Penguins Abroad

Jakobs Saturday photos

2012-02-11T06:17:00.007+08:00

This week, Jakob has been out in the nature again.

Vanity Plates

2012-02-06T09:09:00.001+08:00

I have never seen as many vanity plates as I have since moving here. The most common vanity plates seem to have embarrassing texts like "Max Rich", "Don Juan", "Tycoon Master", etc. Although some simply put their own names (I assume) such as one I saw yesterday: "CHEUNG FAT". There are also ones that I find somewhat funny, such as "Somebody" or "168 Eggs". However, our middle daughter liked this vanity plate that she found in a parking lot as it had her name on it. She is happy to share the car with her great grandmother, whom also has the same name.

Jakobs Saturday photos

2012-02-04T05:01:00.003+08:00

This week, Jakobs 2 photos are somewhat postmodern. Both photos are taken in a village in Beijing.

Jakobs Saturday photos

2012-01-28T16:30:00.002+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! This blog has been badly ignored, but with a new year, I resolve to improve this somewhat.

Our son likes taking pictures. Some are more artistic and postmodern than others, but I must say that I quite like them. Perhaps others will too? So, being inspired by Renès «Wordless Wednesdays», I decided to make a new series with Jakobs photos so that you can judge for yourself! So, as long as I can be bothered, I will post one or two new photos taken by our eight year old every Saturday.

We start out with fruit and veg: an aubergine he found in a forest in Beijing and some tomatoes served in Changsha.

New food 34: Mud fish

2012-01-27T08:47:00.000+08:00

I am not even sure what type of fish it really is, but I am pretty sure I have never before eaten these tiny fish resembling geckos that I had just seen "walking" in the mud in the village prior to eating it. Conclusion: tastes pretty good!

A Traditional Christmas?

2011-12-23T22:51:00.005+08:00

Yes, we put up the Christmas tree today. Well the kids actually both put it up and decorated it on their own, but we did watch. It is perfectly on schedule according to the Viking tradition. I remember how my dad used to put up the Christmas tree on the evening of the 23^rd every year whilst watching the TV programme “Dinner for one" and groaning about it no matter whether it was a sweltering hot evening in Nairobi or a cold evening in Norway. It is one of those memories that makes me feel “warm and fuzzy”. Well, he did it on the 23^rd, and so did his parents before him. As Christmas according to the Scandinavian tradition does not actually finish until the 13^th day of Christmas (the 6^th of January), elsewhere celebrated as “Wise Men’s day”, Christmas does not start until the 24^th.

This is probably how I would have continued Christmas celebrations if I had married another Viking and lived in Scandinavia- a fairly unlikely scenario. However, as one married a wonderful Dutch-English-Argentine lady, things changed dramatically. I still remember as a student thinking it was hilarious to see Advent calendars and Christmas decorations and wrapping, etc. already in stock in the shops in the UK in the Month of August. “The English are serious about planning ahead”, I thought to myself, but then I guess it only makes sense when Christmas is suddenly over at Boxing Day. I was rather shocked when I first found out about this the first time.

A few years back, I remember telling a friend that one of the wonderful advantages of a cross cultural marriage is that traditions must be to some extent reinvented, negotiated and thought through. As one cannot as easily take on traditions from one’s forefathers without questions, one must think through the meaning of one’s traditions to find traditions that really reflects what one really does value. In the case of Christmas, one is given the opportunity to focus on the traditions that actually reflects the Reason for the Season: the celebration of the birth of God With Us - Jesus! As with Christmas celebrations in most cultures, they are often a mixture of local culture, pre-Christian paganism, commercialism/materialism and of course the Christian celebration. Not all is bad, but marrying someone from a different culture gives the opportunity to reconsider one’s traditions to ensure that the birth of Jesus is our focus rather than other influences.

Of course, many of the traditions we have not included in our traditions, like the Sinter Klaas tradition from the Netherlands or the Three Wise men tradition from Argentina are in fact great traditions that really do highlight very well the importance of the birth of The Prince of Peace. If anyone wants to give me presents on the 5th of Decemeber or surprise me with presents in my shoes on the 6th of January, you would be very welcome!

If you are the critical type, you probably would already be asking yourself why we have been decorating a Christmas tree today if we really want Christmas to be a real celebration of the birth of Jesus. And you would be right. I do admit that this German tradition is rather curious when you stop to think about it. I still remember watching as the first public Christmas tree was unveiled in a shopping centre in a city we used to live in another corner of this country. Some of the farmers were trying to work out why someone had put a tree indoors, whilst others understood perfectly the function of this strange tradition and proceeded to climb up the tree.

To be honest, we almost threw out the Christmas tree a couple of Christmases ago. Some Tibetan friends of ours referred to our Christmas tree as “such a nice shrine”. After explaining how the Christmas tree tradition started in Germany many years ago, and how we do not need shrines, as the Grace of God is sufficient for us, our friends nodded and smiled saying “yes it is just like our shrines”. However, as we moved to Europe the following year, and this strange German tradition has made its way into most of the Christmas traditions we know, the Christmas tree has returned almost every year into our home after all.

And just like previous years, it is decorated with small decorations that bring back memories: the glass balls from our student days, angels in many shapes and forms, presents from many good friends around the world, decorations made by the kids at different stages, paper decorations from Thailand made from Elephant poo, and of course the star at the top reminding us of the Bethlehem star guiding the wise men coming to see the Newborn King.

With our busy lives, we have not been as organised as previous years. In some ways it was almost easier to arrange Christmas when we arrived here in the city 3 years ago 4 days before Christmas and only 4 suitcases with our belongings.

Not quite being prepared, it was kind of a shock when we in the middle of this month walked into Ikea to find out that they had run out of most Christmas items including Christmas trees and ginger bread dough. So, as an alternative, I finally made the ginger bread dough with the kids and this evening we finally got the Christmas tree up just as the Norwegian tradition dictates.

So, this year will be a very Norwegian Christmas for us. Well, at least in some ways. Due to business on the 25^th, we decided to instead open the presents on the evening of the 24^th (instead of the morning of the 25^th-the English way we usually follow) this year and we are in this way following another Viking Christmas tradition.

Well, if I was to argue with my friend about the many virtues of cross cultural marriages, I would probably now also add another advantage: flexibility. If you need to flex, which you often do in China, you can simply follow another one of your traditions. So, we are not disorganised, we are simply following tradition. The Norwegian tradition! At least for this year… - I can hardly wait for that fabulous traditional Picada tomorrow night.
I wish you all a very blessed Christmas everyone!

Biogas from China to Madagascar!

2011-12-19T11:36:00.004+08:00

If you have followed this blog, you will have read about the International Biogas project that is transferring the good biogas experience from YongShun in China to our partner Church in Madagascar. You may have read abut it in june or August this year. This is a very exciting project. Thank you to the many of you who have been praying for this project. The activities have gone very well this year! If you are interested, you can read the annual update in English or Norwegian. We are excited about taking the next steps next year. Are you with us?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Irene- now found in a great University!

2011-12-15T16:28:00.000+08:00

Some of you may remember a girl we called "Irene" who was thrown out by her parents because she was unable to speak due to the fact that she was hearing impaired. When I recently asked the headmaster of the ChangSha Deaf Centre, Mrs Wang, about "Irene" her face lit up with a warm smile. Irene has just been acepted at one of Chinas top 10 Universities. Quite the Christmas present! This in itself is amazing for a girl from the countryside in this vast country. When you remember that she is hearing impaired, this is even more increible. Looking back, it now seems almost unreal for her incredibly proud parents to imagine that they only 12 years ago gave her to the headmaster of the deaf school and had no intention of seeing her again.

Without the Deaf Centre in Changasha, it is questionable if Irene would be alive, be able to speak or have any formal education. Irenes story is one of many life stories that shows how life can turn out when Gods love is poured on people and igniting hope really can change more than one can imagine!

If you would like to read the reast of her story, you can read about it in English or Norwegain depending on your preference.

It is really a pleasure to see the joy in this deaf centre! Our children certainly enjoyed their time in this school when we visited these kids on our family holiday this summer. Marieke has also just written a great annual update from the deaf centre that you can also read in either English or Norwegian.

The YongShun project- a great success!!

2011-12-07T05:13:00.001+08:00

Many of you have followed the Environmental Project in YongShun through this blog as well as these blogs: Projects in China (English) and Kina Bistand (Norwegain). This week, I am here in YongShun together with a team that is evaluating this three year project. It has been such a joy to see how this project is improving the lives of people here in YongShun! One is very thankful to be able to see how this project is making such a big difference to people and the environment! Why not take a look at the annual report for this year here? It is also great to see the excitement of people like Mr. Xiang who is so grateful for the biogas digester he is receiving for Christmas this year!

If you would rather read the annual report or Mr. Xiangs story in Norwegian, take a look here.

Warm Advent greetings from YongShun everyone!

A great start to a pioneering course in HuNan!

2011-11-14T05:34:00.000+08:00

This pioneering training project in Hunan is very exciting! The training is looking at how the Church in China can practice diakonia or reaching out to help the poor locally across Hunan Province. Have a look at this update Marieke has written about the progress of these trainings this year in English or Norwegian. It has been such a success, so next year we are planning to do six more of these great training sessions!

New food 33: Poo coffe

2011-11-06T07:18:00.000+08:00

Well, it is not strictly food nor is it poo as such. Civet coffee is simply coffee beans that have been eaten by a Civet cat and then have come out, well, in the natural way…The beans are apparently washed before they are roasted. This processs makes these beans very valuable and expensive. So, a good friend of ours went to the Philippines and kindly brought these back for us to taste the coffee.

Verdict? Very good! I would describe it as having a “round taste”.

New food 32: Cow stomach!

2011-10-01T08:43:00.004+08:00

Yes, it is actually the first time I have had cow stomach. Whereas my lovely wife grew up eating this stuff in Argentina, I have been deprived of it.

