Freecycle to the rescue

Freecycle saves my day again. Since I am very afraid that my clumsy hands will soon break the second French Press that I am using, and therefore means no coffee in the morning, I put a wanted ad on Freecycle. Two people responded, one with a small French Press, another with a small coffee machine.
We went to pick them up today, both are personal sizes, which is great for me, since Dan doesn't use any contraptions to make his drinks, he uses freeze dry crystal stuff or just scope the chocolate powder into hot water.
I am very thankful for this blessing, they put me in such a good mood that I even comply to Kioni's request to bake a cake, with chocolate frosting and sparkly sprinkles.

Lamenting

I am lamenting over my beloved French Press. While I was just writing about it last month, one of my two French Presses broke yesterday. It was sitting on a plastic bag after a morning breakfast rush, while I was cleaning up, I lifted the plastic bag, and glass part of the French Press fell into the stainless steel sink, it just went into pieces, so was my heart.

Now I have one left, if this one breaks, I will have no recourse in making a nice cup of coffee. I will still go through life, but a bit tougher without coffee.

First Christmas in Aberdeen. While we don't have much money to buy gifts, the good Lord has provided everything we need. We were able to find Kioni gifts from Freecycle, plus the multiple gifts from the U.S., we have a wonderful gift-opening time. And of course, we have good food too.

While Dan and I didn't exchange gifts, we each got food we like, for me it's ham, for Dan, a big chunk of cranberry cheese from Costco, and for Kioni, she really wanted smoked salmon. So we had a feast!

God is good, and the best of all, we get to remember while we receive so many blessings, the biggest blessing of all is Jesus, who came to bless us till eternity.

Why we actually come to Aberdeen...

Well, with a disappointed heart, let me tell you the true reason why we come to Aberdeen - a hope of inheritance! OK, you know this is just a joke.
Well, not totally pulling this out of my head. Dan's father, who is deceased, told Dan that Dan's great-grandfather (on Dan's father's mother's side) was an immigrant from Northern Ireland. Before he went to Northern Ireland, though, he was from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His last name was Simpson. When Dan did some research, he found out that in Aberdeenshire, only one clan in which the name Simpson is related to, that is the Fraser clan of Aberdeenshire.
Interestingly, Castel Fraser in Aberdeenshire is only about 10 miles from where we live, we went there last Saturday to see the 'family root'. It is a huge piece of property, hen we were talking about Dan's family heritage with the lady in the gift shop, she pulled out a book that is written by one of the 20th lady of the Fraser clan. In the book, sure enough, they found the last name Simpson. But new information was added to the already known fact - the Simpson side of the family actually stems from an illegitimate relationship. Oh, well, that's it, no hope for inheritance.

Go Freecycle!

Since we don't have anything nice for inviting friends home for a cup of tea, I decided that it would be a good idea to pay attention to Freecycle and see if anyone offers tea sets. Well, a lady did that one night, I wrote back and she immediately replied, she told me we actually have met in a Christian conference that we attended when we first arrived here! She is also a homeschool mom and we exchanged names and contact numbers. She remembers my name and since I am the first one to respond, she gave the set to me.

She told me the set was given to them for their wedding, but they never got around using it. They were still in their original wrapping material when we received it. We also joined the family for an afternoon of tea and scones, and some very nice chats.

Out of curiosity, I googled the name of the pattern (Gloria L553) and the company (Noritake), and guess what I found. The company was started by two Japanese brothers in New York over a hundred years ago, and the pattern was discontinued.

But when I look up those china replacement websites, I found out the set that we received actually costs a little fortune, well, as far as our current standard is concerned:

Sugar Bowl with Lid $34.99 (x2)
Creamer $29.99 (x2)
Plate $17.99 (x2)
Bread and Butter plate $8.99 (x12)
Cup and Saucer set $23.99 (x12)

Well, that comes to about $560 USD!!! (That's $4,340 HKD)

I told Kioni all she can do is touch them a bit, but definitely not drink with them until she can show me she doesn't drop things on the floor anymore. Well, maybe under tight supervision, I can give her a drink of Ribena from the nice cups. This is the nicest thing we have owned so far, other than our Mac computers. We better not break anything, or else, don't know if we could afford to replace them.

Thanks Fiona, for your generosity.

Roundabouts

There are a zillion roundabouts everywhere you go in Aberdeen, unless you are going down your street to two houses down, then you won't be dealing with roundabouts. While others find it fun to go around roundabouts, I find it extremely challenging, even though I am not the one driving.

Roundabouts are not for those whose ear water easily get imbalanced. Every time we go around them, I feel like someone is squeezing my stomach, pretty soon, something is up my throat ready to come out. Due to genetic makeup, Kioni has my problem with going around roundabouts. One time, she actually threw up in the car.

