The Searchlight of Insight

And God will listen...

I have been meaning to share the following for almost two years. During this past summer I had a sense of a spiritual deepening, which reminded me of this story. The story happened around October 2009 when Sebastian (seven years old at the time) had a sleep over at a friend's home. He and this friend were good buddies and shared some common beliefs about God. The morning after the sleep over, Sebastian his friend and friend's mother were out for a walk and picnic when the following incident happened, as recounted by the mother in an email to Tess.

During the picnic a group of boys walked past the three picnickers. The boys were new to the area where Seb's friend lived and were "a little bit rough" in their demeanor and presence. As a result Sebastian's friend was a bit frightened by the boys and didn't feel secure with them around. The mother described the boys as having foul language such as, "Hey you! You are psycho or what?" They used the F word regularly and a tone the mom described as "certainly not a tone we use in our house." Sebastian's friend was a little scared and wanted to go home.
 
But then Sebastian said to his friend...

"<Name>, you are God's son and you don´t have to follow or listen. Just do what you know is right and then the good can be good and the bad can be bad and God will listen."
 
A beam of happiness shone on their picnic and all three relaxed.

Above: Sebastian at Fintry this past summer. Thanks, Mandy, for the great picture!

Good-bye 122!

The day has finally arrived when we’ll move out of our building after ten years. I remember when we first moved into 122 ten years ago. Tess was in Canada and pregnant with Sebastian. I moved us in and the first thing I did was snap a picture of the sunset then post it to our web site. This was pre-Facebook and blogs weren't big back then. Fitting, I thought, that as I cleared out of our flat this past week I'd snap this final picture of a 122 sunset. For the last two years we lived in a larger 122 flat with gorgeous views such as this one. We didn't really take advantage of those views enough, which struck me during we a we enjoyed bbq on the balcony a few weeks ago.

Regardless, we had many, many great times at 122, where I lived longer than anywhere else with the exception of my childhood home where I grew-up. One spot to remember is the one pictured at left. The last weekend in March 2001, Tess called from Canada. It was morning in Hong Kong and late in Toronto. Our flat was full of Chinese-speaking only contractors,  painting and fixing the place for us to occupy. They were drilling and making a huge racket. When Tess phoned I couldn’t hear her so I went outside the backdoor of the flat. I stood in the spot pictured at left, looking down on the playground through the window. Right there on the phone, Tess read me a poem she wrote, that concluded with her telling me that she was pregnant. I was ecstatic and tried to communicate the news to the Chinese workers. I had to tell someone! They thought I was truly crazy, of course, as I charaded various signs including having a big tummy. Eventually one of them figured out what I was trying to communicate. “Awwhaw, you going to be daddy!” They were happy for me.

Thank you to all our friends at 122 for ten great years. You are a wonderful community.

Downstream

When Sebastian went on his first ICM trip to the Philippines in June 2009, he met a young boy named Jay-R. You can find the video about that trip here. Sebastian and Jay-R, along with many of the other Filipino boys, got along famously that weekend chasing frogs and other small creatures. Sebastian was alive in new ways, seemingly unconstrained by his Hong Kong world that immediately descended on him upon returning to Hong Kong. (Left, standing outside Jay-R's home, April 2011.)

The Manila floods hit during the Fall of 2009 when we were supposed to attend another ICM Building Trip. The flooding mainly hit the larger Manila area. Jay-R’s area in Bacolod, further south, was safe but still received buckets of rain. At the time I explained to Sebastian that the drainage system we helped build in June 2009 would minimize the impact of the rain at Jay-R’s home. Some ICM friends heading down to Bacolod after the floods took a care package for Jay-R from Sebastian. A letter of deep appreciation came back from Jay-R but in November, while on our re-scheduled building trip, we didn’t have time to see Jay-R. Instead, Sebastian met Joshua, a similarly aged boy and the son of our ICM pre-school’s teacher and pastor.

Next stop for Sebastian and Jay-R was the ICM Kids Camp, April 2010. ICM helped us bring Jay-R up from Bacolod to Dumaguete so that thw two boys could spend the week together. Sebastian really wanted Jay-R to attend. The ICM team cautioned us that these arrangements often don’t work – the magic created in Bacolod might not be re-created in Dumaguete. “The frogs are different,” they said. Sure enough, they were correct. Sebastian was much more reserved during Kids Camp than he was in Bacolod although he still had tons lots of fun. (Following Kids Camp our children all said it was the best vacation they’d ever been on. Hmmm… tough competition for Fintry.) Still, I asked Sebastian why things were a little different at Kids Camp between him and Jay-R. Sebastian explained, the best way that he could, that each ICM trip he wanted to do something special for someone. First there was Jay-R, then he made a friend in Joshua, then he helped Jay-R attend Kids Camp, and so on. (Left: the front of JR's door, painted by JR's mother.)

