missions complete! bohahaha!

hello everyone. as the title of this blog says, one leg of the mission to hong kong is now complete — i got a job! i will be working in sai wan ho [which is on the east side of hong kong island, very far away, but beggars can't be choosers] working at native english learning center. my work visa is still in process, so please be sure to keep praying for us, specifically that the government would approve my visa like any other standard application and no problems. we're hoping for smooth sailing! the great news is that i will only be working half days monday to friday and one full day saturday; and i will be making way more than we will need to live out here.

that said, we are coming into a bit of a financial situation between now and when i get my first paycheck [which won't be until september 31st]. we're running low on funds that we had saved to get here, and we need prayer and support from home to be able to pay for food, transportation and rent/utilities for the next two months. if anyone is interested in donating, feel free to check out the form on the hkmissions website, or contact me through e-mail.

so, like i said, now we're back to waiting for another few weeks. i start paid training at this new job [though at the mid-levels centre] on the 25th of august, so pray for that. kristen moves on the 16th and daks will be coming with her for a three week trip, as most of you already know. please pray for safe travels when the time comes for them to get over here. some time this week i will hopefully be updating the hkmissions website, getting the placeholder pages off there and including our two other full-time missionaries [danny mays and kristen gautreaux]. until next time, thank you for your prayers and comments! grace&peace. bye.

is patience still waiting...

don't mind that title of this blog, i'm just listening to good old juliana theory and the current song is titled 'is patience still waiting'. anyway...

hi all. its christin here and i'm please to introduce the newest "blogger" danny mays. :) he's in 'the band' with bud and is currently saving up money/gaining support to also move out here to hong kong. he will actually be living with bud, kristen and i and we're looking forward to having him out here. he is a very cool brother and we're blessed to have him. kristen and daks come out in about 20 days and we're excited about that too. hopefully, we'll be able to get daks and kristen to post on this blog as well. that way its not the same old 'faces' around here. :) eventually, hopefully, everyone that is coming out will be posting on here.

well, i don't have a large amount to report except that we're still waiting on a job for bud. but we have what seems to be a good lead. he recently went to an interview at "native english learning centre' if i'm not mistaken and the lady he interviewed was very nice and said to him 'i want to hire you. but the work visa is going to be a pain in the ass.' (those were her words!). she told him that she wants him to come in for a second interview when her colleague can meet him and i guess they may discuss what they can work out. they weren't supposed to have their interview until sometime after august 3rd. but they called him today and his second interview is this coming up monday! so please be praying about that. the job is quite far away from where we live, but if it is a source of income and a work visa then we can't turn it down. please pray that the second interview goes well and that if they want to go forward with the work visa application/paperwork (which is, might i add - a very arduous process) that the hong kong immigration will show bud favor, see that he is an asset to the community of hong kong and that God will bless him with this position. bud really liked the center as well, so thats always a plus. if bud is to get his work visa, then we will be able to live in Hong Kong without worrying about leaving the country to reset our 'visitor's pass' if you will.

another good thing about bud getting a work visa will be that i will get what is called a 'dependency visa' which will be a help in me getting my work visa, with less hassle than it would be if i tried to do it on my own. this being said, if i get my work visa i will hopefully be working alongside HOLF (home of loving faithfulness.) the home is amazing and i fell in love with the children (ages 6-55!) instantly. they are so sweet and desperately need the love of Jesus covering them. please pray for them. the staff is amazing. its weird to pray with potential managers/bosses. i have never really had the experience when applying for a job or in an interview. it was quite refreshing. HOLF is a very real option that i'm praying about, but i also see potential other places that i could be used and i am seeking the Lord for the best fit for me and where He wants to use me. i recently came across a prolife website, prolifeamerica.com which had a link to the hong kong life league. unfortunately the english version of their website is very difficult to navigate; so i emailed the people at prolifeamerica and received a quick response and have been regularly corresponding back and forth. partially on a "pen pal" basis but she has forwarded my information and i should be hearing back from someone to help me get in touch with the hong kong life league. prolifeamerica is also sending me a package to help me in my quest. if you don't know, i have been doing pro-life work since i was in 2nd grade. its something very near and dear to my heart. so i have to seek the Lord on where he would put me. so please join me in that prayer as well.