Verdict? In comparison to e.g. goat stomach, I would say it is a bit milder and somewhat less tasty. Prepared with lots of chillies, this tasted very good! No surprise it was a dish at a fabulous wedding banquet.

Our daughter, however, liked the taste of the flower better.

15 years

2011-09-07T04:29:00.003+08:00

Today, we're celebrating 15 years of blissful marriage. In that connection, it seems appropriate to do a quick counting of the last 15 years: 1 year in England, 4 years in the Kingdom of Norway and 10 years in the People's Republic of China. That means we've spent 2 thirds of our marriage in this country. Funny thought.

New food 31: Kangaroo.

2011-08-27T08:07:00.003+08:00

I have to say I did not expect to taste Kangaroo meat in China! Our good Australian friends, the Harveys, kindly brought kangaroo jerky from their mother land this summer so that I could taste it! When your friends bring you food, you know you are loved.

Verdict? Well, to be honest it did not have as much taste as e.g. Yak jerky. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison as they live such different lives? It was also a tiny bit tough, and I was told the meat is used for pet food. However, with the chilli spices, this jerky was strangely addictive. So, all in all: pretty good.

A very good start!

2011-08-16T00:18:00.008+08:00

As mentioned in a previous blog post, our partner church in Madagascar, FLM, are keen to transfer biogas technology from China to Madagascar. So, as a first step leaders from FLM came this summer to our project area in YongShun (Hunan Province in China) to see how biogas projects are managed by our local partner, Amity Foundation. This trip was very successful. The project even made it to local as well as national newspaper and TV news in this huge country.

The leaders got a very good understanding of biogas technology and management in China in addition to the good relationships that were built.

Then, as a second step, a biogas technician and a biogas project manager from China went to Madagascar to train technicians how to make the moulds for the biogas digesters. To find out what works best in Madagascar, they decided to make both a metal and wooden mould. This was quite a race against time as the Chinese very visiting for a short time. However, thanks to a great deal of enthusiasm, hard work and Gods help, both moulds were finished in time.

So, this project is off to a good start and we are very excited about the next steps that will see biogas digesters and trained biogas technicians in both China and Madagascar. If you are in supporting this project, please send us an e-mail on: projectsinchina at gmail.com

Top: Proud makers of the steel mould
Under: The handmade wooden biogas digester mould made in Madagascar this month.

The handmade metal biogas digester mould made in Madagascar this month.

Gas: From China to Madagascar with love.

2011-06-14T05:01:00.003+08:00

This morning, this penguin is off to welcome the leadership of our partner Church in Madagascar, FLM. They are coming here to China to learn about biogas and see the biogas project that NMS is running in HuNan Province in cooperation with our partner in China, Amity Foundation. In July, Chen JiaHai (39), who was trained as a biogas technician by the NMS biogas project in YongShun (HuNan Province in China), will go to Madagascar together with a manager from Amity to show how biogas moulds are built. Next year, technicians will come from Madagascar to learn how to make biogas digesters before they go home to Madagascar to train technicians there before biogas installations are built there and biogas technicians are trained in both countries.

This project idea was conceived of in YongShun (an NMS biogas project area in HuNan Province, China) because people there were very proud of this project. As a result of this, NMS China made contact with NMS in Madagascar about the interest of a possible biogas project. The leadership of the Church in Madagascar is very concerned about God’s creation because of the way environmental degradation affects the lives of the poor in Madagascar. They are very keen on learning from the biogas success of our partner in China, Amity foundation. There is therefore a lot of enthusiasm in Madagascar about learning how these biogas digesters improve the environment, the living conditions for the poor and in particular the health, status and safety of women.

This project is seeking to give biogas to about 500 households in Madagascar and 550 homes in YongShun (in HuNan Province in China). In addition, many biogas technicians are trained in both countries so that the biogas digesters can be maintained well. Farmers in both countries will be trained in biogas digester maintenance as well as health and hygiene.

However, we hope this project can have many other important positive results. We hope our two local partner organizations can learn a lot from each other.

If you are interested in reading about this project in Norwegian, have a look here and here.

If you are interested in supporting this project, please send us an e-mail. Please pray for this project!

Letter to God

2011-05-29T20:59:00.001+08:00

We recently watched a film called Letters to God. It is based on a true story about a kid who has cancer and writes letters to God. Once you get past the cheesy parts, it is actually a great film to watch as a family. During the family service at our church today, our nine year old prayed this letter to God that she had written:

Dear God,
Thank you for being King of Kings and being always at my side.
Every time I do something wrong you forgive me.
When I am scared you help me.
You trust me with love.
Dear Lord,
You made the stars by naming each one of them.
You made the trees, the ocean and streams of water next to me and
all types of animals.
If you are not alive, then what is?
You have made such wonderful things!
Who could make a more wonderful place than you?
You have made all sorts of different things.
You can make everything work.
You can make the dead rise.
And you are the only one who can blow away sin!

Mind the gap

2011-05-26T21:25:00.000+08:00

This city has Asia`s highest gini coefficient. Whilst the city is home of more than 100 000 people living in cages that are extremely hot in the summer, and the number of homeless are soaring, the wealth here is also abundantly visible.

The 17th of May

2011-05-17T23:07:00.003+08:00

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that Norwegians celebrate their constitution and independence on the 17^th of May. This year, we actually went to a part of the official 17^th of May celebrations arranged by the consulate and others (read: the free part of the extortionately prized celebrations). It was fun to see other Vikings living here for the first time.

It was also rather entertaining to see the reactions of the huge bus loads from the other side of the border who came to the beach for the day and was rather fascinated by the parade of all these funnily dressed blond people waiving flags and shouting things. Out of the 30 people in the parade was a man whom I went to school with who lived only hundred meters from my parents house. That is what it is like to come from a tiny country.

It was fun, but could not compare to the celebrations of the Norwegian school where the entire school did a similar parade despite never having experienced the day in Norway. We were once again asked to be royalty. I think I can get used to being royalty, though it was rather hot to wear a suit in the sunshine.

>Her Majesty close up.

Buying pants in China

2011-04-26T08:07:00.008+08:00

On a recent long trip in this grand country, I discovered that I did not have a sufficient number of socks and pants. So, I set off to the nearest supermarket. In Europe, supermarkets are generally shops that are pretty stripped of service and help. This is however not really the case in China.

As a male "hunter" shopper, I quickly picked a few pants that I could easily reach. "Voila!" I thought to myself and was mentally almost already at the checkout counter. That was just half a second before I was stopped by a friendly yet very serious shop assistant about 20 years older than me. "Do not buy those!" she exclaimed. She ponited to a pair placed next to the floor. "They are less than half the price and they are just as good quality as those! They really are the best deal here!" I took her word for it and picked the first pair from the bottom shelf. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "Those will be too tight for you!" she said as she looked at me squinting as if she was asessing me. After pausing, she continued: "Yes, I think these should fit your size and style".

Somewhat embarrased, I looked for the third pair I needed. However, somehow, the lady kept following me and emphasisng that I already had got the best deal and that I could trust her etc. I nodded in agreement, but kept looking. That is when she realized I was looking for another pair. Horror and worry filled her face: "You buy too many! How many pants do you really need? Do not waste your money!"

I imagine some foreign nationals could have got somewhat offended or irritated by the lady. The experience simply gave me a big grin on my face all the way to the checkout counter and back to my room. Don`t get me wrong: I am VERY thankful that neither my mother, wife or any other relative of mine is or have been even vaguely this interfering. However, the occurence reminded me of the many wonderful experiences of care expressed by friends and total strangers in this country in the last decade.

Among the many stories that came to mind, was the Taxi driver who refused to take me to the pharmacy in the centre of town as he was trying to find me a pharmacy closer by my house in order to save me money. At the end of the day, I did actually end up in the big pharmacy in the centre of town, but it was not due to lack of trying from the taxi driver: The guy called his friends, talked with several of the pharmasists where we stopped to ask if they had the medicine I needed and parked illegally several times.

In latter years, break neck capitalism has been closer associated with this country . However, the pant sales lady and the Taxi driver are also brilliant pictures of a counter culture to the capitalist and individualism which is so common in so many western countries. It is the only country I have been to where the sales person I have never previously met is more concerned about my welfare rather than how much money they can get.

New Food 30: Snails!

2011-04-10T16:15:00.004+08:00

Despite having lived more than a decade in this country, travelling through France many times, having had the slugs warmly recomended by family, I never actually tried eating snails before.

Verdict? Pretty nice, but not a very strong taste. I guess the taste of these creatures greatly depends on how they are prepared. Our snails were in a salad, and tasted quite refreshing this way. Snails cannot compare to dog meat or frog legs, but it is infinitely better than e.g. Durian. Go on, have a taste!

New food 29: Dried small fish

2011-04-01T06:24:00.001+08:00

These small dried fish were quite OK. Kind of like popcorn/fried rain flies, only fishier. A long way from frog or dog meat, I'm afraid.

Learning to speak- what a relief!

2011-03-15T11:50:00.000+08:00

Have you ever been in a situation where you cannot express yourself to the world or surroundings around you? If it’s been a holiday, it may have added some initial excitement as it’s kind of fun to have to communicate with one’s hands and feet. Sometimes, it leads to embarrassing situations and at other times, you feel the satisfying experience of managing to make yourself understood.

However, if you’ve lived in this kind of a situation for an extended period of time, you are likely to have experienced a considerable amount of frustration. At least I remember actually experiencing this whilst studying Chinese in this wonderful country. Suddenly, I went from being an adult to almost feeling like a little child. I suddenly had a new understanding of why many people in e.g. Europe see people from distant corners of the world as “simple and happy”. It doesn’t matter what you think, but when your vocabulary is limited, there is very little to help you but smiles and nods.

Even though most people in this country are very gracious and almost always assume the very best, I can still remember situations during language study where I could understand that people really had misunderstood me completely but I had no way of actually expressing what I really meant or clear up the misunderstanding. I could go on about the frustrations, but thankfully it did pass relatively fast.

I imagine this is some of the frustration Ji LanQing felt only half a year ago when he as a six year old could not talk or express himself to anyone.

