One year in Cebu

Exactly one year ago, we landed in Cebu. I still remember the heat and humidity that hit us right after we stepped off the plane, the taxi that took us to our first home and the night spent wondering what all the strange noises were.

After one year, the heat and humidity, though still oppressive sometimes, is expected. Taxi rides is still 'thrilling' to say the least, and we have left the first home we first arrived in and moved into the second home. And I can identify all the seemingly strange noises now.

I understand a lot more about missions than a year ago, I will never look at mission the same way, I will never look at missionaries the same way after being one for one year.

Dan and I are still combating cultural fatigue, day to day living still grind on us, especially when we have to go outside into traffic. We found out after a year that the heat is still the largest factor that affects our everyday mood.

Today, at our one year anniversary of arrival to Cebu, the weather turns cool. It is ONLY 77F (25C)! The rain has been coming down for over a week pretty hard, and we are loving it. It doesn't help the traffic, but at least, it helps us to have more patience while sitting in traffic.

Galic cloves

IMGP5079.JPG, originally uploaded by onmei.

In Cebu, things are sold in the smallest amount that one can imagine. You can buy a stick of cigarette, a pouch of shampoo and hair conditioner for one single use, one egg, etc. In this market just around the corner from us, you can see individual cloves of garlic nicely wrapped in plastic pouches for sale.

Remembering 9/11

It is not difficult to remember what you were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001. The following events were burnt into my heart.

In 2001, we were living in Maryland, Dan was an active duty Air Force Officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). I was a campus staff with China Outreach Ministries.

For us, September 11th started on September 10. We received a call from the hospital in Andrew's Air Force Base that my pregnancy result came back, we could go to the hospital to get the result in person. Because of previous miscarriages, Dan would like to go with me to either celebrate if the result was positive, or support me if the result came back negative. However, Dan told me he couldn't go the next morning because there was a meeting scheduled in the Pentagon that he had to attend. I wanted so much for Dan to go with me, so I told him I had a meeting to go to also, I asked if he could go a bit late. He said no, that was a meeting with some important guys "up top".

So I went to the hospital alone. The nurse pointed out my name on a piece of paper and guided my eyes to the column that has the words "test result" on it. "Positive". I couldn't believe my eyes! I asked the nurse, "That means I am pregnant!" She said, "The result came back positive." I wanted to call Dan, but he would be in a meeting in the Pentagon. (We didn't have cell phone at that time.) The nurse suggested that I walked over to the medical record department and get my records, so that I can see the doctor the next day. My heart was jumping with joy, however, my joy was guarded by my previous miscarriages.

I walked over to the Medical Records counter down the hall and handed in my ID card, while they were getting my record, a male nurse walked over to the counter to talk to the female nurse who was helping me. "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." The female nurse at the counter said, "Hit the what?! People who don't know how to fly should just stay on the ground." I thought I heard it wrong, asked the male nurse again, he repeated what he said.

I was perplexed. A plane hit the World Trade Center, it must be a private jet with a new pilot, or could it be that he or she had a heart attack? I knew someone must have died from this, I just hoped the number would not be high. I went on my way to the meeting. I didn't even turn on the news while driving to the meeting, there was no reason too be too concerned about the plane that hit the World Trade Center.

When I arrive at the meeting, everyone's face was quite serious. Harriet asked me, "Have you heard about the plane that hit the Word Trade Center?" I repeated what I thought, a new pilot, maybe a heart attack. Harriet said, "It was a commercial airliner." Evelyn, my supervisor was not in the room. She entered a few minutes later, with an unbelievable news, "A second plane hits the south tower of the World Trade Center."

We were all silent, didn't quite understand what we heard. We decided that we had to pray.

Bill asked if anyone wanted to share anything. I then remembered I just received a positive result on the pregnancy test. But under such circumstance, should I share? Should I tell Dan first? I eventually shared it with my team, they were happy for me, but the circumstance prevented them from what could have been a more uplifting congratulations.

Evelyn asked me if Dan knew, I said no, and related to them why I had to go to the hospital alone. Harriet, who was in and out of the room trying to get some more news of the "accidents", came back in and said, "Another plane just hit the Pentagon!"

My heart stopped. The words she said swirled round and round before my eyes. "Another plane just hit the Pentagon....another plane just hit the Pentagon...." Before I knew what to say, Evelyn asked me if I knew a phone number in which I could call at the Pentagon where I can reach Dan." "No, I don't know whom he is meeting with."

"Go home, Amy." They urged. I grabbed my backpack and walked out of the room.

Wanting to make sure what I heard, I tuned into all the radio stations I could find when driving home. All of them confirmed the fact that a commercial airplane crashed into the Pentagon. Thinking about the worse, I was holding back tears. What should I tell the child that I was carrying? Should I say your father was killed on the day I found out that he/she existed?

I didn't remember how I got home. When I was driving down the road to our house in a off-base military housing area, I found it strangely quiet. No one was walking their dogs, no kids were playing outside, nobody was strolling on the bike path, it was eerily quiet.

I pulled my car in the parking spot in front of the house. Dan walked out from the back of the house, wearing his uniform still, but he was not wearing his hat (which is against the rule not to wear your hat on the outside while wearing your uniform), something were missing on his uniform also, but I didn't have the mind to figure out what was wrong with his uniform, I got off the car and gave him a hug.

