Sunday, May 13, 2012


Sunday: The day of rest! However, this Hong Kong Mission team was as busy as ever.  The nine of us set out at 10 a.m. to Sui Leun Lutheran Primary School to attend church service and teach Sunday school.  This church service held quite the experience for us English-speaking-only folk.  The service was, of course, given in Cantonese.  However, language was not a barrier in worshiping together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  They provided accommodations for us, such as Bibles in English, and hymnals with both Cantonese and English.  They even sang a verse to one of the songs in English with us!  We also had the opportunity to commune with our new friends.  It is so exciting to know that wherever we go, no matter what we look like or sound like, we serve the same God.  We may be from entirely different cultures, but we are brought together by one purpose, to serve the One that has blessed us with all things.  We are a family in Christ, and we felt like a family with the Sui Leun congregation. 
Midway through the service children are excused for Children's Church.  We, as a team, were in charge of Children's Church for the day.  Because of Mother's Day, we based our lesson on parents.  We discussed how our parents provide for us and how we should honor them by what we say and do.  We compared our relationship with our parents to our relationship with Jesus and how we need to honor him with our actions, and this can be done by serving and honoring our parents.
Sunday School is offered in the afternoon on Sundays from 1:30-3:00.  This time very much resembles Bible School.  We taught a lesson (the same one from the morning), sang songs, and made a craft.  The craft, of course, was a present for their mothers, a key chain. 
We continue to embrace our time here in Hong Kong by taking a plunge into the local cuisine.  This evening we experience tofu, sweet and sour pork (the fav of the group), eggplant, seafood rolls, and the ever-safe fall back, fried rice.  A surprise was found on the way to the restroom: aquariums of fish awaiting their slaughter. At least we know the food was fresh!
It feels as though we have been here for weeks, but we are very excited to start a full week of teaching and service with these kids.  There are times when we worry about whether or not they are grasping and understanding what we are teaching them, but we find comfort in these words from Isaiah: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."  Isaiah 55: 10-11. God is the one working here, and we are his messengers.  It is not up to us to change hearts.  We just have to trust in him and his words and he will work in ways far beyond what we can comprehend.  That is just pretty neat!

Hannah Uden

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