Last week, we had the last visit of our circuit overseer and his wife, Charlie & Kay Kim. They will be serving in Santiago, Chile exclusively in Spanish for their next assignment. Although it was a bit sad to see them go, I have a feeling we might see them again.
It was a busy, slightly chaotic week, as usual, but I really enjoyed the fine-tuned talks that Charlie gave. I also had the privilege of taking his lovely wife on Liping's study.
Things learned
My favorite talk that Charlie gave was the final talk on Sunday. It was very simple but well-done. Off the top of my head....some of the main points:
- The theme was "Keep your eyes fixed upon things above" (Col. 3:2)
The four images to keep in mind are:
1.Neh. 4:14 : Jehovah
2. Col. 3:1: Jesus
3. Mt. 11:12 Kingdom
4. Re. 14:6,7: Angels
To emphasize that we must focus exclusively on Kingdom interests, Charlie held up a piece of paper with his right hand and asked us to focus on the single dot in the middle. After waiting for all of us to focus on that dot, he held up another piece of paper with left hand and asked us to try to focus on both dots at the same time. Of course, it was impossible. So, he drove the point home that we cannot focus on materialistic or other worldly goals and focus on the kingdom.
Comical lunch!
Thankfully, Christine was able to grab the Thursday slot to invite Charlie and Kay to our home for lunch. Our original idea was to have no more than 8 people, but the guest list grew to 12, which is significant since our apartment capacity is quite small.
I thought we did a fine job of planning the meal. We stayed up the night before preparing most of the food. I made cabbage soup & steak, and Christine made chicken, salmon, and an avocado-based lemon pie (sounds weird but tastes great!) We were congratulating ourselves for avoiding Martha syndrome and being able to just focus on service the day of the lunch.
Everything was in order when we arrived home, and the idea was that all we had to do was heat up the food. As guests started arriving one after the other, however, the kitchen transformed into a hidden panic center. First, Christine discovered that the salmon we had picked out for Charlie (he can't have meat due to gout), had not been scaled. So, she was frantically scaling the raw fillet. Then, as all the food was already on the table and ready to be served, it dawned upon me that we didn't even bother to check if we had enough utensils. And we didn't!! Not enough soup spoons or forks! While preserving a calm exterior, my inner panic alarm went from slight to extreme. We had 4 pairs of chopsticks though, which came in handy. And, we found 2 slightly bent up plastic forks that we had meant to throw away and never got around to it, whew! Some guests had to drink the soup with small teaspoons, jaja.
Here was the funniest scenanario: After breathing a sigh of relief in realizing that we had somehow managed through the utensil disaster (everyone was eating with something other than their hand, thank goodness!), I realized that I didn't have a single utensil to eat with, no fork, no chopstick, not even a spoon. I didn't want to look awkward since I was seated right next to the circuit overseer. So I looked over to Christine's bowl, and saw her plastic fork which was missing a prong. She was in the kitchen so I figured she wouldn't need it just now. I grabbed it and started eating my salad casually. When Christine came out of the kitchen, she was ready to sit and eat and then recognized her fork in my hand. "Is that my fork?" I kept eating with it and answered back "Yea" with the tone of 'you got a problem with it?' Christine wanted to eat, so of course she said, "Can I have it back?" and I had to give back the 3-pronged plastic fork to its rightful owner, darn! Right in the middle of enjoying a nice, crisp salad! Charlie also saw and giggled. Besides the fact that I couldn't enjoy my salad, I still didn't want to look like the only person who didn't have something to eat with. Finally, I remembered that I brought back some extra chopsticks from the States and ran into the room to get a pair. I was in such a hurry to tear the wrapping off that the plastic sticker holding the chopsticks together was still flapping around while I used them to eat.
Anyway, the best part of the lunch was that Charlie and Kay really made an effort to take personal interest in Liping and Angelina, the real Chinese in the group. They really commended their efforts and encouraged them to continue progressing.
It was a busy, slightly chaotic week, as usual, but I really enjoyed the fine-tuned talks that Charlie gave. I also had the privilege of taking his lovely wife on Liping's study.
