Our First Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Dear friends and family,

February was an interesting month for us.  We try and put up a new post at the end of each month, so sorry that this one is a bit delayed.

During the middle of February we had a week off from school because of Chinese New Year.  Some of the local schools take two weeks off, and it's considered the biggest holiday of the year.  You hear traditional Chinese music playing in the MTR stations, smell the beautiful bouquets of flowers and miniature trees, and see lots of elaborate decorations in malls and stores, especially in the color red since it's viewed as a lucky and happy color.  Children like this time of year because they receive red envelopes called lai see packets with money from relatives.  Josiah came home from school telling us that we needed to sweep and clean our house, and that new year tradition is a representation of sweeping out the old year and bringing in the new one.  Children also usually receive new clothing, and Josiah wore a traditional outfit to school.

Victoria Harbor, lighted New Year display

Huge drum display near Victoria Harbor

In Ma On Shan shopping mall

Miniature orange trees signify good luck and happiness

Josiah had fun banging on this drum at City One. It's the year of the snake!

We celebrated the holiday by inviting our church over for a potluck dinner, and had a great time.  We had over thirty people over at our place!  It was fun to try some traditional Chinese New Year foods such as turnip cake and sweet New Year cake.  We learned that the new year "cake" is cut into pieces, dipped into egg, and then fried.  It's hard to explain because it's nothing like your typical American cake, but it reminded me of Korean rice cake because it was chewy and mildly sweet.  It was so fun to hang out with everyone and be able to fellowship with our church family.    

New Year's Church Gathering

One thing our church friends noticed and commented on was the size of our apartment.  One of the kids in our church marveled that our bathroom was bigger than his bedroom and another church friend proclaimed, "It's like we came to the White House!"  I knew our place was big by Hong Kong standards, but it's not that much larger than the condo we lived in Chicago.  Hong Kong apartments are just typically small and expensive.  Additionally, it's been a little disheartening to learn just how big the gap is between the poor and rich in HK.  It's not surprising since you can easily find high end stores such as Gucci and Louis Vitton but also really cheap finds at little stalls in the market within the same block.  If you're interested in learning more about the realities of that gap, read on here.  It has really burdened my heart to see that there are some folks living in forty square feet of space, or even less than that.

We've been in HK for over half a year now.  While it's been so wonderful to experience some of the sights and attractions of Hong Kong, living here and not just being a tourist has also opened our eyes to the non glamorous parts of the city.  Please pray with us as we see these needs and look for ways that we can help and serve our community.

Praises and prayer requests- We are so thankful for our church.  We thank God for the opportunities we have at our church to be a blessing and also that we are equally blessed by others.  Please pray for one of the members in our church.  Her father passed away last month, and everyone in her family except for one of her sisters is not Christian.  Please pray as they mourn the loss of their loved one, and pray that her family would come to know the hope and peace that we have in Christ.

Thanks for reading, all. :)