June 7th to June 20th

These last two weeks had been amazing, I don't know where to start! But let's start with lighter stuff and build up from there. Last week, God had given me the chance to meet some of the volunteers at the St. Stephen's Society, which is a organization set up by the Christian missionary, Jackie Pullinger back in the fifties. It's purpose is to reach out to drug addicts and invite them to become part of God's family. The government gave them a beautiful plot of land on a hill in Shatin to establish their rehab. One of the friends of the head nurse (Pui Yee) at the orphanage had sold their flat, and wanted to give away the things in it, so Pui Yee remembered that the St. Stephen's Society needed more clothes, and drove them over to see what they can find there. We found clothes, baskets, mattresses, and tools, and they were really glad to receive all these donations. After we got back to their rehab, Craig gave me a tour, and that was pretty amazing. God has blessed their ministry so much, and I can see why, they have saved and provided homes and families for 50-60 addicts, and all this was done without a stable financial backing, just by relying on big and small donations over the years from people who learn about the ministry.

This week, we visited MV Doulos, which is the missions cruise ship that goes around the world selling books of a kinda for low prices, or in some countries, giving books away for free. This ship is owned by Operation Mobilization, and its goal is to go to different countries around the world and support them with food, water, and knowledge, and also through that, a testimony of the Christian faith. Pui Yee was part of a team that was going to go on a short term missions trip with OM, but it was cancelled because of some recent bombing in the area, so she was invited to go on a tour of the MV Doulos and she invited everyone else to go. It was quite amazing. Firstly, when we got there, Pui Yee, knowing my goal is set on serving orphans in Africa, introduced me to Mr. Lau, which turns out to be someone I have worked with before when I was serving at OM (summer 2002)! And then, she also found out that Mrs. Lau was part of her church back in London. It's so great to be blessed with re-aquaintances like these. And the tour was really fun too. They have 350 volunteers on the ship, ranging from doctors to dentists to firemen to engineers to laundry ladies and deckhands, and they have to pay to serve on the MV Doulos because of the heavy costs that the ship and the mission bears. It's pretty amazing still, it would be awesome to be part of that. But then again, it's not my calling, so I can only rejoice for those who are, I have somewhere else that I have to go to serve, but we're all serving the same God, and that's what counts!

Now to the meat of the week's happenings! Last week, I met a little girl called Tung Tung, and she has extra chemicals in her head that causes her to feel itchy on ever part of her skin all day long, and she would scratch without stopping even if it hurts and it bleeds, so what they do is that they wrap her up like a mummy and strap her to a chair, and put bandages on her arms to straighten them. She's also under-developed, so despite being 8, she's still really small and really cute. She has a deformed face, and her eyelids are too big that she's long learnt to lift her eyelid with her finger by poking her thumb into her eye, and that sometimes causes bleeding. And since she doesn't see so much, she's really attracted to the TV, so whenever we let her walk around, she would stand right up to the TV and touch it, and gurgle with joy. I hate seeing that happen, because it's not right, it's a big attraction even for normal children, but most parents would restrain them from getting up too close. Well, the first time I met her, I fell in love with her. I knew there was something I could do to help her, she just had so much extra energy stored up, being a child, and being in that chair makes her want to scratch. So I decided that I would take her for walks and play with her daily, so that she'll be distracted, and she'll be healthy and she'll strengthen her legs, and hopefully grow enough in other areas that the scratching will go away. That's my hope anyway. She's really smart and she realised that I was spending lots of time with her, so she recognises me and really enjoy being with me. It's such a joy! I would take her for walks everywhere away from the TV, and the heat outside, and we'd go upstairs to the dorms, or next door to the family unit call the Ark, which is for the more capable disabled children, who live in a family fashion to prepare them for adoption. It's my hope that one day, she'll be moved there. That would be good. But in the meantime, I'll adopt her in my heart, and love her like a daughter. I quickly found it heart breaking to restrain her from the TV and from scratching, but it's needed, and once she's free from her chair, and we're exploring the different places in the orphanage, it's become another world for us. And what's really good about all this is that she used to be restless at night because of the itching, but since I started spending so much time walking and being with her, she's become so exhausted that she falls asleep shortly after being put to bed. Thank God!

There's another girl called Wing Sze, and her testimony can be found on the HOLF website. She's 25, and she can't move below the neck and she coughs and suffers a lot from that, and she can't speak, but she learnt English just by listening to it, and is really smart. In short, there's nothing wrong with her brain. But the only way you can talk to her is to ask her yes/no questions, and she'll stick out her tongue to say yes. It's really hard, I tried talking to her but I can never formulate a series of questions to ask in order to converse with her. That gets me frustrated at times, and that's what happened yesterday. I tried to read to her, but she didn't like the book, and I didn't know for a while until she turned away her face and frowned. It must have been because it was a grade school fiction book, maybe she thought I was insulting her, but I really did like that book. Oh sigh, I didn't know what I could say to explain it. But a miracle happened! To me it was a miracle, because I couldn't tell her the things that I wanted her to know or to talk to her like I would to a normal person. I was taking care of Tung Tung, and we went into Wing Sze's family unit, and when Wing Sze watched me take care of Tung Tung with so much love and caution, she watched very intently and after a while, she joined in with her laughter. I'm glad she understood, and she could see how much I love Tung Tung, despite Tung Tung being different. Since both Tung Tung and Wing Sze enjoyed it, I think we'll go back there more often. Tung Tung likes exploring and the Ark is pretty cozy compared to the Big Unit that she lives in, which is more practical.

So I had a really wonderful week. And thanks for your prayers again. Please pray for my health, as I caught a cold last week, and all the coming in and out of air conditioned rooms and into the hot outdoors is causing the problem.

Oh, I also have a new roommate, he's called Lap Ching. He came to serve this summer instead of just visiting Hong Kong between school years. He's 18 and he has a great heart. There are also 3 American girls that will be joining us next week, once they've been quarantined for a week. They'll be such a joy to have, the kids will get a lot of quality time. Pray that I do spend more time with other kids once they're here, because I'm sure they'll give Tung Tung a lot of love too.

Also, a prayer of thanksgiving. One of the short-term volunteers here, after hearing about my calling, decided to help me fundraise amongst her friends and her church, that would be interesting. So pray for that. And pray that God will provide for me financially, so that I can support myself in this work without burdening my parents, which is the last thing I'd want to do.

Dear friends, thanks again for reading in. God bless, and have a great week!