other than that, we have just been soaking up being married, visiting places in hong kong and such. i dont remember if i said that we went to the beach a few weeks ago. our friend po ying and some people from church went as an outreach, to be a light amongst the darkness. it was nice and refreshing. speaking of our friend po ying, she is currently in vietnam (she is probably on her way back now) doing missions work so if you can pray for her safety and that God will move mightily that would be awesome. po ying is a God send. well, i guess thats all i'll say for now. i'm going to go do some things around this house. we love you all and look forward to praying alongside you about everything that has been mentioned. even though were thousands of miles apart, we can still meet together in prayer. how awesome is that? amen!

agape,

christin joy.

few more weeks!

i'll be going down to the bible belt in 4-6 weeks, guys... i'm looking forward to being able to speak in front of a few churches if i'm allowed and able. i want to make people aware of what work God is doing over in china and with the family that we have been given; as well as whats been placed on our hearts to carry out over there. God's good to us and we get to share it with a dying country, i can't wait to get there...

only a few more weeks for me! kristen will be there in 23 days now, i know her and daximus will have a safe trip. i love you all! take care, bud and christin!

and three updates!

1. the meeting went exceptionally well and basically everything dealing with christin working for the home of loving faithfulness rests on my ability to secure a work visa and employment. whoosh! God can do this and i pray He does. i ask you all to do the same. the good news from this is that christin will probably not have to go back to the states as we had thought might happen at one time. yay!

2. one down, one to go! i got my certificate in the mail yesterday. still no news on the video card but meh, those things can take a while clearing customs i guess. still i think it should've been here by now. ;-P

edit: i got it today at around 4pm!

3. in response to some peoples' thoughts, no i did not cut my HAIR, just my beard. i did it because it was too hot and itchy in hong kong summer for a beard. i'll be growing it back when the band gets here... oh yeah, bones. thanks to everyone for your support... of my beard. and its former glory. a moment of silence please... just kidding.

see, missionaries know how to make jokes too! as master splinter said 'i made a funny!!!' ha! okay, too much fun for tonight. i'll write more as things develop but please keep my job prospects in your prayers! pray that God would show us something in the next two weeks that will set the stage for the rest of our lives here in hong kong. thanks so much for reading and supporting! grace&peace. bye.

three things...

1. christin has a meeting with her potential new job tomorrow at 2pm c.s.t. so please pray for that to go well.

2. my certificate and video card have still not arrived.

3. i shaved off my beard and i look like my dad... only like 15 years old. it's pretty ridiculous.

that's all really. sorry for the lack of updates. ;-/ will write more when something new actually happens! grace&peace. bye.

long time no write!

hi all! i greatly apologize for not having written in at least a week. i hope you can forgive me! :) so whats been going on in hong kong you must ask. this week has not shown to be much more than getting settled into our new home! we moved in last sunday to our permanent address (which i will post on here later) and this week we have just been working on making it our "home" if you will. preparing it for our soon to have roommates (kristen & danny!) and making it comfortable. our friends (the family who lived here before us) had 2 children and the dog we now have. oh, and fighting off roaches! since we live in the village - we're gonna get bugs. eww!! i will post pictures of our home and our dog soon. i just need to get them onto the computer. we've spent a lot of time going into town, buying things for the home, grocery shopping and looking for pieces for bud's computer. if you could remember that in your prayers it'd be awesome, his computer has been having issues and that has everything on it. my laptop is just so we can travel.

this week i have become friends with our local bus driver. i still don't know his name nor have i had any real conversations with him but he always says hello to me, smiles and knows where to drop me off (my spot). this week i will tell him Jehso Oi Nei (Jesus loves you). he has asked if i like it here in HK and i was able to have that brief conversation with him. we'll see how it goes. so last week we were supposed to go on bread runs but it just kept falling through and i ended up babysitting all week. the children were a lot of fun. bud and i took them to mc'donalds and to a place thats like a make-shift chuck e' cheese. it kind of sucks, but the kids really enjoyed playing with me and bud in the balls. it was a lot of work! taking two children both under the age of 10 (combined) on a bus where they want to kick seats in front of them, stand up and yell can be quite difficult. they were not difficult, just full of energy! we also have found a new desire and yearn to pray diligently for our neighbors. within this area, there are i believe 3 or 4 temples where people go to worship their ancestors. just the other day at the bottom of the hill from our house, there were 'joss sticks' (incense) that had been burning. meaning that our neighbors, like most everyone in hong kong - worship and give honor to their dead ancestors. quite heart breaking.

