Bus Driver - Part I

My main mode of transportation is often the city bus. It’s always an adventure and a great way to see different parts of town. Often, I jump on a bus only to find that maybe walking would have been a much safer option! Yesterday, I had one of my more adventurous rides yet. I never ate at McDonalds back in the states, but I’ve found it to be a tasty treat and reminder of home. For some reason, I decided that I would make my monthly pilgrimage prior to jumping on my sweet ride, earlier said city bus. With my Mickey D’s in hand, I sat down only to find that the bus driver was one of the hyper types. These type careen down streets barely putting their foot on the brake even for turns. This particular driver even drove in the on coming lane of traffic for about

half a block until reaching a red light. We proceeded to sit through the entire light while cars heading our direction honked and swerved to miss us. There’s always lots of honking, but this guy seemed to never take his hand off the thing. As I was trying to eat and keep me, my computer bag and my coke from flying all around the bus, I thought about a recent story I had shared with some friends about another adventurous bus ride.

This bus ride story was the total opposite. The above story is quite common of many of my travels to various countries. However, the story I had shared was about a much calmer experience, such calm that it was quite alarming actually! It was as if there was an angelic children’s choir singing a beautiful rendition of “The Wheel’s On The Bus” with an added “birds chirping” sound affects in the background. He was going so slow that I was totally out of sorts. I kept checking the time to see if I was going to make it to my destination on time. Usually I don’t get too hot on the bus because there’s a breeze, but no breeze here because we’re going soooo slow! I never worried about being thrown out of my seat or my Mac being launched into the aisle. This bus driver was calm, cool and collected. It was crazy odd to me, but a nice break from the normal craziness I usually experience on my rides.

The common thread in both stories is the bus driver, but more specifically my questions for him. On both rides I was asking the same questions, “Mr. Bus Driver…What the heck? What is the deal? Why are you driving so _______________?” You can fill in the blank on that last question with a variety of words including the two extremes in my stories – fast or slow. Then I started thinking about my faith, my journey with God and my relationship with Him.

to be continued…

Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!

My Easter Celebration this year has been the most unique I’ve had in many years. I’m not interested in getting into dogma, theology and such (at least not in this post), but to just share my experience. I’ve celebrated the resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in many different church settings. I’ve gone to Catholic Mass, and I’ve participated in a Messianic Passover Seder Dinner. Thus far over my lifetime, I’ve mostly celebrated in a Protestant setting just after eating a hollowed out chocolate bunny for breakfast. ;)

Well, this year I attended my first Greek, and then Russian, Orthodox Church services. I was with friends in Hong Kong for an all day and night affair that started (well for me) about 1 in the afternoon with a late lunch at Outback Steakhouse. This was my first visit to a true chain restaurant overseas. It was a treat that’s for sure! Then we wondered through Hong Kong a bit before heading to the Greek service. After feasting on some absolutely INCREDIBLE food (love the Greeks and their food!), we headed to the Russian Orthodox Paschal service, which started at midnight (traditional time for this celebration). Then, following a 2-hour layover at a 24 hour McDonalds (waiting for the MTR in Hong Kong to open), a 2-ish hour trip back home (including crossing the border back into China)and a two hour nap, I headed to my own church fellowships’ Easter Celebration service here in Shekou. By the time this was all said and done, I had met, visited with and celebrated our resurrected Saviour with fellow believers in Jesus from Greece, Cyprus, India, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Mongolia, Italy, England, Myanmar, Philippians, Jamaica, Mongolia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and China. What a special way to celebrate such a sacred and holy day. It was truly full of His life!

Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! I hope you’ll enjoy some of the other beautiful ways to express this life-changing truth.

Afrikaans... Christus het opgestaan ; hy het waarlik opgestaan.
Greek... Christos anesti ; aléthos anesti.
Hebrew... !המשיח קם! באמת קם - Ha-Masiah qom ; be-emet qom.
Hindi... Massih jee uthha- hai ; va-stav me? vo jee uthha- hai.
Italian... Cristo è risuscitato ; in verità è risuscitato.
Japanese... ハリストス復活実に復活 - Harisutosu hukkatsu ; jitsu ni hukkatsu.
Khmer... Preah Christ mean preah choan rous leong vinh ; trung mean preah choan rous leong vinh men.
Malagasy... Kristy dia nitsangana tamin'ny maty ; eny efa nitsangana marina tokoa Izy.
Chinese... ハリストス復活実に復活 - Jidu fuhuo liao ; zhende, ta fuhuo liao.
Nepali... Isu masiah byujhinuvayo ; bastabma sachikai uha byujhinuvayo.
Filipino... Si Kristo ay nabuhay ; totoo ngang nabuhay.
Spanish... Christo ha resucitado ; en verdad ha resucitado.
Swahil...i Kristu amefufuka ; kweli amefufuka.
Thai... Pha Kristo Tiao klap pen kune m lèo ; ting ting phra tong klap pén kune ma.
Tibetan... Yeshu kyarsön chesong ; lakso chesong.
Turkish... Mesih dirildi ; gerçekten dirildi.