jousan!

good morning! err... evening. i am going to send out an email to most everyone with details of everything thats going on, but know that things are good. :) i'll have bud update this blog and such. love you all.

agape.

we're here!

hey all. we're in hong kong again for a 4-week trip! we just got in a few hours ago and now it's time for bed. i'll post more on what we're doing this time around for all of you all and we will try our best to update regularly. ;-D for now, please pray for us that we would be effective and very efficient on this trip. we have a briefing with our group tomorrow at 10am, followed by money-changing and delicious food adventures galore, so stay tuned. grace&peace. bye.

- bud.

hong kong memories...

hi there everyone. bud and i are thinking and praying about hong kong and all that is in our future regarding it. i've been terribly nostalgic and missing my home away from home, so i thought i'd post some pictures for you, so you can see what has gone on. i'll try to add captions as well and why the pictures mean so much to me. some are serious and some are just fun. i hope you enjoy.(p.s. until i can get bud to fix the html, some of the photo's are cut off. so just click on them to see the full photo.)

fun times in hong kong:


po ying birthday party. you can't really get around hong kong without her!


po ying's party in pak wai tsuen, north sai kung area.

you really can't get around hong kong without maggie cho either!


maggie again. i think this photo is just too cute!


although she is not a native, i met cami in hong kong. well, i met her in person in hong kong!

friends were made. they are so special to us. we email back and forth as much as possible and stay in touch. but its just not the same as being there with them.

food and tourism in hong kong:


this will hopefully be one of the first things i'll eat in hk when we go back! french toast, peanut butter and honey. :drool:


iced lemon tea, or "dung ling mun cha". the best invention of tea. i dont know why its so good. (so is milk tea but i dont have a picture of it.)


top one noodle, shatin mall. wonton soup - my most favorite soup. i could eat it everyday!


green chopsticks in fanling. they are so nice there and we have become friends with the waitress. she's awesome.


shatin at night. beautiful!


sheung shui, hong kong.


star ferry at night. coming from hong kong island and going back to kowloon/new territories.


at the harbor! azn fingers!


tsim sha tsui at night. oh man its a great place!

the goal of hong kong, to help those to see Christ, to understand their depraved state and to let Him change their hearts:


entrance to our village. we lived in tsz tong tsuen. in our backyard and up a few hundred steps, you reach a temple where people burn incense and hell money to honor and worship their ancestors.


our village in fanling, tsz tong tsuen. you can see a shrine type thing at the bottom of the hills, joss sticks and all. this village needs prayer and the spiritual weight you felt when living there would only be lifted by the hope and grace of Jesus Christ.


the temple behind our house. this is just the entry way, if you want to see more pictures let me know. the grounds of the temple are immaculant. full of gargoyles and fish ponds and turtle ponds and scupltures. you can see a person walking in to burn incense in this photo.


people are burning hell money to pay and "bless" their ancestors that have passed away. this is very difficult to watch.


tseng lan shue, sai kung. this is where bud and i moved to be closer to his work. in this village there were at least 6 shrines and mini temples for people to worship their ancestors.

and last but not least, worship that we were able to join in. its the most remarkable thing. the chinese people, those that love the Lord, pray fervently, pray without ceasing, groan in the Spirit and God meets them where they are and shows them His truth and His light. they pour out their hearts to Him and long to know Him and experience Him more. i only got one picture from church but i think it shows a lot!


sunday worship at the vineyard in kowloon.

with this church we went on an outreach at the beach. we didn't personally talk to people but witnessed people in the church doing so and we prayed a lot for the people there.


clearwater bay outreach.

we're so happy to be here!

hong kong is ripe for God's word and truth to go forth. laborers are needed. praise the Lord for the opportunity to be apart of this work the Lord is doing. :) hope you enjoyed the pics. :)

agape,
christin joy.

we're taking a trip!

