Did we beat you in the U.S.?

Did we beat anyone in the U.S. of having snow this early? Yes, we have snow on the ground this morning when we woke up, first time in the past two years to see snow, reminds me of Chicagoland in early spring.
It has been cold in the past few days, but what a surprise to see snow this morning when we woke up. I thought I heard someone outside this morning brushing off snow from their car windshield.
Also see Kioni's blog for her reactions towards the snow this morning.

No Presents!

Ellie (6) is Kioni's little friend from across the street. A few days ago, the subject of Santa Claus came up when Kioni was playing in their house. Kioni, as any truthful Christian kid would, told Ellie that Santa Claus is not real, he didn't bring presents, it's actually her mom and dad who give her the presents.

Today Ellie is over playing in our house, she walk over to where I am sitting, look at me with the most serious face I have ever seen on her, and with a solemn voice, she said, "You know, Santa is not going to give you presents if you don't believe in him, NO PRESENTS!" "He CAN fit through the chimney, and you never see him because he is invisible."

I feel bad about what I am compelled to tell her, so I told her I will look Santa Claus up on the internet and read her some of the things they said about Santa Claus. I read her a few lines, and she said, "So you mean my mum and dad wants me to be surprised, so they said the presents are from Santa?"

For all those who don't agree with telling kids that Santa does not give us presents on Christmas Eve, maybe when you believe that Santa is real, than you can start telling kids that Santa is real, or else, plainly put it, you are just lying. I am rarely that blunt, but making kids believe, year after year, about something that you don't even believe yourself, upsets me. You know what's next? When you try to tell your kid a truth next time, guess what? Cry Wolf, the more white lies you tell, the less truth your kid would believe.

Don't worry, you're not going to hell.

Associated Press
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

LONDON — London buses have God on their side — but not for long, if atheists have their way.

The sides of some of London's red buses will soon carry ads asserting there is "probably no God," as nonbelievers fight what they say is the preferential treatment given to religion in British society.

Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity Web site. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000.

The money will be used to place posters on 30 buses carrying the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The plan was to run the ads for four weeks starting in January, but so much money has been raised that the project may be expanded.

"A lot of people say trying to organize atheists is like herding cats. The last couple of days shows that is not true," said comedy writer Ariane Sherine, who started the campaign.

While most London buses carry posters for shops or Hollywood movies, Christian churches and Muslim groups have bought bus-side ad space in the past.

Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell.

"I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying 'Don't worry, you're not going to hell,'" said Sherine, 28. "Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it."

The British Humanist Association, which is administering the fundraising drive, said it had been so successful the campaign might spread to other cities including Manchester and Edinburgh.

Most Britons identify themselves as Christians, but few attend church regularly, and public figures rarely talk about their beliefs. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was rare among politicians in speaking openly about his Christian faith.

Dawkins, author of the best-selling atheist manifesto "The God Delusion," said that religion nonetheless held a privileged position in society.

"Religious organizations have an automatic tax-free charitable status," he said. "Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically. Religious leaders get preferential treatment on all sorts of commissions.

"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion."

Dawkins said that as an atheist he "wasn't wild" about the ad's assertion that there was "probably" no God.

Sherine said the word was included to ensure the posters didn't breach transit advertising regulations, which stipulate ads should not offend religious people.

Few believers appeared offended by the campaign, although most doubted it would work.

"I think people will ask themselves, 'On what basis can they make that statement?" said Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "So it will get people thinking, so in that sense it can only be good."

Ad agency CBS Outdoor, which manages advertising on many London buses, said it had approved the atheist campaign.

Sales and marketing director Tim Bleakley said "our decision to take an ad that promotes God, or one that promotes no God, is based on commercial terms, as long as the advertising copy itself does not breach U.K. advertising standards."

The Rev. Jenny Ellis, spirituality and discipleship officer for the Methodist Church, welcomed the ads.

"This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life," she said.

The religious think tank Theos said it had donated $82 to the campaign, on the grounds that the ads were so bad they would probably attract people to religion.

"It tells people to 'stop worrying,' which is hardly going to be a great comfort for those who are concerned about losing jobs or homes in the recession," said Theos director Paul Woolley.

"Stunts like this demonstrate how militant atheists are often great adverts for Christianity."

Photo story

Kioni and Dan working in the backyard of our rented house, try to lay some grass.

The thing in the middle is for drying clothes. There is a dryer in the house, but electricity is expensive, therefore, a lot of people dry clothes outside. One downside though, there are always little bugs stick to the clothes, therefore, always shake them before gathering them inside.

Looking out from our second floor window to the back. You can see our neighbour's yards. In the far background is rolling hills. The sun was just rising.

Looking from our house across the street, our house is very similar to these houses. There are two big bags of rocks in our front yards. Our landlords wanted to lay those in the backyard, but Dan wanted grass. He will still use these up in some ways in the backyard. By the way, each family owns half of the building, not the whole thing.

