Day 2: Sun Moon Lake to Ching Jing (83kms)

It would be an understatement to say that this day caught the both of us off guard. I know I haven't trained as much as should have but the mountains proved to be much more than we could have anticipated. I'm really glad we arrived and made it to our inn. 

The morning started out beautifully. We woke up at 6:30 with the goal of starting our ride at 8. We had a quick complimentary breakfast from our inn. Then we set off to ride the first 33kms around the lake. 

The first bit of our ride was quite easy, with a bit of a climb at the beginning but easy riding downhill for most. I think we averaged around 22kph around the lake. The scenery was so beautiful. We truly have an amazing Creator God who made all this. 

After circling the lake we stopped in Puli for lunch. We had a big roast chicken meal. The food was really quite good- or we were just extra hungry. 

The ride from Puli to Ching Jing was the worst. We were in high spirits though and were quite oblivious to what lay ahead (in hindsight I'm glad dad didn't tell me or I would've quit). We had 30 or so kms uphill climbing around 600 meters. Most of this journey wasn't as scenic as the morning. It was mostly just mountain passes with bendy roads beside barriered cliffs. It was a lot like the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. 

The ride was gruelling to say the least. Our pace slowed to about 8kph on most parts. It was a lot of 'just get to the next bend' and 'our meal at the end will be worth this pain'. We stopped many times along the way to catch our breath and for dad to update his Facebook status. Here are a couple shots:

One of my goals this trip is to glean wisdom from my dad and I have a list of life lessons I want to ask him about. During the ride I asked him what motivated him to endure these arduous rides (he had spent a month riding in the Himilayas in September). He said if you go slowly and steadily you're bound to get to where you're heading. He also said that he often sees the journey itself not as the necessary evil to get to an end but part of the experience. It made me think a lot about my own spiritual journey. We often prize the speed in which we arrive at our spiritual destinations/maturity but forget that our journey takes the conviction to plod ahead each step at a time. May we be encouraged to see our trek as not a race but also an experience, for pain is part of our growth in the journey heavenward.

Dad pointing to Ching Jing, our destination. 

I think after 30 kms of uphill we finally couldn't ride any longer. The sun had set and my knee was locking up from all the climbing. We had a meal at a roadside noodle place and started just pushing our bikes up. What I thought would be about 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. Much of the time was spent in silence just trudging on. We had started at 8 and were nearing 12 hours on the road. I did manage to ask dad what his highlight of the day was and he replied with his usual contemplative optimism, "the scenery from this morning and spending time with you. It's not everyday you get to do stuff like this with your son." And at that moment I already knew that our journey to Taiwan was worth it. Whether my knee can handle another hill or not won't matter. It is indeed about the experience and not the destination. It's about the growth, the pain, the lessons and most of all- the company you travel with. 

Day 3: ChingJing to Hehuan Mountain

Today was a God-ordained day. Everything that happened was sovereignly appointed by the Lord. I'm so encouraged to see God's hand and presence and even more encouraged to see God affirm our plans to serve in Taiwan in August. 

Last night we barely got to town in Chingjing at 8pm. I started getting the shakes because the inn was so cold. Then in the middle of the night I broke out in sweats and thought I would get sick on just our second day. I had to change twice because my clothes were soaked through. 

Well this morning I woke up I felt fine. Praise God! We took a look out the window at the gorgeous view we didn't have a chance to see the night before. It was a precursor to all the wonderful things we'd experience today. 

We decided that because of my knee I shouldn't risk injuring it more on another ascent so I would hire a driver to meet dad at the next destination, HeHuan Mountain. He would take the mountain bike I had been riding and I'd transport his road bike up to the next hotel. Turned out to be a God thing. More on that in a sec. 

But before dad and I would split up for the day, we wanted to visit the ChingJing Farm together, famous for its mountain-top sheep grazing areas. 

So at first, nothing special happened, we fed some sheep, took pictures. Dad was getting ready to leave when we walked up to a gazebo to take a few final pictures. We asked a nearby man, who was resting in the gazebo with his family, to take our picture. 

Dad chatted with the guy as is his usual custom while I sat quietly on the side listening. After a few minutes, dad said his goodbye and got up to leave but turned to ask to take one final picture with the family (I found out later that he was prompted by the Holy Spirit). Not much out of the ordinary but here comes the cool part.