hey everyone. i realize its been SUCH a long time since i have written any sort of update. life has evened itself out a bit recently. we're living with the oppenheims still and its been a blessing for us to be there and play with the kids and have amazing edifying conversation day in and day out with steve and liz! we're really enjoying our time with them and feel like they have almost adopted us into their family. its been really great. i'm still looking for substantial work, i've had babysitting jobs here and there and one point had a job but due to strong convictions and i believe the Lord just driving it to happen, that job is no more. bud still works at anderson seedco. in san marcos/san elijo. he enjoys it. he has also started up with school again, going to persue and finish a degree in linguistics. he will finish up at palomar this semester and hopefully next semester or next fall (more likely to be in the fall) he will transfer to san diego state and go to school to finish up. its very exciting as he is also studying cantonese in depth and learning quite a bit! i'm studying cantonese as well, but i'm still very basic and very much considered a beginner. but i'm eager to learn!

God has given us a renewed vision for Hong Kong and continues to redefine it as we pray over it and learn from and listen to the Holy Spirit. i was blessed to go to the heartbeat international with cami kellenbarger a few months back, and was completely blessed and floored at what the Lord did for us there! we were invited because we still have a heart and are looking to start hopes refuge in the hong kong/china area. when we got there it was nothing but special treatment it felt like. we were blessed with great teaching and blessed with meeting amazing people right from the very beginning. we were given a lot of books and things to help start the center and get us on the right track. we spoke with a lot of different people and they gave us a lot of good advice. there were also a lot of people eager to join in the work with us and help us get things started! to top all of this off, i was picked out of hundreds of people at the conference, to do a radio broadcast interview with june hunt from the hope for the heart ministries. she has a radio station broadcast that she does and she was interviewing 6 individuals. so i was able to tell about my background, about the vision cami and i have for hopes refuge and basically just ask for whoever listens out there in radio world to pray for and with us. it was VERY exciting. i was a bit nervous too. hehe.

bud and i are doing lots of ministry at church and such. bud is the worship leader and preaches once a month to our church congregation. he also works hand in hand with ritchie on the basics of the church and such. i help with childrens ministry, worship, and i think i'm going to be helping also with the womens ministry soon. :) its been really great. crossweave is growing and its a beautiful thing to watch as the Lord uses ritchie and bud to preach and teach and to help encourage us with the Word of God. i'm blessed everyday i look at my husband and see how far he has come and how he longs and desires to please the Lord and do as He asks. :) oh and crossweave is celebrating its 1 year anniversary this sunday! we're so excited!!

so now that you know how life is going for us in general - now to update you on things with HK and other ministries we've been blessed to help out with. as you know, we're living with the oppenheims and they are restoring a little stone church and house in france. well we've been blessed to watch and be prayer warriors for their work. they just got back from a 3 month trip (all summer) doing demolition and reconstruction on the house. God is really pulling things together and beginning to form relationships with people out there. please pray for the work going on in france. it looks as though i (christin) am going to be blessed to go to france for a 3 week trip in october/november to help with the work on the house and to meet people. its awesome and i'm so excited! please pray for that and please be in prayer for the little stone church and house! here is a link to their blog and to a video that shows the progress of the house renovations.

http://littlestonechurchfrance.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AHEJvxFyXE

as for hong kong, we're taking a trip/team out to hong kong this winter for a 2 week trip and then taking one more week (hopefully) to go up and visit harmony outreach up near beijing. we are so excited to go back to our home away from home. we'll be taking literature into mainland and the like. i hope and plan to take a few days with cami to look into things needed for hopes refuge and such. we were encouraged at the conference to take a few trips out there before starting hopes refuge to get an idea of cost of items and housing. so i hope to be doing that when we go out. the trip to the beijing area is still tenative as of right now but we plan to helping out with harmony outreach, an orphanage for children with special needs. you can visit their website at http://harmonyoutreach.org and see what they do. they are doing a great work and if all goes well, it will be amazing to help alongside them and maybe even bring them some supplies back from the states. we want to be a blessing to the full-time people there. so please be in prayer for this trip. we are leaving the first week of january.

if you have any questions for either of the trips i mentioned, feel free to ask! :) i guess thats all i can update for now. :) we love you and are excited to keep you updated on future missions trips and where God is leading us.

agape,
christin joy.

in america!

