Time

The last week or two have been a weird period of adjusting to the pace of life here in Puxin. As urbanites teachers enslaved to the clock, Michelle and I have been trying to figure out the value of time here. We are so used to calculating down to the minute in our timetables and packing our days full of tasks, events, and people to see. But here in Puxin things don't run at the same speed. Things are much slower.

People have asked us whether we've been busy. And while we haven't been drowning in busyness as we're used to in the classroom, we still reply that we have been. It's just the busyness here looks different. We are not running kids off to their next class, diffusing an argument between groupmates, or cramming down a lunch so we can discipline a student. Rather our days are packed with reading the Bible, meeting to talk about ministry, occasionally studying Chinese, and riding our bikes to the grocery store to pick up eggs and meat.

Time moves differently here. It's loosely governed and counted by chunks: appointments take up your morning and hanging out with kids could mean starting sometime around 5pm and just sitting around for the next 4 hours. To be honest, it's been a bit of a struggle getting used to the work output here.

So we've been adjusting to this new notion of time. Be flexible. Do what you can. Things may or may not happen at their proposed times. Sometimes they won't happen at all.

On a day off the Chen's took us out to Lugang, an old fishing village on the coast.

Ministry has been interesting as well. Since school has started for the highschoolers, we've been figuring out how to provide a safe and productive afterschool hangout environment for the students here. Most students don't have much to do at home, no homework, no real hobbies or extra-curricular activities. Some head to tutorial classes. But most who don't will often spend their evenings playing with their phones. We've been brainstorming how we can give the students a place to learn, grow and develop better study habits. So on weekdays after school, kids are invited to come hang out. Some days they come, some days they don't.

On the days they do come though, it's usually pretty loud and happening!

Here are a couple pictures:

Last weekend: putting up some Mid-Autumn festival decorations for our BBQ.

Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ (Kao Rou) is very popular here.

Families gather outside their front door, squat, and then grill food together for the whole evening.

Some of our girls being silly.

This girl had never eaten Hong Kong-style moon-cake. Her response: "These things are horrible. I will warn anyone who goes to Hong Kong to never buy them!" She then paid her friend to finish her piece of "disgusting" moon-cake.

The other ministry starting off are Champion classes at the local highschool. Champion classes are the equivalent to Health or CAPP classes back at home where students learn life skills to deal with stress and life problems. Wayne and Angela teach classes every week and have invited us to be their assistants in class. It was a neat gaze into schooling here in Puxin.

Pu-Hsin Junior High School

Waiting for students to finish their after-lunch siesta. Too hot to learn!

Ninth grade

Learning about life! 

I think that being here in Puxin the last few weeks has slowly stripped away the value I place on achieving things in my day. The slowness has forced to be honest with myself. Without my job, my appointments to run off to, and my errands to attend, I've been forced to ask myself where I derive my sense of identity. Do I feel good about myself because I was able to accomplish things today? Was I successful because I was able to pack much into my schedule? Or am I still being fruitful - or more importantly faithful to what God has called me to despite the slow turn of events?

We all live in different places with different paces of time. What I've learned in my time here is that God doesn't measure based on the busyness of my calendar but rather how my heart will delight in being faithful to Him in every moment of my day. Whether life be quick or slow, may my heart rejoice in giving Him my very best even when it might not seem like a lot in my own eyes.

Even when it's mundane.

Even when it's plain.

Puxin: Sights, Sounds, and Smells

Hi Everyone,

So it's been a few days since we've arrived here in Taiwan. We are settling in well with the Chens. We had our orientation a few days ago upon arrival and have had a chance to see some of the students we hope to connect with after the school year starts. Today we had more of a chance to walk around town and explore a little bit, so we wanted to take this chance to share a little about this place we call home for the next half a year.

Sights: Puxin is a small sized town in Taiwan with around 35 000 people and several surrounding villages. It's closest bigger-city neighbour is YuanLin, so if you'd like to google it, you can probably find Puxin on its left somewhere on the map. It's got a typical main street with shops that line both sides, and then residential houses scattered about.