After dad left, the man and his family started talking to me. At first I got really scared because my mandarin is quite terrible, but then I started to understand more or less what they were saying. They asked about the usual stuff, age, work, marital status and how long I was staying for. I mentioned that my wife and I would be coming to Taiwan again in August for a half-year stay. 

"Where will you be staying?" they asked.

"Puli... er... I think it's Puli or Puxi. I don't know how to say it." I replied. 

"Puxi?! By Chiayi? That's where she works," the man said pointing at his wife.

"Yes... yes, I remember it's near Chiayi. All I know is that it's a small place. It's got around 35,000 people," I said. 

"So what will you be doing there for half a year?" they inquired.

At this point I started stammering because I couldn't think of the word for mission work and I didn't want them to think I was coming to Taiwan to prostlyze so I told them we were taking a break from work to visit and reflect on life. I told them that all I knew was that we were going to hosted by a family by the name of Chen. 

"Chen? Is your Chen a Mu Si (a pastor)?" they asked. 

At this, my eyes widened at I got goosebumps. "Yes! Yes! He's a Mu Si and he has a teenage daughter and they're from Australia." 

It turns out the wife works RIGHT beside where our host missionary family stay and they know each other. The family I had been chatting with for 20 minutes now were Chrisitans and live in Chiayi, a neighbouring city to where we will stay in August. It is so crazy that of all the days I had to take a break from biking and laze around a farm, it would be today, and of all the places on the farm to stop, we stopped at this gazebo, and of all the people I would have the courage to converse with it would be this family. Through them I am affirmed that God really does want Michelle and me to come to Taiwan. How else can you explain such coincidence?

The family invited me to lunch on the farm with them and I hung out with them for a while before they dropped me off at the inn in time for my taxi ride. Still marvelling at this, I frantically tried to type down all that happened on the taxi ride to the next stop. 

Dad had mentioned before to be on the lookout for him so on the ride up the mountains I was occasionally glancing out the window while still typing when we passed by a cyclist. At first I didn't think it was dad because the cyclist was wearing this ugly polka-dotted shirt. But upon closer inspection it was dad. Happy to see him, I jumped out to greet him. 

Dad had ridden for 4 hours uphill for 11km. Man, I was so proud of him. 

The driver suggested that we meet day again a few kms up the mountain where there would be a much nicer view. But for now she would drive me to the inn first to get check in. The next time we saw dad, he was at this checkpoint:

The view: 

I asked dad how the ride was and he said that it was difficult. He said that on the ride up he kept thinking about yesterday's ride and how we should have split it into two days instead of attempting it all at once. But it was all a part of God's will that I got injured because that freed up the mountain bike that I was riding so he could use it to climb today. If I hadn't gotten hurt, neither of us would have been able to ride up the mountain today. It's so amazing to see God work in such divine ways. 

I'm reminded of the familiar passage in Romans 8 when Paul talks about our trials. And though an IT band injury is certainly not a trial of faith that would test one's spiritual outlook, his words still ring true. 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)"

I can't help but sense that God is piecing together all things- good or seemingly bad- to work together this life He's called us to. Hope this encourages you in your own spiritual walk. God IS at work in your life. You may not see it this day, but one day He will bring it together for good.

Blessings. 

Day 1: Biking in Taiwan

Our day started off early at 5:30 as dad had asked me to be at the airport by 6:30 for our 9:00 flight. Dad actually arrived late himself as the van that was supposed to pick him and the bikes up flaked out. But it didn't matter in the end as our flight was delayed anyways. We ended up sitting in the lounge for a few hours. Dad read the newspaper and I studied my Chinese. 

After a few hours dad went to check the flight statuses and came back to say that our flight had been delayed again so we should just continue eating and stuffing our faces. But after another hour of that we just decided to walk over to the gate to be "early" just in case. Well, wouldn't you know it, as we glanced at the board we found out that our flight wasn't actually delayed a second time- it was actually leaving in 5 minutes. So we made a mad dash for the gate and got there just in time. 

So in all, we arrived in Taipei around 2.5 hours late but we made up for it in the commute to Sun Moon Lake (mid-Taiwan). 

We got here and I realized that I severely under-packed. Dad had gone through the packing list with me and warned me not to pack too much. I had taken his advice quite literally so when he didn't mention to bring shorts, I didn't. So I guess I'll be sharing a bed with dad in boxers.

Checked into an awesome hotel- it'll probably be the best one this trip and walked around the Main Street to eat dinner. We chatted with a friendly restaurant owner and fruit stall lady. It's a nice quaint little town. 