hello everyone! believe it or not, we're back in america. i apologize for falling off the face of the planet for some time but life has proved to be non-stop since we set foot on the american soil. i wanted to give you a quick and brief update on everything thats going on.

in the next few days you should be able to visit HopesRefuge.com and find a proper website for the upcoming ministry/orphanage/crisis pregnancy center! we are very excited to launch this site and although Hope's Refuge does not have a facility or anything like that at the present moment, we hope that the site will be a good source for people curious about things such as STD's, Abortion and will be able to continue to check back for more updates on Hope's Refuge! once the website is live, i will let you know! also, in regards to Hope's Refuge, next week i will be attending the Heartbeat International conference in Dallas Texas! i ask that you keep both myself and cami (as she is able to attend as well!) in your prayers for traveling mercies, for open ears and hearts to the things we learn and that the trip will give very valuable information that will help us in the upcoming stepping stones of Hope's Refuge. please also pray that we will be able to have some time together to continue to collaborate ideas! once i return to california, i will be starting up a job to help us be able to save money so we can get back over to Hong Kong and other places the Lord is calling us! i have been blessed with the opportunity to be trained at Birth Choice of San Marcos to be a Lay-Counselor. this is a great opportunity for experience in helping woman of all ages choose life and give them options other than abortion! (oh and before i forget! since HopesRefuge.com will be live soon i believe that means that our hkmissions site will be deactivated as we'll be using the new website.)

update on bud! as soon as bud has been back from Hong Kong he has been put to work. he got his old job at good old Anderson's SeedCo. back working full time and preaching once a month at our church! he's also leading a small group on wednesday evenings and we both attend a small group on Monday evenings. we're also slowly getting involved with the youth group of our good friend Matt Unwin's church. bud is growing and its so exciting to see the amazing things the Lord is doing in and through him. he's playing music with some friends and they hope to use their band as an evangelistic tool to preach the gospel, in action, in word and in song. we'll keep you updated on that. please pray that the next few weeks while I am gone, he is able to get a lot of things accomplished and that the two of us won't miss each other too much!

so needless to say we're very busy. God has been extremely faithful in providing us a place to stay with our dear friends Steve and Liz Oppenheim and their amazing kids! we were blessed to find an affordable car that was in good shape shortly after bud returned to the states. God has been blessing our socks off with our constant fellowship with friends and the amazing growth we see in our church, Crossweave. being able to work hand in hand with pastor ritchie and everyone else on the core team has been a blessing. although we long for Hong Kong and miss it a lot, we know that the Lord has us here for the time being. and as you can see, its all been amazing and a blessing! we are also blessed to be able to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of being married in a couple of weeks! WOO COME ON APRIL 28!

we ask that you continue to pray for Hope's Refuge, for Crossweave and for the other miscellaneous things we're doing in our day to day lives! i will update you when the Hope's Refuge website is live and i will send out another email to let you all know how the conference went! we thank you so much for your support and prayers and we love you so much!

agape,
christin joy.

changing of times...

hey everyone! so there has been yet another change in our plans. one that is bitter sweet. first off, bud's work will not be able to keep him on at work through the month of february due to some circumstances with bud's replacement. so we basically are forced to leave earlier. well, theres just really no point in bud staying any longer in hong kong then necessary if he has no job and his wife is not there. so with that said, here are the change of plans. we have been offered a place to stay and get back on our feet by an amazing family, the oppenheims. they have been a great encouragement to us while we have been out here, a great support in time of need and just overall great friends to chat with about the amazing wonders of our Lord and Savior. i had wrote them an email expressing the stress about what was going on and asked for prayer and if they had any suggestions on how to make things move more smoothly. they replied with "come here and get on your feet".

so while the details between us have been worked out and plane tickets have been adjusted, we will now be coming to california. we'll be living in murrieta and working alongside our home church, crossweave, and having the ability to get back on our feet. its an amazing blessing for us and we are so blessed to have friends that would care and be willing to help this much. when i started this email, i explained that this was bitter sweet. this obviously means we are not going to kansas and i so want to be with our friends daks and cami who have also been great encouragement and support to us. we'll just keep praying to see how the Lord moves and guides us in the next few months of things and see where God takes us next. we love you daks and cami. SO much!!

