Hongkong:: First leg leaving early morning on 28th to go stay with old friends Henry and Florence
Craig. Stopping off the weekend Sunday at Ambassador Fellowship and then on to Chennai via Banakok on the Monday morning.
Chennai:: I am going to stay with a family for the first week. Julie hails from round these parts
of Surrey being a member of Johnston Heights Evangelical Free Church. She is a convert who later joined YWAM and went to
India where she married a local Tamil lawyer. Sudhakar now heads up YWAM. They have a daughter Celeste around 11 years
old. We were over at her parents for a good visit on Wednesday morning. Sought to show that we were quite normal people so
took a couple of bottles of the home made wine over and then received two in exchange. I am taking a package of things
through to Chennai for Celeste from dutiful grandparents. I shall get a new dental plate made while I am in
Chennai, Sudharkar says he knows a good Dentist who practices in the evenings but lectures at a Dental College in the day.
Hindustan Bible Institute: January 9th to 20th then I shall take the AC chair car express to
Bangalore (six hour journey). Ken and Prema Gnanakan have made contact with the Indian Evangelical Mission
to go out to their training school. This has taken a lot of careful work but is finally coming through. On other days I plan
to spend time with the editor of the Theological Book trust.
Visakapatnam: I am trying a new experiment with the Cultural Anthropology class. I have got agreement for them to go out and
collect field data from the fishing villages around. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.
Janette meanwhile will be in Hong Kong from Jan 23rd - Feb 16th staying with some of her old friends; sharing in Bible Studies then leading
a Day Seminar on Women's issues during the time.
We shall meet up in Kuala Lumpur on 17th Feb at the home of Chin Shei Chu, a friend we met in HKG.In his Church is Doreen
Chan who was an Interserve secretary in Malaysia for some years. With her we shall visit the new Interserve office in the KL area.
Penang: will see us with our old HKG friends David and Margaret Robinson and catch up with Joanna to whom we are a type of
Grandparents.
In Bangkok are Doug and Jill Shortt of OMF who have two children studying in Vancouver. The boy is in flying training in Chilliwack
and the girl at UBC. We shall stay with them. The Interserve people have also made contact so we shall have more links in BKK than formerly.
We now have a positive response from Myanmar to
go March 8-13 and visit the Evangelical Bible
School in Yangon. I am interested in the possibility of teaching there in future. I have not been there since 1994 which will make the update of real
interest.
The Hanoi situation has also cleared and we shall go for the weekend of March 3-6. They want me to speak at the Church on the 5th
March. Not sure what it means long term but we are open to the idea if the way finally opens up. It would be 2007 sometime if it matured. Our alternative program
was Chiang Mai but now looks to tight to make a visit there this time.
Finally return to HKG for a few days principally for me to catch up with some of the folk there as going out with jet lag and all there
may not be enough energy or time to do much. We shall see Vancouver on March 20th given present plans.
Indian Visa
India remains one of those countries where the tourism and immigration are poorly coordinated (one theory) or where visa fees are a source of income. Although
easily obtained at a price of $62 for a 6 month visa you still have to make the trek down and then put in an application one day to collect the desired result the
following afternoon.
Storm Windows
Our Christmas bonus from the strata committee: they have agreed that the revised painted form of the windows are acceptable to their
requirements. We now have the job finished and will still be ahead on the price of taking out the old ones and putting in totally new. The dual frames are
not quite up to the quality of the more sophisticated sealed variety but for BC weather conditions a big plus on the old single paned windows. We shall also get the
sliding back door done was well. I hope my Aunt, whose legacy money is financing the effort, will be pleased with the usage made of her resources! Sabir
the man has brought them back this Friday so we only were in the cold for a couple of days!
Christmas Party
BC has a provision for making your own wine. Small businesses offer this facility. Provided you go and bottle it yourself it is deemed home made
and so free of taxation except for basic GST. We put in our order at the local shop and went on Tuesday to perform this chore. Janette siphoned the wine out of the
big plastic bottle and Colin did the corking. This brought the price down to around $3.00 a bottle . This is 4 week wine which is deemed suitable for the mulled wine
to go with 
the mince pies.
We have prayed for a long time about how to get to know the neighbors a little better. Janette in previous years has made some cookies and
then given them but this year we thought of inviting them in and doing something special. There is this old British custom of serving a spiced wine and then eating
mince pies. I first became aware of it in Kabul where the British Embassy had the mulled wine, I am not so sure about the mince pies. Afghanistan is an ideal
place for the mince meat with the abundance of dried fruit. Dried fruits are a feature of Afghanistan with the river valleys and bright sun ideal for growing
then curing fruit and grapes. In Hong Kong the British school at their annual Christmas fair saw the Anglican Church mince pies and mulled wine as their
contribution.
Vern Middleton
Vern, is an old friend from India days who I have kept contact with since the 80s when
I came this side. He taught at Union Bib Sem until he returned home in the late 70s. His connections are Fellowship Baptist but he retains a wide interest. His
family history has elements of tragedy as one son did not adjust to returning to Canada and spent time wandering off into the mountains. He disappeared and only
some years later a passing hiker found his body. he must have wandered off and died of exposure. More encouragingly they have seen one of the other sons
come through to real faith after a period in drugs and despair. Vern was my link with TWU initially when I took over some of his classes in the NW Bible college
which then built up into the present opportunity and ministries that we now have.
Vern would have liked to have extended his links
with ACTs and TWU but, like many of us,
has found that there are other younger aspirants to the opportunities often with updated qualifications and connections. I was encouraged to hear him share
about his experience in Kenya where he has followed up on an opportunity given by the Fellowship Baptist Mission to teach in a Bible School which is located in
the Rift Valley complex in Kenya. This has breathed new life in as he has taken an interest in African Church history particularly the Indigenous forms of the Church
that have emerged. Also enjoyed bringing a missiological element into the teaching of the Bible College. They have invited him back for another three months in
September 2006. He has also been to Katmandu and enjoyed that experience. I am encouraging him to think of Sri Lanka. We need to pray for travel funds for him
to make these kinds of trips.
