So last week was family day, and since my family is not here I got to hangout with a few friends. But then this made me think about my family in general...
I have been living away from my family for a long time, since I came to Waterloo for University. Of course, the first few months were tough, very homesick, but I got used to it and by God's grace I was able to find a very good community.
As well I was thinking on the several issues that both my parent's families have to deal with throughout the years. A lot of these issues are caused by money, pride or selfishness. Being away from home has its benefit as it "shielded" me from all the family drama that happening. But at the same time, it is unfortunate that I am not present to make some sort of difference.
On a recent family day, I went to hangout with a group of friends, and they decided to ask from a series of 36 questions that will lead you to fall in love with a person ( http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html?_r=0 ), of course we were discussing it just for fun as we wanted to make some sort of interesting conversation on the car. One of the questions chosen was "if you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?"
This is interesting, because I am pretty sure that there are many things on how I was raised by my parents that could have been better. But at the same time, I don't know if I would change anything. Because even if there are many imperfect factors on how I was raised, this "environment" has shaped me in some way on who I am now, and I also believe that God has used certain aspects of my "turbulent" childhood to teach me how important relationships are, how much should I care for them, how important it is to be gracious and generous towards others.
God is very gracious as He will situations that we think are bad for a good purpose.
In a Christian community, conflicts among members are bound to happen because we are all sinful. I don't think we can more conflict-free when comparing ourselves to a non-Christian community. But I think a key difference is that we as Christians are called to love one another, even if the other party offend us, and that's when we need to be extra gracious and generous towards others. And that cannot be done alone, but only by God's Spirit that live in us.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
the best service
In the middle of my trip to Hong Kong, I took a side trip to Tokyo with my dad. At first I really didn't feel like going to a country that did not speak a language I am comfortable with, as I just wanted to chill comfortably without having to plan much. But discussing it with my dad, we decided that Japan was a good option due to the fact that its currency value is low now. So I spent quite a bit of time planning and ensuring I could get around despite the language barrier. It was kinda stressful actually.
But this trip to Tokyo was actually much more fun that I expected, and now I wish I could spent more time there. There are many fascinating things there, like this is the place where anime is originated from, this is also the place of consumer electronics, and the food is really amazing, like intensely amazing (it seems that every restaurant you go to, you are guaranteed to get good food). One thing that caught my eye was how clean the streets were, especially since I did not see trash cans on the streets (so people would just carry his/her own trash and dump it after).
One thing that I actually enjoyed was to take subway trains because it is very convenient to go from one place to another. At first I was quite intimidated by the subway system as the map looks pretty chaotic, but once I understood the system it was actually pretty easy. I really appreciate the "efficiency" of the system.
.png)
These thoughts seems slightly random, but yeah.
But this trip to Tokyo was actually much more fun that I expected, and now I wish I could spent more time there. There are many fascinating things there, like this is the place where anime is originated from, this is also the place of consumer electronics, and the food is really amazing, like intensely amazing (it seems that every restaurant you go to, you are guaranteed to get good food). One thing that caught my eye was how clean the streets were, especially since I did not see trash cans on the streets (so people would just carry his/her own trash and dump it after).
One thing that I actually enjoyed was to take subway trains because it is very convenient to go from one place to another. At first I was quite intimidated by the subway system as the map looks pretty chaotic, but once I understood the system it was actually pretty easy. I really appreciate the "efficiency" of the system.
Perhaps one of the things that amazed me the most was the service that I received in Japan. It's just outrageous, people are super nice and polite, There was a lot of bowing, I was pretty overwhelmed.
The quality of service was just spectacular. I took the train from airport to the hotel, and I decided to order coffee (bit expensive) during the train ride. And when the train hostess was giving me the cup of coffee, she gently said with a smile (with very decent English) "be careful, it is hot", and then she bowed. I never been treat as nice in Tim Hortons or McDonald's.
This type of good service is very common in Japan as it is part of their culture, they are brought up and taught to treat customers like this.
Two thoughts came in mind when I think about this.
One is, are they genuinely bowing to you out of gratitude, or they just do it because they get paid and it is so ingrained in their culture? This is hard to tell, but I do think some do this genuinely. This does makes me reflect on how my attitude should be when I serve at the church. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught by the "routine" of things, and do things mechanically instead of genuinely wanting to serve out of gratitude to God.