This past weekend we were on another ICM building trip to Bacolod. We stayed an extra few days to hang out at our hotel – the kids love the pool with the giant slide – and also visited our pre-school. On the way back from the pre-school we took a few minutes to make a surprise visit on Jay-R. Wow, am I ever glad we did.

When we left Jay-R’s GK community in June 2009 it was half a rural construction site. Houses semi completed, drainage half built, it was wet and muddy. When we returned 21 months later the community was complete and thriving. A huge community building stood in the middle of the neighbourhood, dwarfing the small building we helped build in 2009. The finished drainage system showed signs of being well loved by water. Flowers adorned the homes. Jay-R quickly appeared, along with his mom, who welcomed us into their small house. This was when the dots started to connect for Sebastian – Sebastian discovered the pictures and letter he’d sent Jay-R on the walls of Jay-R’s home. There was also a piece of Jay-R’s Kids Camp arts & craft work with the words, “Black Bananas are the Victory” written across the bottom. The Black Bananas were Sebastian, Jasper and Jay-R’s team that won the “best team” award at the end of the Kids Camp week. (Left: the pictures and letter on Jay-R's wall.)

Sebastian was amazed to see these items flood back through his world, albeit for ten minutes. They helped all four kids see the downstream impact of their efforts – long forgotten from their view but still alive and making a difference thousands of miles away.

June ICM Trip to Bacolod, Philippines

I finally completed the picture/video collage of Sebastian's and my trip to the Philippines with ICM in June 2009. The video is posted below. Many thanks to Tess who let Sebastian and I escape for a weekend in June while she looked after The Terrific Trio.

Sebastian's care package for JR...

Several weeks ago the entire family was supposed to return to Bacolod, Philippines with ICM. We were to build some houses in the same area where Sebastian and I visited in June.* Sebastian was very much looking forward to meeting a boy named "JR" who he be-friended on our last trip. Unfortunately, the Manila floods delayed our trip to mid-November. Our flights routed through Manila where the airport was in chaos. ICM also wanted to focus energy and resources on Manila at that time and hold off on Bacolod. (Left: JR stands next to Sebastian along with some other friends.)

Naturally all the kids were disappointed. We looked at the news pictures and maps of Philippines to see how JR would have been affected by the typhoon. We concluded that, like Hong Kong, JR would have gotten lots of rain on the edges of the typhoon but was otherwise okay. I asked Sebastian if he wanted to send a care package to JR and he said, "Yes!" Coincidentally, one of the ICM team was in Hong Kong at the time and agreed to take the package to Bacolod in the coming weeks. Sebastian dove into the sweetie bowl, pulling out his favourite candies. We put them into a small plastic bag. Sebastian wrote the note pictured below. He also asked me to buy a few things for JR: a new pair of sandals, a drawing book, some pens and a few fresh packs of Sebastian's favourite sweeties. I packed the items up into an envelope. Our ICM friend received the package and it was off to the Philippines. 

* Made possible by generous Tess who let Seb and I escape for a long weekend while she looked after the triplets.

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Indiana Jones

Sebastian has discovered Indiana Jones and I mean really discovered... he found out the other day we had an extra Indiana Jones movie. Yes, we've let him start watching Indiana Jones. Considering all the other violent stuff that's out there, Dr. Jones is tame. Certainly no worse than Spiderman or Superman. (We put our foot down at Batman.) For the last two months we thought we only had Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom. While playing around with one of the DVD's extra features, Sebastian found The Last Crusade - wow, was he excited. I bought an Indiana Jones costume that consists of hat, pants, jacket, toy whip and bag. The outfit is a motivational tool. Sebastian gets one piece every few weeks to reward positive behavior.

Thus far Sebastian has earned the bag and a four foot toy whip (made of foam.) Above is a picture Sebastian drew at school. It's Indiana Jones hanging from his whip, while shooting a baddy. Please note that in this picture Dr. Jones is also wearing a fedora and carrying a bag. Oh, and Tess would like you to please notice the neatness of Sebastian's writing.

Sebastian wins a pennant!

Sebastian is in his second year of rugby. In the last month Seb has come over the crest of the hill in terms of motivation and skill. Last year he hardly understood the sport, often making him hesitant to engage in play. A few weeks ago he participated in a tournament where he played four games (he was supposed to play three games but at the last minute substituted for another player) and impressed is coaches quite a bit. Halfway through the first game his coach (Kate) said, “Sebastian, you’re tackling like a demon!” At the end of the game Kate was full of praise for Sebastian and said to me, “Sebastian is on fire today!” The following week when the coaches handed out pennants (Hong Kong rugby equivalent of Most Valuable Players) Kate had arranged for Seb to receive one. Sebastian was so shocked that he walked quite tentatively to the head coach, as can be seen in the video below.