we also went about 2 hours away for our friend po ying's birthday party. it was at our friend gau wai's and his fiance's house. they will both move in once they are married in october. it was a lot of fun, ate some good food. they barbecue with honey out here. they just throw everything and anything on the grill, paint some honey on it and grill it. its really good. :) so we took that trip and had sometime with our friends. got to talk to them a bit, it was fun and good conversation. can't lose with that, can you? :) and bud has had several job interviews - so we're just waiting and praying. we also found a mexican restaraunt and a subway - so when we're desperate we'll take the hour and a half it takes to get there. =D (the mexican food was not bad but it was no oscar's. i'm drooling just thinking of it.

today bud and i woke up and we both had stomach aches. we think it was something we ate. so we stayed home from church and we listened to a john piper sermon about romans 14:5-9. it was really good about how christians may have different ideas and convictions over non-essential topics and even if we disagree it still glorifies and honors God. go read. it was a very good message. after that i made breakfast in bed. pancakes! and we had a scare with the dog. it started making this horrible grunting noise and whenever i hear something like that i panic as i think 'OH NO IT CAN'T BREATHE" but it turned out it had a upset stomach as well. it threw up all over the couch! oh man, it was pretty gross but its okay. i can't be upset with her. oh, we named her monster truck and she is a pomeranian. i doubt that she is pure bred as she has some different colors. now that we have the house a little more organized and our style, we will probably have people come over for movie night or maybe some sort of bible study. it would be nice to have some friends over. (although, its wonderful being home with my husband and having our own place).

other than playing house all week, both bud and i are ready to see what this week has for us. we are expecting information from places that we've inquired about - a school for bud and i am still waiting on word from HOLF. we'll see what happens. oh and everynight before falling asleep we've been catching up with the past 3 seasons of House. so now that we're settled in - we feel even more prepared for things to pick up and take up our time. so i guess - not much to mention as of now but i wanted to let you all know that we're alive, we're here to help, we're here to pray and be used wherever God will have us. we love you all and thank you for your prayers. OH! after having spoken with my husband about it, we decided that it'd be a good idea that if you want our address to send letters or anything like that, it'd be best if you emailed us and we can send it to you. we love you and we'll talk to you again soon.

agape,

christin joy.

confucious says...

hallo everyone! so as i wrote last time, i wanted to post what i learned at the confucious seminar in a logical and comprehensible manner, to i'm going to do my best at doing so. :) oh and by the way, thank you so much for reading and leaving comments, its very encouraging to now that people are reading and are taking an interest in what we're doing and what God is doing! here we go:

if you read John 8 starting in verse 13 you'll see a conversation is being had between Jesus and a pharisee. the pharisees are challenging Jesus on legal grounds because no man on trial in a Jewish court was allowed to testify on his own behalf. They were making a point that if Jesus was the only one testifying as to who He claimed to be, it would not be enough to prove His case. but fortunately - we know that Jesus is Lord and is able to defend himself. in 8:16 he says "and yet if i do judge, my judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me." this is Jesus' way of showing himself equal with God, because Jesus is apart of the perfect triune relationship (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). if you continue reading, in 8:28 Jesus makes another statement which would show that He links Himself to God the Father. it says "then Jesus said to them, "when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things." note that He is saying that He gets His teachings directly from God.

if you look at our own lives, no one is a child of God because of our parents, nothing our parents can do will grant us salvation. they can teach us of Jesus and His sacrifice and all that He did for us, but if we do not grab onto this truth, we are not guaranteed eternal life. satan likes to use things that are apart of us, apart of our culture (things our parents have taught us) and twist them and put in lies here and there. for example: "i'm from thailand and i can eat whole peppers." having this knowledge, satan would throw in some sort of lie. one so subtle its hard to detect, but we must always be looking out for what is truth and what is not. because obviously, theres nothing wrong with eating peppers. ;-P if you continue on in the scriptures, john 8:58 says "Jesus said to them, "most assuredly, I say to you, before abraham was, I AM." He's letting the pharisees know that His Father is before abraham. to the pharisees abraham had the promise from God and thru him they were promised salvation, but Jesus is making it known to them that His Father is the way to salvation, not thru abraham. this is an example showing satan's lies creeping into their culture, like i had mentioned before. it happened then, whats to say it won't happen now?