Main street stroll

Corner store beside where we live

A ride into the surrounding village

Sounds: We are situated on a rather heavily used street, so besides the overbearing stench of the stinky tofu stall a few houses away the next thing you'll notice is the constant din of traffic and the shrill of the passing moped. Still, it's nothing like what traffic is like in Hong Kong (thank goodness) and you can easily find your way across the street, though it would be wise to walk in a predictable manner so you don't get hit by the oncoming scooter!

putt-putt-putt-putt

The school across from our place

Smells: If you take a stroll along main street, the predominant aroma will be of boiling oil and fried goods (donuts, chicken, mushrooms, tofu, potatoes... I don't know how Taiwanese are so creative in finding all these different things to fry). But the other smell to notice is the incense as you pass by the different temples in town. This month in particular is interesting- it's ghost month in the Chinese calendar. Tradition states that the spirits of the dead come out to visit families, so to appease them and ease their suffering, it is important to leave offerings of food, drinks, and money out for them to use. Yesterday was the last day of Ghost month, so many families took the opportunity to send the spirits off with offerings and incense.

If you see a temple, you'll likely smell the incense

A store-front offering to the ghosts leaving town

What's next: The students at the nearby highschool start classes in September, so the next week or two will help us gauge our ministry priorities and what our schedule looks like. We hope to have an after-school hangout centre for them to relax. We will also have a Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ for them, so we are praying that event kickstarts a steady group of students coming to visit.

Personally, we will start our first begin our language learning this coming Thursday. We're already trying to practice our by speaking with students and watching Meteor Garden. I'm also trying to write down all the new words I encounter throughout the day on sheets of paper so I see them more often, but Mich doesn't like the papers so she has them on her phone.

 It's been a positive start so far. We're happy to be here and happy to be learning lots!

Blessings!

1 Day Til Taiwan

It has been a week since we left Vancouver and we were blessed to have spent quality time with friends and family. We experienced the love and support of our church back at home as we head to Taiwan.

Taiwan Prayer Night - included with a delicious spread of Taiwanese food

A British and Taiwanese Farewell BBQ

Since returning to HK for our brief one-week pit stop before Taiwan, things have been busy. The last few days have been a flurry of packing, running errands, and completing our journey guide before our start in Taiwan. It's strange because time has a way of just flying by. Before we know it, the day is over but there's still tons to be done.

packing everything for Taiwan

We think one of the biggest differences coming back this time is that we don't have a home to go back to. We've since moved out of our place and our friends James and Rodi have moved into our flat for the year. Gone are the days when we used to load up our luggage with teaching supplies, dried goods to last the year, kitchenware and clothes- this year, we had no where to put these things because our home wasn't really our home anymore. It was a really odd feeling to enter our apartment that day and see the place we had called home for 3 years with other peoples' stuff, everything eerily in the same place, but strangely different. It's one of those little losses we'll have to accept as we transition this year.

moving day: we waited an hour for a taxi

Another bittersweet moment: we picked up our hedgehogs from the pet hotel. We've missed these guys all summer (6 weeks apart). They're still the same, still ridiculously cute and still so oblivious. One thing we are very grateful for is that a friend of a friend from my parents' church promised to take them in for the year. This was one of our greatest worries (this and the apartment) leading up to our decision to go on this one-year journey, so it's a great relief and an answered prayer to know that these two will be taken care of. We'll miss them a lot!

Uni!

The last few days have been full of encouragement as well. On Wednesday, we were able to have dinner with Ah Wah and hear his life story. He shared about how he ended up on the streets but also how God has taken care of him and caused his trust to grow over the years. We were so challenged and inspired this by this guy; here was a man who had lost everything in life, yet had the perspective to know that in growing intimately with the Lord, he had gained everything. Ah Wah told us that because the street cleaners often come by to clear his belongings during the day and fellow street people try to steal his things at night, he hides his most treasured possession - his Bible- during the day and sleeps with it during the night. Tintin was so challenged when he heard this, that he wanted to cry. How sweet the Word must be when it becomes all you have in life.

Add caption

On Friday night, some friends came over for a visit. It was such a good time of catching up, to hear how they were doing as they started off their school years. At the end of the evening they prayed for us to send us off. We are so blessed to have good friends.

On Sunday, it was refreshing to connect back with friends at St. Andrews. Our time here in Hong Kong has been more enriched because of these friendships. We thank God for placing us in a community with believers who are willing to share openly in life together.

