Thursday, January 7, 2010

Happy New Year, Jan 2010

Happy New Year to everybody! Better say it on the morning of the first day into the new year, 2010. Yesterday we met old friends Waylon, Esther and Matthew for dinner with their family. Today we meet Chris and soon Betty and Chuck will visit; RCAC is in Hong Kong.

The old year has been very good to me. My e-mailed Chinese sermons has been a hit. I am now on http://preachchrist.vinemedia.org/ and I have been out of Hong Kong twice to train seminary students and church leaders preaching, even to an unspeakable place. For the new year, I hope to write ten new sermons. I have been unmotivated in this area. For the last 15 months, I only managed to write seven all-new sermons. Next, going to another all-new city overseas to train more pastors/leaders will be an added bonus. Anther goal is to trim an inch off my tummy, which was in vain after three months of pool exercise. In fact, this morning I have started to increase another 100 high kicks into my regimen.

Today (3rd) I heard a great song (無言的讚頌) at church and Wife and I taught our first Sunday school class together. It went well, praise God.

This is such a busy week due to the start of the new quarter. I can't believe how fast I moved on Monday (4th) to get my Greek class going. Yesterday (5th) the buses skipped me three times, I was the last one to board the fourth bus to from Yuen Long to school. Today (6th) I took a later ferry to Tsuen Wan when I miscalculated the time, so I had to run to the terminal in three minutes instead of the regular seven minutes. I was glad I made it, the exercises helped. At least the students were excited by the all-new message I gave yesterday on the two builders (Matt 7).

I did the most swimming today (9th) in the new year - four laps. A pastor joined me and we had afternoon tea together. I asked him how to go about publishing my new book in HK on parables, which I finished yesterday. The content is solid, it will be an eye-opener over here, I am sure. We talked about the possibilities. One thing I am sure is not to give away the copyright so that readers can enjoy it online as well. Distribution is important as well. I hope to buy locally so that I can give to friends as gifts. There is so little one can cover geographically in a lifetime, the pen is still mightier than the pulpit.

I was so clueless yesterday (11th) that I literally took Wife's keys to work, making it a very incovenient day for her as she had to go to Macau. Last week I was caught up with the idea of putting my three published books on the internet for others to download since ordering and shipping them to Hong Kong is so troublesome, so today I went ahead and did it and linked the dowload to http://www.preachchrist.com/. You can find it at the end of all books.

It must be the American holidays, so far I have met Chris, Waylon and Esther, Chuck and Betty, Herman and Eleanor, and Karl yesterday (15th). The last three nights have all been restaurant dinners. Stanley is supposed to meet me, too, but he has not called yet. The last two weeks of classes have been great but the present concern at school is recruiting students and increasing funding. My wish is find a publisher for my new book on parables before my August birthday, I can only dream.

The highlight last Saturday (16th) was bringing Wife's old friends and Ma Wan residents Calvin and Helen to Yan Fook's evangelistic meeting that is held every third Saturday of the month. We first went out for dinner together at Kwai Fong. Calvin was so excited after the meeting that he said he was looking forward to read the Bible. To cap the night, we had dessert before returning home.

Finally I sent out the first message of the new Sunday school series on Bible Couples that Wife and I are teaching. The response has been swift, good and encouraging:
"Dear Victor, Thank you for your touching message! God bless! Luke"
"Dear Pastor Yap, Thank you very much for this wonderful sermon. Best, Ruth"
"很棒的分享,謝謝你每次寄來的資料,對我及教會有很大的幫助!名山教會"
"我很喜歡前兩天收到的有關夫妻關係的文章,當中有很多提醒,很好看,謝!! 秀慧"
One down, nine more messages to go in the series.