"Christian Elepants"

這是個「神奇」的故事，有點叫人難以置信，不過，我相信這故事的真實性。

Story source from Asia Harvest.

In 2008, a severe persecution of Christians broke out in the Indian state of Orissa. The end result saw more than 500 Christians murdered, and thousands of others injured and homeless after their houses were reduced to ashes. (See our Latest News releases about Orissa in this file and in the 2008 archive for more information). As a result, Asia Harvest responded and helped the persecuted believers, including building homes for many families. Recently, a strange and dramatic event took place in Orissa, which has many people talking and wondering.

The Restoration India Mission has reported that in recent months, herds of wild elephants have begun to storm villages that are home to some of the worst persecutors of Christians during the troubles. In one village where in August a year ago the Christians had to run for their lives while their homes were being destroyed by rioters, a herd of elephants emerged from the surrounding jungle, RIM reports, "Exactly one year later, at the same time of the day, the persecutors are now running for their lives, from nothing less than a herd of wild elephants! These elephants first attacked a rock crusher machine owned by a key leader of the persecution movement. They then went on to destroy his house and farms. Gaining momentum, they rampaged through other non-Christian homes demolishing gardens and singling out the homes of persecutors, leaving Christian homes untouched. People ran to the police station to report the disastrous news. In one case, a police jeep that attempted to drive away the herd was attacked and the occupants barely escaped. Truly, God is the avenger of the helpless.

These strange attacks have spread, and according to a report by Kusanath Pradhan, the elephants have already destroyed more than 700 houses in 30 villages, and killed five people. Nobody in this area has seen or even imagined the unique appearance of a herd of wild elephants such as this. The elephants are not ordinary elephants; they appear to be on a mission. Typically, smaller elephants enter a village first, appearing to survey the community. They then rejoin the larger herd, and larger elephants soon follow and get the job done. "Just what is their job?" you might ask.

RIM states, "We think that it might have something to do with avenging the blood of martyrs. In fact, the fear of God has fallen on the local people, who have labeled these elephants, "Christian elephants."

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Romans 12:19 Source: Restoration India Mission.

誰畫的？Who painted it?

有見過這麼美的小鳥嗎？牠的名字叫 Painted Bunting，是誰畫出這麼美豔的衣飾？
馬太福音6:26 「你們看那天上的飛鳥，也不種，也不收，也不積蓄在倉裡，你們的天父尚且養活他。你們不比飛鳥貴重得多麼？」
Have you ever seen a bird that beautiful? Wow! Its name is Painted Bunting. Who painted its stunning coat?
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:26

http://birdsbybaranoff.com

狗媽媽Izzy

這是唯一的小狗女

在美國的奶奶去年七月份收養了一隻拉布拉多獵犬狗女 Izzy，她是導盲狗協會的狗，但是 Izzy 本身不會做導盲狗，郤被定命了做導盲狗媽媽，協會說 Izzy 身體十分健康，有良好基因，所以選中她做媽媽。跟 Izzy 相處了一會之後發現，可能是因為她天性特別活潑好動，又有獨立思想，所以可能不容易受訓練，選她做媽媽比較好。
今年一月底，Izzy 生了第一批小狗，八隻小狗，七男一女，全都健康活潑，十分愛吃。祺祺笑說他們是Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. （雪姑七友）
我十分愛狗，真想抱一隻回家。可是這些小狗都是導盲犬協會的，長大後都會做導盲狗。
Izzy 還要多生幾胎才會完成她的「責任」，之後，我奶奶就會全權擁有她了。
人真是厲害，懂得怎樣利用動物去幫助我們。狗也真奇怪，願意合作。是猫的話，睬你都傻。

Brilliant mind

I am surprised how easily C.S. Lewis communicates with little minds, how brilliant it is to be able to pass over thoughts and emotions through simple words 45 years after he died! What kind of gift is that, to be able to write so many genre of literature and be so good at it! God truly bless some people with a brilliant mind, Lewis sure was one of them.

Kioni just finished reading The Magician's Nephew in the Chronicles of Narnia. She loves every single bit of it and asked to read the rest of the Chronicles. What a big mistake I made to leave my set of Chronicles of Narnia back in the U.S.! Well, I didn't think my 4 year old would be enjoying it that much, to tell the truth. So the best we can do for now is to show her the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Some scenes in the movie are a bit too scary for her, like the scene where Aslan was killed. Kioni doesn't like see the "ugly dudes."