Genesis 1:3 says "let there be light". Jesus Father is the Father of Light/Life. sometimes even in our own songs of praise and worship we will sing about His life and His Love. can you look back and remember how there were things that your parents would keep from you, things that they didn't want you to have to experience? theres an inherent response to real life in parents, they want to spare their children from the truth of life, keeping their innocence as long as possible. really God wanted the same for us, hence He gave adam and eve all the food they could have, everything they wanted and needed, and asked one thing - don't eat of the one tree. so even though God wanted us to keep our innocence, He was not about to force us to stay innocent. adam and eve knew good because of they knew God. what they didn't understand that once you loose your innocence, once you gain the knowledge of evil, you die. its in genesis 3 where satan places doubt into eve's mind and lies. read genesis 3:5 "for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." he was basically saying - you're not going to die, you're just going to become as clever as God, you'll get your PhD in good and evil. the death that God was speaking of was spiritual death, not physical death, you die when you get your PhD of evil. Jesus says in john 10:10 says "the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Jesus wanted us to keep our innocence, but since we wanted our knowledge of good and evil, we lost it, we allowed the enemy to sneak in his lies and steal away our lives. thankfully, we have a God that gives us a second chance!

matthew 13 is full of parables, or stories taught by Jesus. 13:10-13 says "and the disciples came and said to Him, "why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them, "because, it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. for whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. therefore, i speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." Jesus didn't want the wrong people to hear what He was saying. He loves us so much He does not want the wrong people to know what it is He's talking about, until they too have life. they are not going to understand what He is saying, they won't be able to comprehend nor do they hear the truth which is being taught. its not until we come to Jesus will we truly understand the parables. from the very beginning, God wants His friends to come and ask question. now, hong kong children are stuffed with info from the very beginning. many are enrolled into school by the age of 3 years old (believe it or not - they have schools for 1 year olds!! and even pre-natal schools). they are stuffed with information but its incorrect knowledge and its filtered with pride and shame. they have homework, they must study, they must excel - this is whats taught to them and this is whats ingrained in the parents minds. they don't realize that its more important to find God as their Father than to get A's in school.

confucious (551-479 BC) is known as the chinese father. he never taught about spiritual things, not of religion, but of philosophy/way of thinking. its important to realize this and also that he never talked about spirits. there are 2 aspects/tenants of confucianism; ren and li. ren was "to be benevolent, kind, generous, well mannered father, seeking the well being of others..." - basically - "do not do to others what you do not want done to you." this is expressed by being a gentlemen. they were supposed to unquestionably answer to ren, to being a gentlemen, to answering to the head of the house and so forth. li, the other tenant of confucianism states "the order of the world and heaven, social decorum. (how to dress at a particular time, facial expressions, way of walking to adopt while interacting with certain people.)" some examples of the outworking of li were fillial piety and the education system. basically, its knowing how to act when and where, knowing your roal. this unfortunately, does not allow children in the education system, to ask questions. its 'do as i say'. this works into xiao... this is how it worked. (let me see if i can make the diagram on here:

if you can see, parents are over their children, the husband is over his wife, and the older brother is over his younger brother. the same goes for life outside the family - ruler is over his subject, teacher over their student, and sometimes even a friend over a friend. with this way of thinking, it puts small families to shame as well as females. females do not have a very good time in this working out of relationship. for example: if you were a younger sister and you fell in love and wanted to get married. if your older brother was not yet married, you would not be permitted to marry, because you're not to get married before your "successor". the problem with the xiao system was that it only works if your superior is a true gentlemen, following ren.