So we are back at the hotel now eating fruit we bought at the stall. There's some really funky stuff that I don't even know the names for. They probably don't even have English names. 

We're going to start assembling the bikes soon but dad's on Facebook again. I guess it's not a rush because we have a few more hours. So far it's been a really good start having some good conversations with dad. Looking forward to tomorrow as we'll start riding. 

That's all for now. 

Happy New Year / Updates

First off, Michelle and I wish you a very Happy New Year! May the Lord fill your year with the richness of his grace and experiences to stretch your faith. Praying that 2014 will be a year of much fruit in your lives.

Admittedly, Mich and I have been a bit busy these days and have neglected the blog. Michelle doesn't like blogging and makes it no secret, so she leaves me to do all the work. But nonetheless, she resolved to update more as this year looks to be a very eventful year.

So, a few things that have happened lately. I best leave you with pictures rather than words as most people like to look at photos.

The Growth Group at church has been "growing" (for a lack of a better word) both in size and depth.
We really enjoy fellowshipping and studying God's word with these friends! This is our Christmas dinner / Naughty Santa Gift Exchange.

A birthday celebration for Cheryl our teaching colleague!

At the end of December, Dennis from Vancouver came to visit and stay with us.
We were blessed with his company and the giant pot roast he brought over.

During the holidays, we were able to go on more family excursions - this one in Sai Kung to
explore the outlying islands in HK. Nice father-daughter picture.

We also had the opportunity to visit Cambodia together.

Beautiful country

with beautiful people.

Upon coming back to school I got some bad news that one of my students had been hit by a car during the holidays
and was in the hospital recuperating. We have been Skyping with his during lessons to keep him up to date
with lessons. It was really heart-warming to see the love shown by the class and their care for Thomas.

Preparing for the bike trip!

So one big thing I'm looking forward to soon, Chinese New Year holiday in fact, is a bike ride with my dad in Taiwan. This idea came about rather randomly after returning from Cambodia. I was explaining to my parents how awesome Cambodia was to visit and told my dad to go some time. He responded by saying that he had planned to ride his bike through Thailand to Vietnam, through Cambodia one day and I got excited and suggested that we could go on a father-son bike ride in Vietnam, since Grandpa spent much of his working life as a businessman there. The original intention was more nostalgic than anything: an opportunity to spend time with dad and see Grandpa's old stomping grounds.

After some research I found out that a cross-country Vietnam trip in itself would take close to a month, taking up holidays I couldn't afford so we had to rethink our plans. Dad suggested Taiwan and we quickly jumped on the planning and bought our plane tickets. With that settled, we are going in a mere 2.5 weeks!

Our trip has 3 purposes:

1. Spending time with Dad. After all this time in HK, I've never really taken the time to sharing in something quite intensive with my dad. We've never really had a sport we enjoyed together, much to chat about (besides church politics), so I'm really looking forward to be able to hang out with Dad. This is a memory we can look back on in years to come.

2. Practice my mandarin. In preparation for our 6 months in Taiwan this coming year, I need to get my mandarin up to snuff. I shouldn't have spent those days in Chinese school farting around and now that I'm old enough to regret it, I should do something about it. So I'm brushing up on Chinese flashcards and hoping my dad will hold my hand while we converse with the locals we meet.

3. Pray for the country and the people. Again, as we see God's confirmation unfolding for us to be in Taiwan the upcoming year, we want to continue to pray for the people and the nation. With only 0.5% of the working class in Taiwan Christian, we pray for a breakthrough in this nation- that truth and the light of the Gospel would be revealed to those still in darkness. We pray that this land would be governed by justice and righteousness and that the Kingdom of God would come in this place for these people as well.


So basically, that's our update for now. There's much happening, and we hope to share regularly. Please pray for us as you remember. We are blessed to have you in our lives.

Much love,

Tin and Mich

Romans 8

For Growth Groups we've been studying about the Holy Spirit. Our study last week led us through Romans 8 which I've admittedly always glossed over because of it's wordy passage. But a careful read through reveals how poignantly God loves us and empowers us to live as His sons and daughters through the Spirit. What a gem!

Below is a video of David Crowder's "How He Loves" with a few snippets of John Piper and Matt Chandler 'preaching it'. Hope it encourages you as it has for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUUmhnOPBdE

Blessings

Grandma Ho

It has become increasingly clear to me that the lifeblood of our lives is composed of stories. When all is said and done, we are largely defined and remembered not by our wealth, accomplishments or feats of greatness, but in the stories shared by those we love.

