Precipitation, Project, Preaching and Portside!
My latest update comes in the form of four words!
Precipitation
A blog written by an Englishman must include a weather report by now! Since arriving the weather hasn’t been great, the staff here blame me for bringing the weather from the UK! Last Friday was the worst day weather-wise, with torrential rain throughout the day accompanied by thunder and lightning! I decided not to go outside and brave it. Instead, I spent the day in the Mission Centre relaxing, praying for St John’s and reading a book I bought a while ago that I never got around to reading! It was also great to join some of the staff for lunch, where we ordered some food in!
Project
On Saturday the weather had cleared up enough to head into Tsim Sha Tsui to visit the large construction project the Mission to Seafarers in Hong Kong is undertaking.
The previous mariners centre building had stood there since 1967, giving the seafarers a place to stay, socialise and also provide a place of worship for St Peter’s Church)
Unfortunately, the building was showing its age and needed to be able to offer modern standards to seafarers.
And so, in 2018, the building was handed over to developers for a total rebuild.
The redevelopment will ensure the mission is self-sustaining in the future and provide modern facilities, including 75 en suite rooms for seafarers and their families.
The building is enormous, and being shown around was a real privilege.
The mission will occupy the first eight floors. This will include accommodation, a restaurant, a gym and swimming pool, meeting rooms, a garden, and church space with a capacity of around 200.
The 9th to the 42nd floor will be commercially operated by a hotel (not run by the mission) with 500 rooms!
The cost to the developer…. over 600 million pounds!
All being well, it will open sometime next year!
In the afternoon, I decided to take my first venture onto Hong Kong Island! I took the metro to East Tsim Sha Tsui and walked along the harbour until I arrived at the Star Ferry Terminal. I boarded the ferry for a ten-minute trip across the harbour to Hong Kong Island, where I then just had a little wander. I plan to go up to the Sumit (a fantastic view across the city), but today was too cloudy!
Preaching
On Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at All Saints Cathedral at the 9.30 a.m. English-speaking service.
I was made to feel very welcome, and they showed incredible grace as coming from a ‘low’ church background meant that I didn’t quite know what I was supposed to do and when. Those of you who like me robing would have been impressed as I wore an Alb, a kind gift that came in very handy from Fr James at Castle Vale a few years ago!
I preached on the Gospel Reading for the day from John 15:1- 8, ‘I am the vine’ and thought about what it means to be fruitful.
Afterwards, I stayed for coffee and met several Filipino Christians who had stayed behind to do further Bible study.
There is photographic evidence of me in an Alb. I’m just awaiting the photo to be sent to me. I will put it up when I receive it!
In the afternoon, I headed off to St Andrew’s Kowloon for their 5 pm Service. This was an English-speaking contemporary service. It was not too dissimilar to St John’s in terms of style, apart from the fact that the service contained even less liturgy than us! I bet you didn’t think that was possible! :)
Finally Portside
On Monday and this morning I had the first opportunity to head out to the nearby container port to do some Ship Visiting.
I visited several ships, and it was great talking to the seafarers, from the captain all the way through to the ship cadets. I always consider it an immense privilege to listen to their stories, their joys and sorrows and what life is like on board. It was great to have an opportunity to pray for some of them too:)
And so that gets me to this afternoon! Well, I had the absolute delight of meeting up with Rev Herbert Chan, Senior Pastor of Lai Shing Baptist Church. Catherine Chung had kindly put me in touch with her pastor in Hong Kong, and we had the most wonderful couple of hours eating some traditional food and having fellowship with one another. I wasn't too sure about trying the dish that he described as ‘beef innards’, but all the dishes ended up being really tasty! It was great to hear Herbert’s story and his faith and trust in Jesus. It really is a joy meeting Christians around the world!
Herbert also kindly showed me around the area, including where his church meets (A Baptist School Hall) and some of the other facilities the church uses. I also got to ride on my first Hong Kong Minibus! After saying farewell to Herbert I finished with a beautiful stroll along the harbourside back to the MTR station.
Will hopefully post again soon:)