Please take a few minutes to read about the great journey Ji LanQing and his mum has been on for the last six months by reading this article written by my wonderful wife. If you prefer to read it in English, have a look here, if your preference is Norwegian, have a look here.

New food 28: Mini octopuses

2011-03-05T15:18:00.005+08:00

This blog has been ignored for far too long. Apologies! Business is never a good a good excuse, though it is a reality.

We had family over from the UK for Chinese New year and enjoyed their company! My Greek brother-in-law is even keener on trying new foods than I am, so we got to try out some new cool foods. This included raw mini octopuses. Well, I have of course eaten octopus tentacles before, but I haven’t eaten mini octopuses or their head etc. before.

What it was like? Overall, quite a pleasant taste experience, though it’s not really on the top of my list. I have to confess that my brave brother-in-law thankfully ate most of them. If you don’t like the idea of having a whole, cold, dead animal in your mouth, then this is probably not the dish for you. If on the other hand like the idea, then you’ll be in for a treat!

Illiterate ants

2011-01-03T22:28:00.003+08:00

As some of you know, we moved from a block of flats to the countryside in the autumn. One of the charms of moving to the countryside, are all the creepy crawlies that get into everything. Well, we did have our share of “pets” also in our flat, but it can’t quite compare to the variety and abundance here.

Cockroaches bigger than small birds, families of gecko’s roaming the walls and ceilings and armies of ants that cover your apple if you leave it unattended for five minutes are just some of our house guests. Even though the giant cockroaches probably look the worst, it’s the ants that seem to cause the most trouble. They would probably taste OK, but these ants seem a bit too small to fry. They just seem to penetrate any cover and they don’t come in two’s but in huge numbers. I guess you can’t really blame them. To be fair, we’ve entered their habitat just as much as they have entered ours.

Now, our son has got into writing messages and signs lately. A Friday evening before going to bed, he put up a sign on his door saying: “Please don’t wake me up. It’s my day off”. I suspect he copied one of his sisters, as it’s a very long time since I last woke him up in the morning. He seems to have an internal clock that means that he hardly ever wakes up after 6 am in the morning. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a school day, holiday or if he went to bed the night before past midnight. Even when travelling between continents, his internal clock seems to wake him up at 6am as if the internal clock is automatically adjusted by satellite. If you're wondering: I never woke him up that Saturday. He woke me up as usual.

Recently, however, he made this sign for our ants:

It may be hard to see from this photo, but essentially it’s “road sign” showing that ants should not eat food from the kitchen. The message seems pretty clear to me independently of culture and language background. I’ve asked 3 people of radically different mother tongues and cultural backgrounds and all of the three got the message loud an clear. The ants, however, somehow do not seem to get it. They’re still crowding the tiniest crumb. Our son seems pretty surprised by this: it’s not like it’s hard to understand.

Ants are hailed for their work ethic, muscles and communication skills. However, I must say they are somewhat lacking in their literacy and basic understanding of symbols. Honestly, how hard can it be? I guess you can’t have everything. Muscles or brains…? Hmmm…. Then again, they may just be obstinate rebels that understand the sign but choose to ignore it. In which case, I guess they’ll be after me shortly after they’ve read this blog post…

New food 27: Durian Fruit

2010-12-26T18:11:00.006+08:00

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was getting a couple of tiny delicious mango cakes from a special bakery for our annual Picada. That’s when I saw the Durian cakes. They were hermetically sealed, so I could not smell them, but they looked good through the transparent plastic. Other than being green, they looked pretty similar to the very nice mango cakes I got. They were a bit more expensive, but I thought to myself: “let’s have something special for Christmas”. I know plenty of people who claim to love the fruit, but for some reason I’ve never actually tried it before so I also thought it would be a good idea to finally try it.

Christmas Eve arrived, the Picada table was laid and looked and smelled delicious. That’s when I opened the packet of the special Durian cake. Suddenly, the whole room smelled of sewage. The authorities have been digging up the side walk right next to our house for the last couple of weeks (they thankfully took a break today- Christmas day) so I am very aware of what sewage smells like. Thinking about it, the smell of the durian fruit was actually worse. I kind of knew about the smell from before, but I wanted to actually try it. Smelling the fruit, I suddenly understood all the signs I’ve seen in shops, hotels and restaurants in Thailand forbidding people to take the fruit into their premises.

Of course, there isn’t always a relationship between smell and taste I rationalised. For instance, the infamous “Chou DouFu” smells pretty bad, but actually tastes like a very mature French cheese. Rather too mature. Well, there are foods that are higher on my list of favourite foods, but Chou DouFu is really quite nice to eat even though they smell like a (dirty) cow shed.

So, before taking a bite, I decided to finish the whole piece of Durian cake before making any judgement. Once I had my first bite, I regretted this decision. The cake contains 2 ingredients: the fruit and cream. At first, I thought I was tasting gone off cream, but realized it wasn’t the cream at all. It was just a terribly tasting fruit. When you wish you were throwing up instead of eating what you’re eating, it’s really a bad sign.

The vicar in our Church has argued that it’s strange that such a nice looking fruit such as the apple was the forbidden fruit and that it could have made more sense for the durian to be the forbidden fruit. I must confess that I do agree. Once they’d opened it and could smell it, Adam and Eve might even have given it a miss as well understanding the nature of the fruit. If that was the case, the world would look very different. I guess it wouldn’t have been much of a temptation, though.

No, durian certainly does not rival dog meat or frogs on the “best new food” list. It has however inspired me to make a new list: the “worst new food” list. Durian has certainly made it to the top!

Sock monsters take on the world

2010-12-22T18:00:00.001+08:00

As some of you may remember, some young girls have been making sock monsters to give poor households in YongShun, HuNan Province access to water and biogas digesters which gives better hygiene, health, income and save time. The monsters have found new homes in England, Norway and several corners of China including Hong Kong, ShangHai & TaiWan. If you’re interested in reading more about the fantastic YongShun project that among other things turn poo into gas for cooking to save the environment, take a look here.

It’s coming to the end of the year and so the three young ladies have counted their income and have found that they have sold sock monsters for 1,560 HongKong Dollars/ 1200 NOK/ 130 Pounds Sterling. Roughly half of the sale has been done respectively locally in Hong Kong and in Norway. NMS China sends a big thank you to Natasha, Sophia & Clare who have produced, managed, marketed and sold these monsters themselves. Perhaps you or someone you know would like to make an enterprise to raise funds for NMS China’s work or projects? If you’re interested, you can read more about some of the projects we support here.

Big changes in little people’s lives

2010-12-19T21:51:00.006+08:00

It’s really fascinating to see the lives of the children in the ChangSha Deaf Centre being changed by the people who care for them. Many of whom would otherwise not have any access to formal education. When relating to other larger projects, a hundred people may seem like a small number. However, when you meet individuals like Irene or MeiLin and hear the stories, it’s easy to see how this deaf centre is making a big difference to the small individuals that are being helped by this deaf centre started by an individual with a vision. Why not take a look at the new annual report from the Deaf Centre in ChangSha that NMS supports? If you’d rather read in Norwegian, have a look at the annual report, Irene’s or MeiLin’s story through these links.

New food 26: Fish stomach

2010-11-11T19:27:00.003+08:00

I just had fish stomach for the first time! It was very delicious! Then again, I guess it's like it is with most stomachs: if prepared well it can taste very good, but if prepared badly...well- not so good. The dish I tried was certainly very nice! I can recommend it!

To Halloween or not to?

2010-10-30T15:35:00.007+08:00

It’s that time of year again when the kids bug us about dressing up to scare strangers in order to then ask them for sweets. Once again, I have to decide if I’m going to allows them to dress and behave like monsters or feel like a monster.

This is of course quite a new “festival” for us to even encounter. When I was a kid or teenager, Halloween was a festival that Americans celebrated in the US and thankfully none of us on the other continents needed to think much about it. In the last 10 years, however, the commercial world has made billions of Pounds on making this “celebration” a global phenomenon.

When I was a child, “trick-or-treating” was not really common either in Kenya or Scandinavia. However, in Norway we used to dress up and sing carols in the days between Christmas day and New Years eve. For some reason, singing to strangers and being given mandarins and cakes was so much fun even though I certainly couldn’t sing and our generous mother had filled the cupboards with mandarins and cakes at home anyway. So, I do understand the appeal of the dressing up for the kids.Sadly, this local tradition seems to have altogether evaporated as Haloween has proven to make the toys industry richer.

I personally have a dislike for the way Halloween is driven forth in most countries in the world because of the commercial sector wanting to make lots of money on this holiday. I can’t either say that the blood and gore in the shops or restaurants really fills me with joy, but then it perhaps would have if I’d been celebrating this from I was a child? I guess my point is that none of these things are good reasons to support or reject the festival.

So, I’ve looked at what some people say about this festival:

Nesting in Skyskrapers wrote this well worded blog post opposing the celebration of this festival. On the other hand, Father Augustine Thompson wrote this blog post arguing that Halloween is a Christian festival.

I can’t say that I was convinced by Father Thomson. Yes, I recognize that the festival has Church roots historically speaking. However, to argue that this makes the festival a Christian festival is quite a leap for me. In fact, it seems even the history refer to people inside and outside the Church behaving very un-Christ like, but that may just be me. However one sees this, I guess history is just one aspect of this celebration.

One concern, is that it is sometimes used to glorify the occult. There are genuine occult groups that of course can “cash in” on this “holiday” and they receive a lot of free publicity and attention. The celebration of Halloween makes occult practices more socially acceptable.

However, for most people this festival has nothing to do with the occult and in effect they do not recognize the spiritual forces by dressing up as “demons” etc.

As Christians, we have nothing to fear when it comes to the occult because Jesus is much stronger than the Devil / evil spirits. However, does that mean we should take part in this festival? I don’t know. What do you think?

Is Halloween McWorld’ing our societies, glorifying death and the occult or is it just a fun opportunity to dress up and have fun?