Second thought is, I felt very welcome on the establishments I went to due to this warm service. Often I find it hard to feel welcomed when I visit a church. Many times I have seen that people who already know each other will congregate in their own, making it hard for newcomers to feel welcomed. But I also have seen churches where the welcoming is quite good, like even the pastor will spend some time with the newcomers, and that is nice. My thought here is that, if a worldly establishment can make someone feel so welcomed, shouldn't a church make people feel even more welcomed as we are broken people coming together with joy to worship our gracious God.
These thoughts seems slightly random, but yeah.
Monday, February 9, 2015
best cha chaan teng
There is a type of restaurant that are common in Hong Kong named "cha chaan teng" (usually known as HK cafe) that offers a variety of Hong Kong style western food and other pearls at a very affordable price. The Hong Kong style milk tea is one of the staple drinks. The egg-sandwich with the milk tea is one affordable and excellent breakfast that it is offered.
There is a very famous restaurant in Hong Kong called "Australian Dairy Company" and it is famous for the superb smoothness of its eggs dishes: scrambled eggs, egg-sandwich, steam eggs.
There are probably many (a couple of thousands of them) that serves this type of food in Hong Kong (most of them probably pretty decent) but this restaurant is considered by many the best in Hong Kong. During peak hours, there is usually a line to get in.
Though the food is intensely good, the service is bad and sometimes rude. Though this is a typical characteristic of Hong Kong cha chaan tengs, this restaurant seems to have worse service overall.
The reason for such bad service is because its workers are very efficient and focused on getting work done. Since the lines are long, and environment is chaotic, all the workers (waiters and kitchen staff) are non-stop working to ensure food is made and served fast, and that people are eating (no idle waiting). So they have no reason to provide good service. There is definitely an atmosphere of pressure to eat fast and order more food or leave right away before getting scolded haha. Despite this, people go eat there and it is a great experience.
In my small group, we have been studying the book of Nehemiah, one great book about Christian leadership! And recently we covered Nehemiah 5, where we see him dealing with some serious internal affairs. Many of the Israelites during that time were poor and had to mortgaged their property and even sell their children for food. It was pretty tough times, and to make it worse some rich Israelites were taking advantage of them by charging them interest in loans. Nehemiah was angry and had to rebuked them, and led by example by caring for the needy. This is on top of his main responsibility, which was to lead the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
What I learned from that chapter is that Nehemiah truly a leader who cares for those under him, despite having to deal with many other issues (external enemies) and logistics (takes a lot of planning to coordinate effort to rebuild the walls, to put guards, etc). I am often in charge of planning activities because I like logistical work, and like being efficient at it. But one of the struggles I have is that when I am very submerged in my planning mode, I tend to not care about the people (who are part of the event I am planning) causing leadership to be planning-focused and not people-focused, very similar to the restaurant above.
Definitely, the book of Nehemiah challenges me to know that leadership involves impacting people to challenge them to move towards the direction of Christ.
There is a very famous restaurant in Hong Kong called "Australian Dairy Company" and it is famous for the superb smoothness of its eggs dishes: scrambled eggs, egg-sandwich, steam eggs.
There are probably many (a couple of thousands of them) that serves this type of food in Hong Kong (most of them probably pretty decent) but this restaurant is considered by many the best in Hong Kong. During peak hours, there is usually a line to get in.
Though the food is intensely good, the service is bad and sometimes rude. Though this is a typical characteristic of Hong Kong cha chaan tengs, this restaurant seems to have worse service overall.
The reason for such bad service is because its workers are very efficient and focused on getting work done. Since the lines are long, and environment is chaotic, all the workers (waiters and kitchen staff) are non-stop working to ensure food is made and served fast, and that people are eating (no idle waiting). So they have no reason to provide good service. There is definitely an atmosphere of pressure to eat fast and order more food or leave right away before getting scolded haha. Despite this, people go eat there and it is a great experience.
