08 Biggest Christmas Surprise

Something astonishing that Connie and I found out this week: Connie is PREGNANT!!

Such finding is very surprising if you know our story of adopting Abby. We've been trying to have our biological one but have never been sucessful. Even the doctors diagnosed us with 'unknown' reason for infertility. So this breaking news was really unbelievable at the first instance. In fact, our finding led us to thank God for what He has been doing, especially an incident that take place last month......

Connie had had gone through really tough time as being "barren". This sense has never fully disappeared with the arrival of Abby. But in one of the sermon last month, God used His scripture in John 5 (The healing of the a lame man at Bethesda) to encourage Connie: "Do you want to get well?" Connie felt being challenged to ask God for healing her brokenness. Our pastor prayed with us after the service and Connie was relieved after acknowledging her brokenness. A month after that service, surprisingly, Connie is now pregnant!! We are amazed with God's healing, not only spiritually, but also the physical 'gift' that He has given us. This is surely our biggest present for Christmas this year.

There are complications. For Connie has no MSP (the health care system in Vancouver) coverage at the moment (she's still holding a visitor status). I have a Canadian citizenship and has sent in application in sponsoring Connie's permenant residency, but it'll take quite a while to process. Meanwhile, we'll have to pay all the medical expenses which would be free if she is MSP covered. We hope that her status can be settled by the time our baby is dued. We just have to go through a new path of faith. We know that God will provide our needs when He gave us this gift. We trust that God will lead and help us, we just hope we can have more faith in witnessing God's grace and His wondrous plan for us. Please remember us in your prayers and share with us our joy.

How are we feeling? Connie did not feel so secured at the beginning, and she gave herself the worst scenario that would happen. We just need some time to 'believe' this would happen to us. But over the past few days, she is feeling more 'real' about being pregnant. She would get tired easily now and would need more rests. I'm grateful for the timing. I'm having my term break and can take more care of Connie and Abby. I'm doing the cooking and cleaning and most of the housework, so I feel more responsible and committed as a husband and daddy. I imagine if this were to happen during my stressful moments in the school year, I would not feel much joy. The baby is expected to be delivered in August, which will be during my summer break. I guess it would be the best time for I can be more available in taking care of the family. With the tension in workload and finance, this is surely a journey of faith to us. Please stand by us to see how God works with us. ^_^

Please join me in prayers

How's your prayer life? I long for a deeper prayer life. At Regent, I really appreciate the prayers at the beginning of each lesson. Some professors like to begin the class with prayers selected from prayer books. Others lead us with their own prayers. I find both very fruitful and they expand my horizon in prayers. For prayers selected from prayer books, I was thrilled when I related the prayer content with the original pray-er--the great theologians and saints like Augustine of Hippo, Basil the Great, Thomas Aquinas, ... and more, who shared the same faith with us. Most prayers were simple but genuine. Let me quote a prayer by Clement of Rome (c.30-c.95):
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, establish and confirm us in your truth by your Holy Spirit. Reveal to us what we do not know; perfect in us what is lacking; strengthen us in what we know; and keep us faultless in your service; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What a great prayer to start for the day!

The prayers of other professors also inspire me. They pray with such sincerety and devotion that I can feel their love to God and their fellow students. Looking back to myself, I find a certain dryness in my prayers. I tend to pray with similar wording/content all the time. I really hope to pray with a lively spirit that I can truly enjoy the communion with our God. It's also a matter of a loving relationship too. This is the yearning of my growth of spirituality and I guess this is one of my wish for 2009. Even though I am not very good at praying in English, I really hope to join other fellow schoolmates to pray. How about you? Are you praying well?
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D&D Time

Abby is just so adorable. Abby now gets into a habit that whenever I return home, she'll run to the door and greet me with a big hug and kiss. She made me feel so welcomed!! On Wednesday nights, Abby and I will stay home on our own because AbbyMommy has a night class to attend. Tonight I cooked Abby some dumplings. When she began to eat, she gave me a lovely smile and said in Chinese:「多謝爸爸煮」(literally meaning "Thank you daddy for cooking") My heart melted and was so surprised that she started saying things in simple sentences. What a joyous improvement!! So I could not hesitate to capture some funny shots of her while she was eating dumplings. Enjoy! ^_^ (The photo on the right is one of her favourite pose: Was that learnt from me and Connie? ~_~)

Final Dash Begins

The reading break is over and there are 2 more weeks to go!! 3 Exams awaiting next week!!!
Did I have fun over the break? Guess I was worn out by the stress that I could never have all the reading done in a week; so I was quite down in spirit with school work along the WHOLE WEEK. In fact, I did read much. I finished the "Latter Prophets" section of the bible and was left with the "Writings". I hope to catch up more with the reading before the exam next week.

