Beijing Experiences...

Hi All,

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and a LOT has happened. The past two weeks have been packed with new experiences, challenges and many blessings with about 12 days in Beijing and a few days of recuperation!

This trip to Beijing was one of those trips where you’ll remember for a long time. From a work and personal level, I would say this is one of the most significant milestones since coming out here to Asia. It probably isn’t a coincidence that the trip happened almost exactly six months since I first landed here in the Far East at that meeting in Bangkok. A great reminder of why we were called to be here and to not let time pass by without pressing on!

The purpose of the trip was summed up with last minute pre-launch preparations, launching of our “Tool” in the Far East with representatives from almost every country in the Area, a weekend of spending time with co-workers and old friends and a few extra days of L&D meetings (my other job) including developing our Taiwan L&D team.

I’m bursting with thoughts spinning through my mind about the last two weeks. I’ll take a cue from work where I’m writing a series of short “promotional” articles about the new Tool to be released a bit at a time to everyone. So… stay tuned for a series on Beijing.

I will start and sum up the experience by saying that the initial “passion” and “diversity” that we observed in Beijing the first time we set foot here on our STM trip 1 1/2 years ago stays alive with us today. I really feel like the thoughts of Paul when he said he was trying to be “all things to all people”. A Partner in Toronto used to say – learn to work hard and play hard… well… we certainly did that in Beijing. A typical day started with 6:45am breakfast with some team members at the hotel and get to the office to do some last minute changes before the 8:30am start of our launch learning program. We would push the participants (and us) hard until upwards of 6:30pm (towards the end of the first week we went from taking out the 80 participants to a sit-down lunch to ordering in Subway for a 30 minute lunch)! After the course, we would have small or large group dinners from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at some of Beijing’s best restaurants and then typically different crowds of people would break out and do additional activities from 9:00pm until … well.. I think my record was 2:00am, but I heard our Korean delegates were up until 5:00am!

Its packed experiences like this... lots of opportunities to talk, complain, listen, challenge, etc.. that you really get to know people. I feel like there have been breakthrough in relationships with many people. I’ll write a bit more about some of the highlights, but these breakthroughs include reconciliation of some working relationships, networking with new friends, discovery of strategically placed Christians, opening up of very interesting conversations about our spiritual walks and insights into people.

Stay tuned for more to come…

All Grown Up

The End ~ from Now We Are Six (A.A. Milne)

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six,
I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

Ray & I had the opportunity to visit a friend we met in Shanxi, China 2 years ago. Some of you might remember V. We were teaching English to a group of high school students in Shanxi and that same week of the English Camp, he had received his acceptance letter for Tsinghua University in Beijing. It is one of the most prestigious universities in China. We were very happy for him.

Since then we have dropped by Beijing once but missed him and were really hoping to catch up with him during our trip this past week. Well we did, and it was a great visit. He is truly growing to be a very mature young man.

Talking to him we learned a lot about the lifestyle of a university student in China. Most students work very hard, are very stressed, and seek to strive ahead so they can land a good job. Especially in Tsinghua, most students are the best of the country, and in the words of V, "are Geniuses!".

But despite all of the stress and pressure of university, we were very impressed by the way V has been living his life. He manages to stay ahead of his studies, plays in basketball competitions, swims, hangs out with his friends, greets visitors to the university as a guide, joins clubs, visits his family 8-10 hours away, attends university required speeches on a weekly basis AND spends time with his girlfriend from another campus! Since we last saw him 2 years ago, he lost 14 kilos! We were also impressed by his humility and hospitality. He gave us a Tsinghua souvenir, and insisted on treating us! When we tried to fight for the bill, we sadly lost because the university cafeteria (which was very delicious and fancy btw) only accepted the university swipe card (kind of like the University of Waterloo WATcard).

The university campus was beautiful! Ray commented that it reminded him of the Stanford University campus. There were beautiful blossoms, a lake, well manicured gardens, and interesting architecture too! The air was even cleaner than the downtown area of Beijing which was full of dust from the construction and smog.

