(Sorry for the bad Chinese. It's late again…me and Google are working things out.)
You know how when you were a kid you sometimes couldn't sleep the night before Christmas? If you were in my family, you'd be wrapped up in a sleeping bag under the Christmas tree with all the colored lights twinkling after reading the story of Jesus' birth. Then mom would come in in her bathrobe and tell us to keep our eyes closed while she filled our stockings. (I always kept them closed of course- I was the good child. :))
當你還是一個小孩子，你在平安夜的晚上有時無法入睡？如果你是好像我的家人一样，聽完，耶穌誕生故事，你會在聖誕樹下，它所有的彩色燈光閃爍，被包裝在一個睡袋。然後，我媽會來，在她的睡衣為了装满我們的聖誕襪，並告訴我們，"你們要閉上你的眼睛！"（我當然閉上我的眼睛，我是乖孩子。：））
At 5 am on Christmas Day we'd wake up and try to beguile our parents out of bed so that we could open our Christmas presents. I remember the year that my dad made me a fairy doll house that looked exactly like one in a Christmas book I loved to read. I remember the year I got a new Study Bible with lots of notes like I'd been wanting. And I remember sometimes opening a package and pulling out a ......
在聖誕節當天早上5時起床后，我們會很謆地叫我父母從床上所以我們就可以打開我們的聖誕禮物。我記得有一年我爸爸給我一個像童話娃娃木做的房子，也。我記得有一年，記得有一年我收到了，我一直想有的聖經。有時我還記得打開包裝，拿出來的是......
who knows what.
誰知道是什麼"東西"。
Usually the "who knows whats" were sent by my great-grandmother and consisted of some fabric made in 1970 with fuzzy mustard yellow colors or the free prize from the Cracker Jack box. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone's gotten a gift like that at some point.
通常情況下，"誰知道什麼"是我的曾祖母 送的。她會包一些在1970年黃色或免費獎品從傑克的餅乾盒並把它給我們。你大概知道我在說什麼。每個人，在他們的一生一定的得到一份这样的禮物。
But if you think you're getting something that you've been looking forward to for a long time and then you open the box and you see the fuzzy mustard yellow potato holder, your heart definitely drops to the bottom of your toes faster than you can say fuzzy mustard yellow potato holder.
但如果你打開盒子的时候，認為你要的東西 是在裡面，你一直在尋找著很長一段時間的東西，然後打開盒子並看到黃色的東西。。。你的心會將下降。
That happened to me this Easter.
這個復活節發生在我身上。
This year at Easter, I was "supposed" to go with my church to visit a nearby coastal city and do some ministry there. I had been looking forward to the trip for both personal and ministry reasons, including the fact that I would get to take two girls from my small group on the trip with me, pick strawberries, and travel, and, and, and....
今年復活節，我是"應該"和我的教會，到附近的近海的城市，並做一些事工在那裡。我因為事工和個人的原因，包括，我可以带兩個小组裡面的女孩， 我可以採草莓，以及旅遊，並和，然後 ... ，期待著這次旅行。
At the same time, I was preparing for Easter personally with the usual Lenten readings and (as some of you might remember from an earlier post) more time of prayer- especially praying to see God's power.
在同一時間，為了復活節我那时正在看四旬期讀數，（如一些你可能還記得從以前的BLOG）用更多的時間禱告，尤其是想看到神的力量。
I did see His power.
我真的看到了上帝的力量。
Just not
in the way I expected.
但不是我想像的方式。因為我的護照沒有到達。對不起，我已經太累了... 你必須在英語閱讀詳細內容。
About 8 days before we were supposed to leave, the American consulate based in Hong Kong came to Macau to provide citizen services. They took my passport back to Hong Kong with them promising that it'd be back in plenty of time for the trip on Thursday night. Well, the way I've set this story up, you can all guess that my passport didn't arrive in time. (Yup, this is a story of disappointment- perhaps small, but still something felt and something learned- hopefully, and definitely something for which to praise.) If you want to skip the gory details, you can go to the highlighted part at the end. :)
The days leading up to the trip, I tried everything I could to find my passport when it hadn't arrived on Tuesday. I called the consulate, I talked to my mail carrier. I did everything humanly possible to get that passport. I even called the Macau postal service and spoke with the head of mail delivery who on Wed. night told me that he had it in his hand and it would be delivered on Thurs. am- just 10 hours before I was going to leave.
But on Thursday the letter in my box was the bulletin from Bethel (sorry, lynn, for the first time in my life I was honestly sorry to see it), NOT my passport. After that, hoping that they would find it in the afternoon's mail shipment, I shared with my Advanced English class about the situation and we prayed together about it. I told them that I had been asking God to show me His power.
At 5:30 on Thursday night I was told that I HAD to tell the travel agent whether or not I was going or risk losing my ticket altogether (it is still good until next Easter). At 5:33 (yup, I gave God a few extra minutes, just to make SURE I knew what His answer was :))I "saw the fuzzy yellow mustard gift" and I called our team leader and cried and told him that I couldn't go. I called the girl in charge of arranging tickets and told her. 3 hours later I went to the border and saw the team off.
Yeah, yeah, maybe this is kind of a seeming sob story, but the truth is that all of us face situations in our lives, big or small and we wonder what God is thinking. In the grand scheme of the world, this was a small disappointment. But on Maundy Thursday at 5:30 this year, for me, it was a big one.
However, it also became one of those moments when I have to ask myself what I believe with my heart- not only with my head.
So you tell me- did I see the power of God this Easter? I say "yes." It was definitely not what I wanted. I'm still dealing with that at some levels. BUT- God clearly showed His will in this one. I can't see everything clearly. I don't know WHY I was not supposed to go. (My students came up with some rather gruesome options that included accidents and illness :).)
那你告訴我，我有沒有看見神的力量這個復活節？我說"是的。"
這絕對不是我所想要的。我仍然在處理 心理的感觉。但是，上帝清楚地表明，他那次的旨意是这样子。我不能清楚地看到一切。我不知道為什麼我不應該去。
（我的學生們想出了一些非常可怕的選項，其中包括意外和疾病 等等：）。）
But I CAN see some good that came from it: being able to take students to church, study the Bible with them and talk about things that we don't normally have time to go into with our busy schedules. I was able to fulfill my responsibilities for the trip (devos) without being there and I think it was in some ways good for the two girls from my small group to go without me and get to know other church members.
不過，我可以看到一些好事，來自它：能带學生到教堂，我們可以一起學習聖經，还有談我們通常沒有時間去談的事。我都認為对我小组兩個女孩是，她們可以多認識其他教會的兄弟姐妹。
I pray that something else good can come out of it too: I hope that somehow through this "small" event
in my life, I can remember more often that God's power is also to accomplish HIS plan...and not mine. And I hope I can be okay with- no more than okay...joyful in that, because I know that He is really the main point of my life story and not me. Stay tuned for the ending. :) Every story is for a reason.
我還要求別的東西：我希望通過这个"小"件事在我的生活，我可以更多記住上帝的力量也是為了實現他的計劃...不是我的計劃。同時，我希望我能好起來， 可以接受，其實。。。比那个好呀... 希望我能歡樂，因為我知道神是我生活故事真正的要點，不是我。請繼續關注結局。
：）每一個故事是有原因的。
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment