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