8-7-12 Tuesday part 1

Tuesday morning we pulled ourselves out of bed, fed and caffeinated our bodies and headed onto a big bus with the rest of tour group A103. In the lobby of the hotel there were about 100 people milling around, mostly from other tour groups who were leaving around the same time.

Our group had about 40 people in it, all from the US. Our tour guides were James Lam and his wife Wood Lam*, Cindy, Carmie and Wendy. (*Funny tidbit: Lam means Forest in Chinese.) They were from the Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung congregations.
First stop? Bethel! On the way, we were given some tips about surviving in Hong Kong:

1. Water
2. Fan
3. Umbrella
4. Handkerchief

Notice a pattern? Yes. It was extremely hot and humid the entire time, even at night. Our lovely guides passed out fans for us and we made really good use of them.

Bethel in Hong Kong is split up into two locations about 30 minutes from each other. In one location is the offices, in the other is the residences. I have to admit, I don't remember much about the facts and figures we learned on the tour. But I will never be able to forget the love of the Bethelites and their excitement in having so many visitors. Many of the departments had prepared a souvenir for us to take. There were bookmarks, fans, teabags and even a rock from the gardening department.

After the residence portion of the tour, we had some cookies and water bottles and were able to meet and chat with some long time full-time servants, some who had been doing so for 40 years. 

From Bethel we boarded the bus and headed to Kowloon Walled City Park. 

To be continued in part 2...

8-5-12 airport antics

8-5-12 Going to Hong Kong

Hi there! We are on the plane! (well not when you're reading this, but I'm writing this on the plane and uploading it at the hotel later)

We are somewhere over the Bering straight. Only 8.5 hours to go! Haha.

We've had a nice meal and this airline is amazing. Of course all of our experience with international long-haul flights has been thru the medium of tv and film, sooo...

Ooh! It's tomorrow! Zane says we just crossed the international dateline. There goes our youth, another day older, far too soon. What a shame.

So our fun has already started, we met so many friends at the airport. There were 40 witnesses on our flight. We took pictures and swapped info cards while we waited at the gate. Besides friends from English and Hindi, there were also some from Spanish and Sign Language.

Something really cool happened at the terminal. Two friends from Peoria who are in ASL were signing to each other when a man sitting behind them interrupted and began speaking to them in ASL. They were able to explain to him who they were and why they were traveling to hong kong. If you are not yet struck with the amazingness of three or more people who happen to know sign happening to be in the same terminal as each other AND happening to find this out, just wait. It turns out that these men were not on our flight. No. They were not even in the correct terminal area! Their gate was a completely different one. So the chances of them getting a witness should have been low. We all thought that was cool.

We look forward to sharing many more experiences like this, others and our own.

10:15pm Hong Kong time. We made it here! While our hearts and smiles are energetic and unflagging, our bodies are giving out. (We've been awake for over 24 hours.)

After we landed, deboarded and claimed our luggage, we ended up spilling out into a large room, the Arrivals Hall. There we found a welcoming committee of smiling brothers and sisters, waiting for anyone with a little red badge. They were waving frantically and hugged each of us and pretty much it was perfect. The hotel had a whole  boardroom set up just for JW  check-in. It was manned by about 20 local brothers and sisters on laptops, eagerly getting us all sorted out.

We  got our room number, keycards and a goody bag! I impressed a few of them with my first ever attempt at speaking mandarin. I told them 'nice to meet you' 'hoko hangyang sik lay' (They were too nice, amped up on holy spirit, love and caffeine. They applauded.)

We love this brotherhood so much.
Please leave us a comment below or email us. We miss you!

Tomorrow: Bethel tour, field service, congregation gathering.

We miss you guys!!! Love you!!!

Gratitude and Visas

You might want to turn this down, it gets kinda loud in the middle.

BIG NEWS!

Whoa!

I was organizing my pictures on my computer and came across these.

Summer 2011, we went to a Itasca-fest with Cindi and Amanda. Zane found a few new friends. Needless to say, he was the only one brave enough to hold or touch any of them. But I did stick around to photograph him! That's gotta count for something, right?

Wedding: noun. (ˈwɛdɪŋ)

(this was my favorite candid shot of all)

Alan & Jess,

We love and are very happy for you.

May your love always be strong and may it astonish you day after day how much more you can love each other than the day before.

Thank you for letting us be part of your special day, it was beautiful.

Lots of love,

Saje and Zane