I would also be very interested in specific examples of people actually redeeming this festival and alternative celebrations. Is this really possible?

New food 25: chicken liver

2010-10-22T21:29:00.003+08:00

This was quite a nice surprise. It's really quite tasty. Chicken liver is not very common in western cooking as far as I know, but I don't really know why as other livers are. Really quite nice!

New food 24: bees and baby bees

2010-10-21T21:37:00.006+08:00

I do apologise for ignoring this blog lately.

Moving, travelling and having no access to the internet is not very conducive for blogging. However, we're now mostly online again and I plan to get blogging again! First off, is my latest new food: bees and baby bees (what are baby bees called anyway?). Verdict: very tasty! Drier than rain flies, but more juicy than wasps. Really quite tasty fried with chili.

New food 23: Fish head

2010-09-09T21:21:00.003+08:00

Today I actually tasted a fish head for the first time. Previously I have been honoured by being served a fish brain, but that is really just a tiny part of the head of a fish (honestly- really small!- could hardly taste anything). Fish heads are generally considered a delicacy in this corner of the world and after actually tasting the "meat" from a fish head, I can really see why. This Mackerel head was rather tasty! If you haven't tried it before, try it sometime!

I have to confess that it did make me slightly uncomfortable having the food "look at me" when eating it. I guess I could have solved the problem by eating the eye first. Maybe I'll do that next time. Then again, maybe not...

New food 22: Truffles

2010-09-07T22:30:00.000+08:00

Yes, I've finally tasted these strange things that beasts go hunting for! As we celebrated 14 years of blissful marriage today and some good NewZealand/Scottish/Canadian friends kindly babysat, we went to an Italian Restaurant in town and had some great food.

When you're so sought after as these truffles are, it's hard not to be a disappointment to anyone trying them.

Personally, I found it quite hard to actually define what these shavings tasted of other than that they tasted somewhat nutty. Together with the risotto, it tasted fantastic, though. I'm afraid it didn't rival dog and frog meat as my favourite new foods since I started this blog.

We can help even more farmers!

2010-08-27T09:09:00.001+08:00

We're really excited about the fact that even more farmers than planned are able to get biogas digesters in YongShun, Hunan Province!

Please take a minute to read more about this fantastic expansion of this NMS project in English or Norwegian.

Tepting menu?

2010-08-21T22:11:00.006+08:00

As you may know, we’ve been to Europe for a few short weeks. We’ve enjoyed great food prepared with lots of love by family, close friends and of course the Turkish Pizza baker and English fish’n chips chef.

On the first day of our return to our empty flat, we decided to go out for tea. It was a new place to us and even though it had a funny smell, it was full of people and the people serving were very friendly and gave us an English menu without us requesting it.

These are just some of the treats on the menu:

1. Daintily Cow Abdomen
2. Fragrant Prick Meat
3. Fillet Head (Fish)
4. Cow Miscellaneous
5. Greatness Intestines
6. Middling Intestines
7. Thin Intestines
8. Cow lung
9. Cow Tendon
10. Cow stomach
11. Cow's Fore leg Preserved with Fermented Beancurd
12. Great Burdock

A few years back, we ended up in a sheep brain restaurant for our date. I'm not sure what the common theme of this menu is... Any ideas?

It was brilliant to see friends and family (though it was far too brief), but it’s great to be back in Asia! I’ve never seen a menu like this on another continent. Have you?

New food 21: Sausage with "Sprinkles"/ "met Chocolade Hagelslag"

2010-07-21T06:00:00.000+08:00

We've had good friends visiting from the Netherlands and they kindly brought us "Hagelslag". You're wondering what that means? Well essentially, it's "sprinkles" that you'd put on cakes (like "tutti frutti", chocolate etc.). The main difference is that the Dutch put it on bread. For some strange reason, kids really seem to like this.

As you can imagine, the "hagelslag" does not easily stick to your bread, so I just had sausages and omelette sprinkled with chocolate "hagelslag". I wouldn't really recommend it. Yes, frog and dog meat are still on the top of the list of new foods.

Sock Monsters for biogas in YongShun

2010-07-17T06:55:00.000+08:00

These Sock Monsters are not just any old monsters! They are made by Natasha(10), Clare (10) and Sophia (8) and they have decided that 100% of the profit should go to the NMS YongShun Environmental project that gives people in YongShun, HuNan a better life through biogas tanks that turn poo into renewable energy! Read more about the YongShun project here.

“They are very environmentally friendly and cheap to make because they are made from old, used clean socks” says Natasha (10) who initiated the enterprise and designed the first sock monsters. The first sock monsters are already sold by the 3 young ladies at school and in our neighbourhood here in Hong Kong, but the enterprise is going international as the popular enterprise will soon go to Europe.

A big thank you from NMS to Clare, Sophia & Natasha for the great project they’ve come up with!
Perhaps you'd like to do something fun to raise funds for NMS China's work?

Children can be...

2010-07-15T04:08:00.001+08:00

As I've mentioned before, our son has declared that he doesn't want to get married. He repeated this the other day, and finally gave an explanation: "I think children can be quite annoying sometimes".

Some people may argue that self insight is a preciously rare gifting of most 6 year old children. Our six year old is thankfully never annoying.

New Food 20: Salmon Pizza

2010-06-30T05:28:00.002+08:00

Salmon Pizza is definitely a new food for me. Even though I was a bit surprised, it seems Salmon is one of the favourite foods of Hong Kong people. I'm sure the Norwegian export council is very happy with this as more than 90% of salmon in this city comes from the Viking Kingdom.

It seems near to impossible to ruin the taste of this naturally delicious fish. I think only the IKEA restaurants have actually impressed me by managing to prepare salmon in a way that doesn't taste great. And yes, the fish tasted rather delicious even though it was inside a pizza with Cheese etc.

All in all, I have to say it didn't taste bad. However, I would generally say that salmon and pizza probably are better off living separate lives. At least accordig to my tastebuds...

The Most Popular Snack

2010-06-27T15:46:00.008+08:00

When I was a kid, the last day of school before vacation was always an exciting time. It wasn’t just that we were anticipating a holiday, but most of all: eating sweets at school. It wasn’t just that it was the only days besides Christmas, Easter and the 17th of May that we were allowed to eat sweets and snacks outside of Saturdays. It was the fact that we were allowed to actually eat sweets at school!

Our kids had a similar last day of school now before the summer holidays. They were allowed to bring their favourite snack to school. They put all their snacks on the table and shared it as per Chinese tradition. I guess the idea is that aside from the joy of sharing, you also get a good variety of snacks.

Our girls both brought big boxes of their favourite fruits including sweet grapes, plums, melons, etc. and were quite excited about it. However, when they came home in the afternoon, their boxes were nearly untouched. Being rather puzzled, I scratched my head and asked our daughters: Why didn’t you eat more? “The fruit couldn’t compete” was the answer. Suddenly I felt silly, thinking: Of course! Nobody wants healthy foods when you can have sweets and cakes. Thinking back, that’s what I would have thought when I was a kid.

However, our daughter assured me that the cakes weren’t really touched either. So, what did they eat? I asked. “Some of the boys had brought lots of Sushi! That’s what everybody ate”. Of course! Why would eight year old kids eat cake, chocolate or grapes when you can eat raw fish and squid? Well, I guess it’s just one of those things that remind me of the fact that we’re living in the city of Hong Kong…

Graduation!

2010-06-25T11:03:00.006+08:00

I'm aware that time passes very quickly. It feels like we just had our first child, and after the summer she is starting secondary! However, I did not think we would attend our son's graduation quite so soon.

In Hong Kong, people take kindergarten graduation very seriously. "Graduation" from kindergarten in other countries we've lived is a simple celebration with little or no fanfare. In this city, it is even acompanied by a certificate and a detailed grade report describing how the child is fairing with regards to reading, writing, Mandarin and relatively serious maths.

I have a very hard time imagining this happening in a kindergarten in Norway, so I'm not sure it's a typical Norwegian school in that sense... However, the kids did impress me with being able to sing songs perfectly in Norwegian (in addition to Mandarin & English) for their graduation ceremony.

2010-06-19T06:42:00.003+08:00

I'm the 871,084,825 richest person on earth!

Discover how rich you are! >>

I've allways known I'm rich in what matters. But it turns out I'm financially rich too. Try out this link Care has made. It's pretty eye opening!

Clean Water in YongShun!

2010-06-18T11:45:00.007+08:00

A lot has happened in the YongShun project since I last wrote a blog post update:

1. The Construction of YaDong Reservoir is now complete and is making a big difference in people’s lives!

2. 400 people have received training about agricultural production and animal husbandry.

3.Drinking Water Project in LaoSiCheng is now completed.

The aggregation channel (1) is of immense importance to the farmers because the channel means more water to the fields, which again means more crops when the autumn comes around. I was amazed by how grateful they were for the aggregation channel, the drinking water and the training. We couldn’t have been better welcomed! We were met by the village leader, five men playing various drums and fireworks. They took us to see the newly built irrigation channel and then they gave us lunch. Each family in the village had prepared one dish each for us! In a way it seems bizarre that they are so grateful for something as basic as water for their fields...

If you'd like to read more about this in Norwegian, have a look here.

The normal Hong Kong life

2010-06-13T15:03:00.005+08:00

For the last few weeks, I’ve been living “the normal Hong Kong life”. This explains why I haven’t really had the energy to blog for far too long. As you may know, Hong Kong is the city with longest working hours in the world.

Thankfully, I’m blessed with a boss who doesn’t lift an eyebrow when I leave the office already at 5pm on a normal day (unlike many others in this city). Even though I’m often busy and travel a fair bit, my boss thinks family time is a good idea and unlike some friends, I don’t usually take the last train home at midnight and I don’t usually think of 6 pm prayer meetings as unthinkable. Sometrimes, I'll drop by the local supermarketin the evening at 7:30pm or something like that and I'll bump into friends who often greet me: "Oh, so you're not working today? How nice!"