So what stories define my dear Grandma?

To be honest, most of the stories I have of Grandma are framed in black and white, passed on from my mother, uncles and aunties. These stories talk of life in the 60’s, when life was harsh and unrelenting. They resonate with me more because I was too young to remember much of grandma in my own memory, having left for Canada at too young an age. Much of what I do remember revolves around vacations when Grandma would visit, and me being naughty while she was ever-so-patient. The Grandma I knew never spoke of the past, never brought up the hardships, and never complained about the difficulties she had endured.

The last three years of being in Hong Kong has given me new appreciation to Grandma’s life. She is the most long-suffering woman I know. She has endured so much and had the kindest heart to keep giving of herself. She sacrificed everything for her children without demanding anything in return.

Last mother’s day after eating at a restaurant at Tin Hau, mom asked us to walk with her to the North Point Ferry Pier. She explained that many years ago, she would regularly take the same route with Grandma to deliver food to Grandpa’s clothing business. The two of them would often take the long lonely journey back home to Sham Shui Po together. As they traced their way back in the dark emptying streets, their hearts would often be filled with sorrow and grief at the seemingly injustice of life.

That night, as dad, Michelle and I followed mom on her journey into the past, I couldn’t help but see the story come to life. I saw the shadows of mother and daughter cast ruefully on the faded buildings. I watched them meander silently through the crooked alleyways towards the dock that would shuttle them across the harbour. No words. Just two silent silhouettes. 

For me, this story encapsulates Grandma: she loved fully without condition. In a culture where value is placed on the fleeting emotion of romance, she loved based on principle. She loved an undeserving husband, a brood of children often too young to understand, and loved at her own expense. Grandma fought tooth and nail to give her children and grandchildren the best she could afford even when it cost her much suffering. She is the embodiment of love that gives, and even to her last days, she hung on to make sure everything was right with her children.

I do not know a more stalwart woman, who despite her tiny frame possessed so much courage and determination to live and press on. May we all take a page from her life and live with the same gumption and conviction. Rest well in heaven, Grandma - real life has just begun!

New School, New Year

Rivendell. Shalom.

So much has happened the last few weeks since we got home from our holidays in Canada. As usual, the summers are too eventful to be documented fully here. There were meals, parties, weddings, and even a trip to a comic convention. All this spent with family and friends made our time particularly special. But at the end of it, we knew it was time to start our school years again and begin our new adventure.

So we literally haven't stopped since the day we got off the plane. The following morning I had supervision duties at UCCKE (my old school) and was slated to do one more day of duty the day after which would clash with my new job's orientation. Thank God a typhoon came and took care of that hassle. There has never been a more perfectly timed answered prayer. 

So after that single day of sitting in an staff room for 8 hours all by myself, my time at UCCKE came to an official close. I'll miss the quirky local kids, taking kids out for lunch across the street, or standing for 40 minutes every Monday and Thursday for cheesy Assembly meetings. 

And thus our new adventure of working together at CAIS began. After 3 years of hearing Michelle tell me all her stories about the school, I was excited but also a little apprehensive about working there. After all, I was coming in as her husband - that's who I was known as. I was so pleased to find a staff that was warm and vibrant who not only saw me as Michelle's tag-along, but as one of them.

The last three weeks have been a tornado of throwing up bulletin boards, stapling lettering and organizing desks and trays. All things I have missed since not having my own classroom. It's like my life has turned into a flurry of colour after three years of monotony. I can't say what the next few months will look like since I've noticed teachers are creatures prone to complain, but I have promised myself not to complain about anything I experience this year since every day is a huge blessing from what I've had in the past. I'm so thankful for this job, for these colleagues, my lovely kids, and this calling to be a part of their lives. 

Here are a few pictures of the classroom as it was being set up, and a few shots of the kids.

"A World Awaits" - Narnia Themed Door.
The name tag is as official as it gets!

The back wall

Kids on the second day.

Working on their Duty Group crests

This group is called "Scottish Chickens with 22 Eyes"

"Why Scottish?" I asked.
"Uh, because it's more special than just Salty Chickens," they replied.
"Oh, ok!"

My hope and blessing to you all is that in every season of life, in the dry and the plenty, you will always see God's goodness and purposes for you. May He be your reason for service and may His pleasure be your reward.

Grace and peace,


Tins