well, i am arriving january 31st - with monster truck, our dog! and bud will be arriving february 11th with mistress ching, our cat! things have worked out so well and we are so grateful that the Lord is watching over us and moving us in the direction He sees fit. we are excited to come back and help alongside crossweave and we are excited to see our friends and family in california. i still plan to go to the conference in texas in april, please pray that whatever job i find will be okay with it and that everything works out with that. also, please pray for my nerves as i hate going through customs and security and all that alone. also please pray that bud and i won't miss each other too much, although its only 2 weeks which is an improvement of the month and a half we were going to go without seeing each other. :) praise the Lord for His provision and guidance. praise the Lord for friends like daks and cami and the oppenheims. :) praise the Lord for the opportunity to come out to Hong Kong and help in practical ways. praise the Lord for the awesome friends we have out here and will miss and plan to come and visit. we're not leaving hong kong forever, we'll be back!

agape,
christin joy.


***update***

after showing the flat to a man who is from Los Angeles (how funny, eh?), he wants the flat and we are now in the process of working out the change of names on the lease! :) how amazing is our God? it was the first person to look at the flat and he took it. so good. :) amen and amen!

things have changed...

hello all. well, i realize i just emailed a few days ago but there is a lot that has transpired and we feel that it is best to let you all know so that you can join us in prayer for the next steps in our lives. i don't really know how to start this email, so i suppose i'll just start to explain.

last week, bud found out that his work was willing to cut his contract in half, meaning we would not be bound in hong kong for his contract at work. with that offer, we talked and prayed about it and decided that this may be the best course of action. we have decided to come back to america much earlier than we had thought. we spoke with ritchie, our pastor at crossweave in california, we spoke with both of our families and the general consensus was to come back, regroup and see what the Lord would have us do at this point of the journey towards Hope's Refuge. so we threw out some ideas of moving back to california and even back to my hometown in maryland. but none of these were feasible, due to financial constraints.

with that said, we spoke to our good friends daks and cami kellenbarger who live in wichita, kansas. cami and i both have the same heart for Hope's Refuge and would be able to collaborate ideas and study together. daks and bud have been good friends for quite some time, daks was even in our wedding - so that will be great fellowship for both of them and we will all be able to work together to see where the Lord is leading us in our next steps in our lives. daks and cami have a very big heart for the chinese church and for chinese children. it will also be great to be around another married couple with missions on their heart!

so with all these things and factoring in that kansas is much more affordable (face it - california AND maryland are just ridiculously expensive and almost unlivable in some places) - we decided to move to kansas. it was a hard but not a hard decision. its the best step for us right now and we have a vision of returning to california in the future when and if we are able. it all depends on how the Lord continues to lead us. i know that this probably comes to a huge shock to a lot of you, if you have any questions about anything, please let us know!

with all of this laid out - please be in prayer for the following things:
* that we will find someone to replace us at our flat.
* travel mercies. - i am leaving january 31st with monster truck and will be spending a month and a half w/o bud, trying to get a job and get a head start on things before bud returns. bud will leave march 1st and go to california for a couple weeks.
* please pray that bud will be able to find a cheap but good car and get some things settled in california
* that he will have a safe trip back to america and to kansas as he drives there. (thankfully it should not be winter anymore by the time he comes and he will not have to deal with any snow on the roads!)
* please pray that bud and i will remain strong during the time apart as it is going to be hard for both of us.
* please pray for the Hong Kong church, the children that we will no longer see, our friends we will miss, our neighbors and people who we planted seeds in.
* please pray that the Lord will bring us back quickly, even if its just for a short trip to take literature to mainland.
* please pray that all the logistics of leaving here will be taken care of and that we will have no further surprises.
* please pray that the transition will be as smooth as we're hoping it will be, that i will get a job and be able to help out with daks and cami (as they are being amazing and letting me stay with them for a little while. love you guys so much!), to help provide and get things started.
* that both bud and i will get good paying jobs that we'll be able to at least enjoy until the Lord brings us back to Hong Kong/China or wherever He feels is the next place to show us.