So, we have one night left at our parents' place before we fly off to Taiwan on Wednesday. A few more things to attend to, friends and family to catch up with, and hopefully time to quietly prepare our hearts for what's around the corner. God is so good. We feel so full - full of love from family, joy of friendships, and peace to know that God has provided all we need. We appreciate your continued prayers and will update soon.


Love you all.

NOTE: We will be blogging about what God will be teaching us through this experience. Feel free to journey and read along. We will be sending monthly prayer updates through email. Please let us know if you want to be on our mailing list. You can email us at: tintinandmichelle@gmail.com

The Gospel of the Overpass

Somewhere in a corner in Kowloon, there's a flyover that marks the boundary between Sham Shui Po and Tai Kok Tsui. In this dark lane, sandwiched between a park and funeral parlour three of our friends live. Sadly recently, three became two. On Monday, a funeral was held for Ah Sing, the oldest of the trio.

For Michelle and I, Ah Sing's funeral was one of the most inspiring and moving memorials we've ever attended. On a hot and muggy evening, twenty-five odd Christians gathered by the overpass to pay respects to the homeless man who passed. Some knew him only briefly. Others hadn't even met him at all. But all were there to honour the life of a man who had endured life so valiantly.

Not much was known about Ah Sing. For most of us, he was a man who sat in a wheelchair by the park who wore a gracious smile but lived a guarded life. For a few years now his health had been failing, his knee and hip shrivelling until he painfully lost the ability to walk. Having been confined to his wheelchair, he spent most of his time drunk in efforts to numb the pain.

Yet for his troubles and humble life, this was a dignified funeral. It was the gospel come to life. There by the overpass the Spirit was palpable and thick as if Jesus was present in that very place declaring to this broken city that his very heart was there, with the poor and needy. We sang, we cried, we laughed, we listened, and remembered the life lost. We celebrated because any life lived is a valuable one nonetheless. And here in a society that pushes the invisible to its corners, we the church gathered to declare that these lives were seen and their stories would be heard.

The most powerful testimony would come from a 16 year old girl who had befriended the trio. She talked about Ah Sing's hardiness and his stubborn drive to live. Then she paused and, with wisdom far beyond her years, talked about Ah Sing's drinking problem. "I've been thinking about whether I should mention his drinking problem tonight," she started, "but I realize that to not talk about it would not honour who he was. Yes, Ah Sing drank a lot, but he drank because the pain of his separated hip was overwhelming. In the end, I asked myself 'how would Jesus have seen Ah Sing?'" she continued. "Jesus would have accepted Ah Sing for who he was with his strengths and flaws. If we are called to truly love our neighbours, we should as well. Because after all, don't we all have our flaws?"

When the service came to an end, one of Ah Sing's buddies shared that Ah Sing must have been so proud to look down from heaven and see so many people gathered to celebrate his life. I quietly pondered this thought in the afterglow of the funeral. Indeed, THIS is what the Kingdom of God is all about: the injustices of life being levelled and the poor, hungry and meek being exalted. The Kingdom is about the church rising up to be the hands and feet of Christ to truly love and accept those around. For Christ says, "whatever you do to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did for me. (Matt 25:40)" Most of us are content sitting in our comfortable sterile sanctuaries, singing instead of serving, and yet our Lord calls us to go and love the lowly as we would love Him. What good is a church that doesn't even love her own Lord?

The sad thing isn't that homeless people die in our city - for all most die sooner or later- it's that most die without ever being dignified and loved as people whom God created. Even more tragic is that the church, the very Body of Christ in this age, lets that happen. Let us go, love others and do unto them as we would for the Lord.

3 More Weeks of Teaching!

Ahhhh!

This is surreal. I cannot believe that there are only 3 more weeks remaining in our school year. 

This year has been a whirlwind of busyness. Somehow in the midst of everything, God gave us the grace and sanity we needed to get through all the different challenges we faced. And now we are at the bittersweet time of the year when we must say goodbye to our students and see them off. 

Much has happened the last few months. For one, we finally shared with our classes that we were going to leave CAIS to go to Taiwan to serve next year. Our classes took it really well. When Michelle had the students pray for her after she had shared the news, one particular girl prayed, "God, I pray that Mr. and Mrs. Lam would not offend the culture in Taiwan and that they would be a blessing to others." What a powerful prayer from a nine year old! May that prayer be true of our lives - that we would be servants who are sensitive, who walk with others to bless them. That is our greatest desire for the next six months.

