Tess @ The Canossa
Hong Kong never ceases to amaze me! I accompanied Tess this morning to the Canossa Hospital – to remove the pesky tennis ball from her tummy – and everything started happening like clockwork. We arrived about 7:10 AM and were processed at Admitting in less than ten minutes. A nurse waited nearby who escorted us upstairs. As we stepped off the elevator another nurse was waiting for us, greeted us and took us to Tess’ room. (Pictured here!) The room has a fridge, TV, DVD player (4 – 5 English channels) and free Internet access. (But, I cannot promise that Tess will blog from the hospital.) After settling in for 20 minutes a nurse came in to start the paperwork, check the vitals and answer any questions. Another 20 minutes later Dr. Joe Chan came in for a visit. His wife, Dr. Cora Ngai, delivered the triplets and was part of the QMH NIC Chic Team! Cora and Joe went into private practise together about a year ago… I cannot say enough about how wonderful they are and Joe’s bedside manner is one of the best I have seen in Hong Kong. But his manner is an unusual manner – charming in an understated and humble way.
Some funny comments:
One of the nurses said, "Okay please get into the hospital smock now… you’ll like it, it’s VERY sexy!" (Said with an enthusiastic tone but the nurse knew full well she was fibbing!)
Tess, remembering back to being stoned from the "twilight anesthesia" days said, "I am sure by late this afternoon I’ll be feeling fine and cracking jokes." Dr. Chan replied dryly, "Nooooo… I don’t think you’re going to feel very well for the rest of today. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel okay."
Tess said to Dr. Chan, "You look so young and you and Cora make such a great couple." Dr. Chan replied with a blush, "I might look young but I am not that young… and to be honest it’s a curse. Everyone wants an old looking doctor who they think has more experience!"
After Dr. Chan left Tess looked at me and asked, "I like him so much… can we keep him?"
True to the clock, at 8:50 am Tess was wheeled out of her room and down the hall. I expected we would have to wind our way through the hospital to the OR but bang… it was right there in front of us within twenty paces. I hardly had a chance to say good-bye to Tess at all but I knew she was in good hands. She’s expected to be out of the OR by 11:30 – noon. Knowing Hong Kong, they will be true to their word so I am going to head back to the hospital asap. Stay tuned for details.
The einsteins I made at school
Saturday night in Hong Kong and we have had quite the day. Some friends of ours invited us out on their extremely large, modern (and beautiful) Chinese junk. We took the entire gang, starting from 11:30 AM and returning to the dock at 7 PM. Overall we had an incredible and wonderful time, but it was also a huge amount of work managing four toddlers on a 60 foot yacht. Carys was still under the weather, but we felt well enough that she’d be okay. She slept much of the time, but required either Tess or myself attending to her for the entire trip. This meant the other half had three kids to juggle. The other adults and older kids were very helpful so the whole trip worked out in the end. Not only did a we have a yacht voyage, we also had a romp on the beach, a tube ride and several high speed boat rides as others were tubing. I took lots of video and pictures that I’ll post in the next few days.
In the meantime, two weeks ago Sebastian came home with one of the most hilarious art projects we’d ever seen… the human digestive track. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the video and Sebastian will show you himself… make sure your speakers are turned up and please leave Seb a You Tube rating. He worked hard to provide a clear, concise explanation of his Einstein project.
What’s in your hand?
In July after returning to Hong Kong from Canada, I had the opportunity to meet Rick Warren, author of the book “The Purpose Driven Life.” Gail Hudson, Editorial Reviewer at Amazon.com, described as follows: The spiritual premise in The Purpose-Driven Life is that there are no accidents—God planned everything and everyone. Therefore, every human has a divine purpose, according to God’s master plan. Like a twist on John F. Kennedy’s famous inaugural address, this book could be summed up like this: "So my fellow Christians, ask not what God can do for your life plan, ask what your life can do for God’s plan." The book is about purposeful devotion to a Christian God. The book is set up to be a 40-day immersion plan, recognizing that the Bible favors the number 40 as a "spiritually significant time," according to author Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, touted as one of the United States largest congregations. Warren’s hope is that readers will "interact" with the 40 chapters, reading them one day at a time, with extensive underlining and writing in the margins. As an inspirational manifesto for creating a more worshipful, church-driven life, this book delivers. Every page is laden with references to scripture or dogma…. This is probably an excellent resource for devout Christians who crave a jumpstart back to worshipfulness.
On Friday, July 21st, roughly 80 Hong Kong business people met at the posh Hong Kong Club to have dinner with Rick Warren and hear him speak. The setting was intimate and ideal for a restorative discussion. The Rick Warren team was excited. The dinner – and their trip to Hong Kong in general – coincided with the completion of The Purpose Driven Life’s translation into simplified Chinese text, and a full endorsement of the book by mainland China officials. In other words, you can now legally buy this book in China. One of the Saddleback team sat at each table, and I had the good fortune of sitting next to Dave Arnold, one of Rick Warren’s top leaders who helps him run the business side of Saddleback. We had a fascinating discussion about many things, but one of them was Christianity in China. Watch this space!
For the one hour that Rick Warren spoke he focused on Affluence. His message was very clear… business people are given three things – but not necessarily limited to three – by God: Income, Influence and Identity.
Warren gave a brief scriptural exegesis on a passage from Exodus, where God asks Moses: “What’s that in your hand?” Moses, holding a staff throws it on the ground. Once on the ground and out of Moses’ hand, God turns the staff into a serpent and then back again into a staff when picked up by Moses. The staff, Warren tells us, signifies Moses’s identity, income and influence. When Moses lays it down, God makes it come alive, makes the impossible possible. When Moses keeps the staff to himself, nothing happens.