An old building around Kings College, University of Aberdeen

Kings College, University of Aberdeen

The North Sea in the background

A pasture next to the North Sea

A lighthouse at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Life is like a roll of toilet paper.

The closer you get to the end the faster it goes.

Mansize Kleenex

It is always fun to strode along the isles of supermarkets in a foreign country, because you can always find something you have never seen in your life.

I didn't expect to see too many interesting thing in Scottish supermarket, but when we went to the paper isle to pick up some toilet paper, I saw this at the shelf:

Kleenex Ultra Soft mansize 1PK
for 1.95 pound (which is about 3.44 US)

Mansize Kleenex? You think in Scotland men have bigger faces that requires larger contact surface? How interesting.

A whole bunch of things you have to read

You might think something has gone very wrong with me, I have simply disappeared into thin air. Someone who will write and write suddenly stopped.

Well, it is all a combination of various factors that have me stopped for such a long time. We have lived in 4 countries in the past 5 months, that is sort of disruptive, don't you think?

Anyway, I am back. This time, I am in Aberdeen, Scotland, borrowing our neighbour's wireless internet signal (with his consent) writing this entry.

We have visited families, friends and churches, many of them, in the past 6 months, it feels great to see them again, however, it is a bit sad that we know we won't be back to see them in a few years, at least.

We have arrived in Aberdeen for two weeks now, though we have quite a bit of challenges, like because of hurricane Ike in Texas, we missed ALL our flights coming to Aberdeen, slept on the floor of New York JFK airport (well, basically, only Kioni slept), ran through London Heathrow airport with 6 bags of luggages, three hand-carry bags, a car seat, three blankets, a stroller with a 4-year old in it so that we could catch the last plane to Aberdeen, then cramped all our bags and ourselves in the tiny B&B room before throwing ourselves in the beds. Oh, we took showers in the little cubicle that fits Kioni perfectly.

Kioni sleeping on the floor in the arrival level of New York JFK, we got kicked out of the departure level by an extremely stern security guard.

Kioni relaxing in our tiny B&B room

We viewed a number of houses in the first few days, trying to decide which house to rent. At the end, we rented none of those houses. A couple who wanted to sell this house, decided that they wanted to rent it to a divinity student, and at the right moment, we walked through the door.

After we looked at the house, we asked them about the rent, she said, the leasing agency said it should be around 750 pounds to 800 pounds (x2 for U.S. dollars). But then she said, 'I though it should be more like 700.' Dan and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows, never have I heard anything like that, lowering the rent without asking?

Anyway, we moved into this house, which is a bit tight in the U.S. monster house standard, but in fact is enough for the three of us.

We don't have a land line yet, it will have to be a week or so from now before we will have it, which means the internet is not available either.

We found out very quickly you pay twice the amount for similar items in the U.S., we were trying to save on lunch one day and went to McDonald's, BIG MISTAKE! Didn't go back a second time.

But what I really want to say, is how our faithful and loving God takes care of us all along, here are some examples, well, a lot of them, and a lot of them didn't get recorded yet, I am too sleepy right now to write them all:

1) When we knew we couldn't fly out of Detroit on our departure day September 14, a 24 year old Northwest staff spent an hour with us trying to call various airlines and ticket issuing companies to try to work out our tickets. Remember, all flights were affected, she had a long line of customers waiting for her help, but for some odd reasons, she decided that she would go above and beyond to help us. I have never experienced this before, usually, they will just tell you, "Your plane is delayed due to weather condition, come back tomorrow, sorry about that, and by the way, we don't provide a hotel room."

2) When we arrived in London Heathrow, the customs officer is obviously of Hong Kong origin, he is very concerned if we can make our flight to Aberdeen, and he said, 'You will have to run for it.' And we did.

3) When we arrived at the London to Aberdeen terminal, both Dan and I were huffing and puffing, , I sensed that people here move much slower, maybe the Scottish culture is more relaxed, and I thought to myself, not a good sign, maybe they just work too slow and we will miss the last flight to Aberdeen and we will, again, have to spend the night at an airport. When we got up to the counter, again, a Chinese looking staff helped us to reissue our tickets, and he charged us only the reissue fee, though we actually had to buy all three tickets all over.

4) We rented this house, but couldn't get in until the owner moved out, we were able to book another hotel for two nights, but after that, all the hotels and B&B were all full because of students coming to start school. James and Allison Merrick, fellow American student and his wife, opened up their house and allow us to stay with them for two nights, and cooked up some good food, plus quite a number of tips for living in Aberdeen, including where the Chinese grocery store is located and where the Charity (thrift) stores are.
Talking about Chinese grocery store, 'it just happens' that Allison has a Chinese co-worker, who tries to teach her how to make Chinese food all day long, and of course, Allison knows where the Chinese grocery store is, she even call her co-worker up to confirm the location, 'it just happens'. So I was able to get the most important condiment - soy sauce, several big bottles of them when we moved into the house.

