The New Year started out with a bang, I couldn't be any busier. I attended a 645a prayer meeting and altogether three churches in a day, no wonder my eyes were tired by late afternoon. A church family invited me to lunch at their new home, it was a heavy lunch. After that I had to buy five books for a friend and get a haircut. Reaching home, wife and I went for a swim at the clubhouse. We were too tired for our regular night walk. At night I counted and posted the new sermons I preached last year. There were 14, double the previous year, so it was the most fruitful time so far, and many of them unforgettable ones. On a positive note, I found out last week that my blogs are on a class reading list. On a negative note a certain John Montgomery who has plagiarized my sermons for a while, seem to have disappeared into thin air, leaving my sermons on the internet under his name. Oh, well. This year, I wore a new long-sleeve, a T-shirt and a vest to break in the new year.
The second week of the year has been sobering. I attended the memorial service of a former colleague, the memorial service of the mother-in-law of a present colleague and another of a coworker's mother. At least the family took it real well due to old age and known diseases. Other than that, life passes by like a whirlwind. My three preaching classes started off on the right track this week, with one numbering 20 students. Today (15) I finally delivered my first new message on the family, taken from the Laban-Jacob account in Genesis 29-31, in preparation for my new book. I think I did justice to it because my biggest critic was pleased with it. The next thing everyone in Hong Kong is waiting for is the Chinese New Year.
Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe it has been so busy that I only get to write this paragraph on the first day of the new year. The month's third week see me hard at work, trying to translate all my past year's messages, about ten of them. To enjoy the experience I started with my favorites. I have finished two this past week, and I might do one today. I hope to send out my first Chinese sermon out today in two group lists to a few thousand recipients, reviving what I used to do with English-written materials in the States. I intend to send out one a month and see how it works out. I am excited with its rebirth after exciting the pastoral ministry for three years.
Suddenly a week has passed by into the Chinese New Year. We have three dinners with family members this year, a big change from previous years because a relative has returned home for the occasion. Other than that, I enjoyed this year because it has been pretty relaxing. We went out for coffee in the morning and swam later in the morning. I accomplished a lot in translation, almost caught up last year's new sermons. It taught me a lesson not to procrastinate, but to translate every one as soon as it is done and not let it pile up.