But even here, in this tranquil and scholastic environment, you see the progression of China. New facilities were being built left, right and centre. Dormitories were brand new. Cafeterias provided a large eclectic selection of cuisine, all at a very reasonable price of 1-4 RMB per dish, and in a very modern facility. The sports centres were all Olympic standards (and will in fact be used for the Beijing 2008 Olympics) and were used frequently (as V was quick to point out) by celebrity athletes as training facilities. V also highlighted importantly that the new Medical buildings that have been built will be fashioned with the latest state of the art equipment in order to attract higher calibre professors (e.g. Noble prize winners) to up the research standard of the Medical Department.

All of China is trying to spread it's wing to be the best at everything! In the minds of the billions of people living in the Centre Country (中國), the Arts, Sports, Technology, Science, and Literature are not going to be an obstacle for them. Like V, China is "growing up".

One of the main lecture halls in Tsing Hua University.


Peach blossoms in one of the oldest parts of the University.


The Olympic size swimming pool that will be used by the Chinese Olympic team for training during the 2008 Olympics.


The largest of many cafeteria facilities dotting the campus.


Our friend V, a young man now!

Confusing Words

I'm back after a week of being in Beijing. (We'll be sure to include something about Beijing in the next entry) It's nice being back. I missed my classmates, and I missed the regularity of being in Taipei. Although my days are quite free, there is in some way a regularity to it and it's nice to be back.

Today we started a new chapter about 一元能買什麼 (What can you buy with $1?). There was a lot of vocabulary about things you can buy (e.g. hardware, wool, toys, etc.) and then some other vocabulary words about calculating, income, economics etc. Well in one of the sentences they were talking about how school statistics show that about 1/2 of students use 保險套 which I directly translated to be "an insurance package". But I wanted to make sure that I translated it correctly so I asked the teacher. Well to my embarrassment the word actually refers to "condoms". Everyone got a good laugh out of that!

I've included below my first Chinese essay for you to read if you wish. It's about "My Ideal Family". It's not the greatest, but I'm improving slowly! (The highlighted words are vocabulary words from our chapter about family)

理想的家庭

現代的家庭越來越小。 以前，我祖父祖母這個年代比較流行有很大的家庭，生得越多孩子就越好。可是現代人比較注重他們自己工作發展， 而且覺得養小孩會有很多煩惱， 因此很多夫婦都只有一兩個孩子。

我的雙親都來自很大的家庭。 我爸爸有五個兄弟姐妹, 我媽媽是十個孩子之中最大的。 我爸爸來自很溫暖的家。 雖然我奶奶很注重念書所以比較嚴格， 但是對每一個孩子都一樣的疼愛。 因此， 他們的孩子全部都有很好的職業，而且會照顧對方。 我媽媽的家因爲比較大，而且我外公比較受寵他的兒子，所以很多時候他們的家都會吵鬧。 因爲我媽媽是最大，很多時候家裏遇到困難都要我媽媽幫忙。

由於我爸爸媽媽都來自很大的家庭，因此我們家裏只有我們三個人。 他們覺得有一個孩子已經很滿足了。我小的時候，雖然有很多堂親跟我一起長大， 但是 我常常都希望有我自己的弟弟或是妹妹陪我一起玩。 到現在我都很羡慕有兄弟姐妹的人可以一起分享生活。

我希望我跟我先生會有一個不太小， 不太大的溫暖家庭。有三到四個小孩，雖然可能會很熱鬧， 但是可以感覺到多一 點家人的愛心這就是真正辛福的家庭。

The Plausible Impossible

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:20-21

I've been reminded several times lately of how with God all things are possible.

Reading the Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers has been really great! The faith of the five women highlighted including Ruth, Rahab, Tamar and Mary (I haven't read Bathsheba yet) has really encouraged me and taught me a lot about leaning on God. The most recent book that I read about Rahab describes a Canaanite (non-Jewish) prostitute who decides to shelter two Jewish spies because she believed that putting her faith in God (the God of the Jews) was so much more worthy than placing her faith in her King. As the story unfolds you see God parting the Jordan River, crumbling the mighty walls of Jericho, and even grafting Rahab, the non-Jewish prostitute into the genealogy of Jesus because of her great faith. Amazing!

Incidentally I then watched a movie called "Facing the Giants". I really expected it to be a typical feel good sports movie that we just picked up at the local DVD store, but it turned out to be a feel good Christian sports movie. The acting really wasn't that good and there were quite a few "cheesy" lines, but both Ray and I finished watching the movie and really felt like God had spoken to us through the movie. I definitely left the movie with the line "Nothing is impossible with God!" running through my mind the whole time.