Sebastian's Art 2008

Today, in anticipation of moving in several months and the installation of a new flat screen TV for the kids, we were cleaning out corners when we found some of Sebastian's art from this past year. Note... some of this is a year old! The first piece is from a collage Sebastian did when he first entered Primary 1/Grade 1 in August 2007. Then we have a colourful rendition of his name from the end of P1.

The certificate at left is from the completion of a special reading and writing course Sebastian completed during P1 last spring. He is now quite an accomplished reader and his writing skills improved considerably. (Sample to follow one of these days.) Next we have what I call "The Grid," completed at some point in the last six months.

The Owl, The Stocking and The Man sound like the title of a book and could even be used for illustrations in such a book. Sebastian just informed me that he completed all of these masterpieces last year in P1, NOT this year! (He was very specific about this fact.) Seb also hadn't seen these pictures for a long time, and was quite amazed they'd made their way onto the computer.

Next we have The Bear and The Boots. I love The Boots because they are so colourful and festive. Sebastian explained to me that he did both these pictures last year in P1. The Boots were actually two sides of the same boot merged together in Photoshop... you can see the slight line down the middle.

This item, The Cereal Car, is from the beginning of this school year when the class did an engineering project. Each student selected pictures of a car (Sebastian picked James Bond's most recent Aston Martin... sigh) then studied the pictures in class. Each student then supplied items for the class that could be used to build a car. Items were shared and the end result of the project was building a car from scratch after making designs on paper.

Last but not least we have a very curious picture/piece of art completed by Sebastian in P1. Sebastian calls it "Being Cross" but I have been refering to it as "Dark Mood" because the picture looks more like Sebastian when he is a bit moody verses cross. Regardless, Sebastian that the teacher said he could be any mood he wanted. Sebastian chose being cross. "Then," he continued with glee, "I got to decorate it!"

The Moon, by Sebastian

Sebastian's confession... or maybe mine

As I write this blog I am listening to three or four different versions of  "I Surrender All."  Matt Redman recently recorded a superb cover version of this song, which is to die for if you like old hymns turned into modern Christian songs. (Even if you don't like old hymns turned into modern Christian songs, this song is very, very good, but sorry I don't have a link to it right now!) Meanwhile, we had quite a good weekend but I was exhausted due to new developments in my life. I think the stress of the whole thing was finally released over the weekend and Saturday my body crashed. Saturday afternoon a birthday party took place. At left you'll find all the gorgeous mothers who keep our building glued together... okay, a few of the gorgeous mothers are missing but this is a good snapshot. Regardless, something happened at this party that neither Tess nor myself was aware of... Sebastian wondered. I discovered this 24 hours later in the car.

Post-church we are on our way to the ABC, Tess was at home nursing a cold but meeting us at the Club. While sitting at a stoplight Sebastian said, "Daddee, I did something yesterday that I wasn't supposed to do." Seb was sitting in the back seat of the car, so the triplets listened to this loud confession, too.

"Yes, Sebastian, what was that?" I inquired.

"Yesterday during the party **** and I went to his home when we weren't supposed to," he explained.

"Aha, I see. So, yesterday during the playground party you went up to ****'s home without permission even though you knew that you shouldn't leave the playground without letting us know?"  I confirmed.

"Yes," Sebastian replied with some sheepish confidence.

"Hmmmm... well, Seb I have to tell you that I am very proud of you for being honest and telling me that you think you did something wrong. Thank you. Can I count on you to not do that again and tell me if you want to leave the playground?"

"Yes," Sebastian replied rather confidently.

"Thank you, Sebastian, and I am REALLY proud of you for telling me about this. I love you and I forgive you. If you pray about this, Jesus will forgive you, too." I explained.

"I already prayed to Jesus yesterday asking Him to forgive me," replied Sebastian.

"Wow, Sebastian, that's even better," I said in astonishment.

On Sunday evening I recounted this story to Tess after the kids were in bed. Tess was amazed followed by silence. Then it was my turn, "You want to hear something shocking?" I asked Tess.

"What's that?" she asked.

"I was younger than Sebastian when I tried my first cigarette," I said.

Tess shot THE LOOK at me with "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU."

"It's true. On the cruise south to the Bahamas when I was six years old with my family, we were at the last port in Florida before sailing across to Nassau. I had befriended a boy about my age who must have swiped some cigarettes from somewhere. I took two drags but didn't inhale and then we washed our mouths out with water from a hose. Shortly thereafter I went back to my family's boat for dinner, completely terrified they'd smell the smoke on my breathe."

"That's unbelievable," Tess retorted.

"I remember not liking it... probably a good thing," I said.

"I still don't believe you," Tess murmered.

"I wonder where he got those cigarettes from?" I pondered...

Now I am listening to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and going deep down memory lane... sigh.