Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

So, do you like your marshmallow with chocolate fondue, Vai?

Well.

Sometimes, words are simply not necessary, when the face can say it all. Heh.

In today’s era, gadgets and digital technology do seem to have grabbed our young children’s attention and time.

And thus I do find it somewhat heart-warming to see how in a different part of the world, in a place where perhaps most would regard as ‘less civilised’ or ‘far from modern’, children still do find laughter, fun, friendship and togetherness … in life’s simple things.

Really.

I look at these two pictures and thought to myself, perhaps their relationship with one another is stronger than those found in big cities.

Perhaps they somewhat are ‘more content’ with what they (already) have than our modern city kids (ie. kids with endless wants for more of this and more of that, kids who perhaps are generously showered with MORE than what they need).

Hmm.

Food for thought for us modern city people, I guess.

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Photos: Taken by Wilson during his mission trip to Jayapura (Papua, Indonesia) recently.

When you talk about Hong Kong, you’d most likely imagine beautiful night shots, the harbour, the trams, the mountain view, etc.

But today, I’d like to share with you shots of what many ‘tourists’ may not see when they only spend a few days there.

Shots of its busy markets!

After we left Hong Kong Disneyland, we went to Hong Kong Island and stayed for two nights at a hotel near Causeway Bay.

And the area was SO happening!

The small alleys were busy with people selling fruits, fresh fish, meat, all kinds of stuff.

And these shots were taken on a Friday, at about 11.30am!

We love how the kids got to see and observe all this, LIVE, for their very first time.

Because this is definitely something that we wouldn’t see back in Singapore!

Btw, we saw STACKS of these crabs at SO many corners of the market.

And I really mean, STACKS!

We couldn’t speak Cantonese, and we obviously couldn’t read what it said, so we did wonder what these crabs are called, and how they’re supposed to be cooked.

If you do know what these are, please share with us?

…

Anyway.

We found a little restaurant by the road side and had our lunch there.

And I love this shot above.

One shot that tells you so many things.

The interior of the eating place.
Daddy who took the shot.
Mommy who’s speaking to the man, trying to order lunch (in English and her broken Mandarin!).
Kids who played with the lunch menus while waiting.

And of course, the waiter at the back who’s busy cleaning the ceiling with his mop! Heh.

…

And the food?

Ah. Let’s just say that I was SO thankful to God that I could enjoy every single bite of our lunch (note:morning sickness magically disappeared during our trip!)

We had simple meals for lunch that day. But they’re all VERY yummy.

Some people told me that it could be due to the weather there, ie. Food tastes yummier when the weather is nice and cool.

Oh well. Whatever it is, we heart HK street food!

I must say, the highlight of our recent visit to Hong Kong was our first ever trip to Hong Kong Disneyland.

We checked it out over two days, and we had a blast there!

I’ll write a FULL blog post on our Hong Kong Disneyland experience real soon.

[I may even need to split it over two posts. Too many photos to share. Hmm. We’ll see.]

Anyway.

For now, I’ll leave you with these two photos.

This is a shot of us in front of the ‘Cinderella Carousel‘.

Wilson took this shot when we’re on our way to the ‘Sleeping Beauty Castle’ to wait for the 7pm Fireworks Show!

And this was when Anya drew ‘Space Mountain’, THE one ride that left a lasting impression on her, heh.

More photos soon!

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PS: SO grateful that I have a photographer as a husband, hehe. With our two cameras, we both captured more than 1000 precious moments altogether! The above two were taken by Wilson.

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[added]

Blog posts on Hong Kong Disneyland are up. Here are the links:

Checking Out : Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 1)

Checking Out : Hong Kong Disneyland (Part 2) – Hotel & Dining

We had a wonderful 4-days-3-nights stay in Hong Kong recently.

We were blessed with GREAT weather during our stay there. AND, the most amazing thing to me was, my morning sickness was 95% GONE during our trip!

I mean, I actually had energy. NO excessive saliva. NO bloated feeling. And I could actually eat, TASTE and ENJOY what I ate!

[I remember closing my eyes as I munched my dinner, tasting every bit of food, and thanking God for it! It was THAT good!]

Anyway.

Wilson and I took TONNES of photos and I have SO much to share about our HK experience with you.

I think I need to blog about it over a few entries, heh.

Will write again soon.

[Kids played ‘Where’s Wally?’ game while overlooking the fresh mountain view from our Hotel at Causeway Bay]

Our 6.5yo Anya has this love for writing.

Every single day she’d either draw and write a story next to it. Or, she’d simply write. Something.

A little note. A short story. A long story. Anything.

And the other day, she showed me this.

The story of David (from the Bible).

