Hong Kong 2007

Many people have been asking about my experience in Hong Kong and I’ve not been able to give a substantial answer.  There was just so much that happened that it was quite difficult to summarize in just a few words.  Being home for a few weeks, I can finally put my thoughts into coherent sentences.   I think the biggest thing that I learned from the entire trip is having faith.

            Upon hearing about the opportunity of teaching in HK, I was really excited about going.  I was meaning to find some sort of a teaching internship to gain experience.  My friend Mike had introduced me to a school in HK and I began emailing the principal’s wife (Mrs. Chan) to learn more information about the trip.  In the emails, it told us that the trip would be more of a short term mission, where we would evangelize to students and plan activities as well.  This caught me a little off-guard because I wasn’t really sure if it would be like working at a job, or an internship, or how a mission trip would be all bundled up in it.  I was thoroughly confused and didn’t know what to do but pray.  I asked God, ‘what exactly am I going to do in HK?’  How am I going to pay for this trip? Are they going to pay me anything? What if my Chinese isn’t good enough? Where am I going to sleep?  Shouldn’t I be using my summer to make as much money as possible so I can pay for school?  I had many doubts and concerns and this is where my lesson on faith became apparent.  I realized that when God wants you to do something, He will make it possible.  So basically what else can I do but say ‘ok…whatever you want big guy.’  Soon enough my sister offered to pay for my plane ride and the school offered a place to live.  God offered me something great, so being the genius that I am…I took it =D.

            As I took a step of faith to embark on this mission trip with Mike and Vivian, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into.  But God is faithful (duh).  On the first day, my grandpa and I, along with my massive suitcase went to Diamond Hill and found the school. This in itself was an amazing feat.  First of all I didn’t even know the name of the school!  All I knew was the neighborhood it was in (Diamond Hill) and the street name (in English!).  I couldn’t exactly tell my grandpa what street it was on and he insisted on taking a minibus there when Mrs. Chan said to take the MTR (subway).  To make a long story short, I made it to the school exhausted and my shirt was soaked with sweat.  The guest house and the school itself turned out to be a really nice place.

            That day I also met a very interesting group of characters that I would get to know and have a lot of fun with.  The first is Vivian who is like one of those friends that all your friends know but you’ve never met before.  She’s cool…sometimes =D.  Then there is Hosanna, she is super crazy and at times pure evil.  Yet I thank God for her.  She led us for the time we were there and was like our chaperone haha.  Lau Bei is super cool and we love hanging out with him but too bad he had to stay in the office all the time lol.  Karen never does any work at the office but always acts like she is.  Later I met Gum Yu, she is really cool and help us out a lot.  And also Mercedes who is incredibly talented on the piano and perhaps a little to mature for our little antics.

            So what exactly did I do?  The first few events were assemblies for the school.  We led worship and shared a bit about doing short term missions.  We wanted to get the older students to be involved in this community service project that we were planning.  This project (called Love Your Neighbor) was a week-long day camp program for primary school students that lived in Tse Wan Shan.  Tse Wan Shan is a neighborhood right next to our school and is one of the poorest and neediest neighborhoods in Hong Kong.  There are many elderly there as well as many children with nothing to do during their summer break.  Our program worked with a church in the neighborhood and aimed to give the kids something fun to do as well as teach them about God (and some English too). 

            However there were just a couple of problems.  We needed those older students from the school to sign up and help us out with the program.  Also, my flight back to New York was for mid-way into the week of the program.  We put our faith in Him, prayed…and soon enough we had about 20 something helpers for the week.  As for my plane ticket, at my uncle Ricky’s (an uncle I’ve never met) wedding, his aunt Doris sat at our table.  We talked and it turns out that she works for Northwest Airlines…and yes, you guessed it, that’s my airline back to NY…how convenient!  The next thing I know, she helped me change the date and even waived the fee.  Everything just works so much better and life is just easier when you’ve got connections…and who better to have your back than God?  On the day that I left, I was bumped to business class to Tokyo.  Doris even asked the pilot to let me sit in the cockpit and take pictures!

            What could possibly be more awesome than that? Well I’ll tell you.  Our “Love Your Neighbor” project went great.  All our planning and hard work paid off.  The days were tough and there were times where I had no idea what to do but we kept at it. We learned from our mistakes and just gave it our best shot. Whether it was teaching ‘phonics’ or how to make pizza bagels I had the awesomest time.  In the end, we had I think about 25 kids accept Christ…ho yeh!

            There were many times during the trip and even before going, where I was filled with uncertainty.  But God was there every step of the way, encouraging me to just trust in Him.  I will remember all the fun times we had and the cool stuff we did but more importantly, this lesson in having faith is the most valuable experience that I gained.