"How come you are home?" I asked him. "They let us leave DIA." "DIA?! I thought you have a meeting at the Pentagon!" "Yes. But they canceled it. I didn't go to the Pentagon." When we have calmed down a bit, he asked me about the pregnancy result. That was supposed to be a sweet moment, but it was robbed by the unthinkable tragedy that was unfolding in front of our eyes. (This pregnancy also ended in a miscarriage after 12 weeks.)

Not until after we saw the damages that was done at the Pentagon did we realized how close Dan was to this attack. The area that was struck was very near to the DIA center in the Pentagon, seven DIA employees died in the attack. "I could see thick black smoke coming out from the Pentagon from the windows in my office, they evacuated us right away. (DIA is located just across the Potomac river from the Pentagon.) All officers were told to take off their hats and the ranks on our shoulders. They didn't know what was going on, but was sure it was some sort of attack. They didn't know what other forms of terrorism were out there. They didn't want the officers to be targets." Then I realized what was wrong with his uniform when I first saw him, the ranks were missing.


The explosion of the airplane penetrated 4 of the 5 rings of the newly renovated, super reinforced walls of the Pentagon. (Dan told me about the construction of the Pentagon, since he went there for meetings once in a while.)

While we were talking, our next door neighbour came out of the door with her 2 year old son. "Mike is in the Pentagon, I couldn't reach him, all phone lines were dead." It then stuck me like a ton of bricks. All of our neighbours are military personnel, many of them work in various departments of the Pentagon!

We went into our neighbours' house, we were glued to the TV while our neighbour was glued to the phone, that was her only "lifeline", but she simply couldn't get through. We saw the horrific scene of the twin towers collapsed, over and over the TV flashed the image. They almost look like Hollywood production. Then another plane crashed in Shanksville, PA.

For hours, no news from Mike. At 5:00pm, our neighbour came over and said, "Mike called, he is OK, but he can't come home tonight, everything is at a standstill. He will sleep somewhere tonight."

The following week, we received news that 2 of our neighbours didn't come home, they went missing, efforts to locate them failed. Two weeks afterwards, they identified their bodies.

The world is never the same after 9/11. Good and evil are at war. However, there is a debate on who is good and who is evil. Terrorists have a new name - Freedom Fighters. Those who were killed in the attacks are infidels. Over the years, numerous conspiracy theories about the attacks of 9/11, pointing fingers at the U.S. government as the conductor of what had happened on that fateful day. I visited those sites, all I can say is that they are basically at the same level of those who said the Americans never landed on the moon. Six years later, Osama bin Laden called for the western world to abandon capitalism and democracy, to embrace Islam.

I think of the "Freedom Fighters" who believed they were going to heaven when they took on this mission to destroy America. If they only knew where they were going. They knew the truth in the morning of September 11, 2001 when the planes they flew crashed. Standing in front of the God that did not worship, what did they have to say?


Forty slate angels grace the memorial site - each marked with the name of one of the forty heroes of Flight 93. A nearby angel plaque reads:

"Few can begin to understand what drives
men to such acts of desperation.
But the World must now know
the resolve of this great nation is both
unshakable and unstoppable.

This ordinary Americans took
extraordinary steps to help their
fellow Americans and by doing so
gave the greatest sacrifice.

And so these Angels of Freedom stand
not as a memorial to those who died,
But rather as a celebration of their lives
for which we will be forever in their debt.

God Bless the Families and Friends of the
True Heroes of September 11, 2001."

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.

Hong Kong International Rankings

Like I said before in a previous post, I am proud to tell people that I am from Hong Kong. I recently found the following table in Answers.com listing various organizations that did rankings on countries and regions around the world. After looking at the table, I found it to be very accurate portrait of Hong Kong.

Table of Hong Kong International Rankings

Date	Contest	Host Organisation	Ranking	Note
2001–05	World's Best Airports	Skytrax	1/155 countries	Ranked 1st out of 155 countries
2002–04	Ranking of Container Ports of the World	AAPA World Port Rankings	2/10 ports	Ranked 2nd out of 50 largest ports in the world
2002	Ranking of IQ	University of Ulster	1/185 countries	Ranked 1st out of 185 countries
2005	Networked Readiness Index (NRI)	World Economic Forum	11/115 countries	Ranked 11th out of 115 countries
2005	Worldwide quality-of-life index	The Economist	18/111 Countries	Ranked 18th out of 111 countries
2006	6th Annual Global e-Government Study (Brown University)	Global e-Government	20/198 Countries	Ranked 20th out of 198 countries
2006	Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006	Reporters without borders	59/168 Countries	Ranked 59th out of 168 countries
2006	Corruption Perceptions Index	Transparency International	15/163 Countries	Ranked 15th out of 163 countries
2006	World Competitiveness Yearbook 2006	IMD International	2/61 Economies	Ranked 2nd out of 61 economies (countries and regions)
2006	World City's Skyline/Skyscrapers	Emporis Data Committee (EDC)	1/100 Major cities	Ranked #1 out of all the major cities in the World. This listing ranks cities by the visual impact of their skylines.
2006	Global Competitiveness Report - Growth Competitiveness Index Ranking	World Economic Forum	11/125 Countries	Ranked 11th out of 125 countries
2006	World's Best Airports	Skytrax	2/165 countries	Ranked 2nd out of 165 countries
2006	Business Competitiveness Index - BCI	World Economic Forum	10/121 countries	Ranked 10th out of 121 countries
2006	Human Development Index - HDI	United Nations	22/177 countries	Ranked 22nd out of 177 countries
2006	Access Index (p.19)	FedEx: The Power of Access - 2006 Access Index	1/75 Countries	Ranked 1st out of 75 countries
2006	Potential Competitiveness	Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER)	1/50 Countries	Ranked 1st out of 50 countries
2007	Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index	World Economic Forum	6/124 Countries	Ranked 6th out of 124 countries
2007	Index of Economic Freedom	Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal: 2006	1/157 Countries	Ranked 1st out of 157 Countries for 13 years in a row.
2007	World's most expensive city	ECA International:[1]	1/92 Countries	Ranked 1st out of 92 locations.