A few short months back, I thought of a new project idea. You probably know about the great projects we’re involved in e.g. YongShun with Amity foundation with the brilliant biogas digesters that turn poo into energy for cooking and good fertilizer.

Now, we’re looking into transferring this technology from China to our partners in some of the other countries we work: Ethiopia, Madagascar and Laos. A great idea in itself! The idea was warmly welcomed by our partners in these countries who really wanted to get started in 2011. This sounded like a good idea at the time, but little did I know what this meant in terms of preparing the proposal. It’s been a manic few months and the last few weeks have had far too many four hour nights. Now, the proposals finally are handed in and life is finally starting to normalize.
With the blessing (or curse) or modern technology with the internet and a small portable laptop, I don’t actually need to be anywhere near the office to work. This was particularly useful when my lovely wife was in Europe. After her return, however, it was very nice to be able to go to the office again. Not that I don’t appreciate the help with my papers from my six years old son, but it’s sometimes useful to go to an office.

As I left the office one evening, I thought it rather funny to leave after dark during the summer. In Scandinavia, leaving the office with sunlight during winter is fairly strange as you often only have about 3 hours of it, but June is usually a month with very little darkness and generally short working hours in Scandinavia…

However, getting out to a dark hot night, the streets felt a lot like being in a toy shop during the Christmas sales. The only difference was that most people were wearing suits. As I crowded to get into the overfull 10:30 train (even though there were still trains going every 2 minutes), I thought to myself: “yes, this is the normal Hong Kong Life. I’m grateful I don’t do this every day”.

They asked for strength...

2010-05-20T06:49:00.003+08:00

As I’ve mentioned previously, I have had the privilege of seeing God answering prayers with supernatural healing and provision for needs in the most unexpected and amazing ways. However, sometimes He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we expect and we may be dazed or confused. Why does God answer powerfully and in obvious ways sometimes and answers very differently at other times?

David shares his confusion at times in the Psalms and he does it really well. Just last Sunday, however, our pastor mentioned this story in his sermon, which I thought was really thought provoking and good:

They asked for strength that they might achieve;

they were made weak that they might obey.

They asked for health that they might do greater things;

they were given weakness that they might do better things.

They asked for riches that they might be happy;

they were given poverty that they might be wise.

They asked for power that they might have the praise of men;

they were given weakness that they might feel the need of God.

They asked for all things that they might enjoy life;

they were given life that they might enjoy all things.

They have received nothing that they asked for,

all that they hoped for.

Their prayer is answered.

Royalty for the day!

2010-05-17T17:36:00.002+08:00

So, you didn’t know we were royalty? Well, we are!
Some of you may know that today is Norway’s Constitution day when the whole country is celebrating by waving flags, looking at children walking in processions, eating sausages and ice cream.
As you may remember from last years’ 17th of May blog post, the kids go to a school where they are the only Norwegians (most of the kids are from this lovely country), but the school celebrates the 17th of May with all the essential singing, parading, games and appropriate eating etc.
This year, the school invited us to play the king and the queen of Norway and asked us to stand on a podium to wave at the children as they parade past singing and shouting “hipp-hipp-huraaaaa!” etc.
You may wonder what entitled us to this curious role. We have no history of inbreeding or royal blood in either of our families. Perhaps it’s my lack of hair? Or is it perhaps just the fact that I’m the only Scandinavian with some connection to the school?
Well, you may argue that having a tiara and waving at children doesn’t make someone royalty. And you’d be right. However, we are children of the Supreme King, Lord of Lords and as such royal heirs. So, in that sense we are as Christians all royalty every day. Isn’t that cool?

Jakob made this flag at school for the procession with the other kids. It's the first Norwegain flag I've seen that has been made out of a chopstick.

It can go off.

2010-05-12T21:09:00.005+08:00

It's that time of year when it's warming up again in this city. When you take food out of the cupboards, it feels like they have come out of the oven. In fact, just walking outside in this city can feel like you're walking in an oven.

We used to have Marmite in the cupboard. We had our Marmite freeze in the cupboard in QingHai, but it never went off. Now, however, we have discovered that Marmite can actually go off in the heat! So, it's time time to put the Marmite pot in the fridge. A bit hard to spread thinly, but it tastes betten than when it's gone off.

Even though the UK already has got a new prime minister, and the ellections are over in Britain for a few years, do take a look at the fun ellection broadcast by the Marmite Love Party and the Marmite Hate Party.

The Full Short Story

2010-05-11T20:12:00.003+08:00

Lots of people have asked us to post Natasha's short story that was published in New Tales of The South China Sea. So, if you're interested, take afew minutes to read the short story our ten year old wrote.

Beijing captured by a young photographer

2010-05-01T22:59:00.008+08:00

We are the parents of a child who has been on a school trip the whole week. (Yes - alone!) We must be getting old! And she took the camera with her and captured lots of cool things in the short lifespan of the camera battery. What struck me, was how many of the photos she took in the capital were of food. Well, she’s a daughter after her father’s heart!

At the Great Wall, Natasha was asked to take a photo with lots of people she had never met (the kids in this photo, however, are in her school.

Yushu - some good news

2010-04-30T22:54:00.005+08:00

As previously mentioned, the earthquake in Yushu is not only devastating in itself, but is a tragedy that also hit us on a more personal level because we have many friends there.

There is little to add to the medias' description of the tragedy. However, there are good reasons to be thankful too. Aside from the response from the government, organisations like Amity Foundation and Plateau Perspectives have done a fantastic job and are sticking around for the next step that is even more challenging than the first emergency relief stage: rebuilding.

It’s also great to see how people near and far are actively contributing in different ways to help out with this crisis. I am very pleased and touched that the NMS leadership has decided to contribute generously to the Yushu Earthquake relief efforts in a time when the organisation is facing a major financial crisis and cut backs. If you are interested in reading about this in Norwegian, have a look here.

Last Sunday, a memorial service was held in MoChou Church in Nanjing in memory of the deceased in Yushu earthquake. The congregation members contributed a total of 102,600 Chinese Yuan/NOK (roughly 10 260 Pounds Sterling) to support Amity’s relief work in QingHai. Meanwhile, churches in Wuxi and Kunshan in Southern Jiangsu also made generous donations of RMB 70,000 CNY/RMB/NOK (7 000 Pounds). These are just a few examples of how churches in this country and around the world seek to support those in pain.

The Hong Kong Young Writers Awards

2010-04-23T23:31:00.005+08:00

As I’ve mentioned before, Natasha is now a published author. So, today we went to the awards ceremony of the Hong Kong Writer’s Awards 2010. It was a fun celebration of the young writers of this city.

Natasha receiving the book by the Hong Kong Author and blogger, Nury Vittachi

Natasha with her teacher, Miss Wicks

Silver rugby girls!

2010-04-17T17:33:00.006+08:00

Yes, the girls have been to another Rugby tournament and we are very proud of them coming second! When China gets silver in the Olympics or other tournaments, our Chinese friends are usually quite disappointed. However, we are very impressed with second place!

Many of the participating International Schools take these competitions far too seriously and some parents consider Rugby a religion that is practiced every weekend. In addition to Norwegian Internet schooling and Church, we also do get out of the house of the house on weekends, but Rugby is never on the agenda. Whilst our kids’ school had six girls between of a school witha total of 66 students, most other schools had selected 12 kids out hundreds of students.

With this kind of competition, we were very surprised and impressed with their great teamwork. They played extraordinary well and impressed everyone. The only team that beat them was the school that hosted the tournament, Discovery Bay International School. So, they came second! We are of course very proud parents and still a bit unsettled…

The Earthquake in Yushu

2010-04-14T18:26:00.004+08:00

Just over ten years ago, we moved to QingHai and we were preparing to move to Jiegu in YuShu in the south of the province. As time passed, we were redirected and never moved there though we did live in the province for many years, got to visit the beautiful Yushu and have many friends who live there.
So, as we follow the devastating earthquake in Yushu, it’s not just a terrible earthquake with incomprehensible numbers (though it is also that), but also individuals we know. It is particularly sad to see how this earthquake has hit so many schools as Jiegu is a town with a high concentration of schools in a nomadic area.

So, it’s quite heart wrenching to follow the earthquake. If you’re interested, have a look at this great site that follows the earthquake as well as the work our partner organization, Amity is doing in Yushu.

Also, please pray for the people of Yushu:

*pray that necessary food, water, and medical supplies can be delivered to these areas.
*it is very, very cold in YuShu (it sits at 3680 meters/10,000 ft). Pray that people would be warm enough until they can get the tents, coats and other items that the government development organisations is sending to the area.
*pray for the safety of many people who are directly involved in the relief efforts as they travel back and forth from this remote area.

A published author!

2010-04-04T19:51:00.005+08:00

I’ve written a lot over the years in many different forums, but nothing has actually been published in book form (not that I’ve actually tried, but still...). Now, however, we have a published author in our family!

Natasha, at the age of ten, has taken part in the Hong Kong Young Writers competition and has been chosen to have her story published. We are of course very proud parents and totally understand why her story was selected.

He is Risen indeed!

2010-04-04T01:24:00.000+08:00

Wishing you a very good Easter Celebration!

So many to cheer on!

2010-03-27T02:19:00.000+08:00

In case you don’t know, the Rugby Sevens are on in Hong Kong and it’s a big deal. Don’t worry, if it wasn’t for our very keen rugby playing daughters, I wouldn’t have known about it either. Before moving here a little over a year ago, I don’t know if they’d even heard of the game (I certainly wouldn’t have told them about it). Now, however, they are playing several times a week, participate in tournaments and our eldest has even become the team captain.

So, they were really chuffed that the school gave them free tickets to go to the Rugby Sevens. As I picked them up rather late last night after a very long day, they were very excited and told me that “we did really well”. I was somewhat surprised as I knew they hadn’t played themselves, and even though there apparently is a Norwegian rugby team I knew they would never be vaguely good enough to participate in this world tournament.