To be honest, as our time to leave draws near, the realization hasn't set on us how big of a change this year will be. We are excited, but really hope to find the time to settle down and still our hearts in preparation for this year. But in the meantime, there are still lots of people to say goodbye to, report cards to finish up, and a classroom of rambunctious kids to lead into the summer.  

Do pray for us when you remember. We could very much use your support!

Reflections on a Bike Trip to Taiwan

It's been three weeks since my ride with dad through Taiwan. Since returning to Hong Kong, life has been a whirlwind of busyness: starting school again, attending church events, and re-adjusting to our routine after the holiday. In between all of this, our Under 12 Girl's Basketball team won a pretty epic Bronze medal. It capped off a long four-month season in which we took a team of eight girls who could barely dribble to nearly knock off the eventual champs losing by only one point. So suffice to say, I haven't really had time to settle down and think about Taiwan.

To be honest, part of me has been hesitant to cap off the trip with a reflection because it ended rather anti-climatically. Throughout the trip I kept waiting for some sort of profound epiphany that never materialized. And as dad and I finished our trip in Taipei, both of us were pretty tired out from the ride. Since returning to Hong Kong three rainy Sundays ago I haven't really caught up with him.

Looking back now, I realize that this trip was pretty special in many ways. How often will I be able to spend a full week of uninterrupted time travelling with my dad? And even though we spent less time talking about life than I had hoped for, the trip was meaningful because we shared in the experience together. It'll always be something we can look back on with fondness.

Here are a few lessons I learned looking back:

Put That Phone Away:

Technology: The bane of our existence. It's a gift that is so promising and a curse that robs us from the present moment. As our trip progressed, it because increasingly alarming was just how badly attached I was to technology, in particular my phone. I hadn't noticed this when we first started the trip, and in fact had even poked fun of dad for his constant updates on Facebook and his tendency to take photos at every turn. And yet, soon enough, I found myself constantly checking my phone at every pit stop, posting on Instragram, and updating our progress.

Granted, so many of the places we visited were absolutely stunning and taking a photo was justified, but it became more than that. I remember starkly realizing towards the end of the trip (when dad ironically broke his phone by dropping it) how enslaved we were to our phones. We had been sharing one phone between the two of us and using every moment to blog or update that spent more time typing away on our 4 inch screen than actually talking with each other. It seemed silly that on a father-son trip we would talk more about each other in our updates than actually talk to each other. How strange that on such an eventful trip we would spend more time with our devices.

I think we've entered into an age of paradox where our technology grants us the freedom to be so close to the world yet so distant from the people actually close to us. We use our phones to broadcast our lives to the world and yet when it comes to interacting with those around us, we freeze and hide behind the screens of our phones. And strangely, deep within each one of us lies the need to be known and connected and yet not to be known at all. We sterilize the messy bits of our lives and show only the presentable, the parts that get the most 'likes'. Without our phones we are unmasked beings, paralyzed in the present, afraid of what others may truly think about our true selves.

Since we're on the topic of technology, here's a little digression about an interesting guy we met in Taipei. In the art district at HuaShan 1914 Cultural Park, there were some art exhibitions on display in old warehouses. A photographer was displaying some of his photo projects in one of the rooms. He was a hardcore instant-film enthusiast and avid Polaroid camera collector (and by avid, I mean he has one of six limited edition Polaroid cameras in the world that cost upwards of 10 grand USD and dozens and dozens of others) He shared with us his distaste for camera phones as they have diluted the art of photography and eroded the care needed to craft each photo and capture the essence of the moment. "People just snap away at everything and anyone," he lamented. "There's no meaning to photography anymore." For Jacky meaningful photography lay in capturing a spontaneous moment on film that cannot be altered or changed because it frames into memory a person and his/her significance to you.

Indeed it is curious that we have technology that enables us to capture every moment, but the abundance of this medium itself cheapens the moment. We have album after album of digital prints of places we have been and things we have done - all so we can share with people who might not care and gain one more notch on our social media belt. What Jacky the photographer said was convicting and I found myself fumbling through my motives for always snapping meaningless pictures. Perhaps it's time to think about what it really means to be present in the lives of others in a more meaningful way.