I guess all of my problems seem so small and little in the hands of our Almighty God, Creator of Everything! Like clay in a potter's hand!


This is a picture of a potter when we went to the Ceramic town called Ying Ge. He made the pot without looking!

Easter Reflections...

Hello All,

This post has been sitting in the "draft" box since last weekend. It's been a long week as we prep for the launch in the Far East of the project I've been working on. We're all headed to Beijing for the launch event / course. I'm looking forward to spending time in Beijing in a different context. The last two, and only two, trips to Beijing have been with our mission team... both wonderful experiences. Beijing still holds a special spot in our hearts as it was the first place we stepped foot into China as we started our journey in the last two to three years.

Now... with most of the preparation for the week under way, and en route to Beijing in the comfort of the Cathay Pacific lounge, complementary beef noodle soup and a glass of red wine, I can finally take a break from work and post the blog... (it takes six hours to get to Beijing because we can't fly "direct" into mainland China from Taiwan!)

... anyhow.. here's a partially finished journal entry on Easter thinking...

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

- Romans 6:1-14

We've had quite a busy and tiring weekend. A lot busier than I would have wanted an Easter weekend to be, however, a good weekend from many fronts. There wasn't much "work" involved, even though tomorrow, Monday, will mark the beginning of a number of weeks of travel and execution as we go for our official launch of our new audit tool in the Far East in Beijing and my Learning and Development team kicks off our core course schedule.

We spent a lot of time with people this weekend. Two co-workers from my team in HK came over for a few days .. It's an extended weekend in HK for them. One of them is actually staying with us. We haven't really had a chance to know each too well outside of work, but this has been a good chance to build some trust and hopefully friendship over the last few days. We can see how God is using this weekend as an opportunity for him to see a bit into the life that we're trying to build in Taiwan. He even joined our Friday fellowship outing that Sandra blogged about... It turns out that he has had some exposure to church and has relatives who are involved in church in HK. An unexpected opportunity to develop a relationship and share with one another. It's something that I found harder to do in HK. It has taken some time to build up relationships with people. This theme of opening doors, seeing barriers come down and sharing more personally seems to be a recurring theme in the last few days - literally. I'm not sure what changed.. or maybe it was time, but relationships are blossoming as we speak all over. In one company internal instant messaging conversation, another colleague in HK came out and asked if I was a Christian... Praise God for these opportunities.

Today, I had a chance to spend some time at home alone.. Our friend headed up to the Hot Springs and Sandra was out with the Orphanage ministry. As I think about some of these new turning points in relationships with new friends at church and co-workers... I'm also reflecting upon two invitations to baptisms of friends that are happening in Toronto this weekend. We won't be able to attend in person, but the invitation to this intimate, real, but public statement of these two sisters that they profess to be born-again Christians is a wonderful event!

I wouldn't be able to do justice to the incredible power of their stories and journeys to discover the Truth in their live, but I will share a bit about how the have been an encouragement to Sandra and I. These two stories have some unique and symbolic parallels in our own life journey. The first friend entered into our life near the beginning of our life and ministry on campus and CCF (Chinese Christian Fellowship - as we are first learning to love and reach out to fellow students on campus. The second friend only entered into our life last year near the beginning of our commitment to learning to love and reach out to mainland Chinese speaking friends. We have had the privilege to see and witness both of these friends come to their decision to become Christians and its been WONDERFUL! To my knowledge, both of these friends do not know each other, but as I think about how God has blessed us with their lives, there are some lessons learned from these two friends that I'm reflecting on this weekend:

