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.