Author: charlesinhk

Skyping with Grandad Doug

The kids had a terrific summer and tomorrow it is back to school. The
triplets will start their second last year of primary school while
Sebastian takes his first step into secondary school. The last several days Tess has done a superb job organising everyone, especially Sebastian for WIS. Monday morning
will likely be a shock since the kids have been sleeping later and the
last few days quite lethargic. I suspect Monday night will be an early
evening for them.

Today we had a treat Skyping with family back in Canada. Grandad Doug
played his ukulele and had the girls singing along. It was quite a neat
thing to watch a virtual sing-song with the musician 12,000 miles away
in Canada and the back-up singers here in Hong Kong. The video captures
the spirit.

The Orangutang Savers 青山綠水協會有限公司

via masarang.hk

Thanks to Sela, Jasper, Carys and Ella who have been raising money for Masarang and an orangutang. Click through to read the endearing story! Masarang wrote on their web site, "Kennedy School recently raised more than HK$15,000 for the Masarang Foundation,
which aims to support conservations in Indonesia. Here are some words
from the students who participated in the fund-raising event. They
delightfully called themselves ‘The Orangutang Savers!’" Click here to read the whole story.

Soul Surfers

Recently we watched the movie Soul Surfer as a family. The film is about a Christian surfer (Bethany Hamilton) who lost her arm from a shark attack, while surfing. Against a variety of odds she made a surfing comeback and is now a professional surfer and US national champion. We actually had a Youth Group guest speaker who personally knows Bethany. After his talk he told us the movie was definitely worth watching, capturing many of the nuances and challenges Bethany encountered post-shark attack. I think his exact words were, "Hollywood did a pretty fair job on her story – I was surprised!" (Left: in the background Sela and I help her balance on the board while Sebastian plays in the water awaiting his turn.)

Our kids now love this film, which is quite inspiring, has a good soundtrack and is young at heart.
Therefore today we headed out to Hong Kong's Big Wave Bay to try our hand at surfing. After the kids had a short cross-country run with Tess, we packed ourselves into the car arriving at the beach early enough to snag a parking spot, rent some boards and avoid the crowds. (The partly cloudy weather helped.) We spent about 2.5 hours splashing about. The kids, with some assistance, accustomed themselves to balancing on the boards then caught a wave. Each one managed to surf small waves for a distance of about 20 meters… some further. They were thrilled. This could be the start of a new hobby. (Many thanks to Tess who stood in the cold water taking pictures!)

Sela’s Earth Day SOS

Today Sela proudly made the piece of artwork below in honour of Earth Day. It will give you an idea of how she’s writing and creating these days… Quite good thank you very much and I am completely unbiased in my opinion. Lately Sela has taken to selling items outside our building with the assistance of Carys and Ella. To summarise, when Sela’s not reading, she’s either saving or selling the planet.

The Rugby Season Ends

Today was the last day for Sandy Bay mini-rugby, and the last day of Sebastian's rugby career. Sebastian has decided he will not move up ito Youth rugby next year. The game has too much contact for his liking, and he thinks continuing to play while at his level would put him at risk of injury. He is opting out. I have to give Sebastian credit for sticking it out this far. A few tournaments ago when he saw the end in sight, he decided he would continue until the Tackle Tunnel that takes place on the last day of the season. This is when all the Under 12s run through a tunnel of tackle bags to symbolise graduating from mini-rugby. Sebastian ran through the tunnel and then that was it. There was one last game – the Under 12s verse the Youth Rugby Under 13s. Sebastian declined to play – when he ran through the tackle tunnel he finished his rugby career. (Above: posing in our uniforms after rugby.)

I have been coaching for a few years now. I started on Saturday evenings when there were less than ten players. Saturday night was created to allow for players to attend church on Sunday. Another coach and I took care of Sebastian's group for two years on Saturday night. Our strategy was to make sure the kids new where they were supposed to be at different points in the game – very much an HR approach with mini job descriptions and org charts. While other teams tried to organise in the of middle games, our players would use those few extra seconds to gain an advantage in the game. For fifteen months our little team went undefeated. We were streamed at Level 3 (the lowest level), but still we were doing okay. (Above: Sebastian charges into the Tackle Tunnel.)

Entering Under 11s the contact increased even more. We decided to move the Saturday night group into the Sunday group where there were much better coaches. It was important for all the kids to train together as a team and make sure proper training helped them avoid injury. These coaches provided much better skill training than I. I still attended on Sunday mornings and provided whatever help and support I could. By this year, Under 12s, I stopped making the charts: we were beyond players not knowing where they were supposed to be.

Therefore, today was my last day as a mini-rugby coach for Sebastian. During the closing presentations for trophies, club colours etc, the U12 coaches were presented with an engraved Acme Thunderer whistle: as far as I am concerned, this is the bees knees of whistles. "Rather cool," I thought. Then I saw that it was engraved. For a few seconds the last several years flashed through my mind's eye and that whistle became very special. I wasn't expecting it and I am very grateful. Earlier in the day, Sebastian also received a surprise: the last tournament of the year his team was runner-up for the Shield (after winning the Shield the month before.) The Football Club had hosted the last tournament and made medals – real medals – for the placing teams. To cap off Sebastian's career he received one of the medals for being on that team. (Above: the Acme Thunderer whistle and a picture of Sebastian's medal.)

