Karen and Jonathan's Blog

Introducting Anneliese Grace

2009-08-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

Karen and I are proud to announce the birth of our long awaited little one!

Anneliese Grace 言恩 Ng was born by Cesarian Section on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 @ 08:35am at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC. She weighed 8 lb, 5.5 oz at birth.

Both Karen and baby are doing well, and are now resting at home.

Planning for birth...

2009-08-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

Having a planned C-Section birth (recommended by Karen's OBGYN due to her first C-section) is a so very different experience than a natural "wait until it comes" birth. On the one hand, you know when the baby is coming, so you can prepare. On the other hand, because you know the precise moment when baby is coming, you prepare almost too much.

August 12th had finally arrived. We had "everything" ready to go - the luggage packed for the hospital, the morning taxi pre-scheduled, the house clean, the alarm set for 6:00am when the taxi would arrive to take us to the hospital, and the soon to be older brother safely at Grandma and Grandpa's. Things seemed to be in order except that we had forgotten how tired and exhausted we were.

We slept right through all three alarms. Yes, I know - bad.... The curious thing was that the whole time leading up to this day, we had never missed a beat. Perhaps it was the problem with "over" preparing. Anyhow, we didn't wake up until the taxi driver called us. Apparently he had been outside waiting already for 10 minutes, and finally decided it might be a good idea to call us. A rather embarrassed me (still in my PJs) apologized profusely to the taxi driver - told him to please wait, while we hurriedly got changed.

When I told the poor taxi driver that we were going to the hospital, he must put two and two together having seen Karen's huge tummy. Well, he just shook his head, and drove us as fast as he could to the hospital where we had a scheduled C-section for 8:30am. (Needless to say, we tipped him well....)

We got to the hospital in time for surgery preparations. At least we'll have a good story to tell the grandkids...

Room to do new things

2009-07-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Ngs had a pretty busy summer as we hosted a number of out of town relatives and friends then prepared for the arrival of our new one. This latter task was probably the most time consuming - expanding it from a two bedroom to a quasi three bedroom apartment.

Essentially this involved moving out of our master bedroom, into Erich's room, renovating the master bedroom, the moving Erich back into part of the master bedroom. It wasn't an easy task considering Erich is still very young and Karen pregnant, but after many late nights and packed weekends, it was done.

A special thanks to Laura (who inspired us with her incredible decorating ideas), Floyd of The Colony, Texas who helped with priming, and Dave who helped paint.

Hans' Birthday

2009-06-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law's birthday this year was extra special with the inclusion of some very special guests. All of his grandchildren were in town along with his brother and sister in law from Germany!

We had a great time, and as you can see, the kids had a great time hanging out with their Opa.

Farewell to the Bartletts

2009-06-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Bridge said goodbye to the Bartlett Family this weekend as they prepared to move back to Kansas. They moved here seven years ago as missionaries to help launch the ministry of the Bridge. Rodney served as associate pastor and together with his wife Tiffany, worked to establish and sustain some of the key ministries of the Bridge - the Sports Camp, the worship team, Kids Bible Camp, children worship and nursery just to name a few.

We got to know their wonderful three children as well as Rodney's passion for volleyball as seen in this photo.

We will miss you Rodney, Tiffany, Caleb, Jesse and Emily! Wishing you all of God's blessings as you move on to new endeavors in Kansas!

Yes, we are expecting!

2009-06-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

For those that haven't seen us of late, yes Karen is expecting... in fact she is 7 months pregnant! All of us are extremely excited. Erich now gives two hugs and kisses at night before he goes to bed - one for mommy, and one for baby! :-)

Congratulations Queenie!

2009-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Karen and I first met Queenie when she was in grade 6 as part of the initial group of youth that formed Joy Fellowship. Now, that fellowship has grown into a vibrant English speaking congregation at Coquitlam Christ Church of China.

It was an honour to be able to attend and witness her university graduation (my time flies!).

Congratulations Queenie on a job well done! We are so proud of you!

Bridge Church helping out at the Vancouver Marathon

2009-05-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

As Christians, we are grateful for the redemptive grace provided through Jesus Christ. Our faith hinges on this one tenant - that God, not us, provided the means to salvation by first loving us.

