Fika in HK

Adding finishing touches to a world map while having fika.

Fika is a very important part in the Swedish life. It is like a coffee break. Of course, you don't only drink coffee. There can be cakes, ice cream...whatever you like.

I once said to my Swedish friend who has a Ph.D degree, "The requirement to finish a doctoral degree shouldn't state how many pages of dissertation you should write, but how many fikas you should have." He agreed.

Yesterday (Monday) was the second last day of the Jacobssons' family's stay in HK. We had a "meet-you-suddenly" dinner before we headed for MacDonald's for a fika.

Always fika!!!! Friends, I'll miss you. May God give us the chance to have more fikas together.

(More On, In and Around Mondays here)

Fill beans

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.)

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.

Sun already setting when I left the seminary

More On, In and Around Mondays here.

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. )