"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Ephesians 6:10-13

It's been increasingly stressful as we begin to plan for our big move. Ray has been especially stressed as his departure date is much earlier. There seems to be various small things that pop up here and there that are unexpected. Today we found out there's a leak in the basement. In the grand scheme of things it's really not such a big deal, but added on to our big list of "To do's" it feels like a thorn in our side.

We definitely need prayer as some of the unexpected incidences cast doubt in our minds as to whether we should go.

We have much to be thankful for though. We have been encouraged by the overwhelming assistance by friends, colleagues, and in some cases ("almost" strangers). A colleague of Ray's today offered to guide us around his hometown of Taipei when we arrive in January to go house-hunting. Sandra's been applying to a Christian College in Taipei, and the application process has been relatively smooth thus far.

We definitely need to put on our full amour of God. We need to discern what is truth.

A Bit on Finances

Friday night we didn’t do much. A nice change from our busy pace of meeting with people and meetings (these are not always the same thing)! Now we’re off to a slow Saturday morning, but feel well rested. We have a wedding today for a good friend from way back in my co-op days at EY. He’s been a great supporter and friend over the years. We’ll get a chance to see a bunch of EY alumni who probably haven’t heard about our “news” yet. It should be a good time.

There’s less than four weeks to go before I leave. Call it cold feet, lack of faith or some internal struggling… I continue to have mixed feelings about the impending move and I think this will just intensify as the time comes closer. We’re going to miss lots here, but each time I dare to ask the question – “is this what we should be doing”?, the answer comes back as a resounding YES.

A few reflections or sharing on financial perspectives (I’m a finance guy so beware, this can be long). A lot of people ask whether our “package” provides for housing, moving, etc. The answer is yes and no. The compensation packages in Asia are generally negotiated based on total compensation. So, if you make $100 as an example, you can get back $50 in salary and $50 in housing, or if you want to say the company is providing a car, you can say I get paid $60 but the company provides a modest apartment and a nice car ($20 + $20)! We decided for the most part to take all of our allowances and salary in primarily cash (with the exception of a few complications for tax purposes). This gives us the flexibility to spend the money in ways we see appropriate.

Having said that, there are also two types of arrangements in Asia – local package and expat package. Local is closer to the type of arrangements that local staff would get paid. Expat packages are generally where a company moves you over from Canada. In many cases, expat packages are higher than local packages since in an expat package significant costs are included such as corporate housing, flights, etc. versus local packages which in many Asian countries are based on lower salary. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

We are on some type of hybrid. We’re being paid comparable Hong Kong salary (which is higher than Taiwan salary scale) plus some assistance for relocation and transition. This puts us in a comfortable professional salary range for local Hong Kong / Taipei but certainly doesn’t put us in a situation where we’re in the luxurious unlimited corporate expense account situation with business class airfare to Asia, etc. Is this fair? That’s the question we get asked a lot and to be honest, I also ask myself are we selling ourselves short. The bottom line, as Sandra keeps reminding me, we are making a comfortable salary and have more than what we need. The move to Asia is not financially motivated. We’re not going over there to accumulate significant wealth. If anything, we’re looking at this as a nice break from the wealth building ladder that sometimes we can get sucked into in North America. Having said that, our budget allows us to find a slight larger, but modest 2 to 3 bedroom apartment in Taipei that will allow us to exercise hospitality and hopefully host some events / discussions, maintain a home in Canada and continue to support most of the ministries and people that we do today. Has God blessed us and is continuing to bless us? The answer is an absolute YES. Sounds simple? Yes, but still a struggle…

Overall, I’ll be transparent and say that quitting the job at the bank and making this move, at least in the short-term is not the best financial move. We’re also considering on going on just one salary (as Sandra may choose the studying or volunteering option). Sometimes all of this financial discussion makes you wonder how we’re programmed to expect so much as North American professionals moving to a different country. Dare we call ourselves tent-making missionaries. If I wasn’t going with this professional role, we could be looking at a significantly lower salary situation.

Sandra and I have always had a consistent approach to money (something we’re thankful for). We don’t mind and enjoy spending money on family, friends, community and ministry. We do however, hesitate more when the money is solely for ourselves. We have also been blessed in the last couple of years and have tried to be careful about how we spend, save or give our money. In a similar way, going to Asia, we have had to readjust to a different budget, and in that process decide who or what we want to continue to support. Having a pretty significant base of supporting others over the last couple of years have helped us not to have to deal with the decision of what to do with “excess” money. There are a number of people and ministries we will continue to support even while we are away.