please let me know if you have any questions. you can email me or bud. he checks hkmissions@gmail.com on a day to day basis, so if you want to talk to him, you can email him. we love you and ask that you join us in prayer as we make this next step in the journey the Lord is laying before us. we love you all so much and are so thankful for all the prayers and support you have given. we will continue to update hkmissions for a little while, but we will most likely be switching to a more Hope's Refuge focus, i think bud is going to make a Hope's Refuge website. we'll keep you updated.

agape,
christin joy and bud newman.

in the mean time..

hallo, from hong kong once again. i hope that your christmas and new year were eventful and blessed beyond all that you could comprehend. i pray that Jesus was seen throughout it all and that you are able to see this new year as another opportunity to serve Him. theres been a lot and not a lot to report. the past month of december (and even part of november) have been quite interesting for bud and i. first i got sick, then bud got sick. then i got sick again and bud hung on to his sickness as though he LIKED it. then we both gradually got rid of what it was that we had. then i broke out with a high fever for 4 or 5 days (it was ridiculous, going from freezing and shivering to waking up in a pool of sweat because the fever meds started to work, the whole shebang) and then all of a sudden; i was better. but now its january 5 and i am sick again. this time the doctor gave me antibiotics and other pills to help with recovery. the bad thing about it is the medication makes me very jittery! so i feel as though i'm wiggling in my chair when i'm actually not! don't get me wrong, i like to dance in my chair just as much as the next gal, but not when its involuntary (and when only i can feel it and no one else can see it)! so that was our month of SICK. we think that the cause of my sickness and part of buds is that our little flat, although we love it, it has a big problem with mold. and unless we take EVERYTHING out of the house, flood the place with bleach for a day and then mop it up, i don't see how its going to go away. it may come down to a professional cleaner.

in december, i started working a lot more. i teach every saturday still and then i also did a few jobs, substituting at bud's centre. i also received my dependency visa finally - and when i went to activate it, i had some trouble with hong kong immigration. when i filed for my dependency visa, they did not switch my "status" in hong kong to "dependent" when they should have. so i tried to leave the country to go into mainland china only to find out that i am considered an "overstay-er" in hong kong, so i will have to pay a fee. granted the fee is only $160HKD which comes to about $20.50USD so its not a big deal. just a pain and inconvenience. but fortunately, hong kong immigration was very nice in the whole ordeal. also, they realized that my old passport was canceled (because i got a new one to change my name from my maiden name to my husbands last name - weird... i have a maiden name now. woah! the things you realize after being married for a bit. haha! sorry! back to the story) and said i may not be able to cross into china. so they took the liberty to call china immigration and see if they would allow me to cross into china (considering my old visa did not have a stamp saying canceled on it so i believe that it is still valid) with proof of my old passport that has my chinese visa and my new passport to show that i'm the same person, just have a new last name now! unfortunately, china said that they would not allow it. which is strange because i have spoke to 2 separate people who had their names changed and they were able to cross with both passports. so i don't know - maybe china is just cracking down a bit harder these days. so we are in the process of getting my chinese visa switched over to have my new last name. apparently it is very cheap and i'll have it in 4 buisness days. so thats good. and then i'll be able to cross into china and validate my dependency visa. hoorah!

bud and i celebrated our first christmas making phone calls to the states and having a long conversation via skype and instant messenger with is parents/family. that was really nice. we also went to "fat angelos", an amazing italian restaraunt for dinner. we were forced to spend $300 HKD for the meal and we had to figure out, just how in the world do we spend that much money? we're used to keeping things as cheap as possible! it was pretty funny. that was about the extent of our christmas, quiet but nice. although we very much missed all of you in america! we love you! our new years was even more quiet. we barely even realized that it had hit 2008/midnight. we didn't want to travel down to the harbour to see 7millionish people swarming the place, so we decided to stay home. and at that time is when i started feeling sick again. so we just made phone calls to say happy new year to people and that was that. bud and i also celebrated my 24th birthday! eww, i'm 24 now. gross. such a weird age, i can almost rent a car! so the first half was kind of sucky - full of miscommunication and stress (mostly because i was not feeling good and was being moody). but the second half was good. i went down to sheung shui, got meds from the doctor and then bud and i went to Friday's (yes they have friday's here, also california pizza kitchen, outback steakhouse and ruby tuesdays) for my dinner. it was delicious and fun, although the room was freezing so we left as soon as we were finished eating. (the weather has been in the 50's and bud and i feel ridiculous because we're freezing when most of you that are reading this are in the 30-40 degree mark with snow or cold rain! - sorry, we've turned into wimps. even i have! i'm very ashamed. ;-P)