There were a few enjoyable things I did:
1) On our special day (Nov 28, the day I proposed to Connie years ago), Connie, Abby and I had a city tour near the Kitslano area. We drove around and had lunch at a Greek restaurant. The food reminded us of our wonderful honeymoon trip in Greece. Connie was really glad that I could spend some time with them during the break, and I felt very relieved for her delight.

2) I'm now a fan of Joe Zheng 鄭元暢 and Ariel Lin 林依晨--the two hottest idol in Taiwan!! Recently, Connie has been so attracted by a Taiwanese drama series, and she was very fond of the two leading actor and actress. I took a peek during reading and eventually I was also attracted by them. Part I of the series was about their dating at their high-school and uni years. Part II of the series was about their relationship development after marriage. The interactions and dialogues of the idol series were sometimes quite hyperbolic but hilarious. I find it very interesting to see the development of their relationship. Indeed I treasure the moments when I disscuss with Connie about the various stages in their relationship. I long to love Connie more dearly. Connie finished the DVDs, and we're starting another series: Love or Bread「我的億萬麵包」with Joe and Ariel again!! ^_^ Only that this new series is shown weekly...we'll have to wait patiently for the weekends to come...

3) 銀河英雄伝説--I haven't been playing computer games for quite a while and I couldn't stop playing during the week!!! As a result, I sacrificed some sleeping hours and reading hours unfortunately. I still have struggles to strike a balance between work and play in terms of hours and attitudes. I really don't want to feel regretful in any cases. Nothing is perfect, isn't it?

Spiritually, it was really DARK inside me. I felt that I was put into a test in this past week and I FAILED. My stress and my viewing of comics that conveyed lustful thoughts had pushed me away from God. The sense of being a loser prevailed and I was depressed, especially when I was reading on the Prophets and was admonished by God's words. I was surprised about myself that I felt numb of my sinful rebellion. This vicious dark cycle continued to roll and there were times that I felt I had gone beyond remedy. However, when things are at the worst, they will mend under God's grace. I was reminded on God's faithfulness no matter I have failed Him many times. I was reminded on how I taught my primary students to make clever choices to avoid painful consequences. I have more lessons to learn.

Dear God, my Lord, here I am. I confess that I have all these brokenness. Please give me an undivided heart to live righteously and joyfully according to Your will.

As this first term approaches its ending, I do yearn for a deeper spiritual growth here in Vancouver.

Embracing my reading week with Books, Family and Video Games???

It's time for the second reading week!! It's going to be a busy one, and I hope I can really spend the time to read, just like the first one I had in October. Besides, I really hope to spend part of the reading week with Connie and Abby, so that they can be "cheered up" while I'm having some free time!!! ^_^

Coming to the end of this term, I'm thankful that the big assignments are all handed in on time. There'll be final exams in December for all my three courses, but I guess I'm now feeling much more relax than earlier time. Indeed, this is a time for me to learn how to cope with leisure and study. I'm the kind of person who doesn't know how to have fun in a wise way. In the past, I would just spend my holidays in video gaming, even after I got married (when I had my holidays, Connie still had to work, so I'd have my own fun time) I would get so addicted that I could spend hours non-stop playing those exciting 1st-person-shooting or strategy games. I did not find much trouble in that when I started my career and I could always make up sleep time eventually. But now if I play video games as before, I would be slacking off my studies and the result can be devastating. (the indulging experience I had in my university years still haunts me) I think this is the time for me to embrace a new/better way to spend my free time. I like sports but I can never do it just by myself. In fact I never ask people out for playing sports together with me. So I would just be so tied up with myself and ended up in playing video games on my own. Will there be changes in the coming reading week?