Rather curious, I was eagerly anticipating an explanation. Then it came: “Kenya played really well, dad! Korea didn’t stand a chance against them. Argentina did well too, even though they didn’t do quite as well as England who surprised everyone! It’s great to be from China, because you then have three teams in the tournament: China, China HongKong and Chinese Taipei”.

Well, that’s just some of the many blessings of being an international family: Getting to know new strange games and having lots of teams to support!

New food 19: Taro Root Jam

2010-03-26T23:30:00.004+08:00

Yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve never tasted taro root jam before even though I’ve enjoyed taro root ice cream for many years. I would have remembered the colour and the unique consistency of this jam.

From top left: Kiwi jam, Taro Root jam and Blueberry jam
Bottom row from the left: Coffee jam, banana jam and chocolate jam

I asked the kids to guess the flavour of the jams after trying them. Jakob suggested that they all tasted “yum”, whilst Sophia insisted they all tasted “yuk”. The waiter kindly explained what the different jelly-like jams were made of, but I’m afraid I must agree with the kids that all of the jams I tried tasted almost exactly the same. Rather sweet. The taro root ice cream is quite a lot nicer than this jam. Would not recomend any of these jams.

Arrived in Thailand!

2010-03-17T20:20:00.004+08:00

We just landed in Thailand for our annual 4 day conference. It's nice to take a break from busy Hong Kong. We're all well and it's certainly not cold! Even though only 35% humidity feels dry when you've been used to 100% humidity for a while, the heat makes up for it. Even though I do like them, I do hope we won't get to study Thai hospitals from the inside this year.

A new start for Irene!

2010-03-15T20:59:00.003+08:00

I just received this true story from our partner organisation in HuNan Province about one of the former students in the deaf centre that NMS is supporting in ChangSha City. This story drives home the value of investing in people! Please take a few minutes to read the true story about the 15 year old Irene. I've translated it into English and Norwegian.

Paint the music!

2010-03-13T19:30:00.004+08:00

Jakob is painting! He's forever drawing, but we decided to let him join this after school activity because he's still too young to join the rugby team. However, it turns out he really enjoys it and is apparently doing very well. They basically listen to a variety of music from Classical to Reggae and then paint the music. Can you see what music he has been painting here?

An outside perspective

2010-03-02T20:24:00.010+08:00

It’s always fun and refreshing to get an outsider’s perspective on something you’re used to. So, it’s always great to have guests. As Marieke’s parents left last week after a very nice time together, they also kindly gave us the photos they had taken here.

These contained lots of photos of fun things we’d done together where we’d also used our camera. However, I did also discover some photos I didn’t have simply because I guess we are used to seeing these thing.

So, here are some items Marieke’s parents observed:

Chicken feet in the small meat section of our small local supermarket (I guess the price tag is quite interesting too- especially as chicken breasts are much cheaper…)

The mandarin tree we have in our living room.

The view from our living room (yes, I’m afraid I take this for granted by now).

Marieke cleaning our cutlery in tea before we eat (a normal Cantonese tradition before you eat- even if your cutlery is already clean)

A cook getting fresh fish from the restaurant aquariums

A fish market in a boat (there are plenty more photos of the fish/seafood markets with live fish/seafood everywhere).

A (stylishly dressed) dog eating a seafood meal with the family at a fancy restaurant.

An altar on a street corner.

Aquarium fish sold in plastic bags.

Our local vegetable market

An unusual present?

2010-02-17T15:33:00.001+08:00

This present given by my sister and brother-in-law is definitely the strangest present I've ever been given. A few years back, we gave a friend a live chicken for his 18th birthday, but I think this present is definitely stranger.

Have you had any any stranger presents?

Happy Chinese New Year! 新的一年里平安!

2010-02-13T16:01:00.007+08:00

Wishing you all a very happy Chinese New year! Welcome to the year of the Tiger! It's not every year that Valentine's day is on the same day as New Years day! We're celebrating the season with family visiting from England and all of us are enjoying ourselves. Hope you'll have a great Chinese New Year and a good year of the Tiger!

Dim Sum!

2010-02-11T22:12:00.003+08:00

The Chinese New Year holidays are finally here and today Jakob spent his last school day of the lunar year of the cow eating Dim Sum with his class. Here, he enjoys delicious dumplings with his teacher Ms. Irene and his Chinese/Mandarin teacher Fang LaoShi.

The poor widow: From Zambia to Haiti with love

2010-02-10T23:50:00.009+08:00

I just found this BBC radio interview so cool. It was so impressive to hear how this Church in Lusaka (Zambia, Southern Africa) as well as many other groups and individuals all over the continent has collected considerable amounts of funds for the Earthquake efforts in Haiti.

I found it so interesting how this group was inspired by the story Jesus told of the widow who gave out of her poverty (and how Jesus said that she gave more than the rich because she gave out of her poverty). It is just great to see how all these grass roots initiatives creatively find ways of helping the earthquake victims in Haiti despite limited resources in some regions of this fantastic continent.

Besides Senegal’s president offering free land and “repatriation” to people affected by the earthquake, various governments across the continent were fast to respond to the crisis. In fact, Ghana has been noted as the second biggest donor to Haiti after Guyana, based on donor countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This interview also reminded me of how cool it was to see just how excited the earthquake hit people of WuYun in SiChuan Province were to help the people hit by typhoon Morakot in Taiwan when I was recently in WuYun, SiChuan.

PJs for the people?

2010-02-07T14:28:00.003+08:00

Every time we’ve gone to ShangHai, I must say that the public wearing of pyjamas is one of those things I’ve always found quite charming about this city. Now, as World Expo is approaching, the government is apparently doing a campaign to rid the city of roaming pyjama wearers in markets, shops or on bikes in the mid day sun.

As most habits, it has its unique history and reasons. What I find most interesting about the great pyjama debate, is the chief reason given for why wearing pyjamas publicly is a bad idea: “QiBa Neighbourhood Committee started the campaign because it was worried that the sight of people parading in their pyjamas could leave a bad impression among foreign visitors” director Shen GuoFang said to China News Weekly.

I would honestly have thought that most tourists or foreign visitors would find the pyjama wearing most appealing and interesting. If anything, I would think it could increase tourism revenues. What do you think? Would you have avoided the city or got a bad impression because of these proud pyjama wearers?

Marieke’s trip to the ER

2010-01-30T21:02:00.004+08:00

Yes, it’s true. Marieke is out with her feet up.

It was all rather scary when it happened to be honest. She simply stepped wrong and hurt her foot walking down some stairs and asked me to get the kids back up as they had run down ahead of us. When returning, I saw her on the floor facing down asleep with our eldest daughter trying to wake her up. She then stood up, but blacked out twice more before she sat down and decided that she had simply sprained an ankle.

When mentioning this to our boss the next day, however, he ordered us to the hospital as any good Chinese boss would do. Somehow, he didn’t seem to think her education in Development Studies entitled her to decide on the diagnosis. Registering in the ER in our nearest local hospital was however quite a different experience from
when I went to the ER in another corner of this country a few years back.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to such a clean hospital in any country I’ve been and even though it was also pay as you go, they did take Visa, debit cards or even the octopus (bus) cards. Even though the doctor told her that she had some torn ligaments that needed heeling, Marieke did feel the pampering was “a lot of fuss for nothing”.

Unlike my trip to the ER, I’m afraid the doctors didn’t ask us to go bar hopping, but the third question she was asked when registering at the ER was unusual to us: “Would you like to sue the establishment where you fell?” In case you’re wondering, I can assure you that her answer was “No!”

A hairy question?

2010-01-19T23:19:00.004+08:00

“Trust is clean shaven” was a slogan used in an advertisement of a Norwegian shaving foam/razor company at the turn of the century. Visiting Europe only two years later, I remember noticing that the company had already evaporated. I never bothered to find out if it was due to their tagline/ad campaign, or if they were simply gobbled up by a bigger shaving company. However, speaking from my own experience this week, I can assure you that my family would not have been convinced by the advertisement.

Just the other day, I decided impulsively to shave to surprise everyone. I did it partly just for a change as it’s been quite a few years since the last time and partly because people here generally generously assume I’m about 20 years older than I am with my beard (in this country). However, after having shaved, I was met with shock and horror universally by my wife and our kids. I was asked several times by our youngest: “Where have you put your beard, daddy?” Due to the negative reactions, I’ve already decided to grow the beard back.

Why this reaction? I guess it makes sense that they’d like my face covered up, but then again I suspect this has a lot to do with what one is used to. Several people I know will quite openly admit to naturally trusting someone with a beard more than a clean shaved man and naturally assume that someone with a beard is more friendly and caring than a man without the fluff. These stereotypes are of course just that, stereotypes mainly based on our own experience and image of our own fathers, grandfathers, friends and relatives as well as our image of other people such as St. Nicolas, Carl Marx and even Jesus.

I’m not talking about active discrimination here. Any active discrimination based on physical appearance etc. is of course wrong. However, if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us automatically react more cautiously or warmly towards people we meet for the first time based on how the person looks and behaves. I guess the secret lies in being aware of these personal stereotypes etc. so that one is not fooled or ruled by them.

Someone with a negative experience with bearded people or a bearded person would be likely to have a natural aversion to someone with a beard just like some people intuitively trust bearded people more. In fact, statistically it would make sense that most people trust shaved men somewhat more simply because in most cultures, a majority of men shave their face for different reasons. That means that a majority of children grow up with shaved fathers. This should make these children trust shaved men more, right?

In reality, however, I haven’t actually met someone who would say that they generally trust clean shaved people more. Maybe that’s just the sort of thing you don’t mention to bearded men…

So, what do you think? Please leave a comment!

I'm back!

2010-01-18T22:46:00.007+08:00

Yes, I’ve ignored this poor blog for far too long. Reason? We’ve been blessed with visitors galore! Aside from a fantastic 3 weeks plus visit from my parents, we have had 5 visitors from out of the city in the last week (only 3 of them slept over, though).

Today, however, life is suddenly changing as I’ve turned into a “grass widower” again for the week as my wife is working in beautiful HuNan. I’m counting the hours, but I’ll also attempt to update you on this blog.