Scholarships

Though we are 'millionaires' in Cebu, we are going to be poor students again in just over a year when we go to Aberdeen for Dan's PhD studies. Life will be quite different, as you can imagine, living here in Cebu versus living in Aberdeen. Though we look forward to living in cooler weather, the cost of living there is not what we look forward to.

Dan is looking into applying for several scholarships for the PhD program now. It is daunting how much money a PhD program and the living cost in Aberdeen will cost us. Without scholarships, we will be in heavy debt when Dan emerges 3 years later with a Dr. attached to his name.

The bottom line is, we know that God is in control, if PhD is in his plan for us, we will get it done one way or the other.

What happened today

What happened today in history?
1945 - World Word II - Victory over Japan, Japan surrenders.
1947 - India gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes an independent nation within the Commenwealth.

Also Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the French was born today in 1769, so was one of my favourite American cook, Julia Child, she was born in 1912.

I was also born today, 44 years ago. If I lived up to 88 years old, I have already lived half of my life, if not, than over half of my life was lived. So, there is no doubt that I am a "middle-aged" woman, which is a bit strange when I hear that term describing myself.

Looking back, the single most important thing that has happened to me was knowing Jesus Christ as my saviour, my life took a sharp turn "upwards" when it happened in the 26th year of my life.

We celebrated my birthday today in Cebu with a Starbucks' Coffee breakfast, a good homecooked dinner, (prepared by me), and a night-time family prayer. No birthday cake, no candle, but just as memorable.

Cancer's Unexpected Blessings - by Tony Snow

Whether you agree or disagree, like or hate the Bush administration and all those who are working in the administration, thoughts that are written by someone who is facing death is always inspiring. I hope the following article will provoke some thoughts on our mortality.

When you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.

Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23 Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced that the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen—leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30. CT asked Snow what spiritual lessons he has been learning through the ordeal.

Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.

Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.

The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.

I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.

Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere.

To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life—and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many nonbelieving hearts—an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live—fully, richly, exuberantly—no matter how their days may be numbered.

Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension—and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.

'You Have Been Called'

Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. "It's cancer," the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. "Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler." But another voice whispers: "You have been called." Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our "normal time."

There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.

There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.

We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.

Learning How to Live

Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.

I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."

His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.

It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up—to speak of us!

This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense. We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God.

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand.

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

Giving the Mission Home a face-lift

We will be moving into the "Mission Home" within a week or so. There four painters working on the walls and cabinets, two ladies working on the floors, and an electrican came in earlier this week to put up some lights. The house was purchased by our mission organization almost 30 years ago, and it has not had a major face-lift since. Dan has a background in civil engineering, and he also has 10 years of experience with the Air Force in managing similar projects, working on this project is somewhat "right down his alley". However, we found out very quickly that the Filipino way of working is, of course, very different from what we are used to. From buying paint, or I should say, be able to find paint, to the concept of "work" are all quite different.

Dan's student in seminary, a wealthy Chinese businessman Teddy Uy, waived the contractor fees, while finding the best workers for us. We are thankful for Teddy. We still have to pay for all the material costs and the workers, but any penny saved is good.

Since we want to cut down on the cost and make the money go as far as possible, we are not asking the stores to mix the paint in a machine for us, which is common practise in the U.S. to ensure that you get the right colour. Doing so here is extremely expensive. Therefore, we use the Cebuano way, the painter drizzles the needed colours into a gallon of white and eye-balls it to the colour that we want. So far they have done a good job. Though that means every batch of colour is different, so they will have to mix enough to finish the paint job.

We anticipate a pause in our internet accessibility and home phone usage for a short while because of the move, therefore, don't panic if you have not heard from us for a few weeks.


Doors lined up for a second coat of paint


A lady sanding the floor in one of the bedrooms


Saw dust covering the furniture


The study having a major make-over


Sanding dust everywhere


The wooden panels from the study (chic in the 70s) from one of the rooms laying in the front yard.


Our helper, Maris, supervising the painters while Kioni watch, she is fascinated by the roller with the long pole.


The painter mixing the paint colours by drizzling the needed colours into a bucket of white paint, no measuring is needed, quite skillful, eh?

18 years

It's been 18 years, how much have changed in this 18 years. However, the heartaches have not changed.

