words through the windows, also kind of fun. Maybe he's still working on the sermon for a funeral in the next day.
Life and death. A funeral was on the way. I had helped translating the liturgy into Chinese. Best Friend isn't a typical pastor here. I haven't never met another here who would sweep the floor, bake the Eucharist bread, moving the chairs...whatever chores you can think of that a church needs.
I learned something today. Let go and let things happen. The presentation did come out alright. The teacher liked it, and the classmates had a good time too. And I got to see the beautiful orange sun while leaving the seminary. God also gave me the blessing of having the company of Monie to walk down to the city centre together. We had been in the same class twice before and she appreciated my work a lot, always so encouring.
Winter should be approaching. The ants at my home are busying themselves. Let's enjoy the cooler weather and the sunset.
More On, In and Around Mondays here.
I usually like a cup of coffee before class starts. I need the aroma to wake me up.
This Monday was a even more hectic day. Working on a very important proposal while my not-so-understanding colleague who happened to have the idea that he's the most important person in the department refused to leave me alone to my work. I am afraid I lost some of my cool demeanour when he insisted on his right to jump the long queue after I had explained the him for the thousandth time that first-come-first-serve was the rule. Ok, if you wanted to be served first, please talk to the head.
I needed to get out of the office for the group presentation in class. I was going to be N.T. Wright to have a dialougue of the meaning of justification by faith with a rather charismatic pastor.
Anyway, I managed to finish that proposal, got my coffee and had a group presentation that was kind of fun. We ended up having three N.T. Wrights (I nicknamed them Right, Righter, and Rightest.) and a Paul who read the Epistle to the Romans in Greek.
The class finished at 5:20 pm. I dropped in to Best Friend's office before heading home. His office was locked so I couldn't just walk in. I decided to knock on his windows instead. We exchanged a few words through the windows, also kind of fun. Maybe he's still working on the sermon for a funeral in the next day.
Life and death. A funeral was on the way. I had helped translating the liturgy into Chinese. Best Friend isn't a typical pastor here. I haven't never met another here who would sweep the floor, bake the Eucharist bread, moving the chairs...whatever chores you can think of that a church needs.
I learned something today. Let go and let things happen. The presentation did come out alright. The teacher liked it, and the classmates had a good time too. And I got to see the beautiful orange sun while leaving the seminary. God also gave me the blessing of having the company of Monie to walk down to the city centre together. We had been in the same class twice before and she appreciated my work a lot, always so encouring.
Winter should be approaching. The ants at my home are busying themselves. Let's enjoy the cooler weather and the sunset.
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| Sun already setting when I left the seminary |
More On, In and Around Mondays here.
12 Oct 2010
Teaching Cantonese
Amber and Kevin are two new friends of mine from the US. They are going to stay with us for about 3 months.
Going about in HK without Cantonese the local language is absolutely possible. Some inconveniences for sure, but you can go on with your life just fine.
I am impressed by Amber and Kevin's eagerness to learn the language especially they are only here for 3 months.
They invited me to teach them some Cantonese, so we did it last night over dinner in a nice resturant.
"Thank you" proved once again difficult for non-native speakers of Cantonese. Not even Mandarin speakers can manage that well. There are two ways to say "thank you", namely 唔該 (ng goi) and 多謝 (dor tse). The former is used when, for example, someone helps you by keeping the door open for you, or passing you the salt and pepper; while the latter can be used to thank people for giving you a gift.
I also taught them the numbers. Once you master numbers one to ten in Cantonese, you can count from one to 99.
We had a good time. The restaurant was full of our laughter. The waiters smiled when they heard us saying "thank you". Maybe they had too much fun too. Getting my orders wrong, I began to suspect my Cantonese wasn't really that good after all.
Thanks friends for that wonderful evening of friendship and language.
(Other On, In and Around Monday posts here.)
Going about in HK without Cantonese the local language is absolutely possible. Some inconveniences for sure, but you can go on with your life just fine.
I am impressed by Amber and Kevin's eagerness to learn the language especially they are only here for 3 months.
They invited me to teach them some Cantonese, so we did it last night over dinner in a nice resturant.
"Thank you" proved once again difficult for non-native speakers of Cantonese. Not even Mandarin speakers can manage that well. There are two ways to say "thank you", namely 唔該 (ng goi) and 多謝 (dor tse). The former is used when, for example, someone helps you by keeping the door open for you, or passing you the salt and pepper; while the latter can be used to thank people for giving you a gift.
I also taught them the numbers. Once you master numbers one to ten in Cantonese, you can count from one to 99.
We had a good time. The restaurant was full of our laughter. The waiters smiled when they heard us saying "thank you". Maybe they had too much fun too. Getting my orders wrong, I began to suspect my Cantonese wasn't really that good after all.
Thanks friends for that wonderful evening of friendship and language.
(Other On, In and Around Monday posts here.)
11 Oct 2010
Craft
I kind of regret that I haven't really learned any craft work when I was younger. The only thing I could do with pride was knitting, but alas, my skin doesn't allow me to touch wool now.
Embroidery is something I want to learn. Unfortunely in this age in HK, people are doing much more exciting things. I suspect you can't make a decent living by selling embroidery tools, I am still looking for tools and books for instruction.
But we can still get cross stitch tool. Well, maybe I should relearn how to use a needle first. Cross stitch, here I come.