The staff represents Moses’ income – how he makes his living. His money is not wrapped up in a bank account or gold coins but in his flock. The staff represents Moses’ influence – how he gets things done and helps, protects others. In this case sheep – moving them from one place to another. The staff represents Moses’ identity – who he is in the world and how he relates to himself.
God said to Moses, “I want you to lay down your identity, your income and your influence. If you do, I will make it come alive in a miraculous way. If you pick it back up, it will be a dirty stick.” After this, it is referred to as the Rod of God. It is this rod that parts the sea, makes water come out of the rock, turns the river to blood. The staff had power when laid down – God made it come alive and did miracles that Moses never dreamed of.
Rick Warren challenged business people to ask themselves the same question, “What’s in your hand and what will you do with it? What is your identity, your influence, your income? Will you lay it down?”
I left with several copies of The Purpose Driven Life, written in Cantonese, in my hand… I gave them all away to people who I felt would benefit from reading the book. (I have my own English copies!) As I walked back to my office to pick up my car I snapped some pics of affluent Hong Kong and contemplated Rick Warren’s comments. For me it’s what is in my head… a book waiting to be written and given away that perhaps could cause miracles beyond my wildest dreams.
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No sure way? Yeah, right…
I agree, this is a complex problem with may elements coming into play. However it seems to me that the first obvious step would be better gun control. Also, while it may or may not be true to say Canada has more guns per capita, that is a bit of a statistical manipulation for those who promote the Canadian statistic in the US’ favour.
In the crosshairs
Last night I had a fairly sound sleep, interrupted by a very disturbing dream right before waking. The dream took place in the future, during a time of considerable global strife. A group of us had been on a church outting to some island. We were returning to be dropped off at a dock and return to our respective homes. Like dreams we were in Hong Kong but weren’t in Hong Kong… we could have been anywhere and the setting was more like Canada… in fact Toronto.
Next to the dock – somewhat like a large commercial dock – was a small building. Next to this building was a large grass parking lot about the size of a soccer field. On the other side of field was a second building, similar to an old, large cottage clubhouse. It was two stories high with a veranda on the 2nd floor. To exit the parking lot one had to drive around this building. It was a cloudy, overcast fall day and about 5 pm. I was alone with the group from church… I.e. the kids and Tess were not with me.
As we came around the right side side of the building by the dock we looked across the parking lot to see military personnel on the other side. Everyone stopped in their tracks. We had no idea who they were, but thanks to the global situation, we knew exactly who they were. I was at the back of the crowd – maybe 30 of us – surveying the situation. In the distance I could see snipers on the verandas. I was shocked by the size of their guns, "Wow," I thought, "those are seriously high powered sniping rifles." At that point none of us suspected any violence, but as a precaution I said to those around me, "They have snipers on the 2nd floor. Move out of the line of sight of the snipers."
Several people listened to me and we crouched behind cars. But about twenty didn’t. They assumed the situation would not end in violence. Then the first shot rang out.
A friend about eight meters in front of us fell to the ground. We all stared at him, waiting to see what would happen next. For some reason I knew he’d been shot in the stomach. Adrenalin coursed through my veins as I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is real." Then the blood started to flow from underneath him. It was much like the first sniper incident in Saving Private Ryan… there was little we could do for this person… in a minute or two he’d be dead.
Several other shots rang out as others near the front of our group fell. Those near the back helped each other retreat. Now, you know the way dreams work – everything morphs. As we turned around, what was previously a small building by the dock turned into a very large clubhouse. We ran inside to seek cover. The situation was quite surreal. The military controlled the entire area, including the clubhouse, but as long as we were hidden inside we were safe.
Numerous people attempted to leave and never made it. Others made the mistake of venturing near windows to be met by the fate of a sniper’s bullet. When that happened other military personnel ran in, cleaned up the mess and removed the body. But for those of us remaining in the building, they never came after us. They even walked BY us… but would not hurt us.
I stayed at the back of the building to stay safe and eventually there were only a handful of us left… in fact, of the four or five of us remaining… I was the only lay person. All the others were pastors. Despite that, they all related to me as if I was a pastor. We all knew that eventually we had to leave that building, or that eventually we’d be flushed out. But in the meantime we waited. At one point someone asked me, "Why are you still in here, Charles. This – i.e. the terror, suspense, etc. – could all be over for you in a moment?"
"I am just here to think," I replied, "I am just here… to… think." Everyone seemed to understand exactly what I meant as we sat there in the darkness thinking and thinking and thinking. I remember thinking I was in a terrible dead end situation – perhaps literally – and feeling there was no way I could escape the physical inevitability ahead of me. It truly was a horrible predicament.
As I waited I awoke and Sebastian asked if I could make waffles.
What do you think this dream meant?
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Olly Doesn’t Know
Okay, I need to explain this because some of you think I have gone a bit loopy. (i.e. Those with You Tube accounts who caught this video by visiting my You Tube page!) Here is the explanation… when a video gets posted on You Tube, the You Tube system automatically captures an image from roughly halfway through the video… and that is the image everyone sees when surfing through the You Tube videos. We all know that sex sells, so the big debate is whether or not inserting a pic of a beautiful woman will draw more traffic to your vid. (I know… kinda ridiculous… who really cares, right?) I confess… I tried it (click below to see the end product – female cat posing as a male cat!) however, not much of a difference. Only a hundred hits since Friday night… boooorrrring! Serves me right, I should have used a REALLY gorgeous woman like Tess… maybe next time. But her royalty fees are much higher.
I have to say, though, I got a big kick out of this chap’s video. Fun to watch… it’s just very funny listening to him explain his own debate about the issue! Doh!