A highpoint for the kids was definitely “baking with “bestemor”/grandma”. And they did a lot of it before Christmas.

If you’ve been wondering if anybody got too tempted and ate the gingerbread heart on the Christmas tree before Christmas, I can assure you that no one in our house was tempted. Having made these houses and plenty of other gingerbread men, women and moose, the gingerbread hearts on the tree were just fine. So, no calculated crime...

The kids sang in four different shows leading up to Christmas. This was outside a shopping centre downtown.

And this was the Christmas show in our Church.

We also visited Macau for the day, but my parents being health professionals, were surprised by the difference in hygiene level in the loos in the city when comparing them to Hong Kong. Then again, what city can compare to Hong Kong in those terms?

As any wedding party taking pictures usually requests to take pictures with us, some of us agreed. Happens all the time…

For some reason, the sun hardly showed itself when my parents were here. Every day was “overcast” from the day they came to the day they left. They got to see why so many of the buildings here are called “sky scrapers”, though…

Does this guy look familiar to you? Tasty fingers apparently.

Welcome to a new year with lots of possabilities!

2010-01-01T02:00:00.000+08:00

Warm new year wishes for 2010! A new year with lots of new possibilities! I have a feeling it's going to be a cool and busy year.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas! 大家圣诞快乐!！

2009-12-25T02:07:00.003+08:00

One year in the city!

2009-12-19T05:19:00.000+08:00

Yes, it's strange to think of the fact that we've been here a whole year! A fantastic year it's been! Well, it's still a while before I've actually been here a year due to all my traveling, but I like this place.

New food 18: Square burger

2009-12-17T06:29:00.000+08:00

It is genuinely the first time I've ever tried a square burger. Taste wise, however, it isn't significantly different from other chicken burgers (I am comparing it to burgers actually containing chicken meat, not items marketed as "chicken nuggets by the American Burger chains that contain rather interesting items...). This burger was not as different as the rice burger anyway...

The family of Wang Si Jing

2009-12-16T05:11:00.000+08:00

This is Wang QingShan (59) who’s son (Wang SiJing) died in the earthquake May last year. I found it quite special to meet Wang SiJing’s family as the guy would have been my age if he was still alive and the drawings made by his 10 year old daughter reminded of those that our 10 year old daughter makes. Their son was supporting both parents from his job in the coal mines. So, in the earthquake, the whole family lost not only a dear son, husband and father, but also his income and their home to survive.

Not surprisingly, (grandfather) Wang QingShan (58) wanted to give up after the hardship they faced during the earthquake. “Your support has given me the confidence to live on and build up our lives” he says and smiles. “Amity has worked with us to build up our lives again - you really care for us” adds his wife Li FanHui (60) as they show us around their new (earthquake proof) house that they have built themselves with the advice and help from Amity Foundation.

Amity has helped the family and other families in WoYun Village in SiChuan with many of of life’s necessities. However, more than anything Wang QingShan emphasised that the most important thing Amity has brought, “is hope and a loving care that we have noticed”. Amity has had project staff living in the area permanently from the 12^th of May (the day of the earthquake).

Dress up action

2009-12-15T07:35:00.000+08:00

Here are some dress up photos from the Hong Kong Music and Fashion Awards. If you're interested in more of these silly dress up photos, have a look here.

Calculating a Crime?

2009-12-13T15:02:00.004+08:00

Having a Social Democratic background, I’m raised to believe that the purpose of punishment of crimes is reforming the person to an honest life. Whereas people from other nations may unashamedly talk of revenge for the offended and scaring people from criminal behavior, Scandinavians generally have a harder time imagining people sitting down in their career decisions calculating if they want to start a life of crime based on the punishment risks.

The Scandinavian press seem to find it quite hilarious to present north American experiments that try out extreme criminal prison methods with no visible effects. As pick pocketing made national headlines in Norway when I was a kid whilst we read of mass shootings in other countries, you may understand why the dominant crime discourse was not all that easily shaken up there. Even though Scandinavian crime rates and society has changed decidedly in recent years and the political climate has too, Norway is still among the very safest countries to live in according international surveys.

Just yesterday, we were hanging some ginger bread hearts on the Christmas tree. Two of the hearts were broken, so we “had” to eat them. Funnily, I did not have to call the kids the same way I have to when we’re eating a meal. There was a lot of excitement in the air and they were treasuring every crumb of these gingerbread hearts.

As they were eating, one daughter asked: “So, what happens if someone eats the gingerbread hearts off the tree?” I answered that we were not to eat them until we were enjoying them as part of the Picada on Christmas eve. She then answered: “But what if someone is just too tempted and can’t stand the temptation to eat them early?” Rather than serving a threat, I simply laughed and asked “Hmmm…I wonder who that might be?” Being painfully aware that she is the uncontested “sweet tooth” in our family, she answered: “Oh, I was merely concerned that granddad would find it very tempting”.

So far, all of the gingerbread hearts are untouched. So, I guess we’ll see how it goes when my parents arrive this Thursday…I'll let you know if the hearts are still on the tree on Christmas eve.

New food 17: Rice burger

2009-12-10T06:08:00.000+08:00

Japanese food is not all that popular in this country generally speaking for several reasons. In this city, however, it's quite a different story (also for the same reasons). In Hong Kong, there seems to be more Japanese restaurants than places serving food originating from other corners of this country (i.e. non-Cantonese Chinese restaurants are far apart here) .When you go to a Japanese burger restaurant, I guess you're asking to try something new just by entering. When I ordered a "rice burger" I didn't realize that the "bun" in itself was entirely made out of sticky rice.

Verdict? It tasted very good. Much better than any burgers from any big burger chains (this burger had a lot of real meat in it!). Drawback: pretty messy.

Time travel and flying around the world

2009-12-08T05:46:00.001+08:00

I recently discovered that Natasha has done some time travel. Back in 1937, she wrote this article in Norwegian about Amelia Earhart and published it on the internet (quite extraordinary in 1937!). If you're interested in reading the article, have a look here.

When I grow up...

2009-12-05T15:51:00.002+08:00

When I was a kid, I had the usual dreams of what I wanted to be in the future. I remember in preschool being somewhat jealous of my friend who had a father who was a postman as Postman Pat was all the rage at the time (I don't really know why as Pat is actually very boring...). Later, I had the usual list of things I dreamt of doing until I came to dreaming of what my own dad did and feel very privileged to be on the wonderful adventure we’re getting to travel!

The other day, Jakob came to us somewhat distressed and explained that he just can’t decide what he’s going to be when he grows up. His three plans are: David (of the Bible who fought against Goliath), Spiderman & Buz Lightyear. I guess he still has some time to decide what “profession” he is going to settle for…

Our young triathlon winner!

2009-12-04T19:30:00.008+08:00

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, I find our children's athletic abilities that have come to the surface after we moved here somewhat unsettling. However, it has not stopped. This past weekend, our girls took part in “Team FEAR”. They basically got together with two other friends and walked, climbed up mountains and rivers, swam, and cycled up and down hills together with nearly 500 other children. FEAR is actually short for “Far East Asian Racers” , but “fear” is not too inappropriate a word to describe this race as many parts of this challenge was quite scary even for adults.

Sophia’s team of one other girl and boy(“young NIS dudes”), however, actually won first place in their age group and category! As they were racing against hundreds of kids, we’re of course very proud parents and just a tiny bit unsettled…

An advent swim

2009-12-03T23:54:00.001+08:00

I actually went swimming in the ocean today! Taking in the nature as I walked to and from the beach, it was hard not to get struck bu God's amazing imagination! He must have been in a particularly good mood when he created this corner of the world.

Recommended blogs: Thankful Nigerians

2009-12-03T05:33:00.003+08:00

I thought I'd start a new series called "recommended blog posts" as I read a lot of good posts these days. As I recently wrote a blog post about thankfulness, I'm this time looking at 3 Nigerian blogs that have written some very interesting posts on thankfulness:

If you only have time for one, please do read Writefreak's blog post "like the leper...". Do read it to the end as the names are great if you take the time to reflect on how you have experienced these names in your life or how you could experience these names if you allow Him...

I would also warmly recommend "our love story" by "the girl next door". It is fairly short but lifted my day!

Finally, I'd like to recommend Olufunke's "Thankful Tuesday". It is a bit more of a "traditional" thankful post and it is very practical, but it will inspire you to think about the things you're thankful for!

Enjoy!

New food 16: Rabbit

2009-12-02T05:58:00.003+08:00

Yes, I had rabbit meat for the first time in ChangSha. I’ve never actually had it before though it’s been accessible many places I’ve lived. I can’t say that it was that amazing in comparison with e.g. dog meat or frogs. It was however not bad. Certainly a lot better than e.g. beef ice cream!

New food15: Domestic pigeon

2009-12-01T05:50:00.002+08:00

A friend of mine call pigeon “rats with wings”. This domesticated pigeon of NanJing, however, seems pretty clean and actually tasted very good. Recommended!

New food 14: Duck tongue

2009-11-29T05:48:00.002+08:00

Yes, this duck tongue is a NanJing speciality. Verdict: quite good, but not a very strong taste. I guess eating tongues are supposed to make your taste buds more sensitive…So, perhaps I should have had a second one to check the difference. However, the first mouthful did not tempt me to try a second one.

First time: travelling at 431 km/h

2009-11-28T06:35:00.004+08:00

I just came back from ShangHai and utilised public transport of course. The Maglev train was a pleasurable experience. As it moves on magnetic friction rather than e.g. wheels, it was a pretty smooth ride even when traveling at 431 km an hour. It didn’t seem that fast, but the cars on the motor way looked as if they were parked there and when the train slowed down to 200 km/h, it seemed really slow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T21:57:00.001+08:00

A Canadian friend of ours once said “We Canadians don’t really know who we are exactly or where we’re from, but we certainly know that we’re not Americans!” I guess you could say that I feel somewhat “Canadian” in these terms. Don’t get me wrong! We have great American friends and who can resist the visionary, partly Kenyan president with his relative humility and charm?