Kioni not only loves the story, she even starts imagining her stuff toy animals coming alive and living in Narnia. She makes her pet sheep toy BaaBaa come alive, and the sheep bite the head of the White Witch off! I at first thought it is not possible that a sheep can bite a person's head off, and it is also too violent. When I was set to correct her, I was reminded that in fantasy land, everything is possible. And wars are always violent, so I let it go.

It ate too much...

I was in the kitchen making dinner, Kioni was in the living room playing with Starfall reading game. She suddenly ran into the kitchen and said with great excitement, "Mommy, there is a BIG FAT tiki on the window." Since we see tikis (flat-tailed geckos) all the time hanging out in the windows, I am not surprised to hear what Kioni was reporting, in fact, I was surprised by her excitement. I said to her, "Kioni, we see tikis all the time, thank you for telling me, go back and play, mommy has to cook."

"Mommy, this one is really BIG and FAT! Come take a look."

Since she insisted, I went into the living room and took a look, just to make her happy. I was a bit shocked at what I saw, it was a BIG FAT one alright, it is not just one of those flat-tailed gecko (about 5 inches/14 cm long) that we see all the time, it was quite unlike the one that drank coffee from my coffee pot. This one is indeed huge, about 11-15 inches/30-40cm long! With claw pads as big as a US quarter. I opened the window to try to see its markings, but it jumped to another window. I grabbed my camera and ran outside, and found it still hanging onto the window, seemingly uncertain what I was going to do to it. I quickly snap the photo below. It is a beautiful spotted gecko. Upon researching on the internet, I found out it is called a Tokay gecko, native to Southeast Asia.

Kioni is amazed by its size and said, "Mommy, that gecko is so huge because it ate too much. It must have just eaten a big mosquito."

Guess what's in my coffee pot?

Cebu has a high population of bugs, insects and little animals that eat these things. We like geckos because they take care of the mosquitoes, there are also a family of toads living outside in our yard, and because of these animals' presence, the helpers of our neighbours' reported seeing two black snakes about a month ago climbing up our tall palm bush, they obviously come because of the favourable habitat. There is quite a food chain going on. Who is at the bottom of the food chain? It would be Kioni and I, since we are the ones who got bitten by mosquitoes.

Anyway, we enjoy watching house geckos (tiki in Cebuano) catching moths and mosquitoes right on the window screens where we eat dinner every night. Kioni is particularly thrilled to see what she called "Animal Planet" right in our living room every night. We will also see them run away from various surfaces as soon as we turn on the lights in the kitchen. In the past week, a baby gecko came to live in our living room, it is no more than 1.5 inches long from head to tail. It is fun to see it grow.

This morning, however, the most unexpected happened. What I lifted the coffee pot up, I felt some movements inside. Yep! A gecko was swimming in the 1/4 inch coffee that was left overnight. I almost threw the pot on the floor, but I was calm enough to set in down on the countertop. The gecko obviously loves coffee and seemed unwilling to leave the pot, though its whole body turned brown already. I eventually took the coffee pot outside to the yard and dump everything out, coffee and all.

Needless to say, for a city girl like me, that was quite an encounter. I hope I will never see those two black snakes.

We are back! With ants in my computer

It took us 19 days to get the internet service connected in the Mission Home! But it is done, we are connected! We surely survived without the internet, but we have very concerned family members ready to call our mission organization to see if we are OK, despite the fact that I have already warn of a long absence. I guess it is just a bit unusual, as far as our U.S. and Hong Kong families aree concerned, to take 19 days to receive internet service.

I am grateful that I am reading the news again, I am grateful to be able to reply email and do research on the internet again. However, I have a new problem, after we moved to this house, my computer start to have tiny ants crawling out from the ventilation slots. MacBook is known to have a heat problem, this must be what is forcing them to come out. I am eager to go back to Hong Kong and have the Apple people take it apart, they might actually find an ant community in there.

I love living in this "new" house, it is spaceous, even with 15 people in the house, we still have lots of space for kids to run around, what a great house for ministry.


The great room


Another view of the great room


The kitchen


Kioni's bedroom - she is sleeping in the tent, which she loves, and it also prevent mosquito bites.


The Spare Oom (see Narnia) - Kioni's homeschool and playroom