Monday, is not too early for ice-cream

Last Monday was special.

T and I enjoy to invite people come over for dinner and be our guest, but that night, we invited ourselves to “R&I”‘s home. “R&I”* are our special friends, we love them dearly. That evening we want to honored them and show our appreciation. We made dinner, having some ice-cream as dessert. “I” said, “It is Monday. Isn’t it too early for ice-cream?” Why not my dear friend? Seize the present, isn’t it what “R” said before?

It was a relaxing evening. Sitting in the living room, having good conversation. I was suppose to honor my friends that evening but I felt like I was honored by them. I was honored as they accepted our appreciation, I was honored as they let us listened to them, I was honored  as we were trusted by them,  I was honored as they were being vulnerable in front of us, I was honored to be their friend.

Later in the week, I was laying on my bed and I couldn’t stop smiling. The spirit of joy was overflowing. How much difference will made when we are living in a culture of honor? I blessed my friends that evening, and I was blessed the whole week.

Tonight, “R” said, “Tomorrow is Monday.” (With the tone of “oh-no”). Maybe we could start off our week with a box of ice-cream and let someone know how much you appreciate him.

Have a joyful week.

leek, mushroom, bean curd 韭蔥、冬菇、豆腐

New Year Day, we took some leeks home from the farm. But I had no experience in cooking them. I met Joyce* online the other day, talked about fresh leek and she suggested that I should try to make the leek potato soup. First try. Taste extremely good.

1月1日，在農場拿了些韭蔥回家，我可從沒有煮韭蔥的經驗。在網上看到Joyce*，說到新鮮韭蔥，她說用來做薯仔燙吧！第一次煮韭蔥薯仔燙，非常美味。

***

Calvin Lee* and his family came for lunch not long ago. I served the dried mushroom that shipped from Hong Kong. Mrs. Lee told me that Korean loves to cook with dried mushroom as well but it is hard to find here. We also talked about bean curd, here we could only find the salty one. When Calvin and his family were missionary in Africa, Mrs. Lee made bean curd by herself even though it is hard to find soy bean there. After lunch, we gave them the rest of the dried mushroom as present and they were glad.

This morning, Calvin called and said his wife made some bean curd and like to give us some as well. They drove to our apartment, as they are in a rush, we received their gift in front of our block. Calvin said with a smile that they didn’t make a lot this time, and I said next time I will learn to make it with Mrs. Lee. This is a cloudy and windy day. Bean curd looks so white and peaceful.

不久前我們邀請了Calvin*一家人到來吃午飯。我用從香港寄來的冬菇宴客，Calvin太太說韓國人也愛吃冬菇，不過在這邊很難找到。我們又談到豆腐，在這兒到的只有鹹豆腐。Calvin一家在非洲宣教時，太太會自己做豆腐，不過黃豆不易找。飯後我們送還餘下的冬菇給他們，他們高興的收下。

這個早上，Calvin來電，說太太做了豆腐要給我們一些。他們開車到我們家，由於時間趕著，我們在門外收下親手做的豆腐。Calvin說做的不多，我說下一回我要學怎樣做。今天天陰大風，豆腐白白的很平靜。

***

Food make me think of hands. My hands that pull the leeks out of the field, hands that grow them in the farm, Mrs. Lee hands that made bean curd, Titus hands that chopping potatoes, Joyce hands that sent us the dried mushroom. Food shows our passion to life, shows love between people. In the last few weeks, we have been visiting friends and ate delicious food. The beauty and taste of the food, came people love to us.

這些食物，讓我想到雙手。我從農地拔出韭蔥的手、種韭蔥的人的手、Calvin太太做豆腐的手、Titus切薯仔的手、Joyce寄冬菇來的手。食物展現了對生命的熱愛，展現人與人之間的情。過去幾星期到朋友家中作客，吃到美味的菜色。食物的美，來自人們給我們的愛。

flashback 閃回

已是12月，這一年過得特別快，而我在這兒也只記下五段小事。自6月起也沒有在此寫下什麼，全因腦袋、心靈忙於體會充實的生活。我寫東西很慢，還沒想通一句句子，所想之事以已經轉了好幾回。以下是過去數月的閃回，用圖像代替文字，展現的卻只是現實的小部分。

It is December already. This year passed especially fast. I only put down 5 pieces of life here. Since June, I didn’t have a chance to write anything at this place. My heart and soul were experiencing fullness of life.  I write very slow. When ever I tried to form a sentence in my head, the idea already changed. The following are flashback of the past few months. I am using images instead of text. But what they are presenting are only glimpses of reality.