Telling the good news of Jesus Christ to our community involves more than just words. Jesus calls us to demonstrate the gospel - to exemplify and dispense grace.

One of the ways we can do this is to serve our community in a way that demonstrates God's love for us. Every year, the Bridge Church (of which we are members) moves Sunday worship service to Alma & Point Grey road where about 70 volunteers hand out water, gatorade and sponges to the runners of the Vancouver Marathon. Our worship band provided hours of music to encourage the runners to 'keep pressing on'. It was a great time of mixing worship to God and service to our community.

Continuing a great Canadian tradition...

2009-04-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I learned how to skate from a family friend at a local outdoor rink in Quebec. It was a memorable experience: I took for the first time my two skates and slid on the cold ice created by Montreal's famous winter weather.

I followed in the footsteps of so many other Canadians and learned how to skate.

When I was older, I took up skating again mostly as form of exercise. There were times when I would even take a book on figure skating and attempt to "learn" various moves in the rink during public skate. (It was the noon time slot which was usually empty.)

Now as a parent, I am pleased to announce that I am passing on this great Canadian tradition. Vancouver may not have natural outdoor rinks, but we do have some of the best winter sports facilities in the country especially with the Olympics fast approaching.

Erich took his first skating lessons at the local arena. Here he is learning how to "walk on ice".

Easter 2009 Baptisms in the rain

2009-04-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

This Easter, we had a string of baptisms at the Bridge. As a baptist church of course, we practice full immersion baptism. Had we observed the practice of "baptism by sprinkling" this would have been just a matter of marching each candidate outside in the pouring rain!

Congratulations to Paola, Jared, Giovanny, and Vickie.

See the full album here.

A grand time in Seattle

2009-03-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

Friends David and Laura Shepherd went with us to on an excursion trip to Seattle. We had planned for quite some time that the ladies would have some quality shopping time (and boy can they shop!) while the guys would hang out and do some quality guy stuff... like hang out in flight museums.

We ended up going in late March. It turns out it was a well needed break for all of us, and we had a blast. Whilst in Seattle, we stayed at the beautiful and antique Marqueen Hotel at a great rate thanks to Priceline. (Our stay was very enjoyable and the staff were excellent.)

I don't have too many photos of Karen and Laura's shopping experience (though from what I hear, they did try to outshop each other and they certainly filled up the car), but Davey, Erich and I did get some cool photos in. We decided we would visit not just the Children's Museum and Museum of Flight as Erich and I had done in the past, but also the Boeing Future of Flight museum in Everett. Although the museum itself wasn't as impressive as the Museum of Flight, Erich enjoyed being able to walk right up to certain components of the airplane. He also enjoyed watching the 3D films as evident in this photo.

I also got to experiment with off camera remote lighting....and ended up with this cool looking photo. Only problem was trying to get a rather bulky and odd looking radio triggered flash into the wheel well of an airplane without getting suspicious looks from onlookers.

Erich gets his glasses

2009-03-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

Bittersweet day today. Erich got his first pair of glasses. Of course, it's an exciting time for Erich because he now looks "just like mommy and daddy" (plus it's a new, novel thing...). For us, who have been through the hassle of glasses, we remember what it's like when you lose them and are trying to find them half-blind. And then there are names you get called when you're a kid.

Unfortunately, seeing as both Karen and I require them, this was probably inevitable. Because Karen suffers from "lazy eye" syndrome, Karen's doctors had recommended early on that Erich be checked regularly. With early checking also comes early diagnosis, and so early glasses.

Well, at least back in the day "glasses" meant you were smart... :-)

Congratulations Tai and Tanya!

2009-02-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

How often do you wish you could relive the best day of your life when you married your spouse? That's exactly what good friends Tai and Tanya Lee did on Valentine's Day. We were privileged to be invited, and I had the honour of photographing their ceremony!

One thing that really struck me about this ceremony was the great sense of community. Weddings are so often centred around the million and a half things that need to be done. Getting the chance to do it again meant Tanya and Tai were able to focus on what really mattered - a renewing of a covenant made before God in front of his people and their community.

Friends, family from past and present showed up to witness this incredible event.