It's been 18 years since I suddenly realize that I AM a Chinese. It was pounded into my head and my heart by the tanks that rolled into the streets of Beijing, by the students' songs when they were camping out in Tienanmen Square, by the bloody photos that was broadcasted all over TV.

That was an important day, not only because of what had happened in Beijing, but it ushered the politically numb Hong Kong people into realizing politics is not only for a handful of people, but for anyone who is concerned about what kind of society you will live in. Hong Kong was only 7 years away from turning back over to China in 1989.

I have not been able to participate in any of the gatherings since I left Hong Kong in 1996, however, every year on June 4th, my heart was as heavy as I watched the events of that fateful night unfold. I still remember the sense of disbelieve and the tears that streamed down my face. I remember sitting in front of the TV saying, "This is not possible, this is not possible....." over and over, struggling to figure out what exactly was happening in front of my eyes.

For all those who gave their lives that day, I ache for their parents whom were not allowed to remember their sons and daughters at the place where they died. I ache for those who have been in prison for the past 18 years. I ache for the government that seemingly is becoming one of the world's super powers, yet, too weak to stand up in front of the world and admit they made a mistake.

Another year has passed, what will happen next year?

A tire

We dropped our car off at the airport with a mechanic when we left for our month long Hong Kong-Xiamen-Hong Kong trip. Dan's student, Teddy Uy, who owns several used car resale and mechanic shop business offered to fix our car free of charge, we only have to pay for the parts. He sent his top mechanic, Mr. Poppy, to pick the car up at the airport on the day we flew away.

When we came back, Mr. Poppy drove our car back to the airport to pick us up. It was so nice to have our own car with so much luggage. After we loaded our car, we started out driving, planning to drop him off at his work place before we head back home. Mr. Poppy was driving the car.

10 minutes later, a popping sound alerted all of us, Mr. Poppy went out of the car to check the tire and discovered that the one of the tires was totally blown off! We had to have it replaced before we can drive our long way home. He assured us right away that the car mechanic shop that he works in is just a few blocks away. He then drove slowly with the tire clonking beneath us. A few minutes later, we were at the mechanic shop.

Dan's student, the owner of the shop, Teddy Uy, came out to welcome us. He then directed several of his mechanics to immediately replace the tire. It took about half an hour because they couldn't find the right tools from our car. Thankfully, because that is a used car shop, they have lots of different kinds of tools on hand. Everything was fixed as soon as the right tools were found. Teddy even sent one of his guys to ride with us back home, so that after we unload the car, his guy could take the car to have all of the old tires replaced in one of shops he owns.

We went home, unloaded all the luggage and the sleeping Kioni. The car was gone for a few hours, then it came back with brand new tires!

Can you imagine how God has attended to all the details? He let the tire popped when we have a mechanic in our car! If it went bad a day later, it would cost us at least double the time to figure out what to do.

This is again a witness to how good God is.

Home sweet home

After being away for a month, we are finally home. Though it is good to be away and visit families, it is especially good to be home. Though we still felt like we were "attacked" by the heat in Cebu, it is good to go back home.

Kioni shows us clearly how much she loves home. She was not eating well for the whole time we were in China and Hong Kong, but as soon as she comes home, she starts to eat again. Tonight, she had a big meal, simple food, but she clean out her plate.

We will be moving soon, to another house, but we will miss this house, which has been our "home" since we arrived 8 months ago.

More holy?

Sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable when I think about our 'status' as missionaries, especially when people look at us and think 'Wow! You guys really love God!" "You scarificed a lot!"

We know in our hearts that we are just the same in our hearts as any Christians. We struggle to stay close to God, we struggle to be pure and holy, we struggle to obey God's will.

I started to have a taste of "you are holy than us" syndrome when I first got accepted into seminary. I remember even before I saw the inside of my seminary, friends at church already treated me like I suddenly know a lot about God and the Bible. Little did they know the reason why I went to seminary was because I felt like I was lacking knowledge in both!

Then came the time when I became a full-time worker "for God". I felt ashamed when believers thought I prayed 50 times a day and always got illuminated by the Holy Spirit when I read the Bible. Or they might say I had so much faith in God that they were ashamed of their distrust in God. Oh, boy! How I wish I could dig a hole and hide.

I sometimes asked myself if I am displaying myself as a holy person and that's why people would make those comments? Because if I was, I need to repent. The last thing I want to do is to make other people think that I obey better than they do, I have more faith than they do, and I always understand what the Bible says.

They are coming after me!

Indeed the world is becoming smaller and there are a lot more exchanges among peoples and cultures, but being a "foreigner" in Asia is still somewhat different.

It is OK for Dan, he is used to it since he married me and he has travelled to Asia many times. However, little Kioni is not understanding some of the unwanted attention that are given to her. Wherever we go in Asia, she draws attention because she how she looks. To westerners' eyes, she looks Chinese, to Chinese, she looks absolutely western. When we went to Pizza Hut in Xiamen, one of the waitress stared at us three for a long time while we were waiting for the elevator, finally she asked me if Kioni is mixed, and if I was her mother. She has an expression of total disbelief when I answered 'yes' to both of her questions. She finally said, "But she doesn't look Chinese AT ALL!'