All of this rambling is to give some context to why I’m so hesitant and arguable “cheap” in the HK accommodations. Perhaps the best analogy is my company’s end of summer staff recognition event. We took about 95 of our finance staff onto two buses for an all day trip down to Niagara on the Lake for a short wine tour, lunch at Queen’s Landing and finally a quick stop in Niagara. The last stop in Niagara (by the time we got there we only had 30 minutes) was free time to spend either touring the falls or hitting the Fallsview Casino. Most people opted for the Casino. We were each given $20 cash to spend as we pleased. Its not a large amount, but just a token of support in addition to all the other financial and other resources that went into planning the day.

I couldn’t help but reflect upon the parallels to my situation and all the possible reactions. Here’s a few on the $20:

• $20??? Why so cheap? What is $20 going to do? What kind of company do you work for?
• Wow, there’s more? The company has already paid for the cost of the McDonald’s breakfast, the bus rental, wine tour, lunch, etc.?
• You guys get a paid day off to do anything but work??!?
• Wow, there’s more

I think you get the point…

What to do with the $20?

• Try our luck and turn the $20 into much more in 30 minutes
• It’s not our money anyway, let’s just put it into the slots and see what happens!
• I’d rather go to the pub and grab a pint or two while we wait for everyone else…
• Pocket the $20 and spend it later…

While it was tempting to see some people winning lots of money in a short-period of time, I decided against even dropping part of the money into a slot machine and picked the last option – keep the $20 and spend it on something else.

What would you do?

HK accommodations is similar. We have the financial means of getting sometime nicer, but for HK, we’re looking for a simple, modest, decent, place to sleep. I expect that there will be lots of financial costs to go out, meet up with people, catch up with old university and CCF friends, etc. I’d much rather freely do that then spend … upwards of US$2K per month on housing (not unusual for a serviced apartment in HK). Right now, the choice seems to be between the YWCA in mid-levels Central HK (yes, a male can rent an apartment at the YWCA)

http://hotel.ywca.org.hk/eng/YWCABuilding/YWCABuilding_location.htm

Or a brand new two bedroom condo in Tung Chung near the airport in a new development called Coastal Skylines

http://www.coastalskyline.com/phase1/eng/main.html

Tung Chung will definitely be nicer and more comfortable – swimming pools, tennis courts, etc. The problem is that it is at the last stop on the Tung Chung MTR line and could take me anywhere between 40 mins plus to get to work. Living in a brand new place may have some additional costs such as internet set-up, etc. The YWCA is closer and has everything I need, but significantly smaller. Will post more later, need to make a decision probably within the week.

On the financial perspectives, questions for clarification (public or private) or comments are welcome. We welcome accountability in this area.

Open House Update

Dear friends, we had previously communicated that we would like to host an open house event so that can have a chance to share with each one of you and also have a chance to say good-bye (even for a short period of time)!

We have decided to postpone this until December, just before we leave. Dates to come out shortly. This is intended as a time for people to drop by, even for half an hour, to say hello, etc.

Here's the latest update: Ray to leave Toronto for Hong Kong on Thursday October 12th and return to Toronto for Christmas December 21st. We're looking at us leaving for Taiwan either December 31st or January 1st.

Preparations have been going well so far. As per the previous post, its been amazing seeing how God has really provided through friends and family. We've had the chance to share and reconnect with many old and new friends over the course of the last couple of weeks. Other than the housing situation in HK, things seem to be coming together. We're working hard towards transitioning our work, ministry, volunteer work, etc. We ended up selling the Sienna - it took less than a week! That's pretty good for selling a car!

Small tidbit: Ray's first stop will not actually be HK, but it will be to attend meetings in Bangkok, Thailand! Looking forward to going there, but basically, I'm looking at flights that will be almost 24 hours of travelling, just enough time to check into the hotel and then attend meetings with the Asia country leaders. I'm not expecting this to be a high energy, high impact first impression!

HK Blues

This entry has been a little delayed (how do you bloggers keep up to date on your writing)? Late Sunday night / early Monday morning, I made the mistake of checking e-mail (yes, I sleep with my Blackberry!) and found out that the firm won’t be fully providing housing for my portion of stay in HK. This created probably one of the first of many feelings of panic and anxiety!

Let me back up a little bit. EY would like me to start work middle of October. We mutually agreed that it would make sense to base me out of HK for the first two months as this is a critical time for me to get up to speed on the HK project as well as do as many of the country visits before the busy season (which starts in January). From a personal perspective, Sandra and I thought this would work out great for us. The two months in HK will be a chance for me to get as much travel done so that in January, we can settle down some roots and build some local relationships in Taipei. We liked the idea of heading to Taipei together formally January 1st, going through the adventure of finding an apartment we can call home together, etc. For those of you in HK and area, I was looking forward to having some time to catch-up with each of you, rebuild relationships and just see what’s happening in your life! (Secretly, I breathed a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t be on my own trying to negotiate apartment leases, navigate through cell phone packages and run other errands in Mandarin!)

