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:
- 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;
- 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;
- 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!
- 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
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