Well 2019 has come and gone, we are now moving our way through a very crazy 2020. It is hard not to think about or remember how when I was a child we longed for Christmas, how the year took for ever to get through, and now as an adult Christmas comes way to soon. Also, when did I get to the stage of life of becoming a ‘When I was young I remember …..’ I honestly, sometimes feel like I’m still 18 and wondering what am I doing with my life. Here in Hong Kong, I sometimes cannot believe how much has happened, and what I had thought my life would have been is nothing like it has turned out to be.

This post has been in the making since the beginning of the year, but honestly it’s so hard to find words to describe this year.

Our first Sunday back at church after 4 months spoke about faith, love and hope. I’m going to try and use that to structure this blog.

Faith

Beginning of the year was great, I decided this was the year I would become fit and healthy, loose the weight, get a more active social life, etc. However, life gives you lemons every now and again, rather than honey.

For Chinese New Year I was encouraged, or should I say told, not to spend a third Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, to go and explore Asia. Great idea, however where to go. Great wall of China – not a good idea with this bad flue they were having (little did one think, it would spread )? Veitnam – to expensive. Kota Kinabalu to cousins – perfect, oh but wait they are in Cape Town still? I know Singapore to see two of the dearest friends Ian and Narelle – oh and I better not forget their dog Cho.

A true Godly couple who live what they believe and I miss them here in Hong Kong.

Singapore was great, very clean, safe and totally different to Hong Kong. It was great to spend time being a tourist, I went to the gardens by the bay, went up the sands hotel, visited a war memorial, went to the presidential headquarters, Chinatown and learnt a lot about the history of the place.

It was a great 5 day retreat, and then came back down to earth with a bump. I got back to Hong Kong, just as Covid-19 rared its ugly head, and work closed for two or possibly more weeks. This was the end of January. Work had gone from 300 students in January to 50 for the beginning of February, to say I was worried is an understatement.

For two weeks, I was at home, wondering, praying, do I still have a job, what should I do if I don’t. If work opens the thought will the children come back, but we dont know what the future holds.

Hong Kong is such a transient place and with this a dear friend and co-leader, Lisa, in my women’s group on Tuesday left to return home to Canada.

Things just seemed to be testing our faith more and more. Church had become my second home, a place I could rest, grow and socialise and two Sunday’s into February they had to decide to stop services and all activities on church property. What to do, how do you grow and have a community now?

The rise of Zoom. People adapt, we find new ways to keep going. Work started up slowly, we learnt how to do online classes. First one zoom class then the next. We are by no means where we were at the beginning of the year, but the children are slowly coming back. In fact, I feel I am becoming a better teacher than before, but still got a long way to go.

The ladies group committed to coming to zoom classes, we of course missed the physical meetings but the women have taught me and bore with me as I tried to lead and pastorally care for them remotely. We studied through a lenten series where we were taken each week to the cross where we find our hope and salvation.

Each day for the past ten months, I have had to rely on faith. Faith that life will carry on, that I have a God who can keep us going.

This faith leads to work. To get up daily, to carry on living what we believe in. To go out into the world, to do our jobs with the same determination, same discipline even if we may never get the worldly return. To smile in the face of adversity knowing that in the end God will work all thing out for the best.

Love

Love is something we say so often. I tell my parents every time we talk that I love them – and I do. I love my family warts and all. We don’t talk as often as I would like but I know they are there and hope they know that I’m there for them to.

It’s now coming up to the end of October . We have been in lockdown of some sort now for so long, it’s hard to think how it will all end. It’ll be Christmas soon, and where I was going to be either in Aus or UK, it’s definitely not an option. It’s easy to feel depressed over that, but I have been so blessed with wonderful friends who have kept me sane, they have truly been a surrogate family. And where I see love in action.

A few weeks ago three of us went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. It was so beautiful and relaxing. Well worth the visit.

When I look around the world, I see ao much hate, but if you look hard you can also see so many people standing up against hate, be it the Black Lives Matter, or all the other charities out there helping those in need at the moment.

Love must be outward looking. It must produce a distinctive character where we can love the lost, the lonely and those who challenge us. For humans this isn’t easy. I need to constantly remember and choose to love.

Love = labour =love the lost

Hope

Well, as I said earlier it is coming up to the end of October, church has resumed services again. Groups at church can’t happen so still doing zoom. However we did meet socially for a walk in the park and coffee. Here are two photos, one with the obligatory and normal life masks, the other without, yes breaking the rules for 5 seconds lol.

I help with the youth at church, last week we posed the question ‘If you could go back in time, what would you tell your past self?’ One girl replied, to enjoy going to Japan more, as one day you can’t. It’s so true, we have all taken life for granted in some way or another. Life is not the same, it’s never going to be exactally the same again. She then asked when Covid was going to end. I couldn’t answer, but like everyone we need to hold onto the hope that it will do one day. Maybe next week, maybe next year, we don’t know, it is in God’s hands, and with scientists and medical people being his hands here on earth. What we can do is hope. Not a naive hope, but an active, realistic hope that chooses to believe that all things will be completed in time.

Every day we have a choice to wake up, to hope and believe that today is a new day, a new start. To learn our lessons and to face our challenges with hope. This will help us to endure and will lead to life changing certainty.

Hope = endurance = life changing certainty

Day by day, if we put one foot forward, ideally towards Christ, we will change, we will find joy and the faith, love and hope will happen.