5) After serious calculation, we decided that buying a car will benefit us more than not, especially on the ministry side. We need a car to drive students around, bring them to grocery stores and such. We were told by James Merrick of this Christian car dealer guy. We went to see him today. We had to take two different buses in order to get there, and all we had for the address was "the motor company in Newmachar'. We needed to use the internet this morning, so we could sort out our finance before we get to the car dealership. But we don't have internet access at home. Dan caught our next door neighbour getting ready to leave the house for the day, he agreed to let us use his wireless signal! He gave us his password and we are online! We were able to sort thing out before leaving the house!

6) We had to take two buses to get to the car dealership. We went on the first bus, get to the exchange stop, got off, then successfully got on the next bus. But we were a bit not sure after we got off, how we can get there. Dan said he would call the guy when we get off the bus. While we were sitting on the bus, an old gentleman must have saw our 'we are clueless' expression. He asked us where we were going and told us he was getting off at the same stop. So we followed him off the bus. Where we got off was like a little quaint town, there was no business in sight! He walked half way with us, and then pointed up a road and told us the car dealership was just up there, which we couldn't see from where we stood at all. We walked for another 3 minutes, and we found it, without making a phone call!

7) The fact is, we would not be able to make a phone call, because at the moment we arrived at the car dealership, Dan realized that he has forgotton to take his planner off the bus! And all the car dealership's phone number and a whole lot of stuff is inside. He was so focused on finding the car dealership that he forgot his planner. The lady in the car dealership's office, (turns out to be the owner's wife), was very kind, she immediately made phone calls to the Lost Property departement of the bus company and left Dan's name and contact number with them. I thought to myself, she could have cared less, the most anyone would do was to give you the phone to make the phone calls yourself, but she made all the phone calls for us.

8) We test drove the car, an 8-year old Ford Focus, silver in colour, very pretty and solid looking. The price is 2950 pounds. When we came back to the lot, a tall smiling guy welcomed us, Brian, the owner shook our hands. He didn't talk about the car for the first twenty minutes of the conversation, rather, he told us how God found him before he found God. How God has blessed him all along, even he became a Christian 5 years ago, how God, within a few weeks, saved his whole family, his wife and his two grown sons. Then we started to talk about which church he goes to, it just happens to be the church that has been mentioned to us at least 10 times, even from when we back in the U.S.. "By the way, the pastor is coming for lunch with us, he will be here in 20 minutes."

Then we get into the office to talk about the buying of the car, he pulled the paperwork for the car out and said, "I will sell it to you for 2500 pounds, you will need to pay about a hundred or so more pounds for the various paperwork with the government, I hope lowering the price will help you will that. I am here to help anyway I can. I see myself as God's transport manager."

"What?" "This is the second time this happens to us, lowering prices before we ask for it. Do they do that a lot in Scotland?"

I don't think so, and I know who did it for us.

9) The pastor walked through the door of the office, "Daniel Bush", he said, "Mike told me about you." Mike is the ReachGlobal (our mission agency) Europe director, 'it happens' that Mike and the pastor are classmates in the same PhD program!

10) Since we cannot drive the car back home with us today without the proper paperwork, we had to go home by bus again, which will take us another hour. But Brian said, "My driver will drive you home, it takes about 12 minutes." "By the way, do you need someone to pick you up for church on Sunday? We will come pick you up and take you to church. How about we should up around 9:00 at your house?" God knows how depressed we were last Sunday when we couldn't go to church because we didn't know which church to go to, and when we decided on a church, we couldn't get there because we don't know the bus routes, and we couldn't find out because we don't have internet access.

Brian also asked, "What do you need? Do you have furniture? We have a pine table and chair set sitting in our shed, do you need it?" I almost pinch myself for that, we just spent 99 pounds buying a set from the store! His wife offered pots and pans, and other household items. Either they are not kidding about the Scottish hospitality, or God is fast at work here.

11) The pastor said, "We have lots of Chinese students in our church." Dan and I looked at each other, and in my heart, I am already at the church, I want so much to meet these Chinese students. How I pray that this church will partner with us doing this tremendous ministry. Oh, by the way, the pastor's degree is in Missions.

12) Some of you might know, Kioni loves horses. Can you believe this: A hotel down the road from our house owns a horse. There is a path leading to where this horse lives just behind our house. It is a grand total of a 2 minute walk if Kioni wants to visit the horse walking down that quiet path, which also leads to a huge playground, complete with swings, slides, see-saws, and a zip line. The horse, Milly, is very tamed and loves to eat from people's hands. She always comes over when she sees us walking down the path, hoping for some carrots or whole wheat bread.

I don't know what you call all these, 'it just happens..."? I would rather say we are well taken care of by the Almight One, our most loving God.