Thursday, March 29, 2012

Asian Adventures

We had a wonderful time meeting with the Lahu leaders. We had good discussions and were able to address many of their questions about starting a training program here for pastors among the Lahu churches. They had a lot of questions because they are not used to being asked to receive teaching and then to pass it on to others. They feel inferior to the American pastors and teachers who usually come. We want to assure them that with the Lord’s help they can do a great job. Our hope is to lay a foundation that will in the future spread to Lahu churches throughout SE Asia. Our current plan is to have an initial pastors conference in September and then start out training a few months later.

It is quite hot here, averaging in the mid 90’s during the day and a little cooler in the evening. Our room gets down to about 87 at night so sleeping is a challenge. The first night I did not sleep well and really struggled with the various meetings we had the next day. We travelled several hours and met with pastors in some rural churches and finally in a large city. Somehow the Lord sustained me as I was hardly coherent for much of the time. We did stay in a hotel, for about $13 last night and it had air conditioning, or at least it began with it, and the room stayed around 75 so we slept well. Tonight the room is at 89 at 8:30 pm so we have a ways to go.

One evening we had dinner at a small roadside restaurant with outdoor seating under a thatched roof. We enjoyed unique and wonderful Thai food. As we were finishing a cat jumped up a pole and reached up into the thatching to grab a rat. All this happened over my head and I was rooting for the cat to keep a hold on the rat. He did and all ended well. We were glad it happened after we finished rather than at the beginning of the meal. God is good to us, and to the cat; I cannot speak for the rat.

Al

Friday, March 23, 2012

From Hong Kong to Chiang Mai

Our conference here in Hong Kong finishes tomorrow and we fly off to Chiang Mai, Thailand. It has been a great conference with about 20 national leaders from around the world attending. It has been fun to interact with them especially on training issues. I have been talking today with a leader from India about including training from a brother in Kenya into our training schedule. An Oriental Indian leader from NW India will also be attending one of our future training sessions. We are talking with the Kenyan about training in Haiti. That is just a sampling of the day’s discussions. Who knows what God will do with all this cooperation around the world.

We have been going out into Hong Kong in the evenings for our supper. We often ride the subway around town to various restaurants. Tonight we went to the American Chinese restaurant and it was the best I had ever eaten. Then we went to the laser show on Hong Kong bay. This is an incredible city. It also has a dark side as we walked by numerous prostitutes on the way from the subway to the restaurant. So sad.

Please pray for our time in Thailand as we build a relationship of trust with the Lahu leaders. We want to be culturally sensitive and genuine in our care for them. We will report on how it goes.

Al

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Pictures from Hong Kong





Photos: Fish market on Cheung Chau island, one of the ferries we traveled on, the landscape of the island, a market in Taipei.

Hong Kong

We’ve been on the road now for over a week and we are getting our first break to write. Our time in Taipei went very well. It was so good for us to see the Taguchi family. I mentored Jeff for a few years back in our time in Las Vegas. It was touching to see how much he attributed his work to that early relationship. It reminded me that even when you think your work is not that significant, it can be impacting to others with lasting results. Spending two days there also helped us adjust a bit to the time change before we started our training in Hong Kong.

It was a bit of a challenge to find our way from the airport to the island in the Hong Kong bay where our training took place. We rode a train, navigated through a major mall, and finally rode a ferry 45 minutes to the island. Then we wound through the village and up a steep hill to the retreat center dragging our three suitcases, briefcases and tired bodies along. We were thankful for the good night’s sleep and the beautiful surroundings.

The training went very well the first day. All but one of the ReachGlobal leaders who had registered showed up, and all embraced the training and were enthusiastic about how they might use it in various places in Asia and elsewhere. We think significant opportunities will come from all this, and we built some great relationships during the time as well. The second day was more challenging. One of the participants reached down to get something from his suitcase and his back immediately went into terrible spasms. I have never seen anyone in so much agony so quickly. He even started to go into shock. The camp nurse came and helped and then called an ambulance. The interesting thing is that there are no vehicles on the island except small ambulances and even they could not come all the way up to the camp. The attendants took him on a stretcher down to the ambulance and then they flew him by helicopter to the Hong Kong. He just was released today, 4 days later but must still lay flat for several more before he is flown home later this week. All of that basically ended the training but fortunately we had covered the majority on the first day.

We rode two ferries and a subway to get to our hotel in Hong Kong for the Lead Team meeting we are attending. Rolling the suitcases down the hill from the retreat center was almost as difficult as going up, really taxing our legs. I ended up having to carry a lot of luggage for us and another woman up a long flight of stairs out of the subway and have really been feeling it for the past several days. We have walked a lot around the city in the evenings going to dinner, etc. and both of us are quite sore. We need to get in better shape. Easier said...

Our meetings are going well and we are networking well on training issues. I am proud to say that our ReachGlobal staff is top notch with wonderful people serving the Lord wholeheartedly. We feel really blessed to be a part of this global missions effort. We have several more days of training and then set off for Chiang Mai, Thailand to establish the groundwork for training Lahu pastors there. We will blog as we are able. Thanks for standing with us as we travel and serve the Lord.

Al