It was fine in Hong Kong, people there see lots of foreigners, so people might turn and take a second look at her, but not much after that. In Cebu, where a lot of people worship mixed kids, thinking they are the most beautiful type of people on the planet, Kioni is physically touched a lot, on her face, on her arm, on her head, on her legs, etc. More than once, kids in Cebu just come up to Kioni and stood within 2 inches in front of her and started touching her. I don't care how old you are, you just won't put up with things like this. As a result, Kioni screams whenever she sees strangers, children or adult approaching her. "They are coming after me, Mommy!" Then she would run to me for protection. She always has this fear and said such things when someone comes a bit closer. Eventually, I have to tell her people do that to her because she is cute. She still screams, but not as loud as before.

Here is Xiamen, people are more reserved, a lot of long stares will follow us as a family, a few bold ones will touch Kioni with lightening speed. Even with just stares, they are sometimes hard to deal with. Yesterday she couldn't take it anymore and asked me over and over why people look at her and smile at her, that was when we were taking a ferry to Gulangyu. There were so many people on the ferry that she couldn't hide from them even I was holding her and she buried her face on my shoulder. Eventually, I just have to tell Kioni to ignore them. I know this is not the nicest thing to say, but she just cannot possibily deal with all these attention. I have a taste of how being a celebrity must be like. (Pay attention to the staring eyes in the background of the photo.)

Every day from going out of our hotel room, to getting into the elevator to walking in the street and sitting down in a restaurant, it never fails that she, or we, drew a lot of attention. Dan already sticks out like a sore thumb, then with me talking to Dan in English, and with a mixed kid in tow, people are bound to stare and point, this makes our outing quite uncomfortable sometimes. Both Dan and I have learned to ignore the stares, but Kioni is still figuring out why people would touch her, stare at her, smile at her, and a few even attempt to hold her.

As a mother, I feel like I have failed her when someone successfully touched her and made her scream. I feel like I failed to protect her, I was her only defense, yet some people are so quick, some sneak in from behind, some would touch her dangling leg even when I was clutching her tight in my arms.

On the up side, though, she has priviledges that a "regular" kid does not have, she gets colorful bowls and plates to eat with, she gets special little attention that other kids won't get. She has gotten so many extra gifts when we go into stores to buy things. She got a bowl and chopstick gift set because we bought a $20 USD worth of things, while that gift set is for customers who have purchased $400 USD or more. The guy behind the counter just said, "I will give you a set, just because you are so cute." She has gotten little free gifts from shops where we bought stuff. People just found her irrestibly cute and had to give her something to please her.

All in all, it is not healthy for Kioni to be admired for something that neither is her virtue nor her merit. I am worried that she would grow up being used to having people around her adoring her just because she is different looking. I am at lost in what to do right now. Maybe living in a western society will give her a better share in life. It must be hard for long-term missionaries who try to raise their children in Asia, however, I trust that God will give us a way to deal with all these if He indeed would call us to serve him long-term in Asia.

The cleanest city in China

We have finally had some time to do a few hours of visiting. Here are some photos to show what Xiamen and the "Piano Island" Gulangyu is like. The photos with tall buildings are taken in Xiamen, and the photos with more greenery were taken in Gulangyu, a small island where 150 years ago where various countries had their consulate located. For more history and other information on Xiamen, visit Amoy Magic online, a wonderful website by an American couple, they have lived in Xiamen since the 80s.

Xiamen

We have been in Xiamen for two days, Dan is teaching for two weeks. We are staying in a wonderful hotel, well, it is not 5 starts or anything, but the room we have is an apartment style room. Not only it has two separate rooms inside the room with queen size beds, it also has a sitting area and an desk where Dan works on his lectures. There is also a majong table, where we use it as putting all sorts of papers on.

We have not seen much of Xiamen yet, all the mornings are occupied with teaching, and after eating lunch with the students, it is time for us to go back to the hotel for a nap. It will be almost dark when Kioni wakes up from her nap. Dinner follows and not much after that.

As much as we can see during our taxi rides to the training center and back, we see a clean city. Of course, it is still a developing country, so there are still tell tale signs of it in the city, e.g., broken sidewalks, people stepping out into traffic, dusty floors, etc. But in comparison to what I remember from years ago, this is a major improvement. The level of living is also far beyond what I have known.

I am especialy impressed with the students Dan is teaching, wonderful young people who loves the Lord. Still young in faith, but are already committing themselves into the full-time service of the Lord. I am very impressed by them.

God spoke...

This evening we are flying to Hong Kong. Kioni got up at her normal wake up time, ate breakfast, did Kumon, and was jumping around in our air-conditioned bedroom. She then asked daddy, "We are taking the Revo (our car) to the airport instead of taking a taxi, right?" "Who is driving it back home then?" I asked. "Daddy." Of course, daddy always drives in Cebu. "Then how is daddy going to get to the airport?" "He can take a taxi." "We'll all go in a taxi, Kioni." I said to her firmly, trying to extinquish any thought of riding in the Revo to the airport, because she could go on and on.

At the same time, I was thinking to myself, "Oh, yes, how I wish we could drive our own car to the airport and not have to call a taxi. I am so tired of dealing with the taxi drivers who always want more when they hear you are going to the airport, and we can take all the time we want to load and unload. But that is not going to happen unless we have enough money to hire a driver, nope, it is not going to happen."