Things learned
My favorite talk that Charlie gave was the final talk on Sunday. It was very simple but well-done. Off the top of my head....some of the main points:
- The theme was "Keep your eyes fixed upon things above" (Col. 3:2)
The four images to keep in mind are:
1.Neh. 4:14 : Jehovah
2. Col. 3:1: Jesus
3. Mt. 11:12 Kingdom
4. Re. 14:6,7: Angels
To emphasize that we must focus exclusively on Kingdom interests, Charlie held up a piece of paper with his right hand and asked us to focus on the single dot in the middle. After waiting for all of us to focus on that dot, he held up another piece of paper with left hand and asked us to try to focus on both dots at the same time. Of course, it was impossible. So, he drove the point home that we cannot focus on materialistic or other worldly goals and focus on the kingdom.
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| Charlie with Esteban translating |
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| Letting loose with Kay! |
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| Yayan, new Bible student...her first time to a meeting other than Sunday! |
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| C+T with K! |
Comical lunch!
Thankfully, Christine was able to grab the Thursday slot to invite Charlie and Kay to our home for lunch. Our original idea was to have no more than 8 people, but the guest list grew to 12, which is significant since our apartment capacity is quite small.
I thought we did a fine job of planning the meal. We stayed up the night before preparing most of the food. I made cabbage soup & steak, and Christine made chicken, salmon, and an avocado-based lemon pie (sounds weird but tastes great!) We were congratulating ourselves for avoiding Martha syndrome and being able to just focus on service the day of the lunch.
Everything was in order when we arrived home, and the idea was that all we had to do was heat up the food. As guests started arriving one after the other, however, the kitchen transformed into a hidden panic center. First, Christine discovered that the salmon we had picked out for Charlie (he can't have meat due to gout), had not been scaled. So, she was frantically scaling the raw fillet. Then, as all the food was already on the table and ready to be served, it dawned upon me that we didn't even bother to check if we had enough utensils. And we didn't!! Not enough soup spoons or forks! While preserving a calm exterior, my inner panic alarm went from slight to extreme. We had 4 pairs of chopsticks though, which came in handy. And, we found 2 slightly bent up plastic forks that we had meant to throw away and never got around to it, whew! Some guests had to drink the soup with small teaspoons, jaja.
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| We survived! Nobody died! |
Here was the funniest scenanario: After breathing a sigh of relief in realizing that we had somehow managed through the utensil disaster (everyone was eating with something other than their hand, thank goodness!), I realized that I didn't have a single utensil to eat with, no fork, no chopstick, not even a spoon. I didn't want to look awkward since I was seated right next to the circuit overseer. So I looked over to Christine's bowl, and saw her plastic fork which was missing a prong. She was in the kitchen so I figured she wouldn't need it just now. I grabbed it and started eating my salad casually. When Christine came out of the kitchen, she was ready to sit and eat and then recognized her fork in my hand. "Is that my fork?" I kept eating with it and answered back "Yea" with the tone of 'you got a problem with it?' Christine wanted to eat, so of course she said, "Can I have it back?" and I had to give back the 3-pronged plastic fork to its rightful owner, darn! Right in the middle of enjoying a nice, crisp salad! Charlie also saw and giggled. Besides the fact that I couldn't enjoy my salad, I still didn't want to look like the only person who didn't have something to eat with. Finally, I remembered that I brought back some extra chopsticks from the States and ran into the room to get a pair. I was in such a hurry to tear the wrapping off that the plastic sticker holding the chopsticks together was still flapping around while I used them to eat.
Anyway, the best part of the lunch was that Charlie and Kay really made an effort to take personal interest in Liping and Angelina, the real Chinese in the group. They really commended their efforts and encouraged them to continue progressing.
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| Christine's avocado lemon pie |
Avacado lemon pie?!! Haha. I'd like to try that one day
ReplyDeleteAvocado lemon pie?! Interesting.... o.O
ReplyDeleteWell...Looks delicious...but unfortunately I can't eat...
About the experience....my dad already did a talk about the dots...it's really wonderful and great talk!
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