And the triplets? The girls play on Saturday nights but went this morning to be part of the Sandy Bay Club's fun for the morning. Jasper went too, and found himself playing with some fellow team mates in the U9s. The girls will most likely retire but Jasper plans to continue on Saturday nights when the new season starts up in August. The Sandy Bay Saturday night group has now grown to at least 100+ players across most of the mini-rugby age groups. I will also help Guest Blogger Dale coach Jasper's group on Saturday evenings. It might even be time to get out those old org charts!

Going forward, Sunday mornings will be for church, where I plan to test the waters of Youth Sunday School… using my very spiffy Acme Thunderer whistle to keep the Youth in line.

Tai Mountain Trek, From Guest Blogger Dale

Today is our last day in Jinan and it truly feels as if the time has flown by. Tomorrow we fly back to HK and by mid-afternoon the Missions Trip will be over and you will all have your wonderful U'th back home. Today was scheduled as a "Fun Day" – a trek outside the city to the mountains with a nice hike and beautiful views. Instead it was wet and cloudy and very cold, very very cold – we even experienced some freezing rain and at the top of the mountain we even had some very light flurries of snow. For most of the day it was just above 0C although with the wind chill most students thought if felt much much colder. We shared coats and passed out extra clothes (neither Tre nor Ian were able to come due to medical issues – so their coats and extra layers were passed onto others) and the Union U'th made the best of it. After lunch the view cleared and we got some gorgeous pictures and the walk down was much easier than the walk up – although the line for the cable car was long (an hour wait) the U'th huddled together to keep warm and several were singing (to the amusement of the Mainland crowd in line with us – with one older gentlemen behind me commenting that we must all enjoy K-TV :-). Below are a few pics from today –

(1) This morning – starting out in the rain
(2) On the trail – notice how cloudy it is. The mountain peak is around 1,500 Meters or almost 5,000 Feet – so we were essentially in the clouds.
(3) At the Peak! It was cold/light flurries.
(4) Walking back down
(5) U'th in line for Cable Car

Views of Tai Mountain

Union U’th Ground Rule Violation!

Guest blogger Dale has been caught napping on the bus wearing earbuds. Napping is okay but earbuds are a ground rule violation. Okay to be fair (1) Dale asked Ryan for permission and (2) of anyone who deserves a nap it is Dale who has been shepherding and working above and beyond the call of duty this week.

We are on our way to a famous Chinese mountain called Tai Mountain. There are five highest mountains in China, located north, south, east (Jinan), west and in the centre. The Chinese believe that power and nature comes from the east, thus making Jinan the most important of the five peaks. Allegedly, many past Chinese emperors have come to Tai Mountain in search of longevity and success for their reign.

The trek will be a bit of a challenge not only because it is a steep hike (part of the way will be by cable car) but because outside it is cold and raining… some of us praying for snow, hopefully!

Union U’th: Anointing the Centre

Some more pictures from Wednesday, our last day at the centre while the farm team was off working in the field. First, after the Centre Completion Team was dropped off (in other words us!) everyone left, including all the staff and centre youth. The autistic kids were ecstatic to have a bus ride. A few boarded with some trepidation but with the encouragement of the loving staff their concerns were quickly alleviated.

We soon discovered that we were completely on our own… and that the rooms where we were supposed to be working were locked. Fortunately after a search we located the keys and were back at work.

Artwork was completed on the roof, in the Music Therapy Room, staircase walls and painting on the main floor. The centre had no vacuum. Terry headed out in search of a high-powered wet/dry vacuum cleaner. Several hours later a small team had cleaned the stairs from the main floor to the fourth floor. The staircase looked completely transformed.

As described in the video below, the afternoon consisted of a visit from parents. The picture below was taken of the same lady who sang in the video while sharing her testimony. Charlotte stands next to them translating.

After praying for the parents and their youth, we were treated to fresh home-made dumplings for dinner, that would have put Hong Kong’s best dim sum to shame.

Below: completed music room artwork; Terry vacuuming; afternoon sharing; praying and anointing; dim sum dinner.

Government Visit, From Guest Blogger Dale

Today has been different but very good. We spent this morning visiting the Jinan Welfare Center (Government run orphanage) and this afternoon at a Youth Community Center run by Percy Wong and his organisation. 

The Welfare Center is home to 400 Children with 95% of them being disabled – physically or mentally. The center receives 200 new babies every year (who have been orphaned or abandoned).  Those that are physically and mentally OK are usually adopted – most internationally – with over 100 adoptions per year. The "others", which are considered "un-adoptable" are kept at the Welfare Center.  So of the 400 or so children only about 60 or so are infants (under 2).  (Below: singing worship songs for the children at the welfare centre.)
 
I must add that this Welfare Center is very progressive – much better than several others I have visited in China. The leader has visited HK and they have had international consultants come in as they built the new center – which was finished the end of 2011.  The Welfare Center has arranged Foster Care (still very uncommon in China) and is doing small group homes (couples living at the center and being paid to care for 6 or so children – very progressive for China – vs the standard institutional care of dozens in a room mostly found in China).   The pictures we could take were limited but attached are a few from this morning.