This morning, Jackie phoned me after he arrived at the office. He announced he was at the office all alone. When he arrived, the gate was down; as he pulled in the tiny parking lot, it was empty; when he opened the office on the 3rd floor….. nobody! He looked at the office calendar, “oh yea, it’s a holiday”. So he invited me to come join him for lunch. As I got off the subway and entered the city park called “2-28 Park” to meet up with Jackie, I remembered of the reason for the holiday. Chairs were set up in the walkway as an extension to the amphitheater, and police were scattered about. I could feel the spiritual darkness and see the sadness in faces all around me. So I prayed as I walked across the park, and The Lord reminded me that until his return, there will always be wars, and rumors of wars; political healing is not the answer, but pray for spiritual healing.
“Lord, bring spiritual healing to this land. Help the people to stop looking for a political savior. Help the people forgive, let got of their bitterness and to begin loving one another.”
Only Jesus can bring such healing to this people and their land.
To learn about 2-28 National Holiday:
The latest edition of the East Asia Update just arrived! Click on the graphic below.
You need to click this link and watch a two minute movie. Very powerful stuff done by woman who runs The Happiness Project. It’s for everyone but it is especially pertinent if you who have small children.
Yesterday (Our Saturday) Fran and I decided to try and find a couple of new places we’d heard about. A hamburger joint and an ice cream store. Hamburgers are scarcer than hen’s teeth in this city and real ice cream is like $8 a pint.
It turned out that both of them were near the site of this year’s Lantern Festival display / celebration. So we struck out for an evening’s entertainment on an evening that most of you would have probably stayed at home – it was around 50 degrees and raining. The saying here is “if you stay in when it’s raining, you’ll never get out”. So off we went.
The burgers were really Asia-fied. We won’t go out of our way to go again. But the ice cream was a find. Lower priced than many and fairly convenient.
Between dinner and dessert we strolled through a portion of the display and took a few pictures. Click on this one to be take to a small album of what we saw.
The intensity of persecution amongst members of the Chinese House Church Alliance continues to increase as the Beijing Olympics draw near. This latest incident highlights the hypocrisy of Chinese officials who promote a “Harmonious Society” while simultaneously persecuting innocent and patriotic citizens such as Wang Dawei and others.
Read more – Christian Newswire
Today (tonight) is Chinese Lantern Festival – the end of the New Year’s celebration. It comes on the 15th day after New Year’s Day. I found this link to a nice article and video clip that explains the origin of the celebration – Lantern Festival origins
Anyone using a photo sharing website that they are really wild about?
If so, please leave a comment and tell us the reasons why you love it. If there are any negatives please share those also.
I just put up a few pictures of us goofing off while in Bangkok. I’m giving Smugmug a 14 day trial. See the gallery HERE
Fran is hamming it up in a mall in Bangkok; wishing you all a happy CNY!