1. God provided many, many different people to love, care for and patiently explain and search for the Truth of the Gospel message - we don't "help" people by human effort or methods, but we may or may not be instruments of God in his intense desire for us to return to Him - it was never about any single one of us or even all of us... it was God;
2. God's Word, not ours, is what truly changes people - I'm not sure Sandra and I are natural or good at sharing the Gospel, but what I will always remember from these two sisters is that God's Word is like a sword that pierces into people's heart. These two friends took time in their journey and I believe that it was because they both had a desire to read the Bible directly (rather than listen to us "Christians") that they found God. I will never forget the time where SK came back to one of our Bible studies with sticky tabs and notes in her Bible - in my inexperience, I was truly amazed. That picture continues to inspire me today as we live our lives out here in Asia;
3. Don't be Shy in living and sharing our your life - Sandra is much better at this one than I am. I'm naturally a very private and reserved person, to the point where at times, it might not be healthy and I lose out on opportunities - in work, life, whatever. To me, one of the most intimate parts of a Christian life is prayer - a time where Christians individually or collectively spend time in conversation with God... To those who don't have much experience with church you would think that this would be a "different", "unusual", "uncomfortable", etc. feeling?? Well.. the other side of it is that if people are interested in finding out about Christianity, you would be denying them from observing and experiencing the essence of Christianity - a relationship with God! Back in university.. we had these prayer meetings where we would invite people to come pray together in one of the study rooms on campus. Again, natural reaction would be to invite Christians... well.. fortunately, we did invite SK to our prayer meetings and there were numerous times when the prayer meeting was just Sandra, SK and myself. For months and months we would meet and the skeptical and unfaithful side of me wondered if this was awkward, etc. etc.. Fast forward almost ten years later and I also wondered if T would be uncomfortable if we invited her to our Bible Study, Prayer Meeting or whatever.. Same thing this weekend wondering if my HK co-worker, perhaps not even knowing that we were Christian and just looking for a place to crash for the weekend was invited into the middle of a fellowship event happening in our apartment! Well... natural feelings aside, this weekend, I'm reminded that if we are truly living our lives for Christ, then there is nothing that we should be ashamed with. If we strive to live our lives with true accountability and integrity.. people usually respect that even if they hold different beliefs. It was a little awkward to have someone we didn't know well at all share life with us this weekend, but it was a great reminder!
4. Love and care for people as much as we can... and God will do the rest.

I'm sure there are many other thoughts.. but I think I'll end the thought here. To these two friends who have found their God and their path in life... we thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your life. We have found great encouragement and blessing to see how you've slowly, but surely, responded to God's call in your life. It helps us to reflect upon our own relationship with God... and wish for others to share this as well.

As I finish this entry and think about the journey to Beijing... I also think about friends and coworkers from countries all over the Far East that will be there. These business trips are intense.. take lots of preparation and work before, during and after.. but we also subscribe to the thought of work hard and play hard. Beijing of all places, is a treat and first to many from outside of China. We'll have the weekend and some evenings to explore, hangout and network. I'm starting to really enjoying these meetings and getting together with people - a sign that friendships are developing. Looking forward to see what God has in store for us in Beijing.

ray

Welcome to AA (Addictions Anonymous)

It's like I can't breathe

It's like I can't see anything

Nothing but you

I'm addicted to you

It's like I can't think

Without you interrupting me

In my thoughts

In my dreams

You've taken over me

It's like I'm not me

It's like I'm not me

(Lyrics from "Addicted" ~ Kelly Clarkson)

Over the past 48 hours it has become clear to me about what an addiction is. It is amazing how quickly a person can be consumed by something. Addictions can be alcohol, drugs, gambling, people, video games....in my case it has been Facebook (Red to emphasize the badness of it!). I don't mean to make light of those who really struggle with their addictions but I really can empathize with those who are addicted. It's not just the undesireable action that makes the addiction, but it's the thought process and the constant desire to continue the action.

Yesterday we went out on an outing with our fellowship to a place called 内灣 (Nei Wan) which was a quaint little Hakka village south-west of Taipei City. We enjoyed a lot of great 小吃 (snack foods), wandering around quaint little shops all huddled in the valley of magnificent scenery. Ray even got to drive for the first time in Taiwan! (Somebody from the fellowship lent the group of us a car to drive for the day and Ray and I happened to be one of the few people with a driver's license.) Afterwards, the fellowship group came over for a pizza party and we had lots of fun playing this name game that my cousin AF had taught us which is kind of like Taboo.

However, despite all of this fun, in the back of my mind I was STILL thinking about "Hmmm...I wonder if that person is on Facebook?" and "Oh! I should write that on so-and-so's wall!" and more importantly "I wonder if I have more friends than Ray right now?" Ahhh......! Hopefully this is just a phase and soon enough I will be content again with just e-mailing and blogging.

Still Looking for Board Games...