We endure pain for the things we feel are worthwhile: 

I hate dislike cycling (for hate is too strong a word). I dislike riding because it is tedious, mostly painful and generally a slow going to get where you need to be. It came as no surprise that I struggled through many parts of the trip. My butt ached, my knee hurt, and I was bored of the tedium of pedalling mile after mile. Dad on the other hand had no such problems. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy the process. For him it was worthwhile to bike, perhaps for the exercise, perhaps for the adrenaline, or maybe for the thought of accomplishing something great. His motivation for enduring the pain lay in his goal and finish line. All I saw was the pain that lay three steps ahead of me.

This led me to think about how we as humans and spiritual beings are actually quite willing to endure and sacrifice for the things we hold dear. As a teacher, I always lament that our youth don't have the discipline or gumption to sacrifice. But now I see that it's not that we don't sacrifice, but we sacrifice for lesser things. There are plenty of us who are willing to endure the pain of working out to look good, the toil to earn a good paycheck, or the long hours of hitting the books to get good grades. There are even those of us (myself included) who are willing to pour hours of our lives into video games, watching youtube videos, and checking social media. We pour our lives into these things, clouded with myopic vision and blinded to the greater things to which God calls us to sacrifice. We are unwilling to endure for the Kingdom's sake. We forget to look heavenward.

In Hebrews 12, the Scriptures admonish us to lay aside every encumbrance to run with endurance the race that is set before us. We are told to run in the example of the saints who went before us - the great cloud of witnesses who stand beckoning us onward - and we are called to run toward Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. He is our goal and he is our prize. We are told to fix our eyes on Him.

What drives my dad to endure the pain of a 42K marathon or a cross-Taiwan bike ride? He sees the prize at the end. We too then, ought to run our spiritual journey with the end in mind, for surely our prize at the end will be worth every hardship we endure now.


Relationship with my father:

The last thought is something closest to heart and something I'm least able to write about because it's something that I'm still trying to understand.

I don't think I've ever spent this much one-on-one time with dad in my life. Ten days isn't a lot, but when it's just the two of you and all you're doing is riding a bike, it's a lot of time together. On the trip I got to see a glimpse of the real Otto that gets overlooked by all the people that follow him on Facebook. There are so many great traits I admire about dad: his humility, optimism, wisdom and determination. And then there are all the flaws, habits, and pieces of brokenness that surface in the friction of nearness and relationship.

When I look at myself, I see so much of him passed on, I can't help but think just how profoundly powerful my relationship with my father can be. I see the same insecurities, the same tendency to withdraw from conflicts, and the same fear to get close and invest emotions. I see our shared history that entangles us, the same reluctance to hatch up the pass hurts, and the ambiguity of what it means to be father and son. All these things clearly known, but unspoken of because neither one of us dares. These living momentos are passed on and affect every part of my life. Most of all, they shape my relationship with God.

I'm learning more that I need to unlearn a lot of how I relate to God. I often approach Him with a sense of hesitance, unsure if He is emotionally vested and present. But I'm learning that God loves perfectly and completely and I can pursue an intimacy with Him like no other. I can't say I understand what that looks like, but I'm learning.

Don't get me wrong - my earthly father is pretty awesome. I love him and wouldn't trade him for any other. I'm learning, as I work through the convoluted mess that is life and relationships, that he isn't perfect. And that's okay. I have a Father in Heaven who is.

Day 8: Green Island

Today we were lucky enough to catch a boat ride into Green Island, one of the four outlying islands from Taiwan's mainland. It has majestic scenery, but also some dark memories as it served as an island concentration camp during the Taiwanese government's White Terror in the 1940's to the 1970's. The government hauled off anyone they deemed as communist sympathizers to be exiled here on this island. Some were executed here, while many others died from their stay. Because so many of the prisoners were educated, their interactions with the villagers actually blessed the community. They helped tutor the kids, build, and farm. Though theold camps from the White Terror don't exists anymore, the island and its people were forever shaped by the presence of the prisons. 

The prison complexes from a hilltop.

 A wall of the names of political prisoners sent to Green Island.

Sad three-footed Bambi. The island is famous for deer. 

Our host took us night-exploring looking for certain bugs and creatures. We saw some stick insects and some deer off in the mountains. 

I think Green Island is one of my highlights this trip. It's its own ecosystem apart from Taiwan. In many ways it's like a tropical island unscathed by civilization yet there are semblances of a history here that many would like to forget but can't. It is worth the visit of you are ever in the Taitung area.