Here is "The Black Beauty" parked this past weekend outside Mary Knoll in Stanley, Hong Kong. I was at Mary Knoll from Friday night to Saturday night for a Walk To Emmaus Team retreat after having just rolled off a plane from my US business trip. In my last post I wrote "God is well at work in my life." The theme of that work has been, "Where's home?" I had no idea what the retreat would be about. I expected we'd be discussing invigorating the Hong Kong WTE Community in preparation for the fall Walk To Emmaus retreats. We didn't talk about that at all. The 24 hour meditation, lead by Pastor Scott Lawson and Sister Amelia, was themed "Coming Home." Wow, now there's irony and stay tuned for much, much more. Scott explained on Friday evening, "Home is in the new creation God wants us to be." I'm glad we got that clear now I just have to figure out what God wants me to be. The 24-hour escape was very, very well done and rewarding.
After I arrived home on Saturday evening, Tess and I took the kids to say good-bye to our very dear friends Joel & Odila: this lovely couple discovered their new home is Angola, Africa due to Joel's work. We've been building up to this departure for several months and today Joel and Odila officially left Hong Kong. We bought them their favourite McDonald's meals (McD's hasn't reached Luanda, Angola's capital), the girls gave them hand made cards and a round of hugs came from all four kids. It ended up being a very late night with the kids finally hitting the hay about 10:30 pm. In a similar farewell, last week the four of us (pictured here) enjoyed a Last Supper at Hong Kong's trendy and popular restaurant Isola. One can easily tell from the picture that Joel and Odila are warm and loving friends. But ahem, please also note how drop dead gorgeous the lovely and tantalising Tess!
You two make a beautiful couple!
By the way, you did good to get rid of the Espace, my experience is that it's fantastic at the front, but the seats at the back are really not comfy, am sure your kids appreciate the upgrade.
Posted by: Evie | May 11, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Sorry to see that Joel and Odila have left Hong Kong. They are wonderful people.
Love to all..GDad Blake
Posted by: Dad aka GDad Blake | May 12, 2009 at 02:41 AM
Really looking forward to hearing more about the Mary Knoll weekend, Chuck.
The photo of the four is great and yes, you are right, you have a beautiful wife :-)
Love, M xox
Posted by: Mo aka Maureen aka Grandmother aka Mum | May 13, 2009 at 06:07 AM
magic doors are da bomb. when we got our van i made a magic door a priority and was pleasantly surprised to get not one, but two. now i want a magic hatch too. yeah, magic doors....*ahhhhh*
Posted by: knobody | May 16, 2009 at 07:14 AM