Okay, here's my attempt at a short post. We had an unexpected last minute visitor from Toronto who happened to come to Taipei on a cheap Hong Kong tour. We met him near his hotel which is in a "not so nice anymore" area of Taipei and decided to go to the "Snake Alley" night market (Huaxi). All of us don't really like snakes, and I'm quite frankly, afraid of them!

We walked half way down the alley and decided we weren't enjoying the experience and turned back. As I was half talking to our friend B and half trying to avoid eye contact with any of the snakes or snake handlers, Sandra says "hey guys, let's go look here".

I see this shop selling DVDs of ... well there's no other way of putting it.. porn and Sandra walking right into it. There's no denying that there's a table full of DVDs with skin all over the cover and a not so discrete Hello Kitty cloth screen door (sorry Helly Kitty fans!) and Sandra walking right into it. I'm thinking - what are you doing and I'm not going into a porn shop in the middle of Snake Alley! It took Sandra about 30 seconds to catch-up to our observations and she quickly turned around embarassed.

Poor Sandra was quite embarassed. She saw something she thought resembled board games and thought this was a board game store.

Huaxi night market is one of the oldest and now darkest night markets in Taipei... I won't elaborate on the details.. but the experience was very short and we feel we don't need to explore much further. Perhaps this may be an answer to the question on my last blog entry on counterfit board games (which I'm still not convinced exist)... we're literally being "deceived" by the dark side!

Quite sad to see a darker side of Taipei... its also clear from city government policy that this area is not where money is invested (at the other extreme is the 101 Building / Xinyi area where lots is being invested).

No pictures for the post today!

Back from Malaysia

Sandra and I are back from our short trip to Malaysia. I had meetings from Monday to Friday and Sandra came down from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening. We spent all of our time in KL (Kuala Lumpur), the capital and largest city in Malaysia.

From a work perspective, it was a good meeting - learning and people (sometimes known as HR) leaders from all the countries in the Far East Area. I found it personally very educational and inspiring to hear about all of the initiatives across the area. Any observer would notice that there clearly are some countries that are more advanced than others even though we have similar business models, methodologies and initiatives. I also couldn't help have that heavy and sinking feeling as the week went by how behind we are in some of our infrastructure and programs. On one hand it validates that my job is important and critical, on the other hand, it can be quite discouraging how much needs to be accomplished! Overall, I came out of it hopeful but and with a healthy sense of anxiety to move on with things in Taiwan. I called a meeting with my direct reports first thing Monday morning and dropped a whole list of to-dos and action items. One of them kindly reminded me that this week is a three day work week! (No, we don't get Good Friday off, but we do get Tomb Sweeping day off as a public holiday, but it does work out).

We had a wonderful time catching up with our friend JW. One of my best friends and roommates from university who is in Malaysia doing research for his PhD program. JW has always challenged me in his non-confrontational but confrontational way (yes, I think I typed it right). Through questions and his own genuine seeking, I am challenged to live my life as a Christian in a more real way than ever. He's been in Malaysia a few weeks now, so he was a good guide to local food.

During the week, I also had a chance to meet some new Malaysian co-workers. I was telling Sandra and JW that it was a little unexpected that I'm developing potential and closer friendships with co-workers from different countries and relatively less in Taiwan. Great, but not the way I expected things to turn out. It was great having local hosts to take us eat to what we termed as "local local" food (meaning staying away from the international hotels and aka "expensive food" although we also did this a few nights thanks to uncle E). Many of these same people will be heading up to Beijing for our tool launch in mid-April, so are already using instant messaging bandwidth to plan weekend activities in Beijing. I'm thankful for these new relationships.