In my small group, we have been studying the book of Nehemiah, one great book about Christian leadership! And recently we covered Nehemiah 5, where we see him dealing with some serious internal affairs. Many of the Israelites during that time were poor and had to mortgaged their property and even sell their children for food. It was pretty tough times, and to make it worse some rich Israelites were taking advantage of them by charging them interest in loans. Nehemiah was angry and had to rebuked them, and led by example by caring for the needy. This is on top of his main responsibility, which was to lead the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
What I learned from that chapter is that Nehemiah truly a leader who cares for those under him, despite having to deal with many other issues (external enemies) and logistics (takes a lot of planning to coordinate effort to rebuild the walls, to put guards, etc). I am often in charge of planning activities because I like logistical work, and like being efficient at it. But one of the struggles I have is that when I am very submerged in my planning mode, I tend to not care about the people (who are part of the event I am planning) causing leadership to be planning-focused and not people-focused, very similar to the restaurant above.
Definitely, the book of Nehemiah challenges me to know that leadership involves impacting people to challenge them to move towards the direction of Christ.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
the best "char siu bao" in the world
I came back from a trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo not too long ago. It was a great time of relaxation (much needed) and good food! There were many great moments, and as well insights that came into mind. I hope I can share some of those here in the blog.
Almost without noticing, the first month of 2015 is gone! Definitely looking forward on the exciting adventures and challenges that 2015 will present.
So most people I know love to eat "char siu bao" (Chinese BBQ pork bun) which is served on Chinese dim sum restaurants. I have been liking it a lot since I was a kid.
I went for lunch with an old friend from Waterloo at a pretty good Shanghainese restaurant, and after lunch he took me downstairs (it was on a mall) to a dim sum restaurant to buy a pack of "char siu bao" to go. He basically said this is the best "char siu bao". Of course I was very skeptical. After we got the box, he opened it and gave one to me. To my surprise, this "char siu bao" looked different from the traditional ones, as the outer layer looks like a baked Mexican bun (instead of the typical steamed Chinese white buns). Excited, I took a bite and I could not help but to submit to the great sensation of biting into a perfectly baked crispy bun combined with the tenderness and sweetness of the BBQ pork. Oh man, this is good, it's excellent. Definitely I agree that this is the best "char siu bao" in the world.
Another friend came later, and we offered her a bite of this "char siu bao", and told her that this is the best "char siu bao" ever. She skeptically asked, "how can you be sure that this is the best, if you have not tried all the 'char siu bao' in the world". After she took a bite, she just nodded and was convinced, hehe.
This is very similar to the question, "how do you know Christianity is the true religion, if you have not tried all other religions?" It seems a very daunting question, and I find it difficult to answer it when talking to non-believers.
A famous apologist Ravi Zacharias explains that Christianity is the only religion that can coherently answer these four questions:
Almost without noticing, the first month of 2015 is gone! Definitely looking forward on the exciting adventures and challenges that 2015 will present.
So most people I know love to eat "char siu bao" (Chinese BBQ pork bun) which is served on Chinese dim sum restaurants. I have been liking it a lot since I was a kid.
I went for lunch with an old friend from Waterloo at a pretty good Shanghainese restaurant, and after lunch he took me downstairs (it was on a mall) to a dim sum restaurant to buy a pack of "char siu bao" to go. He basically said this is the best "char siu bao". Of course I was very skeptical. After we got the box, he opened it and gave one to me. To my surprise, this "char siu bao" looked different from the traditional ones, as the outer layer looks like a baked Mexican bun (instead of the typical steamed Chinese white buns). Excited, I took a bite and I could not help but to submit to the great sensation of biting into a perfectly baked crispy bun combined with the tenderness and sweetness of the BBQ pork. Oh man, this is good, it's excellent. Definitely I agree that this is the best "char siu bao" in the world.
Another friend came later, and we offered her a bite of this "char siu bao", and told her that this is the best "char siu bao" ever. She skeptically asked, "how can you be sure that this is the best, if you have not tried all the 'char siu bao' in the world". After she took a bite, she just nodded and was convinced, hehe.
This is very similar to the question, "how do you know Christianity is the true religion, if you have not tried all other religions?" It seems a very daunting question, and I find it difficult to answer it when talking to non-believers.
A famous apologist Ravi Zacharias explains that Christianity is the only religion that can coherently answer these four questions:
- Origin
- Meaning of life
- Morality
- Destinity
Something interesting to dig into more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)