Congratulations Tai and Tanya on your vow renewal!

-- * -- * --

Here are a sampling of the photos (and some of my thoughts) that I took during the ceremony:

I really like this photo above. A good photojournalistic photo shows context. As Tanya and Lucas (her son) walk down the aisle, family and friends are delighted to see her evident in the MANY digital cameras pointed at her... including mine! In case you're wondering how I took this photo whilst taking another one, I had a camera with a wide angle lens mounted on a tripod at the back of the sanctuary. It was triggered via PocketWizard from that camera I was holding at the front. I chose a slow shutter speed to show the motion of Tanya.

Loved the BIG open diffused windows in the sanctuary. I had to persuade the ushers to keep these open, but it provided the wonderful contrast you see here.

A shot of Tanya's extended family. This vow renewal ceremony was a reunion of sorts for them.

Old "Treasures" -- Paper

2009-02-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

In our quest to purge our house of stuff, we have recently gone through our file cabinet. My wife was quite amazed at the amount of ~~junk~~ err "important" documents that I keep around. You know, things like telephone bills from back when I studied in Ottawa as a first year university student. Hey, you just NEVER know when that might come in handy! I had dutifully filed these bills for years, moved them with me when I got married, and of course never thought to purge them.

Enter in the new rules. Tax related documents, keep for 7 years max. Other important documents - 2 years. All else - 1 year max.

So with that in mind, I went through the laborious task of sorting out all that was older than 7 years, older than 2 years and older than 1 year.... *THAT* was relatively easy. The hard part was shredding the 4 foot pile of paper afterward.

Luckily we still have the half-broken industrial shredder that my employer gave away when they upgraded. After lubricating it full of mineral oil, we went about shredding over the next week. The photo above was the result. Yes, those two garbage bags that are already tied also contain shredded paper.

Of course when I showed up at the recycling depot with all this shredded paper, they must have thought I worked for Enron or something.

Erich's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-01-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

Scheduling birthday parties for a child born on or near Christmas is always difficult. For the past two years, we have opted to do Erich's birthday party in mid-January instead of late December so as to avoid conflict with all the Christmas get togethers.

This year, we decided to host the party at our house. I experimented with sewing (by sewing each attendee an personalized apron) while all of Erich's friends from Erich's daycare and also from church came over and learned how to bake sugar cookies. Really yummy for the kids, and really messy for the parents to cleanup afterward.

Anyhow, they had a blast as you can see. Here they are in an attempted group photo. Notice Erich with his own camera too :-)

It's really funny how three year olds don't quite "get" birthdays yet though. Almost as if "bringing out the birthday cake" was synonomous with "blowing out the candles", one of Erich's friends tried to "blow the candles" when the cake came out instead of Erich! :-)

Old Treasures -- Roses

2009-01-11T23:14:00.001-08:00

Roses are red, Violets are blue, these roses remind me of you!

Up first in our "old treasures series" is this wonderful vase of dried roses. They were given to my wife by yours truly, and she has been keeping all of them in this vase ever since she and I were dating. (That's a lot of roses!) They remind us of our courtship together, but lately they have also been accumulating a lot dust and perpetuating our allergies, so unfortunately they have to go.

Two interesting memories come to mind when I think of these roses:

The first was my practice to give her thirteen roses instead of the traditional dozen. Having started dating on Friday, October the 13th, thirteen was our "lucky" number.

The second is the most memorable time I have ever given roses to my wife: It was the day I proposed to her (May 30, 2001). On that day, I arranged for a scavenger hunt throughout the city. Along with several strategically placed friends, I handed her various clues and momentos as she criss-crossed across the city. I had the privilege of handing her a dozen roses at the site of our first date (GM Place). At that point in the scavenger hunt, there were still many places to go, but how exciting it was to hand her thirteen roses knowing that in a couple of hours I would be atop Burnaby Mountain asking for her hand in marriage!

Christmas Thoughts

2008-12-31T23:53:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of telling my son the full story of the birth of Christ for the first time this Christmas. At three years old, he's beginning to understand a bit more about Christmas and what it is about. How encouraging it is to hear "Christmas is Jesus' birthday" when asked the question "What's Christmas about?". (Of course he still wonders where the birthday cake is...)