anyway, now we have some things on our plate that we will not divulge yet, but will in due time. but please pray with us that we will know the best course of action regarding the things before us. that we will listen to the voice of the Lord. that we will choose wisely (wow, a flash of indiana jones just came into my head) and that if there is to be a sort of transition, that it will be smooth and stress free. we love you and thank you for baring with our lack of updates and what seems to be lack of things to report. but i assure you, when things pick back up (when we're not sick anymore and things around town have calmed away from the holiday season) - we will keep you better informed. now i must go! i am going to be late, meeting my friend maggie for lunch before work! when i get home from work, i will also write some prayer requests for you. i have a few! love you all. be blessed.

agape,
christin joy.

think big, its a texas thing!

jou san, (good morning)

i am assuming you are reading this in the morning, since you're sleeping right now as i type this! silly time difference! i have not filled you in on hope's refuge in quite some time so i thought i'd take a brief moment to do that now. :) i have been doing my research and reading the books that Heartbeat International sent me. I have also been on the waiting list of Mother's Choice, a local pregnancy center/orphanage volunteer waiting list. so while things slowed down for hope's refuge a bit, things have been coming to mind with the direction and the movement of the center that God has instilled in my heart. many things come to mind and into my little leather journal that i keep all my ideas in. well, ANYWAY - just recently, i received an email from Nathan Burd from Heartbeat International. he has been diligent in helping me and keeping in contact with me and keep me abreast of things that may be in my interest. well, you can read the below email and see that the Lord is still moving, regardless of the slow time that bud and i are in at the moment. bud and i have been invited to a conference that will no doubt continue the process of starting hope's refuge and will, i believe, shed some amazing light on areas that need to be discussed, etc.

unfortunately, bud is committed to work and would not be able to take any time off, not a substantial amount that is. so in his place, cami kellenbarger (our good friend daks wife and my right hand of hope's refuge) will be going in his place. we ask that you please pray that bud and i are able to provide the money for the plane ticket and a little spending money while i'm in the US. also that we can find the best deal on a round trip plane ticket. it looks like i will be flying to kansas to meet with cami and she and i will drive to dallas together. i am very excited and hopeful that the Lord will continue and remain faithful in providing our needs in the best interest of His children. this conference is going to be a blessing, it will answer a lot of questions, give me more questions to think about, allow me to talk to other people who have started similar centers and give me a lot to chew for the remainder of our time in hong kong until the Lord brings us back to the states for a period of time.

to reiterate and to be clear (sometimes i ramble!) these are what i'm asking you to pray about:
** affordable round trip ticket for me to kansas back to HK
** that the funds will be available
** for safe travel mercies to and from kansas and to and from hk
** for God's hand over the conference
** clarity in the direction of Hope's Refuge
** continued unity in the direction and decisions of Hope's Refuge between bud, cami, daks and i.

if you feel the Lord leading you to donate to help cover the price of a ticket for me to attend this conference, please email me and i will let you know how to go about that. we appreciate all your help and prayers in the past and we love you all very much. i will keep you updated on whats happening with the conference and my trip to the states.

agape,
christin joy.

----

Dear Christin,

I hope you are doing well. I wanted to contact you about Heartbeat International's upcoming annual conference, April 16-19 in Dallas, Texas. We typically have around 600 people attend and we offer a variety of sessions relevant to those working in pregnancy centers. We also have daily keynote speakers, many pro-life exhibitors, and a multitude of networking events.

In even-numbered years, we try to arrange for international guests to attend. Would you and Bud have an interest in attending this conference? It might be very helpful as you consider various options for Hope's Refuge.