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| Cross stitch tool I got from an outdoor market |
Embroidery is something I want to learn. Unfortunely in this age in HK, people are doing much more exciting things. I suspect you can't make a decent living by selling embroidery tools, I am still looking for tools and books for instruction.
But we can still get cross stitch tool. Well, maybe I should relearn how to use a needle first. Cross stitch, here I come.
9 Oct 2010
No greater love than this
You have laid down your comfort, freedom and whatever beautiful things that life could have given you.
You are such a brave person, and so is your wife.
Tribute to Mr Liu Xiaobo, who is awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
You are such a brave person, and so is your wife.
Tribute to Mr Liu Xiaobo, who is awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
7 Oct 2010
What is hope?
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| Dreams coming true? |
Pay a few dollars in order to buy a hope.
Sometimes I wonder why I'm not buying that hope.
5 Oct 2010
A cup of cappuccino
When Birgitte "discovered" me with a warm smile on her face, I was standing at the coffee machine in Pilgrim's Hall, looking forward to my salvatoin before class started in 15 minutes.
The semester has just started for a month. We're still not very clear about each other's schedule. She likes saying "See you suddenly." And I've done my part to surprise her with this "suddenly".
The coffee smelt revigorating, and seeing the familiar face of a dear friend was energizing.
I told Birgitte I had just got 3 liters of red wine for our Holy Communion. Our communion bread is homemade, and we have actually thought about making our own wine. But then it would be too expensive. We are a congregation with no income.
With a cup of cappuccion in my hand, we walked out of Pilgrim's Hall, enjoying our chat and the cooler weather. Autumn seemed to be here, finally. No more sweating non-stop.
Before we said goodbye to each other, we agreed to meet after my class so that we could walk down from Tao Fong Shan (meaning Logos Wind Hill) to the city centre. Her company was much welcome. I had spent the first four Mondays of the semester leaving on my own, and three out of four time found me walking along the little path anticipating meeting some not so welcome "neighbour". They're the wild boars, dogs and monkey, sometimes even snakes. "Animals, animals, God made all the animals~~" we sang in one of our chapel services and from time to time, I had to remind myself of the lyrics.
With my mind eased, I went to the seminary for my Romans class.
(See more On, in and Around Monday stories in Seedlings in Stone. )
The semester has just started for a month. We're still not very clear about each other's schedule. She likes saying "See you suddenly." And I've done my part to surprise her with this "suddenly".
The coffee smelt revigorating, and seeing the familiar face of a dear friend was energizing.
I told Birgitte I had just got 3 liters of red wine for our Holy Communion. Our communion bread is homemade, and we have actually thought about making our own wine. But then it would be too expensive. We are a congregation with no income.
With a cup of cappuccion in my hand, we walked out of Pilgrim's Hall, enjoying our chat and the cooler weather. Autumn seemed to be here, finally. No more sweating non-stop.
Before we said goodbye to each other, we agreed to meet after my class so that we could walk down from Tao Fong Shan (meaning Logos Wind Hill) to the city centre. Her company was much welcome. I had spent the first four Mondays of the semester leaving on my own, and three out of four time found me walking along the little path anticipating meeting some not so welcome "neighbour". They're the wild boars, dogs and monkey, sometimes even snakes. "Animals, animals, God made all the animals~~" we sang in one of our chapel services and from time to time, I had to remind myself of the lyrics.
With my mind eased, I went to the seminary for my Romans class.
(See more On, in and Around Monday stories in Seedlings in Stone. )
3 Oct 2010
Reading Romans, reading N.T. Wright
What is faith? What is justification? Why did Paul write such a letter to the church in Rome?
I'm reading N.T. Wright for two reasons: 1) to prepare a group presentation on the New Perspective on Paul, and 2) his books are good read.
I'm excited by what I am reading about this new perspective. There are so so so many things that I have never heard in any local churches. I also want to learn New Testament Greek. The puns in Paul's letters are fun! I would love to be able to read the Greek original just for the puns.
I asked a classmate about the meaning of sin. She replied, "It's not believing God."
There are so many definitions in need. I asked her to define the word "believe".
N.T. Wright has given me many new ideas. Unfortunately, it's still a lonely path as the other members of my group in the Romans class are too busy to start our group work.
Greek is fun (according to our beloved teacher Dr Zimmerman); and his Romans class is fun too. (Not a big surprise, right?) He is such a good teacher. No one is afraid to speak out. And he makes us students so happy, it's as if everything we say is full of insights, every idea we have is worthi discussing.
Thanks Dr Zimmerman! You show me what an excellent teacher is like.
I'm reading N.T. Wright for two reasons: 1) to prepare a group presentation on the New Perspective on Paul, and 2) his books are good read.
I'm excited by what I am reading about this new perspective. There are so so so many things that I have never heard in any local churches. I also want to learn New Testament Greek. The puns in Paul's letters are fun! I would love to be able to read the Greek original just for the puns.
I asked a classmate about the meaning of sin. She replied, "It's not believing God."
There are so many definitions in need. I asked her to define the word "believe".
N.T. Wright has given me many new ideas. Unfortunately, it's still a lonely path as the other members of my group in the Romans class are too busy to start our group work.
Greek is fun (according to our beloved teacher Dr Zimmerman); and his Romans class is fun too. (Not a big surprise, right?) He is such a good teacher. No one is afraid to speak out. And he makes us students so happy, it's as if everything we say is full of insights, every idea we have is worthi discussing.
Thanks Dr Zimmerman! You show me what an excellent teacher is like.
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