Scott Gray

I went to Scooter Scoop today and read a number of postings in that blog, I do that once every few months, just to make sure I catch the newest posting. This blog is about the Grays: Scott, Michele, their daughter Josephine, and their son True. The blog has not have new posting since December 8, 2005, six months after Scott's death, he died of brain cancer, he had just graduated with a Master of Divinity at TEDS. Scott was a father of 2 year old Josephine, and their son, True, who was still in his mommy Michele's tummy when Scott went to heaven.

I still go read the post, because I want to celebrate his life. He is one of the few people I have met whom have truly shown the joy of being a Christian.

I was the Field Education Coordinator at TEDS. While grading papers, I realized that Scott Gray has not turned in his paper, and it has been one week after the deadline. I wrote him an email, gave him a call, no reply to either. A week had past, a student walked into my office with a great big smile and a piece of paper in his hand, it was Scott Gray. He said, 'I am so sorry that my paper is so late, I just became a father, but that is no excuse for being late. I am willing to take any penalty, even if I have to do the Field Ed course again, I will do so.'

I deducted points from him, but he passed. However, what I cannot forget was Scott beaming with joy, showing me the photos of his beautiful wife and their new born daughter, Josephine. I was pregnant with Kioni at that time, he shared with me a few books on parenting.

A while later, he came into my office again, just to see if I am doing OK with my pregnancy.

A few months later, I saw him in the hallway outside of my office. He was wearing a baseball cap that was a bit too big for his head. I jokingly said, "that's a cool hat". He said, "It is cool, but I would much rather not wear it. I have cancer, I just had an operation two weeks ago." He took off his hat and showed me his hairless head. He was undergoing chemotherapy and had lost his hair.

That was the last time I saw him. On June 12, 2005, he died.

He is one of those special people that I will not forget, not because he died young, not because he left behind a beautiful wife and a young daughter, not because he didn't get to meet his son before he was born. But because he is a true Christian. He had true joy in his heart, that I know comes from his radical obedience to God. Even when his life was fading away, he never once doubted God.

Scott Gray, if I were to die a death that would make me suffer the way you did, you will be my hero, you will be someone that I will remember and look up to.

Ta-ta for now, will see you in heaven, Scott.

Sharing the gospel in Kumon

Every Monday morning I took Kioni to the Kumon center for her Kumon class. We have been going there for three months. The receptionist lady Josephine is always welcoming and kind. I always wanted to talk to her more, but the center is always busy, it is hard to talk at a more personal level.

Today, since the center is not busy, I started a conversation with her. I asked about her family, one thing led to another, we were talking about her being a Catholic. She said she actually went to a Christian church for over a year when she was in college, but her parents scolded her, telling her she is born as Catholic and should stay that way.

She was very open to me, it is obvious that God has put this young lady in my path. We talked about the differences between the Catholic church and the Christian church. She was attentive and was interested.

Josephine said she loved the Christian church she attended, and has tried other churches since she came to Cebu to work, but 'it is easier to go to the Catholic church, less pressure.' 'I have little faith to stand up to my parents.'

I am trying to find a church for her here in Cebu, she said she will go. She said she is old enough and not be afraid of upsetting her parents.

We talked for over an hour, surprisingly, only one person came in who needed her attention, even the phone was quiet.

Smelly fingers and stainless steel

Wonderful news for home chefs who loves to use garlic but hate to have fingers that smell like garlic after you smesh 10 cloves of the super strong smelling bulbs, or for those who loves to clean their own fish.

Rub your hands with stainless steel. No kidding. I have been doing this for over a year now. There are cataglogs where they sell blocks of stainless steel for this purpose.

After you smesh garlic, clean fish, or anything that is smelly, just rub your hands on any stainless steel you can find in the kitchen. I have tried rubbing my hands on the sink, the handle of a knife, a spoon, faucets, etc. Anything that is stainless steel will work. Just make sure you rub all sides of your fingers and hands that are smelly.

Now if the only stainless steel thing you own is a knife, I will not recommend you rubbing your hand on the blade. it is much better to have smelly fingers than bleeding ones.

Making culture

Dan and I have quite a few conversations about "making culture" these days. By that, I don't mean changing a certain culture of a country or an ethnic group, it has nothing to do with that fact that we are living in a different culture right now.

A professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) once told us in person that he was invited to preach and teach in South Korea. In one of his sermons, he told the hundreds of Korean church leaders to "stop acting like Koreans, start acting like Christians." Surprisingly, his 'suggestion' was well received by the Korean church leaders. The professor saw that many cultures, especially the Asia culture, has a lot of negative effects on God's church.

A very common phenomenon is that certain person or certain group of people is 'in charge of the church', no matter they have a title at church or not. If you have been in the church for a long time and are influential, you will stay that way until you die. You don't need an official position to be influential, you just are. The 'I am the parent, you are my son, therefore, whatever I say, you listen' type of mentality is quite common. That's the culture in a lot of the Chinese or Asia churches.

It is important to instill in the congregation a cultural of being Christians, instead of a Christian of a certain ethnic group. That said, I didn't mean that ethnic churches should not exist. However, if an ethnic church governs the church using their own ethnic "rules and regulations" than what are taught in the Bible, the church will be more likely to be sickly than not.

In the past weeks, we experienced some sad incidents at the church we are attending. We now see how being more Chinese than Christian has affected negatively on the health of the church.

We don't know how the situation in the church in Cebu will fan out, we just pray that whatever happens, God will be glorified, not shamed. I also hope that as time goes on with the leadership of the church involve in leadership training and bible study, a Christian culture will replace the more dominant Chinese culture in the church.

We're back

Got an email from Grace, asking if we are OK, my blogs have not been updated for a while.
Yes, we are OK. Several factors, really, for not updating the blogs:
1) sickly internet connections, when I need to use it, it doesn't work, when it works, Kioni needs my attention. Often when I would get on and start blogging, by the time I finished writing and hit the 'publish' button, the internet connection would be dead, oh well, c'est la vie.
2) Christmas and all that, i.e., we just came back from a conference two days ago.
3) not feeling that great physically for the past few weeks.

I am going to catch up with some blogging in the next few days, so look backwards and read some of the events over Christmas and beyond.

It is good to be back home, however, the ReachGlobal (former EFCA-IM) Asia conference spoiled me. Buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner means I didn't need to bother with grocery shopping and cooking, there were more food that we ever would need. What a wonderful treat for moms! I was a bit depressed when I got home when I think about groceries and cooking again.

Another depressing thing was that it took us over 12 hours and three connections to fly from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Cebu, Philippines. When we arrive at the Cebu airport, we couldn't get a taxi to take us home because we insisted that they used the meters. No taxi driver would use the meter at the airport at the arrival area. We eventually had to walk up a flight of stairs with Kioni and all our bags in the rain to the departure area, flaged down a taxi and told the driver if he used the meter, we will give him a big tip. Thank God for sending this driver, we got home and the driver got a good tip.

One good thing is that the weather in Cebu is cloudy and rainy. Oh... How I love rainy weather! I have always loved the rain, it doesn't matter to me if I didn't see the sun for two weeks. Cloud and rain look especially nice in a hot place like Cebu. While I am rejoicing the cooler weather (about 80F), yesterday when Kioni and I took a taxi, the taxi driver was wearing a wool sweater! It must be 'winter' for Cebuanos.

Here are some photos from the ReachGlobal Asia conference. The brownish looking things are deep fried bugs: grasshoppers, silk worms and such. No, they didn't serve these in the buffet, they were sold in the night market.