Still, it’s kind of funny how we’ve ended up going to thanksgiving dinners in lots of places around the world despite never having lived in the US. Today, I ended up at a thanksgiving dinner in ChangSha in HuNan of all places with some Norwegian business people.

So, even though I’m not even the tiniest American, I am certainly very thankful (No, not just for not being American)! I hope you like the picture of the American turkeys.

In ShangHai.

2009-11-22T18:20:00.001+08:00

Ocean Park

2009-11-21T18:01:00.001+08:00

We went to Ocean Park here in the city to celebrate Natasha’s birthday (yes, very belated!). Jakob wasn’t too chuffed about the fact that he’s just 2 cm too short for most of the rides, but he got to take these photos to make up for it. Natasha has also taken some of these photos.

Are you counting your blessings?

2009-11-17T22:45:00.008+08:00

Yes, I’d have to agree with the Zimbabwean blogger Natasha Msonza in Harare that the sights/pictures from SiChuan are among the most painful I have seen in my life. And yes, these views do make me count my blessings!!

In my life, I have found it most curious and ironic to find that the peoples/cultures who have been the most protected from obvious forms of suffering (such as e.g. poverty, hunger, illness or early death) both in terms of time, space and social situation also are the peoples/cultures who I have observed to have the most difficulty of facing poverty or reconciling suffering with the presence or even the existence of God.

I am most certainly a part of this “bubble” and I’m not “preaching down” at anyone. Even though I want to and seek to live a relatively simple lifestyle, I’ve always had the choice and due to my passport, I’ve always had the possibility of leaving at the end of the day though I’ve never needed to as God has provided everything we’ve needed in the most surprising ways over the years.

I am also aware that suffering is a subjective experience no one can judge or define in any objective way. It’s a question of how each individual sees it. I must confess that it doesn’t help me much in my struggles to know that someone may be having a harder time or that someone else’s suffering is worse measured by any “objective level”.

All the same, I remember as a 15 year old boy attending a morning gathering in a Christian community centre in the Pumwani slum in Nairobi where my mum worked and being struck by how many reason these people found to thank God. I knew that I was not as good at thanking Him for His blessings despite the fact that my life was very well protected and my bed was about the same size as the actual “houses” of several of my friends in the room. It made me rather embarrassed but it also taught me an attitude that I’m not all that good at remembering.

By admiring this attitude, I am however NOT:

Advocating a “stiff upper lip” or “pretend everything is peachy” attitude whatever the situation. This kind of pretence is not according to the Bible either. In fact, I find David’s honesty in the Psalms very encouraging. I think it’s important to be open and honest about our struggles. Your struggles may be a way God is using us to encourage someone with similar struggles. God can take honesty and welcomes our lamenting as well as our praises and thanks.

Suggesting that this contrast in some way justifies the world economic order/capitalism/oppression etc. The world order is grossly unjust and is simply wrong and displeasing to God.
I neither want to glorify poverty. If you’ve lived in poverty over time, you know that it can be very stressful and exhausting.

Having said this, I do wonder if the comfort of wealth in itself fools us to think that we as human beings are unbeatable self sufficient beings forgetting that we in fact are fragile beings that are all very mortal on this earth. Ironically, perhaps we in our self sufficiency and cushioned lives sometimes lose sight of the big picture and predominantly wealthy societies may have lost one of the very keys to contentment and joy: namely praising and thanking God in all circumstances.

Well, I must say that I am certainly not good at that, but I am thankful of people and situations that help me thank Him! Perhaps I should start a regular thankful blog post like Writefreak? Hmmm…What are you thankful for today?

p.s. As with most systemic problems this post is not aimed at individuals but at our society as a whole. These opinions are my own and no offense was intended.

Pass it on: From SiChuan to TaiWan with love!

2009-11-16T00:08:00.006+08:00

When I went to the earthquake areas in SiChuan, I expected to see collapsed buildings. I also came expecting to see how Amity has been helping the communities where they have been working (as I’d heard and read about it previously).

What I did not expect to see, was the show the people in WuYun put on. The show had many great highlights including the local men posing as (bald) models and the show also included genuinely good songs and dances.

This show was obviously important in itself for this community in forming their identity as they explained that previous to Amity’s arrival in the area after the earthquake, they had never had any shows of this type and these shows were very important to them.

What impressed me the most, however, was when the men in this picture came onto the stage. They are all village leaders of villages that were severely hit by the earthquake in May 2008. When they heard about the damages of the typhoon Morakot in Taiwan, they impulsively started to raise funds to help the victims of the mudslides. “You loved us so now we want to show our love to the people of TaiWan. The love goes on and on…” one village leader said proudly as they showed their plaques with the amounts of funds that each village had raised for the relief efforts in Taiwan.

I just thought it was so cool to see how these people could see the needs of others even though they still had unmet needs.

Even cooler...

2009-11-14T18:11:00.000+08:00

No, this picture of this PetroChina station was taken in XinTai, not this city. Still, I had my first day with long sleeves today! And I didn't really sweat.

It's cooling down...

Be careful what you pray for...

2009-11-10T07:21:00.002+08:00

It is such a pleasure to travel around this country to see the wonderful people (and taste the great food) as well as observing how He is working through these people in the official Church. I recently visited an official Church in a LiShui town in GuangXi Province.

Mrs Liang in the Church explained how the Church in the city had been closed since the Cultural Revolution and any worship had been strictly forbidden and actively persecuted. In 1993, however, her sister had come to visit from a bigger city where she had heard about Jesus. So, she shared her new faith with her sister, and they started to pray for their friends and family. Suddenly lots of people came to faith and as they prayed together, lots of people were supernaturally healed.

They prayed for one guy who had been lying in his bed for the last several years. He was then healed and has been an active farmer for the last 13 years. They also prayed for a blind lady who was then healed of her blindness and now does not even need glasses. The list of people who have been healed goes on and on.

This made me think of the discussions I’ve heard about healing in the past: “Why does God heal some and not others?” I know of wonderful Christians who have not been healed of terrible illnesses despite many sincere prayers. This is very painful. As I heard her speak, however, it seemed obvious that this healing is about God, not us. His will and purposes which I frequently don’t understand, not our effort or logic.

The LiShui Church now has more than 1000 members from all ages and walks of life (including a few people who came to faith before the cultural revolution) and Mrs Liang is now an elder. It’s just cool to see how God is using this official Church. Contrary to the image of the official Church in western countries, God is doing fantastic things through this huge and varied body.

What’s in your lunchbox?

2009-11-07T20:50:00.011+08:00

The first Chinese film I watched was “Eat Drink Man Woman” (饮食男女). This Taiwanese film from 1994 is not really the very best Chinese Cinema has to offer, but it is a very nice light film to relax with if you’ve had a long day. I remember the thing I thought of as most extraordinary when watching this for the first time, was the attention paid to food. I remember in particular the impressive food the old man made for his granddaughter's lunch box.

We discovered a long time ago that this fascination with food is pretty prevalent all over this grand country. However, the schools and kindergartens our kids went to in Western China all made fresh warm meals every day so we didn’t need to make any sort of lunch boxes for our children there.

So, coming here has been quite a discovery. We don’t actually eat lunch with the kids, but have found out that the lunchboxes in “Eat Drink Man Woman” are actually relatively common.

In fact, the PA at the school (of which Marieke is now a member!) has even made a cook book where individual kids show off their actual lunches and the recipes used to make the food.

Now, this cookbook has in fact just been nominated for the “World Cookbook competition”. As it is one of only two books in all of Hong Kong to be nominated by the jury, I find it quite impressive and funny that a PA at a small school has made this. If you’re interested, you can get the book here.

And I grew up thinking a school lunch box basically meant a piece of bread with jam or ham…

Nice and cool

2009-11-02T08:12:00.001+08:00

As BeiJing is waking up to induced snowfall this morning due to 186 sticks of silver iodide, we are enjoying a cooler autumn. Now, we can sit outside, even walk without sweating (at least if you're in t-shirt and shorts)!Walking up our hill, you'll still have a wet t-shirt. But autumn is really nice in this big city!

The Chisel

2009-10-26T20:43:00.003+08:00

This Video by the Skit Guys that I recently saw really made me think even though it may be familiar stuff. It is really worthwhile to take the 9 minutes to watch it. Please click on the title of this post and enjoy it!

Camp

2009-10-25T19:26:00.000+08:00

This week end, we went to a Church Camp with the Anglican Church we attend. As you can see from the photo, the Church is made up of people from all over the world. We all enjoyed it. The topic of the Camp was "Growing through Change" and it was really good. The Picture of the kids was taken in connection with a "mummy race"

The SiChuan Earthquake

2009-10-19T15:52:00.006+08:00

I just back from SiChuan where I got to see Amity's reconstruction efforts after the earthquake. This picture is of one of the kindergartens that were severely hit by the earthquake. It's difficult to comprehend the numbers of people who died during the earthquake, and it's quite another to see these toys laying there in the rubble and knowing what that means.

Unveiling the Plague

2009-10-15T09:43:00.002+08:00

It was such a pleasure to be part of the opening ceremony of the Amity NGO Development Centre and to meet some of the first NGOs that Amity is kindly helping and training. Amity is really in a key position as it is recognised by the government as the best NGO among NanJing 5000 registered NGOs and is actively sharing of their experience and expertise. Some of the new NGOs that I got to talk with included an association for handicapped people and one association helping children with homework. This is run entirely by volunteers and they reach out to children of poor households who don’t have parents or grandparents available after school due to work pressures. It was very impressive to see the diversity of NGO’s.

The opening ceremony was as usual filled with pomp and flowery speeches as is appropriate in this fantastic country. The slight spelling mistake made it a very worthy opening (I’m assuming they meant “plaque”, but I guess I could be wrong). I should also mention that I have made PLENTY of funny mistakes in Chinese over the years. Most of them I probably don’t even know about as most of our Chinese are considerably more polite than I am...