Team Hong Kong Newsletter # 4
A Holly Jolly Christmas
December 31, 2007
by Maria Sensenig


Christmas in Hong Kong means time to celebrate. We learned this first-hand, as the church, aka our home, was the location of four parties over the span of four days. We happily joined the festivities and were able to meet many new people, learn new games, and of course sample a great variety of new foods.

Christmas Eve was my favorite of these celebrations because we were able to spend a large amount of time with the youth from Agape and connect with them in a way we hadn't previously. It began when they arrived early in the afternoon and suggested we all go out for tea. When I say tea, I need you to remove the images of hot beverages and pastries from your mind. They ordered a plate of this and a dish of that and were all very excited to watch us sample all the different things, laughing at our chopstick skills and sometimes insisting that it'd probably be better if we finish before they explain what all we were eating. Some of the fare was extremely delicious, some was a bit harder to swallow while still maintaining a smile. But it was all a lot of fun and ended with a rousing game of rock, paper, scissors to polish off the leftovers.

The church was already filling up when we arrived home and was soon packed out. We spent the evening playing games, eating more food, and watching a talent show. It was all quite fun but a bit on the chaotic side most of the time. As the party drew to a close everyone from the church headed out to the train station where we joined several hundred other people in singing Christmas carols and worship songs. By the time the singing was over we were all pretty exhausted but everyone else was still going strong and announced that it was now time to go for dessert. Despite our tiredness we were of course delighted to join them and spent the remaining few hours until Christmas eating tasty (and much less sketchy) treats and talking about everything from our first impressions of each other to why dating isn't allowed in YES. Good times were had by all.


At the Christmas party with Santa Ben

Along with all the parties, we were also able to get out of the city a number of times this week and experience the natural beauty of Hong Kong. We spent one day hiking, another on a bike ride by the sea, and we were also able to go to the beach twice, once for a baptism, and the other time for a BBQ.


There's more to Hong Kong than skyscrapers!


A leisurely and scenic bike ride


BBQ by the beach




May you all have a Happy New Year!


Praises:

- We've been able to spend a lot of time with the youth and are getting to know them better
- We were able to have an enjoyable Christmas despite being in a new place and away from our families

Prayer Requests:

- That we'd be an encouragement to the church here, and especially to the youth as the group seems to be dwindling and many of them are not very involved in the church
- That we could continue to understand the culture and the people and love and appreciate them even more