little bits
Well, it’s been over a week since I returned home (alone) from Minnesota. There’s a lot to share and I doubt I’ll have the attention span to tell it all at once so it’ll likely take me a few blogs to sort everything out.
The time with our church family was busy. Nowthen has been going through a challenging time recently. Many people perceive this season to be one of significant problems, but I’m not one of them. Rather, I see this season of life at Nowthen as a chance for growth, progress and most importantly, reconciliation. I think sometimes the only way we will finally look past ourselves is when we’re forced to see what we really look like to others. My prayer is that my church is working through these challenges together, lovingly.
It was wonderful to see our students again. They are doing well, growing in many different ways and I am so proud of them. They will always hold a special place in our hearts. It’s hard to beat having 8 students and one adult running toward us at the airport when we arrived. That was great!
I also got to spend some quality time down at Crown. Due to my total ineptitude as a husband, Melissa and Isabella had to fly to PA a day early. (Mental note: learn to read a calendar). While there I got to spend some time with my friend Lem. He’s one of those guys that when we’re together, I feel like we are able to think through life in a whole different light. One thing he said has stayed with me since. He said that it seems like I am in the middle of not only exegeting scripture for a new group of students, but I’m also exegeting the culture in the context of the scripture. I’m going to write more about that in upcoming blogs, but wow, there’s a lot to that statement. How often do we try to separate the spiritual and cultural? I’ve been doing it too much instead of looking to see how the scriptures interpret the culture I’m in or vice versa. It’s been fun to think about.
Melissa and Isabella were hits of the time. I heard from so many how great Melissa looked. I’m so proud of how hard she has worked. She looks great, but that’s not what’s important (okay, I’m a big fan) but I’m more proud of how good she feels because of the hard work. And people noticed. Of course, Isabella was the big hit. Being so beautiful, how could she not be?
Speaking of Izzy, an interesting thing happened when we first got to church on Sunday. Our daughter loves people and usually is eager to get passed around. She’s my little extrovert. But on Sunday, she was quite reserved, almost hesitant (as much as an 8 month old can be) around all these new people. That’s not her usually and I wondered what the deal was. Until I realized something. She hasn’t been around that many Caucasian people since she was born and I think she was taking in all the funny looking people. My little girl was performing her own little ethnography at 8 months!
It felt great to be back in Minnesota, but I must say, it was also nice to be back home in HK. It’s our home now, and I missed it. That’s all for now.
The time with our church family was busy. Nowthen has been going through a challenging time recently. Many people perceive this season to be one of significant problems, but I’m not one of them. Rather, I see this season of life at Nowthen as a chance for growth, progress and most importantly, reconciliation. I think sometimes the only way we will finally look past ourselves is when we’re forced to see what we really look like to others. My prayer is that my church is working through these challenges together, lovingly.
It was wonderful to see our students again. They are doing well, growing in many different ways and I am so proud of them. They will always hold a special place in our hearts. It’s hard to beat having 8 students and one adult running toward us at the airport when we arrived. That was great!
I also got to spend some quality time down at Crown. Due to my total ineptitude as a husband, Melissa and Isabella had to fly to PA a day early. (Mental note: learn to read a calendar). While there I got to spend some time with my friend Lem. He’s one of those guys that when we’re together, I feel like we are able to think through life in a whole different light. One thing he said has stayed with me since. He said that it seems like I am in the middle of not only exegeting scripture for a new group of students, but I’m also exegeting the culture in the context of the scripture. I’m going to write more about that in upcoming blogs, but wow, there’s a lot to that statement. How often do we try to separate the spiritual and cultural? I’ve been doing it too much instead of looking to see how the scriptures interpret the culture I’m in or vice versa. It’s been fun to think about.
Melissa and Isabella were hits of the time. I heard from so many how great Melissa looked. I’m so proud of how hard she has worked. She looks great, but that’s not what’s important (okay, I’m a big fan) but I’m more proud of how good she feels because of the hard work. And people noticed. Of course, Isabella was the big hit. Being so beautiful, how could she not be?
Speaking of Izzy, an interesting thing happened when we first got to church on Sunday. Our daughter loves people and usually is eager to get passed around. She’s my little extrovert. But on Sunday, she was quite reserved, almost hesitant (as much as an 8 month old can be) around all these new people. That’s not her usually and I wondered what the deal was. Until I realized something. She hasn’t been around that many Caucasian people since she was born and I think she was taking in all the funny looking people. My little girl was performing her own little ethnography at 8 months!
It felt great to be back in Minnesota, but I must say, it was also nice to be back home in HK. It’s our home now, and I missed it. That’s all for now.
posted by Mike at 3:24 PM
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