A few minutes later, the phone rang, it is one of Dan's students, he is the owner of a used car dealership which also fixes cars. We have talked to him about fixing our car, and he is glad to do that for us FOR FREE. Now that we are leaving for a month, it is a great time to let him have the car. The reason for his call was that he wanted to see if his plant supervisor would be able to meet us at the departure level of the airport in a few hours, and drove the car back to the dealership. They will fix it and will drive it back to the airport on the day we arrive back in Cebu so we can drive the car home!

"Kioni, we are driving the Revo to the airport afterall."

I was speechless. I was reminded of the Bible: "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength." "從 嬰 孩 和 吃 奶 的 口 中 ， 建 立 了 能 力 。" Psalm 8:2

God takes care of every detail of our lives, to a point where I wonder why I would ever worry over anything at all. He is there, He always watches over us.

Moving again!

We are going to move again in July or August to another house in Cebu. This is the life of missionaries, I guess, be flexible and constantly on the go.

We knew before we came to Cebu that we will have to find another house to rent by the second part of year 2007. The missionaries who were staying in this house are going to come back from their furlough.

We started looking a few months ago, but it is hard to find a house that is fully furnished, in a safe area and within our price range. (We have raised $600 US for rent.)

Then God starts to work on our behalf, a chain of events happened.

Our mission organization owns a house in Cebu, it has been occupied by a missionary family until they went back to the U.S. about a year and a half ago on furlough. They were planning on coming back this June. While they were gone, the house was rented out to another missionary family from England, and we were friends with both families, in fact, the U.S. missionary family were our main contact in the U.S. before we came here.

Last week, we found out the U.S. missionary family is going to delay their time for coming back, however, the missionary family from England has already made plans to rent another house. Therefore, the missions' house will be vacant, which they don't really want to see happen, they would want to have someone live there, even just for keeping watch on the house.

We jumped on the opportunity and asked if we can move in. Sure enough, they are glad to have us live there. Not only that, since the U.S. missionary family still have most of their household items stored in their house, the house comes furnished, the U.S. missionary family is willing to let us use some of their household items also.

Because the house was owned by our mission organization, we will only need to pay a much lower amount of rent on the house. This house is HUGE. It is a three bedrooms and a kitchen that is bigger than the whole living area in our townhouse in Mundelein, Illionis. It also has a seperate maid's quarter, which most missionaries who stayed there used as their office. It also have a very open living room and a huge playroom. The outside has a fenced in yard also. It will surely be more space than we need, but we love the space, though we will work on updating the house a bit, which the missions also welcomes.

Interestingly, when we were in that house last time visiting the missionary family from England, Kioni asked if we can live in that house. (That was three weeks before all these events happened.) When I asked Kioni why she liked that house, she said because it was big and there were a lot of space to run around. At that time, I told her we couldn't move into that house, because our friends were living in there. One month later, I told her we are going to move there, you should see the look in her eyes! She then started to ask me what furniture items and which toy animals are going. We then spent the next half hour making sure that every toy animal she likes is on the list.

We are again surprised by God's greatness and provision. It was just beyond what we anticipated.

"You've got to quit smoking!"

Doctor: "You've got to quit smoking."
Peter: "I don't smoke."
Doctor: "Your lungs show you have been smoking for quite some time."
Peter: "I think I know what it is."
Doctor: "Yes?"
Peter: "I have been living in this country for a few years now."

Peter is a missionary in the Philippines. Above was a real conversation between Peter and his doctor. Everyday when we go on the road, we see cars pumping out black exhaust fumes, there of course are regluations regarding pollution, but they are not imposed very often. No wonder our floor is constantly black, it is like there is black soot covering it as soon as Maris clean it with bleach and water.

I think many of the missionaries around the world are entering into martydom slowly. They might not see the effects of pollution years after their missions terms are over, but it sure does take a toll.

Even so, Christ and His gospel are sure worth dying for.

Flying with a corpse

Sunday Times reports:

A British Airways passenger travelling first class has described how he woke up on a long-haul flight to find that cabin A BRITISH Airways passenger travelling first class has described how he woke up on a long-haul flight to find that cabin crew had placed a corpse in his row.

The body of a woman in her seventies, who died after the plane left Delhi for Heathrow, was carried by cabin staff from economy to first class, where there was more space. Her body was propped up in a seat, using pillows.

The woman’s daughter accompanied the corpse, and spent the rest of the journey wailing in grief.

Paul Trinder, who awoke to see the body at the end of his row, last week described the journey as “deeply disturbing”, and complained that the airline dismissed his concerns by telling him to “get over it”.

“It was a complete mess — they seemed to have no proper plans in place to deal with the situation,” said Trinder, 54, a businessman from Brackley, Northamptonshire.

The woman died during a nine-hour flight on a Boeing 747. Trinder was catching up on sleep when he was woken by a commotion and opened his eyes to see staff manoeuvring the body into a seat.

“I didn’t have a clue what was going on. The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing. I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill,” said Trinder.

“She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane. When I asked what was going on I was shocked to hear she was dead.”

The woman’s daughter and son-in-law arrived soon after and began grieving. Trinder said: “It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn’t get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away. It was a really intense, primal sound.

“I felt helpless. Grief is a very personal thing; it’s not as if there was anything I could do or say.”

Trinder, chief executive of Capital Safety, which makes products for the building industry, holds a BA gold card and travels more than 200,000 miles a year with the airline.