Yet, you cannot do without roundabouts living in Scotland, or in the UK for that matter. Cest' la vie.

5 precious souls

God gave us five precious souls tonight, not a crowd, but five.

It was pouring rain when we loaded our car with the guitar, song sheets, a big bag of books for Kioni to read, 5 heads of cabbages, carrots, oil, salt, meatballs, sauce, tea eggs, a big bag of rice, rice cooker, steamer, steamed buns, 2 heads of garlic....

When we were on the road with the blinding rain and gusting wind, I grumbled, "Nobody will come tonight in this rain and wind."

Dan was silent, then he said, "We'll see."

I went into the kitchen right away and started cooking. With the help of our five volunteers, we started to get everything ready. I was in the kitchen frying up vegetables when I heard Dan said, "Ni Hao!" I knew, our first guest or guests had arrived! "Good, at least one person came," I thought. I didn't go say hi fearing I might burn the cabbage if I leave the stove. Suddenly, a head poked inside the kitchen, a big smiley face said, "Ni Hao!" to me, that's a Chinese face I have never seen before.

"I just arrived a week ago from China."

When I finally went out to the gathering room, there they are, the five of them, 2 girls and 3 men.

The girl who just arrived from China picked up one of the steamed buns and said, "Where did you buy these?" "I made them." I said, a bit worried that they didn't taste like they should. "You made them?! I miss eating these so much, I didn't expect to have these here. Thank you." Tears filled her eyes a bit. "It feels so good to eat these."

Everything went as planned, except the eating part took a little longer. They sang for the first time "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night", and in Chinese, too.

After Dan's talk about True Freedom, there were good discussions.

Out of the five people, one is a researcher, he is a professor of Petroleum Geology in China. He is leaving in a month going back to Beijing. He gave us his Beijing mobile phone number and urged us to contact him if we were in Beijing.

Three of the other four indicated that they would like to meet individually to discuss the Christian faith. The girl who just arrived and loved the buns wanted an English partner.

We are extremely delighted with the responses and we are sure that we will host another Gathering in a month or so. I just need to have the catering part run a little smoother. Need some more planning.

We have a great night. Kioni was a bit unhappy that I was in the kitchen too long. When I put her to bed two hours past her bed time. I thank her for being part of the "team", she held my hand and said, "You are welcome, I just had to sleep later, that's all." She has been a trooper all night.

Steamed buns, etc...

We are getting ready for the first Oil Lamp Gathering. We are excited, though we don't know exactly how many will come. Patrick sent us the newly designed Oil Lamp logo last night and we will use it for the first time for in our power point. (The website has not been updated at this point.) Dan and I have been thinking about the menu, (yes, we are making our own food), we bought 5 heads of cabbages, 4 large packages of meatballs, cooked up a large pot of sauce, and I made steamed buns! How about that! The steamer comes from a Freecycler, I am so thankful to be given such nice steamer and put it to good use. By the way, in the video below, you will see a Christmas tree, decorations and a sofa (with two matching chairs, that you won't see) all come from Freecycle. If you look closely, there is a tube of ornaments leaning against the fireplace, we will give those out tonight as gifts to the Chinese students who come to the Gathering.

We also practice songs this morning. See below Kioni and daddy practicing a song we are going to sing tonight, we are also going to sing Joy to the World and Silent Night. We hope to bring the true meaning of Christmas to the Chinese students. Christmas is not just an old 'western' holiday when people just set up Christmas trees, give gifts and feast. Christmas is about Jesus' arrival on earth, so that we will be free.

20 years

Today is my 20th anniversary of becoming a Christian. How God has sought me over the years is an amazing journey, and I have recorded it in My Journey of Faith in both English and Chinese.

20 years is a long time in human years, but when I consider what I will spend in eternity, it is nothing.
20 years has confirmed one thing, if not more, that is God IS faithful. I have gone through deep dark valleys and experienced jubilant moments, God is always there, to have and to hold, never letting me go, even there are more moments than I want to remember when I complained excessively. I have never experienced that kind of patience, that kind of love.

If God would take me to heaven today, I will only ask for one thing, if I am allowed, before I leave: that is the salvation of my parents. I will leave with no regrets, but as I look at it with my human eyes and heart, it saddens me everytime I thought of my parents being resistant to God's love.

Well, like winning the Oscar, I have to say some thank-yous:

I am not going to name names, because you know who you are. You are my faithful friends, you know who you are. You are always there when I write you an email needing to 'talk', you always care and pray for me, and my family. At times when I was not paying attention, you are remembering me. Thank you.

What a beautiful cloud of people surrounding me when I continue on this pilgrimage. 20 years of faithfulness proven by God and by the angels He has put around me at various periods of time for various reasons.

Thank you, God, for choosing me to be your dear child. If I have another 20 years, I will rejoice.