We could offer you a scholarship that would cover the cost of your registration fees, hotel accommodations, and most meals if you are able to come. Please let me know if you have an interest in attending. You can get some information about the conference here:

http://www.heartbeatinternational.org/Trainings/2008_Conference/conference_update2.htm

Our entire conference brochure, including all topics and speakers, will be available in early January. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you additional information.

Thanks and God bless,

Nathan Burd

Director of International Program & Public Policy

Heartbeat International

www.heartbeatinternational.org

from sai kung district... kind of!

hi everyone!!! we are now officially back online as of today! (our thursday, your wednesday evening). let me first tell you that the move, while it had its stressful parts, it was still a big success and thanks to our old upstairs neighbor byron barrett and his wife emily - we were able to get everything we wanted to move out of the house and into our new one. we also are very thankful to have maggie cho who helped us find the moving company and helped set things up and we are very thankful to po ying (pronounced bo wing) for helping us in our desperate call of "help, we don't speak cantonese and our moving people do not speak english!" haha. ;-D but we are now officially in our new house. we're sleeping on the gigantic couch for a while until we find a bed that will fit in our house that is not too expensive. :) the couch works out just fine for us, as its large and comfy. :) although mistress chang (our kitten) now has to sleep with monster truck because we have no room for her to cuddle with "mom & dad" haha. our new flat has a few quirks and let me tell you - we are learning new ways of living just by being in this house.

for example: we do not have a washing machine - so i have now been tasked to wash our clothes by hand outside. (anyone know where to buy a washboard, although that sounds funny - i'm serious haha. does anyone know where to get one or could maybe send me one or umm... yeah! hahaha) so i hand wash our clothes and we have rigged a clothes line outside our front window so they dry. it worked out nicely and i'm going to have the strongest arms in the world if i keep it up! also - our kitchen at the moment does not have a functional sink so we wash our dishes in the bathroom. ;-P but the kitchen pipes and sink will be fixed this sunday. :) there are a few other quirks that i'm forgetting at the moment but we really are enjoying our new place. having bud home an hour earlier is such a nice change of pace for me. :) i can have dinner ready by 8:00 instead of 9! and he is not overtired anymore, so we are taking more walks with the dog and having time to get out and meet the neighbors!

which leads perfectly into our new neighbors. our next door neighbors are a young married couple with 4 dogs! 1 of which is a puppy and they will be giving it away in about a month. the wifes name is grace (i do not know her chinese name yet) and i still have yet to learn the husbands name. but they are very sweet, she is a primary school teacher part time and the other time she works as a social worker. i live next door to a social worker. hopefully once we get to know each other better i can ask her some statistics about hong kong and learn some information from someone who is directly involved with the hong kong lifestyle and social issues and such. having a friend like that will be great for my research. her husband is a mechanic who works on cars. he spoils monster truck with little treats almost everyday before he goes to work. one day he was giving her a treat and she became so comfortable with him she walked right into their house! haha, silly dog. they are also expecting a baby the middle of march. i asked her if she was excited and to my surprise, she is not actually excited. she said her body has not made her feel very different so i guess that means she just doesn't feel like its that big of a change yet. i'm sure she'll be more excited as time draws closer.

the neighbor upstairs had 3 dogs and i already forgot her name and what she does but she was also very sweet. its also very nice to have neighbors who are both chinese and speak very good english. it helps us where we lack in our chinese (me more so than bud, he is more functional than i am). while on a walk with monster truck, one lady was admiring her and said "you have a very beautiful dog" so that started a conversation with us. her name is rosa and she is filipino. she has a contagious smile and she is very friendly and talkative! she told me that just talking to me for the past 5 minutes, she feels as though we've been friends for a very long time. she is a domestic helper to a 101 year old chinese woman with skin cancer but no other problems. she has been helping her for nearly 6 years i think is what she told me. she's lived in this village for 7 years and has been in hong kong for 10 years. she is a single mother of two children and works basically 7 days a week. she has a very generous and kind heart and i look forward to getting to know her better. she promised the family of the 101 year old lady that she would remain working for her until she passes away because she loves her and doesn't want her to ever be alone.