many chinese families long for closeness in their relationships but unfortunately, do not act on it. for ex: at the airport you see moms & dad's eagerly awaiting the return of a child or a parent, very excited, on the edge of their seat. once they see them, instead of giving them a long awaited hug and kiss, they just pick-up their bags and its off to the bus/car to get home. instead of being under the thumb of a "superior" we should be looking at how Jesus and His Father were and how close they were. instead of just taking everything they are told w/o the chance of asking a question, instead ASK questions, seek out the truth because it will set you free. its insane that children are not to ask questions in school. if they do - they are considered an insubordinate child, a bad kid, stupid, etc... but children should ask questions, should be exploring and wanting to know more. instead of being cooped up in school and after school - cooped up in their house studying hours on end, they should learn through playing!

when i mentioned that there were schools for children at the early age of 1 years old - they are busy teaching them music and chinese characters so that they will get ahead. this is the confucious education system: "even if you come from a poor background, if you STUDY you can make it to the top." in english we learn how to read through phonetics (ex. C-AT is CAT). in chinese (HK), they do not have that so they learn by memory. they teach: here is the lesson, learn it. they teach: you do not need to understand, just know what it says. it is right.

the problem is that there are many christian families caught up in this system here in hong kong. if they were to say "don't worry about the exam/homework." teachers would call the parents in for a meeting and pressure them to pressure their children to work harder, study more. just as the parents don't want their children pressured, they don't want to be pressured either. its a double edged sword. all of this is a goal of confucianism: to become a sage, a servant of society, to reach perfection through learning. when jackie was explaining this, she mentioned a song and 1/3 of the congregation knew what the song was. the song was about if i'm not mistaken the song was about a child running home in a storm but he was not scared of the storm, rather he was scared of going home if he did not do well in school. 1/3 of the congregation knew the song and it broke my heart. another thing that confucianism teaches is that men are to obey their fathers rules/commands/wishes 7 years after his fathers death. can you imagine? he's under the rule of his father, not truly allowed to be a man with his own convictions and passions. he's under the pressures of his father and ancestors to boot.

although confucious did not teach of spirits, when he died, his teachings got turned into a religion when his disciples said to worship ancestors/the dead. when you worship ancestors, you are tied to the life of your ancestors. meaning you're not tied to the live you've been given through God and your life WITH God. so many times bud and i have been walking around HK and we get a big sniff of incense burning and its in honor of ancestors. the ancestral worship breaks my heart because rather than holding onto the promise of God, they hold onto the old ways of feeble humans.

after we disected the essentials of confucianism, a major way of thinking still used today amongst the chinese, we looked at taoism and buddhism. to briefly summarize - buddhism was not originally a religion it was a way to the goal of nirvana (through dharma) - knowledge, attitude, speech. they had the noble 8fold path. taoism's goal was to become immortal, so essentially looking for eternal life. it takes 3 separate religions to fulfill the promise that Jesus made. john 14:6 says "I AM the way, the truth, and the life." buddhism says they have the 'way' to a peaceful life. confucianism says you gain perfection through knowledge, aka 'truth'. and taoism has the goal of eternal/spiritual 'life'. why get involved with so much when you can just turn to Jesus?

i have a good amount of notes on those two if you're interested but i know that this post is already extremely long. i'll be surpised if anyone read it in one sitting. i hope i did not bore you. its just interesting to see the mindset of the chinese that are not living the life Christ has given them. its quite sad, to see the bondage that they are stuck in, that they can't be free because they are under the thumbs of their ancestors. the children can't think freely and explore and learn in a way any other than dictatorship and learn what i say because its the truth. its very sad. so please pray for the people of china, of Hong Kong. pray that they will see God's truth and want to be released from the bondage they are enslaved too. and pray that bud and i and the rest of the team once they arrive, and the other christians that are not even associated with our initial group - will reach out to the people and bring them into their lives to show them what true life is all about. thanks for reading!

agape,

christin joy.

did you bring your baby?

hello again! it's bud this time, and things in hong kong are going quite well. it's been almost a week since we've left and it really does feel like it's been a great deal longer, as the two of us are adapting nicely to our new surroundings. within the past 5 days we've been here, i've got a nice prospective avenue for work [that will get me and christin a work visa to live here legally] and a possible permanent residence in a village house not far from where we're staying now! praise God for His provision and faithfulness!

we went to the vineyard on sunday after the confucious seminar saturday and despite a strange bit of misunderstanding that i won't get into, it was quite good. we're enjoying the food, meeting new people, learning words in cantonese and of course the general atmosphere of hong kong... i love it here and i'm glad christin loves it too.