From a practical perspective, we deferred my one month serviced apartment allowance to January. This would give Sandra and I some time to look for the “right” place, host my mom and my sister, as well as a very good friend visiting from Toronto as part of her sabbatical. On Monday morning, I received the confirmation that the firm wasn’t providing me full accommodation in HK. Their rationale was that I was to have one “base” city and the travel and accommodation costs in the “base” city would not be subsidized. I suppose this means that trips to Taipei in October through December will be paid for by the firm, and then future visits to HK, while we’re based in Taipei will be paid for. There’s obviously two perspectives, is it fair or unfair? Either way, that’s the reality of the situation and Sandra, after reminding me not to check e-mail in the middle of the night, prayed for the situation and insisted I go back to sleep!

Does Anyone Know of Short-term Accommodations Available in HK?

So.. if any of you out there know of short-term, affordable accommodation in HK for October 15 through to December 20, please let me know. I did send out a call out to a few people on Monday morning and the last 24 hours has been filled with friends and family providing various options. It’s a nice feeling to know that there is so much love and support out there. This “journey” has really helped us be humble enough to ask for help and rely on others. Thank you to each of you who has spent time and energy to help look.

Here’s some background on my approach to what I’m looking for in these two months in HK. I want to spend as little as possible because I really don’t see this as a place I would call home. It’s a practical place to sleep, store luggage and even an optional place to cook. We’ll share more about our dream for a place in Taipei in a separate entry… but this is basically the opposite of what we call “home” in Toronto or even Taipei. I’m looking for no frills place. Based on what I’ve seen in the last few days, it seems like no frills is what I’m going to get. Many of these “studio” apartments (more like rooms) are 150 to 200 sq ft. I believe that’s just about the size of my Toyota Sienna!

Will cut those short for now, otherwise, won’t get to ever posting anything. This has been sitting in my outbox for a few days now. Will share some background and thoughts around finances on this trip shortly. In the meantime, if anybody knows of value accommodations, please let me know!

Thank you!

Keeping up to date on a blog is a lot more difficult that Sandra and I both thought! I think our realistic objectives for this space are to use it as a forum for our own reflection, sharing with each of you and for you to feedback any comments or thoughts to us. The site won’t be updated daily, especially in this interim period as we are preparing for the transition. There are so many thoughts flowing through my mind that I’d like to get out on this site, if not for posting, simply for archiving and later reflection, but it seems more and more difficult to be able to find some time to sit down and do this!

We do want to say thank you to those of you who have sent in words of surprise, encouragement and contacts for Asia. As each day goes by since we’ve made our decision, we’re more and more confident that this is the right step for us to make at this time. While we will miss life here, we think it will be healthy for us, as individuals, and as a couple, to learn to step outside of our crazy routine, learn to rely on each other, and learn to say, I need help and to be served by others.

FAQ – 11 Hollybrook Cres.

I should get back to work, so I’ll keep this post short by starting a FAQ. For some reason, the most common question to date hasn’t been what will you be doing, have you decided on a mission organization or church, what will you do about the stuff you’re involved in here, etc. It has been, what will you do about the house!?

The simple answer is that we’ll be keeping the house! Keeping the house makes the physical and psychological transition much easier for us and our families. Financially, its probably not the most shrewd decision, but it’s a safety net and comfort that we’re not ready to make a full decision on. We agreed to revisit this in a year or year and a half time. Sandra’s cousin will continue to stay with us as well as a new friend from China will be living upstairs. So some with their help, we should be able to manage the house.

I’m personally glad we don’t have to deal with the emotional decision about selling the house. Even though we’ve only had the house for three years, we already have lots of memories of great conversations, small group meetings, mission orientation sessions, etc. When we bought the house, we really wanted to dedicate this house as something that was not ours, but for our community – friends, church, neighbours, etc. We hope that overall, we’ve been faithful in this. We hope that even in our absence, that our friends will continue to be comfortable using our home as a place of community and relationship building.

Last night we studied Acts 2 in our small group. While the study wasn’t as organized as I liked it to be, I was personally glad in the preparation, I had a chance to be reminded of the verse that Sandra and I chose as the theme verse for our wedding. We’ve used this concept of the local church for our decisions around our house at 11 Hollybrook Crescent and hope that this verse will also drive our life and ministry in Asia. I’ll end my babbling here and just let the word of God explain what we mean:

Acts 2:42-47:

The Fellowship of the Believers

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.