2014年12月22日 星期一

Year 2014 - the Year of Enrichment

As mentioned in one of my previous blog articles, my retirement plan is focused mainly on seeking enrichment, both physically and spiritually, to make up for my inadequacy over the past years owing to an overwhelming work schedule.

There is no telling yet how much I have achieved in health gain. Regarding spiritual growth, however, I can claim to have made quite some progress. For one thing, my participation in a Bible course named Bible in 80 Weeks, which aims at a perusal of the whole Bible in eighty weeks time, gave me very great satisfaction.

This being the 27th week, we are reading the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Frankly, it has never been fun reading the Old Testament. There have even been moments when I feel bored stiff. But the thought of giving up reading altogether never occurs to me. This is due to mutual support among the participants and the inspiring talks by quality speakers. 

I am also motivated to do research aside from the weekly assignment. As one of the group coordinators, I feel obliged to be better prepared so that I can more efficiently guide the sharing along.This way, I find myself benefiting greatly from the extra reading and I feel grateful for the opportunity. A very harmonious friendship has also developed among the group members. We share our thoughts not only during the meeting but also in the chat group thanks to whatsapp technology. It will be more than a year before we finish our reading, but the long process has become an enjoyment rather than a burden. Even occasional absences will not be a hindrance to our determination to pursue the journey till the very end.

I also derive great joy from a recent engagement: I will have a column in a newspaper, in which the translated pieces of a religious book are published weekly. I actually leapt at the offer as I found it an answer to my three-fold request: to seek improvement in English-to-Chinese translation, to share my writing with others and to do the work of God.

Before the actual work of translation, I have to develop an understanding of the content and the message it delivers. As the translation will be done on an abridged basis, I need to decide on the focuses and underline the key paragraphs and sentences. This is good reading and writing practice, too. The use of the right Chinese terms, especially those associated with Christianity, can also be a challenge and thus gives useful skills training.

I do enjoy the job tremendously, so much so that I have already finished the third piece even though the column will not appear until January.

Of course, its not always work that keeps me occupied. I can still enjoy my dancing classes on alternate days and have a good nap in the afternoon to make up for the wakeful hours at night.

The past year has been an enriched one and I have to thank God for all these blessings. 

2014年12月14日 星期日

An Advent Message

The Advent Retreat held in Mong Ha Church last Saturday evening was an event to remember. Like most of the others who attended it, I felt deeply moved and inspired. And now, looking back, I feel a strong sense of gratitude and even pride.

The retreat was assumedly the concern of the Retreat Group. But ultimately, it turned out to be a cross-group activity, involving the Choir, the 1045 Reading Group and the Parish Activity Group as well. The success of the retreat, if any, is the fruit of their joint effort.

The theme of the Advent Retreat had been conceived months before the event. Sister Victoria, the mastermind, thought of using a few verses from the book of the Prophet Isaiah, which she believed to be closely associated with the Advent message, with reference to the darkness of the sinful age, the call to repentance, the hope for the coming Messiah and the reminder of the evangelical mission. She invited the other members of the Retreat Group to search for the right verses. However, as usual, it was her choices that we gladly agreed on. After all, who else understands the Bible better than she does?

The Choir was invited to choose a few songs with lyrics that could match the Bible verses. Thanks to their expertise and good experience, the songs chosen were later found to be more than fitting, helping to bring out the message effectively and inspiringly. They then had to start the singing practice, which was understandably an added responsibility to their already tight schedule. There were also sequential requests, which further complicated the mission. But there was not a word of complaint. Instead, they made useful attempts to iron out one problem after another.

Then there was the need for slides showing pictures of the current world situation related to the scenes depicted in the Bible verses. Pictures of social chaos and the shrinking polar ice caps, for example, were focuses on the dark side of life. Scenes of ecstatic occasions and happy laughter of children, on the other hand, would signify hope brought by the coming of the Messiah. That would be the job of the IT helpers, a few members of the Reading Group. It was no easy task at all, considering the need to set appropriate time intervals between slides to allow moments of silent prayer and meditation. And, the effectiveness of the actual presentation on the night of the event was inestimable.

When everything was done and everyone was looking forward to the red letter day with hope and confidence, there came the news that Father Peter would not be able to attend it because of an urgent affair. That was a hard nut to crack since he was assigned a very important part in the event. What were we going to do? Could there be a replacement?

Fortunately, the Lord answered our prayer. The retreat took place as planned. Father Peter did make his appearance, read out a Bible passage, gave a sermon on it and even led the closing prayer. When his voice was heard leading the singing of the song ‘Here I am, Lord’, everyone present was captivated. And when the Choir joined in the singing in a chorus, it was a touching scene. Had Fr. Peter come to the retreat finally? Unfortunately not! But a miracle did occur in the form of recorded video scripts powerpoint projected. It was all due to the hard work of the IT helpers. Of course, Father Peter's kindness in preparing his recorded presentation is much appreciated.

The retreat has been a success and we are grateful for this. But shouldn’t we also be grateful that we have got very good fellow parishioners who can work in cooperation for the shared purpose of serving God? This is community spirit, which our kind Lord has taught us about. It is one of the inspirations I have got in this time of Advent and I hope it will continue to inspire us to join hands in our pursuit of faith enrichment and in our work of evangelization.

2014年12月8日 星期一

An inorganic practice





In her recent article Miss Teresa Vong brought up a very interesting topic: allowing the hair to turn grey is also one way to go organic in life. She says that the majority of senior females are not mindful of their health deterioration, but are not so receptive to an aging appearance. I couldn’t agree more, as I am one of these females.

I can claim to be an environmentalist. As mentioned in my previous blog, to avoid wastage, I refrain from unnecessary purchases. When eating out, I never order more than I can consume, and if some food does remain, I take it home. Of course, I am very careful about saving electricity and washing water. In fact, I have been having what everyone suggests about a green life.

However, there is one practice which, I am afraid, is not very organic. I cannot do without regular hair-tinting. When still a teacher, I used to explain that a youthful look would make me more approachable to students. This is true to a certain extent. Students tend to associate a teacher’s age with her willingness to accept new concepts. They may find a younger looking teacher more agreeable as the generation gap between them, if any, is still acceptable. So I tried to convince myself that I was mothering my students though I was actually the age of their grandmother.

I have retired for a year but I still feel disturbed at the sight of a few grey hairs. Graying hair, which used to appear every two months despite the tinting, now demands attention more and more frequently, increasing my dependence on the hairdresser. I keep my hair dyed black for a reason no less justifiable than the previous one: I have a lot of young friends, whose company keeps me young at heart and oblivious of the approaching old age.

Of course, there are other signs of ageing that I cannot fight against. I am well aware of the lines on my face and the loose skin on my neck. The weakness of the knees is the most alarming of all. It thus seems silly to struggle to stem the tide of ageing. But I am still used to my black hair, though artificially so. I know one day I will have to surrender completely to my true self. But before that, let me be just a bit less organic.