A costly experience

Thank God for granting me the strength to finish my first research essay at regent. Final word count: around 2400. Some may not think this as such a big deal, but to myself, it is a big leap; for Writing has never been my strengths. Recalling from AbbyMama, "Regent is the place to train you and change you." I'll learn to face my weaknesses with the grace from God.

I had a minor car accident on Friday. It was a rainy evening. I was driving along with Connie and Abby to a gathering. The traffic was slowly moving and I kept a safe distance with the car in front. However, as I was pressing a few buttons on my GPS (Global Positioning System) to find my way, I suddenly realized the car in front of us had stopped. We were about 4 metres away from it and we were driving at around 40km/h. I slammed the brakes. But the road was slippery and our tires were locked up. Our car slid forward. My instincts told me this would not be a good sign. There were cars on our sides and there was no way out. All I could do was a silent prayer to God as I watched our car slowly approaching the one in front of us. "Bump." There wasn't a great shock. Our car just made a contact with the one in front of us. Without much time to worry, I quickly got out of the car in the rain to see the damage. The driver and another passenger came out. In a judging tone, the passenger questioned, "Were you sleeping, man?" I couldn't help much, but could only meekly apologize for what had happened. It was not a big accident, so we then pulled off the road to settle the matters.

I hit a newly leased Mercedes Benz. Luckily, I could say, that there was only a tiny dent due to a nut from my license plate. There were minor scratches too. I quickly phoned my friend, Andrew, to ask for advice. I knew it was my fault, so I assured to the unlucky driver that I would take the responsibility. We would need to report to ICBC (the car insurance agency in Vancouver) about the incident. We exchanged phone numbers and details of our license and then we left. As soon as we arrived at our friend's house, I quickly filed in the case with ICBC. Later, the driver phoned me and told me that he would get his car estimated for damage in an autoshop during the weekends.

It turned out that I would have to pay $500 for repairing the damage. It's an expensive lesson to learn. However, I thank God for the accident was not too serious. I thank God that no one was injured and we found no damage in our car.

I'll meet with the driver tomorrow to finalize the case. I pray that things will go well. Please remember our safety in the coming winter as we have to drive in slippery snowy conditions too. I'm now driving with much alert and cautious.

Will my study be jeopardized by the recent global financial meltdown?

Has the recent global financial meltdown been affecting you? Did it bring you much worries? To me, it did. I worried about my pension money which I had been expecting to be cashed this month. This lot of money is quite important in determining how long I can stay in Canada, especially when both of Connie and I have no income.

During our return to HK three weeks ago, I noticed that my pension was not fully settled and I had worried about a great loss in the investments. I had thought of asking a deferral of cashing out the investments and wait for a better timing to do that, but I didn't do that. I tried to ask God whether I should or should not cash out the money. I was not struggling with my sense of security. In fact I struggled with the ideas of how to manage the God-entrusted money with wise stewardship, and how to discern a real faith in God's providence.

In my prayers and scripture reading, I was reminded that God is good and faithful. The Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) in Genesis and the Israelites in Exodus had also experienced times of trouble, and I noticed that there're times that they might had to suffer loss(sometimes financially) But God never abandones them.

There're more twists to my findings. I tried to log onto the insurance account, but my profile was no longer valid. I then checked my bank statement online, but the money was not there. I thought that the insurance company had already processed my case and I could do nothing to alter the process. I felt peaceful and I waited for the investments to be cashed and put into my bank account. To me, I think even if I would not get my expected amount, God will somehow help us, in His miraculous ways.

I got an exciting news today. I've got the cheque of my pension!!! (actually the cheque was sent to my brother in HK) To my surprise, I didn't lose too much from the recent global financial meltdown. I was able to get the expected amount in my original financial plan, with a few thousands (HK dollars) short only!!! How wonderful!! Now the new cashflow might even present a more favourable financial condition, which helps me to sponsor Connie and Abby to become permanent residents.

As I was still talking with my brother, I had an idea of making a photocopy of the cheque and then frame it like the first cheque I got when I first started my teaching job in HK. It's a symbol for me to remember God's grace and love. Back ten years ago, I returned HK from Canada with only HK$8000. I survived!!! And more God granted me a family with a loving wife and daughter. What can I say? I really thank God for his grace.

A new chapter of stewardship and faith has just begun! I believe our stay in Vancouver will trully be a great experience for my family and others to see God's work in us.