hopefully, christin will be having her orientation with ministry opportunities out here, so the two of us can begin to participate the end of the week. it seems that we will probably be doing this for the next month and possibly beyond, considering it will take some time before my visa comes in provided i get the job i'm looking at... please pray that i will! in the meantime, we've been reading and watching quite a bit of anime to pass the time [got christin into bleach] until our ministry can truly start.

one thing that has really been weighing on my heart that needs prayer is the huge language barrier that exists between the two of us and the rest of the city. it's killing me right now that i can't speak the same language as most of these people, and every day new opportunities seem to be passing by for ministry, simply because i cannot say what needs to be said! i will probably ask around about some sort of language training, a cantonese class perhaps, that christin and i can attend to start learning the language faster. hanging out with friends and learning a word or two here and there is great, but i need something a bit more efficient without stressing out our few chinese-speaking friends we have here! pray that God would provide an avenue for that.

anyway, as i said, things are going well and we hope the same for those back in the states. much love from christin and myself, and thank you so much for your prayers and support! we couldn't do it without our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we're so thankful for the church of God. thanks for reading and if you have any prayer requests for us, please post them in a comment... we do so enjoy reading comments here! grace&peace. bye.

we've made it!

so we're here in hong kong and the current time is 6:52am. i keep waking up earlier and earlier. anyone who knows me, knows that i do not like to wake up early and would rather sleep in! the first day i was here, i woke up at 6am, the next day i woke up at 9am, and today i woke up at 5:45am. so this morning i thought to myself, i'm not going to go back to bed - i'll spend some time with the Father and post a little something on here. we've been here a total of 2 days and already i'm amazed at what peace i have so far. i was convinced that i was going to be completely culture shocked, homesick and that i was going to freak out the very moment i got off the plane; but that was not the case at all. don't get me wrong, i'm sure i'll have my moments eventually, but i'm so glad its not now. so what can i tell you all that you would want to know...

we live in a high rise apartment flat on the 25th story (the very top floor)in sheung shui, hong kong. its not a very big town but there are a lot of people here, as there are a lot of people everywhere. we have 2 roommates that are here only for two weeks as they are visiting and bringing bread to china. after that we will most likely get new roomates. its kind of fun to have people coming and going, we get to meet so many new faces and here heaps of stories on top of that. these two men are in their 70's probably and from florida. they are kind of personal and stay to themselves a bit, but they are very sweet. :) we have met a lot of people from the office we work for - mostly from ireland, and they seem very cool. a lively group thats for sure! we've been up and down hong kong. we visited the walk of stars - which is kind of like the hong kong version of the walk of fame in hollywood - only with chinese actors (ex: bruce lee, jackie chan, jason lee, etc.).

we went to fo tan, fanling, kowloon, kwun tung (i think i butchered that - i'll ask bud when he is awake), tsim sha tsui, and a place pronounced but i know i'll butcher the spelling "chui chueng cheun". again, i'll ask bud to clarify and help me with that - as he is MUCH better than i am, i geuss because he's been here before and i have not. hehe, that would make sense to me at least. every town looks a bit different but not drastically, until you get to the village and then it looks more like a rural area, dirt roads, 3 level village houses as opposed to the 25 story high rises, with stray dogs walking freely. i like the village a bit more i think, its the closest thing i will ever get to my white picket fence! haha. :) another thing i've noticed thats a big difference is that just within hong kong - the different towns have different temperatures. don't get me wrong, all of hong kong is very hot and very humid (like walking into a brick wall) but certain towns are not as 'bad' as others. i'm getting used to plastering my hair into a bun and not worrying about it the rest of the day!

i could go on and on about the legistics of hong kong. for example: how all the people are in a hurry to get to where they are going, how they don't stop to apologize if they bump into you (not because they are rude but its just not a big deal to them), they do not have very much of a personal bubble, you come to recognize the smell of the wet market in every town and they all smell the same, you kind of remember peoples faces but its very hard to do so when there are 7.5 million registered people. you notice that there are 7 and 8 year old children walking around with no children, acting as little adults going from school to whatever their next destination is. you also walk by and you will smell a sweet aroma of incense burning; but its not so sweet once you realize that this is apart of their ancestory worship - tying them into the life of their ancestors. you also see people who are very respectful to their elders, very emotional speakers and very personal and to themselves.