He became particularly concerned about the state of the body. “When you have a decaying body on a plane at room temperature for more than five hours there are significant health and safety risks,” he said.

After the plane landed, those in first class remained on board for an hour before police and a coroner gave the all-clear.

“The police even started interviewing me as a potential witness, although I had no idea what had happened to the woman. I just kept thinking to myself: ‘I’ve paid more than £3,000 for this’,” Trinder said.

When contacted by BA about the complaint, Trinder says he was told he would not be compensated and should “get over” the incident.

BA said the dead woman was taken into first class because the rest of the plane was full.

A spokesman said: “When a customer passes away on board it is always difficult and we apologise for any distress caused.”

He said there were about 10 deaths each year out of 36m passengers.

Other carriers use different procedures. Singapore Airlines has introduced “corpse cupboards” on its Airbus 340-500 aircraft. Cabin crews use the locker if there is no empty row of seats to place a corpse.

We are blessed

Dan and I figured something out while we were in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year, visiting family. We realized that God might have called us to Cebu for our benefits, much more so than for the benefits of the people whom we minister to.

God is obviously teaching us BIG lessons on patience and endurance, and the biggest enlightenment is that we suddenly realize how our much we complained!

God is not done with us yet, it took us six months to see what we saw. We still have another year and a half here, we will see what God will show us and what He will do n our lives, and the lives that we touch here in Cebu.

What if it is me?

My friend Grace's father, a faithful minister of God, is in a coma. When I read her updates and her blog, I was reminded of two things:

1) God is good no matter what our circumstance is. When we thought we might just fall apart and not be able to stand up, God is there to sustain and lift us up.
2) With hope for eternal life, sickness and death are not as painful. Don't get me wrong, they are still extremely painful to go through, for those who are taking care of the sick and have to live on, but the pain is so much more bearable.

I wonder what I will do if I were in Grace's shoe. I probably won't be in Hong Kong if anything like that happen to my parents. I will probably be making trips back to Hong Kong to take care of them. It is so hard to imagine how would it be like, if I have to go through what Grace is going through. But one thing I know for sure: the God whom has sustained Grace, will lift me up also, if that was me.

"I have a guy...."

It is important to know 'guys' when living in Cebu, 'guys' are people who you know and trust who can get things done. You need a computer guy, a guy who can get you visas, a guy to repair your windows, a guy who can fix your car, fix your dripping toilet and your broken washing machine. We are starting to realize the importance of having 'guys'. What if you don't know a particular kind of guy? Always ask your helper, or people at church, they can always come up with someone. "I have a guy who can fix it." This is a very important thing.

Found!

I am so joyful because the green plastic tupperware cup is found! Dan had Maris, our housekeeper called the restaurant this morning, they said they would look for it. A few hours later, they called back and said yes, someone has set it aside and we can go pick it up! I am so happy, not just because of the cup being returned, but also the fact that I have faith in human nature again. God is good.

A lost plastic cup

An hour after we left the restaurant tonight, I discovered that we have left Kioni's Tupperware cup in the restaurant. I was very upset, in fact, I was almost in tears, because that is Kioni's favourite cup. You might say why are you so upset over losing a plastic cup? Well, not particulary about the cup, (though the cup is a very nice $5.00 Tupperware cup), rather, about the fact that even if we go back, we will not able to retrieve it. Dan plain refused to go back to the restaurant, didn't even want to try, because it is highly unlikely that we will get it back. I was upset about the fact that if that happens in where we have been in the U.S., even after a few days, we will be able to get it back, but not here.

If any of you see the kiwi colour tupperware cup, (Impressions 11-oz. tumbler with Drip-Less™ straw seals, any colour ffor that matter), in a garage sale or somewhere cheap, please get it for me! I went to the Tupperware website, it is too expensive ($23.50 for a set of 4!) I got the one that I lost in the Clothe Horse at Trinity for free.

Being upset over a lost plastic cup, haven't had that kind of feeling for a long time, that's why I am sure it is not about the lost cup, rather, the fact that once it is left, it is gone.

A 25-year shopping trip

It was just a normal shopping trip when Jaeyana Beuraheng bade farewell to her eight children as she left to cross the border into Malaysia, but it would be 25 years before she would find her way home.

Now, at the age of 76, she has been reunited with her family and has finally told how her misfortune began when she boarded the wrong bus.

Jaeyana would almost certainly have made it home without mishap had it not been that she speaks only Yawi, a dialect spoken by Muslims in southern Thailand. But unable to write, read, or speak Thai or English she boarded a bus for Bangkok, about 800 miles north, by mistake rather than travelling back to her home in Narathiwat.

Bewildered by the noise and traffic of the capital she boarded another bus hoping it would take her home. It did not.

This one took her to Chiang Mai, close to the border with Burma and another 400 miles away. There she became lost and unable to explain her predicament. In Chiang Mai she spent five years begging and with her dark skin was taken to be a member of a hill tribe.

When police rounded up beggars in the northern capital in 1987 she was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. Unable to determine where she came from, officials sent her to a social services hostel where she has been ever since.

Jintana Satjang, a director of the center where Jaeyana made her home, said: “We thought she was a mute.” Jaeyana was referred to as “Mrs Mon” because staff thought her mutterings sounded like Mon, a minority language in Burma.