七月July - DTS畢業 DTS Graduation

八月August 龔來訪 Kung's visit

八月August 我們登羅馬尼亞的山 We clambed the mountain in Romania

九月September 準備過冬 prepare for the Winter

十月October 母親來訪 Mom's visit

十一月November 上課 leadership course

團年 | united with love

這晚終於取出自己醃的鹹蛋，黃用以蒸肉片，白則來炒瓜。開始醃蛋的日期，清楚寫在玻璃瓶上:12月28日。朋友說醃鹹蛋要一個月。大概因為忙碌的關係，不過一個月可就像很久之前的事。

每天上網時，總先看到有關埃及的新聞。埃及離這兒不遠，但讓我看近一點，這城身邊人的故事:青年女子從小在街長大，跟朋友們及男朋友一起生活。去年底她生了小孩子，可是卻不願帶嬰孩離開醫院回她露宿的「家」。嬰孩在醫院留了兩個月，我的朋友一直憂心，四出希望為這狀況找出路。又不時到醫院，看被遺棄的小女嬰。上星期，一個機會。青年女子跟她的小女嬰能一同搬進母親之家的宿舍。青年女子跟男友一同到過位於郊區的宿舍，覺得是不錯的方法。我的朋友跟他們到醫院接走嬰兒，由於她本初棄嬰，所以簽下聲明，青年女子跟女嬰必須一同住進宿舍，而不能帶走嬰兒到別的地方。搬進宿舍的下午，一切看似不錯的，青年女子也像要學當母親了。可到了晚上,她開始嚷著要走，說悶受不了。第二天，她走了，再次留下嬰孩，回到她的街頭。

因為忙碌，遠的近的真真實實正在發生的事,我們關心多少?能作多少?又能明白多少?

明天是年三十晚，是團年的時侯，有焦聚聯合的意思。願團聚生出愛，從而你我得到力量。

明晚不以鹹蛋宴客，不過有很多好菜，十五大人四個小孩一個BB，我想我應付得來的。

Tonight I finally tasted the “salty egg” that I pickled myself. I used the yoke for steam pork, and used the egg white for vege stir-fry. I put the date that I put the eggs in the salt water clearly on the bottle: December 28. My friend told me that I need to put the egg in salt water for a month. Maybe because of business, this month seem so long.

Everyday when I get online, I saw the news about Egypt. Egypt is not that far from here but I try to look closer. A story of people from this city. There is a young woman, grown up and lived in the street. Her life is with her friend and her boyfriend. By the end of last year, she gave birth to her baby girl. But she left the baby in the hospital and doesn’t want to take it with her and lives on the street. My friend cares about her, the baby and the situation a lot. She tried to look for solution and also visited the baby in the hospital. Last week, there was an open door. The young woman could have a chance to move into the mother’s home with the baby. Young woman and her boyfriend pay a visit to the dormitory and felt that it was a good way out. They took the baby from the hospital, promise that she could only stay with the baby if she staying at the mother’s home. That afternoon, everything seems fine and the young woman seems starting to learn to be a mom. And the night fall, she started to say that she wanted to leave. Next day, she left and went back to her street life, and the baby left behind again.

Because of business, how much we care about the things that happen close and far? How much we could do? And how much we really could understand?

Tomorrow night is the Chinese New Year’s eve, is an evening to unite with family. May we could unite with love and be strengthen.

I am not going to serve “salty egg” tomorrow night but there will be plenty of chinese food. There will be 15 adult, 4 kids and 1 baby… I think I could handle that.

主與我們同在 Emmanuel

平安夜到Mela與Calin*家中作客，過近乎傳統的羅馬尼亞平安夜。豐富的食物，他們說著鄉村過節的傳統。平安，記念主耶穌降生在我們當中。

聖誕祟拜後與T步行回家。街上人不多，店舖也關門了。像小時候過年,街上是沒有什麼人。平靜的聖誕。

Christmas Eve, me and Titus went to Mela & Calin’s* home. A Romanian Christmas. Mela prepared great food and they told us about the Romanian traditions. A night to remember Jesus was born and be among us.