In INDONESIAN.

*smile*

I love how she used ‘every day’ (spoken) words in her story. Words that we actually are not ‘supposed’ to use if we were to write a ‘proper essay’ in Indonesian.

And.

To me, what’s more important is her attempt to do something different.

To write something in another language.

To step a little away from her usual comfort zone.

…

Anyway.

To those who’re not familiar with ‘Bahasa Indonesia’, this is what she wrote:

One day there’s a child named David.

He can kill a lion. Also a bear. To look after the sheep.

One day a wolf came to eat sheep.

Sheep is scared.

When he’s big, he would become a king.

Some ten days ago Wilson went to Jayapura, Papua, with a few friends.

It was more like mission trip where they joined the rest of the team that organised a Gospel Rally held there over a few days by STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International).

It was his first ever visit to Jayapura.

Btw, just in case you’re not familiar with where ‘Jayapura’ is, … it’s at the other END of Indonesia!

I mean, until I finally googled it, I wasn’t even aware that the actual city was THAT far from Jakarta!

[Wilson and his friends who flew from Singapore]

…

Anyway, the kids and I managed to ‘follow’ how things went (ie. the preparations, the island, the city views, the challenges faced during the events, and everything) through Twitter and Facebook updates and text messages.

Really, I was so thankful to God for today’s technology when it comes to situations like this.

Because it simply was amazing how we managed to stay ‘connected’ though so far away from each other!

[Such ‘live updates’ also allowed us to be more ‘in the know’, and thus continually support them in our prayers]

Anyway.

I know I was NOT there personally to experience everything, but today I’d like to share with you some photos of how the Gospel Rally went there.

The event was held in the outdoors. The weather was warm and there were lots of mosquitoes, BUT all these didn’t stop the people from coming and listening to God’s Word.

And people from different walks of life came. Women. Men. Moms with children. Students. Teenagers. Men in their 70s.

It was very encouraging to see how eager they were when it comes to searching for the Truth.

On the very first night however, Wilson shared how it rained heavily during the Gospel Rally itself.

But you know what.

Rev. Stephen Tong continued to preach for another 15 minutes.

And, some 95% of the 3000 plus people who were there stayed put and continued to listen to the Gospel being preached!

It was totally something that we in Singapore (who come to worship in the comfort of our air-conditioned hall) would have never known nor experienced.

Unless we were in such situations ourselves!

I wasn’t there, but I was very blessed and encouraged upon hearing about the news!

It was amazing to see how people longed to hear about the Gospel, despite ‘unexpected discomfort’.

I mean, there’s NO preaching of physical healing. No promises of material wealth/blessings. It was purely about God who’s holy, and Jesus Christ who came to earth to die for our sins and to redeem us.

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We all who live in Singapore are blessed with so much more than those who live in Papua.

Our overall health, safety, comfort, living condition, daily food available on our table, and heaps more.

But, while living in such a ‘comfort zone’, are we as eager to find out about the Truth in Life, as those who live in Papua?

I’d like to invite you all in Singapore, who read this post to come to the upcoming Gospel Rally that’s to be held right here in Singapore.

Admission is free and it’ll be held in Singapore Indoor Stadium, from this Wednesday (17 Nov) to Sunday (21 Nov)

It’s open to everyone who can speak Mandarin and/or English.

You can get more info and check out the timings from STEMI Singapore website.

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Btw, there’s also a Children Gospel Rally held on Saturday (20 Nov), 2pm-4pm, at the same venue.

Please do come along with your little ones this Saturday afternoon! (especially those who’re six and above)

I sure am bringing along Anya with me.

For I know it is ‘useless to gain every inch of gold in this land, yet suffer the loss of the children‘.

Really hope to see you there this week!

The last time we visited West Coast Park was at least 2 years ago.

And somehow I couldn’t remember doing anything much there, except for snacking at its McDonald’s!

This time round, our visit to West Coast Park with our friends was completely different though!

The kids had lots of FUN there!

They played at the playground (heaps of equipments to choose from!), tried out its ‘flying fox’ facility (only two were working out of the four), climbed around, and of course, they all had a nice and long sand-play time!

The weather happened to be nice too.

Cloudy and slightly breezy.

But we saw LOTS of them up in the sky!

[Info]

– Click HERE to read more about West Coast Park (on National Parks’ website)

– If you’re driving and you’re coming over the weekend, be prepared to spend a bit of time finding a space to park your car.

– HUGE playground areas. The park is really great for kids of all ages. Toddlers can crawl around and play. Bigger kids will find climbing the ‘high pyramid’ all the way to the top a nice challenge!

– Bike and pedal gokart rentals are available.