Jaeyana would probably have spent the rest of her life at the hostel had not three students from her home province who spoke her language arrived at the centre for training last month. They struck up a friendship and she was able to tell them how she became separated from her family.

The students made inquiries and found her youngest son, Mamu, who is now 35. They sent him her picture by mobile phone.

“I was shocked and overjoyed when I saw the picture,” said Mamu. He said he and his brothers and sisters had searched for years in Thailand and Malaysia until they were told their mother had been run over by a train in Yala.

“I remembered her face even though I have not seen her for 25 years,” he said.

Story from Fox News.

The good and the bad

The Good
The missionary ladies in Cebu went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. It is in a upscale subdivision called Santa Nino, seems like it is converted from a garage, but it is so cute and well-kept that you will not suspect it at all upon stepping into the restaurant. My first impression of this restaurant is their table setting. While most restaurants in Cebu put a big spoon (serving spoon size) and a fork on the place mat, this restaurant has a salad fork, a dinner fork and a knife on the place mat, complete with a real cloth napkin! The bathroom smells good too, with no water running on the floor. Now, that's impressive!

The menu is interesting, you choose a sandwich out of about 20 different kinds of offers, then a soup from a soup list, a salad from a list of 15, and then a dessert from 4 different kinds of cakes. A four course meal and the cost is: $160 peso, that's $3.20 USD!

We had a wonderful time, and I sure will return to 10 Dove street with my family.

We like that subdivision also, we will do some research and see if we can afford to live there, since by June, when the renter of this house comes back, we will have to move.

The Bad
We again have no food in the house, so we head out to find a restaurant. While we were strolling along an eatery area, the power went out, so we headed back out, while driving, we kept seeing sections of the city losing power. So it forced us to the largest mall in Cebu, the Ayala Mall. We stepped into the Tequila Restaurant, music was not too loud, that's good. The waitress was quick to serve, the menu was shuffled into our hands before we were settled down with Kioni. We asked them to wait a little. Like most restaurants do in Cebu, they gave us two settings instead of three, often they don't see Kioni as a 'person' who needs her own place setting, which is very frustrating. When we were looking at the menu, we realize that there are lots of wrong spellings in the menu, 'Fich and Ships' (Fish and Chip?); Fynger (finger?); and Zappetitzer (Appetitzer?). I already have a bad feeling about this restaurant, if a restaurant cannot manage to put together a menu correctly, what are they going to do with the food. We ordered an appetizer platter for Kioni and I to share, and Dan ordered a burrito.

The drink came, the Diet Coke that Dan ordered was flat, Dan asked for another one, it was still flat. Then the platter came, my jaw dropped when I saw the platter. There was a small pile of broken corn chips, a bowl of not so warm chili, a tiny salad with two cubes of 1/4 inch of avocado and some tomatoes, 4 small pieces of quesadilla, and most shockingly, one single sad looking chicken wing. The chicken wing was so small it must come from a chicken that was about two weeks old. There was supposed to be some "bleucheese and celery" that came with the platter, but it was missing. Dan asked for it, three waiters and waitresses came and found was what was missing. OK, they brough it out for us right a way, the "bleucheese" was in a tiny little plastic cup, with ONE two inch long celery in it. The platter costs $345 peso, that is about $7 UDS! Dan's buritto came, the black beans were tough as little rocks, there was no sauce, so it was pretty dry, it came wrapped up in a piece of foil, looks like it was pre-made somewhere and just get warmed up a bit in the restaurant.

Dan's had enough of everything, when his bottomless coke sat there empty, he told the waiter that he should be watching and do some actual serving, instead having Dan to ask him to fill it up everytime.

In the mean time, Kioni was scratching her leg, she was bitten by a mosquito. Thankfully, I have learned to always carry a bottle of bug spray since I arrive in Cebu.

This was the worse restaurant experience we have ever in the 5 months period that we have been here.

Aberdeen, here we come...

Dan received an email this morning from the University of Aberdeen, he has been accepted into the PhD program in the School of Divinity!

This is much faster than we have expected, he sent in the application just over a month ago, and we already recieved the official acceptance email, an official acceptance letter will come later, to Dan's mother's home.

We are of course delighted, to say the least. Though there are still many details to take care of, like housing, scholarships, etc. We are looking forward to the 3-4 years in Scotland.

You may wonder if this will change our duration of stay in Cebu. Well, we know before we came that we are comitted to be in Cebu for two years and we will also apply for the PhD program in January 2007. Our plan is always to apply for the program, if accepted, we will ask for a one year extension before we actually go to Scotland.

So the answer is, we will stay in Cebu until summer of 2008 as planned, then we will pack up, go back to the U.S. for a few months to visit our supporters, and off we go to Scotland. Unless the extension request is denied, which we don't see that happening. If the request indeed gets rejected, I guess the Lord REALLY want us to go in 2007.

We have started praying about scholarships, yes, we need multiple scholarships in order to go to Scotland. It will be impossible for us to pay the tuition and living expenses if there were no scholarships granted. As a student's spouse, the law allows me to work full-time, but with Kioni's requiring more and more attention each day, it will not be the most ideal if I have to work to support the family again. A lot to pray about, don't know what God is going to say at this point about that.

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.