yesterday, i was yet again taking monster truck for a walk and people continue to stop and pet her or say 'beautiful dog' or something along those lines. yesterday, however was especially sweet because 2 beautiful children (i think they are indonesian) came up and said "is this your dog?" and then started to pet her. they started smiling and laughing and asked "can i hold the string" meaning the leash and so i let them both have a turn. they were so sweet and wanted me to come to their house and play, but i didn't think it was appropriate, their mother (i'm assuming) was there and i just didn't feel comfortable going over there after having met them and the mother for a few minutes. but i plan on walking around that time again so they can see monster truck and i can play with them some more. it was so nice to have some time to play, we actually ended up playing for nearly 10-15 minutes. hopefully i will get to see them more too. so all in all - its been a really great move so far. the people here are incredibly friendly and the neighborhood itself promises for a good mission field. while taking walks i have found at least 4 people with shrines in their homes. one of which is rather large and every night at the same time i see the same woman and man kneeling and burning incense inside their home. there is also a small worship hall/temple in the corner of the neighborhood that i plan to prayer walk soon. its so sad that everywhere you go - the ancestry worship is everywhere and that people are in bondage to these things. hopefully bud and i can start to make some friends and relationships and the Lord can help us to bring these people the awesome freedom they can have in our gracious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! they are in need of some freedom.

i don't know if we told you but i now have 2 part time jobs. one that only pays for my travel too and from and its one day a week and the other is a substitute position for bud's company where i will get paid. :) i have a meeting with my first job this upcoming thursday, the 15th where we will be going over some details of the class that i will be teaching (english) too and go to some local bookstores, playgrounds and grocery stores. its a play group where i can take the kids out of the classroom to stores and the like to teach them what things are like "orange" or "apple" or "see saw" or "book". its a christian centre so i am able to tell the kids about the bible and about God and such. i know that its not something i'm supposed to do openly but i'm excited that i've even been offered to tell them about God and the bible and Jesus. :) the other job is doing what bud does, only as a substitute and i have my first job for them december 24th and then again on december 27th. :) i will also most likely be primarily working in the mid-levels centre and bud works at the sai wan ho centre. so needless to say we will not be taking time for our honeymoon at christmas time like we had hoped for but thats okay. life is going to be 10x's more full and more interesting than it has been. God is so good in providing everything we NEED and even the things that we want, in an orderly fashion that suits the life God wants us to have.

also, we have started going to a different church. we will probably test out a few more, but the one we've been attending lately has been really good. we weren't sure about it at first but that was because we kept going to services where the head pastor was not teaching. once we went to one with the head pastor - we found that it is a sound church with really good ministry opportunities. we really loved going to the kowloon vineyard (jackie pullinger's church) but we felt it would be a smart idea to see what other churches and places of worship hong kong has to offer to its many different "types" of people. there are so many different people with different lifestyles - so it is nice to find different places of GOOD and SOUND worship for people. the one we are visiting now is a southern baptist church. the people are very kind. theres another church we hope to visit in north point sometime soon too. we'll keep you updated with what we find and about the good and the bad that we find. :) i really think that this move has enabled us to become more available with the people in hong kong. since we are not actively taking literature into ch*n* (we thought we would but God led us in a different direction) - it is better for us to be around large groups of people where we can "bump into" strangers or however else the Lord sees fit to bring people into our lives to tell the gospel too, to make friends and fellowship. :) its been really good. we'll keep you updated on the changes. our spirits have been lifted (as they were down for a while with some drama and spiritual warfare that was going on for about 2 months) and we have even in this short period of time of living in our new place, been prepared to hit the ground running this race to win hong kong for the Lord.

well, with that said i should get going and take the dog for a walk :) see who else i meet on my journey's! yay for monster truck being a big help in breaking the ice - seeing as, believe it or not, i am quite shy in talking to people for the first time. anyway, we love you and we'll talk to you soon. sorry that this is kind of long and i'm sure i've left things out. hopefully i can get my loving husband on here to write an update on anything i may have forgot to tell you.

agape,

christin joy.