you have the difference in culture and people but one thing still remains: these are all people created in the image of our Father, with souls that need to be saved just as i have been saved. last night i had the priveledge of going to a confucious seminar where jackie pullinger, a very amazing, Father filled woman spoke to her congregation about the culture and belief system of the chinese (remember - we are the foreigners) to the chinese. she was very bold in letting them know that the school systems, that the general way of thinking is flawed and unnecessary. i took about 5 pages of notes (granted it was a 7 hour seminar!) that i will probably publish on a personal diary and link it to this page once i've done so. just check back soon with that. this seminar was an amazing gift from our Father, it helped me see even better and even more closely what i'm here for, what bud and i are here for.

at the end of the seminar we had a time of talking to our Father and healing was happening! have you ever been set free from a pattern of thinking that was weighing you down, a demener that was put upon you by years of rituals and 'this is the way of your people'? this is a huge part of the chinese culture. the people of china/hong kong are taught that there is no room for error, that they are bad, that they have to do well in their studies. they start this way of thinking at the age of 1 years old! they have schools for 1 years old. i was thrown back by that. in the states we may have day care for 1 year olds where we may tell them what colors are but i do not believe that there are any full blown schools for the age specific to one years old. and they are taught that they must study their books because they are right - do not ask questions because that is insubordinate, just trust without explanation. i was heart broken.

but again at the end of the night people were being set free, apologizing for things publicly, and i have never once been apart of such free worship in my life! it was amazing. we were singing songs of adoration (yes! i sang in cantonese! - one song everyone started clapping at one part and i was eager to find out what they were saying. after they repeated the song a few times in cantonese they sang it in english and the part they clapped at was that HE rose from the dead! they were celebrating). it was wonderful, i got choked up a bit. to see them just stretching their hands out in adoration and love for their Father without a care in the world was amazing, to see them reach out and pray for one another, to see them crying and pouring themselves out. it was just amazing. again, i'll post everything i learned from last night at a later time. anyway, we're going to church today and i'm eager to learn more of what jackie pullinger has gleaned from the Father and His word. i hope to continue to learn from these wonderful people, and i hope to continue to fall more and more in love with them.

maybe next time i'll tell you what words i learned in cantonese. i'm afraid this blog is already a bit too long so i will end it now. please keep praying for the people of hong kong, china and all of asia (and of course your own neighbors and friends). pray that they will be released from the thumbs of their ancestors, that they will not buy into the lies that if you're not a super student that they are stupid and bad. that they will be released from their bondage and rise with the Father and hold on to the Father of truth. be blessed!

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my first post.

so lets see if this works like it should. :) this is my first post on hkmissions. so - hi there. bud and i were married on april 28! so it will be a week tomorrow, how insane is that? we are doing well out here in good old maryland. we'll be here for 2 more weeks - and even though we're not doing a whole lot, i'm having a great time being able to experience spring in my home town with my new husband and my wonderful parents and family. its good for me.

i think i'll express one of the prayer requests that i have so those that read this will know what i'm asking for prayer for. :)we still need to sell my car so please keep that in your prayers. we have a potential buyer and i hope that it happens. also - i have pretty severe asthma. its under control but it does get quite irritating having my asthma dictate what i can and cannot do. please pray for healing if thats what the Lord wants for me and if not - pray that things will work out fine regarding my asthma in hong kong. also - please pray for my homesickness. i got horribly homesick in california when i first moved there. i think it will be different in HK because i now have my husband - my new family. but still - its going to be difficult leaving my parents/family. so if you want to keep that in your prayers that'd be awesome.

so i guess right now thats all i have requests for - on the personal side. obviously, i ask you to join us in praying for the mission set before us, the persecuted church, our fellow brothers and sisters in china who are in need of encouragement and discipling and anything else - that the Lord will provide it and that bud and i will be open and willing to do everything the Lord has asked us to do and will ask us to do. please pray that we keep our focus set on our Father so that no matter what - we are doing it as one flesh.

God Bless you all. till next time.

much love,

christin joy newman