The theme of diversity in social-economical circles continues to impress upon me as we spent a few days in KL. It reinforces how somewhat "sheltered" I felt in Canada with its large middle class and growing up middle class. In Asia there are lots of people who would be undeniably "poor" and lots undeniably "rich" (financially). In between, there's even more and I think it's more difficult to say "middle class". Per a few local friends, the average income in Malaysia is about US$4,000 per year. Yet you see all sorts of new and expensive imported cars. The cars are even more expensive than you'd think with literally hundreds of percent in import tariffs! The week in KL was a cultural tour in different social and economical circles (to a certain extent). My cheapest meal was heading out with local co-workers to each Indian food off the back of a truck (yes, local unlicensed food vendors set-up a lunch spread of maybe 30-40 different dishes on a flat bed truck around the corner from the office). You pick your various dishes and with a quick eyeball of the food, I was charged 4 Ringgit, just over US$1. This would probably be a working to working middle class lunch. (btw, I didn't get sick even though this was day two and I broke all the common sense travelling rules - street food, uncooked fruit/vegetables, ice and milk from my local milk tea served in a bag - wonderful!). At the other end of the spectrum was the US$100 aged Angus Australian rib-eye steak dinner, clam chowder with beef bacon (Malaysia is over 50% Muslin), mashed potatoes with truffle oil, etc. (For those of you who are business travellers, the KL Hilton is by far my favourite Hilton!.. don't worry, we moved to a more budget alternative for the weekend)

The other key impression of Malaysia was the absolute mix of languages and dialects. Guidebooks vary, but just over 50% are Malay, 25-30% Chinese, Indian and other. I knew that many of the Chinese in Malaysia come originally from Fukien province in China but what I didn't expect was the significant use of Cantonese as well. I didn't know whether to feel confused or impressed with the ability of many of the local people we met who could switch between dialects without a blink. Many of the ethnic Chinese taxi drivers or street hawkers (food establishments) would flip between English, Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese and presumably Fukien dialect (from which Taiwanese dialect has its roots). We were joking that maybe we should have gone to Malaysia to learn Mandarin! Quite impressive... In fact, from the countries represented in our business meeting the following could speak some form of Mandarin - China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (of course), Singapore, Guam (yes, a Chinese partner in Guam, and yes, we have an office in Guam) and even the Korean partner could read Chinese and make better attempts at speaking Mandarin! For my Monday Mandarin class, I was tongue twisted for the first 30 minutes because I was mixing up my tones - immersion does help your language studies!

KL is a beautiful city with really interesting ethnic diversity. Commercially it is quite developed and advanced. We enjoyed visiting some of the more ethnically concentrated parts of the city - Chinatown, Little India and an area called Bukit Bintang (this is the posh upscale are of 5 star hotels, shady massage parlours, trendy night clubs and local street hawker markets)... attracts a unique and diverse crowd of its own.

On the Saturday night, we were enjoying a traditional Malaysian Chinese meal in the middle of a street with many open air street hawker food stands (I must stay that we think this might even beat the Taiwan night market) ... enjoying our BBQed stingray, fresh spicy curry shrimp, satay skewers and large bottles of Tiger beer.. contemplating whether we would find a church to go to or not (a week in KL and no churches in sight!) and there down the road, was a bright, big and blue neon cross - the KL Baptist Church! So the next morning, we joined 500 other people in the English service of what must be one of the larger churches in KL. The senior pastor was speaking and interestingly enough shared about his recent trip to the Baptist convention delegation meeting to discuss and evaluation the definition and meaning of being a "Baptist". What a blessing to witness God's work in different parts of the world and sing the familiar and comforting "Shine Jesus Shine"!

I'll end with an anecdote for our board game playing friends from back home. JW is an avid Settlers of Catan player and has also gotten some of his UK friends into it. He heard that there was an entire black market for fake board games in Malaysia - including Settlers, Monopoly and who knows what. Even though we hadn't fully decided our ethical stance on the "purchase" of such items, the three of us were determined to find and witness the quality and availability of such "copies". In the end, we were disappointed that after trips to Chinatown, various local markets in complexes and the streets, we didn't get our chance to face the temptation or opportunity to purchase such items! We did find lots of branded shoes, shirts (including ones with HUGE six inch polo logos and watches. You can get some more common Rolexes for 10 Ringgit (less than US$3) - no I'm not taking orders. I'm still skeptical, but our friend JW has a few more weeks to check it out. For now, I'll hold on to my Ringgit and see if I'll do the "right" thing when and if the opportunity comes... (can't I even purchase one for interest and not for "use"!)?


Some scenes of the different "landscape" of KL. It's quite the mixture of commercial development and traditional buildings.






Here is a typical street with the "street hawker" stands - great local food! For the record, the three of us officially don't like Durian!



A change of scenery around the corner to the upscale bar and shopping facility where the rich and famous of KL come to be seen.






Church in KL - see the neon cross at the end of the street?