Christmas day, after the service, me and Titus walked home. There wasn’t many people on the street and shops were closed. Like the Chinese New Year when I was a kid, the streets were empty. Peaceful Christmas

與主同在,想到在龔網誌讀到的。轉貼如下:
God is with us… Think of an entry on Kung’s blog:

The birth of Jesus means Emmanuel, God is with us. This is supposed very comforting and encouraging. But is this what Joseph had experienced? What is the meaning of Emmanuel? This is my concern today (Matt 1:18-25).

Unlike the Chinese god of fortune (財神), ‘God is with you’ does not imply that people would receive it unreservedly and happily, because to experience God is with you is very risky and costly, and this is the experience of Joseph. When Mary told Joseph what had been happened to her, Joseph found it hard to believe and accept. It was beyond imagination that Mary was carrying the Son of God. Had she had hallucinosis? This was why Joseph wanted to dismiss her. This would be a very painful decision to make if Joseph loved Mary deeply. But nothing had been said on the intimate relationship between Joseph and Mary. Since freedom of love was not the norm at that time, Joseph’s decision to dismiss Mary was more about the matter of righteousness than a matter of the struggle of love. To dismiss Mary quietly was his consideration of Mary’s image. Before implementing his decision, Joseph was told in a dream by an angel of the Lord that Mary’s conception was the work of the Holy Spirit, and the baby would be the savior of the people. The Scripture did not give us details of the possible inner struggle of Joseph, but simply described his reaction calmly and peacefully as that, ‘he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife (1:24).’ If the birth of Jesus means Emmanuel, Joseph has a very different experience of ‘God is with us’.

‘God is with us’ is not necessarily bringing us peace and fortune. Contrarily, it brings us trouble and embarrassed. This is not because God is a trouble God, but God comes to us in a vulnerable form. This is the experience of Joseph. Even though an angel of the Lord said that the new born baby was Emmanuel, Joseph did not feel peace at all. On the one hand, he was fallen into the struggle of dismissing Mary. On the other hand, he and his family fled to Egypt in order to escape the killing caused by the birth of Jesus. My interpretation has no implication to suggest that it is better not to have God with us. Rather the nature of ‘with’ is not necessarily about fortune. On one occasion, I met a friend who was a psychiatric doctor. He shared with me that he had a serious mentally retarded daughter, but all the members of the family considered her as the most precious. It is hardly to understand his remark, not only because taking care of the serious mentally retarded is exhausted, but also because the carerer would lose much freedom. However, his remark is shared by many families with similar situation. ‘God is with us’ is to retrieve our love and passion for the vulnerable, because God has taken the form of the vulnerable instead of powerful. Are we happy to received such God being with us?

‘God is with us’ signifies that God saves us from our sins. However, we are used to understand sin from a personal level, and as a result, God’s salvation has nothing to do with the economic world and political sphere. Sin is always structural. In China, a typical example of the structural sin is the violation of human rights, and therefore, ‘God is with us’ is to protest against the imprisonment of conscientious persons, such as, Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner. The most recent one is the arrest of Fan Ah Fung (范亞峰) who is a Christian lawyer defending the right of the people. In Hong Kong, it is the domination of capitalistic ideology. More than 1.2 million of people live in poverty, and they are deprived of the right to live in dignity and freedom. The middle class lose the freedom of life, for they are fully occupied by the mortgage. The ‘us’ of the statement ‘God is with us’ is not simply everyone, but the one who are suppressed and lack of freedom. Thus, God not only announces forgiveness, but also condemns.

However, for many of us, ‘God is with us’ takes the form like the Chinese god of fortune. It may make you feel pleasant but makes nothing concrete impact on your life. It is good to receive such form of ‘God is with us’, but you would not lose anything if you have not received it. It is more a matter of custom than a channel of receiving blessing. I am sorry to say that benediction at the end of worship service sometimes has been turned to something like this, not because the benediction is not God’s blessing, but because we do not believe in it. ‘God is with us’ is God’s promise to us, but also an invitation to receive God in a vulnerable form.