I had been reading to him from the gospel of Luke this past Christmas. I like this particular account of the gospel because Luke provides a very colourful narrative of the nativity events - it is a storytelling gospel.

I am never ceased to be amazed how I manage to pick up something new every time I reread an account of the gospel. This particular time, I was really struck by the character of Simeon in Luke 2:25-35. It says:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

Can you imagine this old fellow waiting all of his life for the yet unseen Messiah... and then suddenly meeting him? Wouldn't that be an enormously moving moment? Simeon knew that the Lord was God and what God said would come to pass was truth - and that it would happen in his lifetime. That is faith. Then I think of how so often I, (or we collectively!) are so caught up with our lives that we miss out on times when God might be telling us what He is going to do. We miss out on experiencing God. What's even more - we have the benefit of hindsight and knowing the Messiah (Jesus!) and yet we still so often choose to ignore Him.

I want a faith like Simeon's. I want to know Jesus not only in my mind, but also in my heart. I want to recognize who He is, and I want to worship Him. He is, afterall, the long awaited Messiah. He is Emmanuel; He is God with us.

New Year, Old Treasures

2008-12-31T20:08:00.000-08:00

I've been reading a book lately (part of the advantage of working right above a Chapters bookstore) called "It's all too much" by Peter Walsh. It is a book about decluttering your home, but also a bit about decluttering your life. I've been reading the book because over the years my house has been slowly accumulating clutter - so much so that just the weekly maintenance of my home is becoming stressful. I've found the book fascinating because it doesn't talk about the latest organizational fad, but rather attacks the root causes of why we end with the clutter we have.

Call it a New Years resolution, or just frustrated - I've been on a decluttering mission over the past few weeks, and will be continuing throughout this coming year. As I've slowly begun this process, I've noticed that one of the hardest types of things to get rid of (I have found) is stuff with sentimental value (but are otherwise junk). To this, author Peter offers a suggestion in his book: photograph the item, have a ceremony (paying tribute), then get rid of it. So, over the next year, I will be starting a series of posts. Each will be on an item of sentimental value. I will pay tribute to it here on the blog, then it will be on its way to the recyclers, the Salvation Army, or the rubbish bin.

Erich is 3 years old!

2008-12-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

Erich turned the big three years old today. Of course, he's thought of himself as a "big boy" for a long time already. Ask him whether he thinks he's a baby anymore, and he'll be the first to tell you that "no, he's a big boy now".

Just the other day, we were helping Opa with moving some appliances. (We brought Erich along just for fun.) As we were heading out the door, a very masculine sounding, puffed up chest and all Erich said "yeah, we're gonna go load up the fridge and the stove on the dolly and we're gonna go push'em." I didn't know quite what to say, but I did think it was the funniest thing I heard!

So, Happy Birthday to my big boy Erich!

-- * -- * -- * --

By the way, turning three of course means that I sat him down for our traditional bi-annual photo session (read: daddy gets to play with camera equipment!). It was a blast doing this little cross lit composition.

Whiter than snow: Congratulations Ron Larsen!

2008-12-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

King David once asked God to cleanse him and make him "whiter than snow" (c.f. Psalm 51:7) after the prophet Nathan confronted him with his own sin namely adultery with Bathsheba, and subsequent cover-up by murder.

Followers of Jesus ask of God the same thing when we make personal confessions of faith. We believe that Jesus Christ (the reason for Christmas) came and shed his blood to atone for our sin so that we might be declared "whiter than snow" because of what He did on the cross.

Christians (particularly baptists and other evangelicals) around the world make public declarations of this faith in Jesus through adult, full immersion water baptism. Though not a requirement for salvation, baptism publically symbolizes our personal faith in Jesus Christ. Symbolically, as we enter the water, we identify with Christ's death; we identify with His resurrection when we arise, and most importantly we identify with what Christ's shed blood means to us - the water symbolizes the cleansing of our sin through His blood.

Ron Larsen, a friend and member of the Bridge Church recently decided to do this. As is custom in our church, baptism is done at the beach next to the Vancouver Museum. But what you cannot tell from this picture is that Vancouver had recently had a bout of winter weather. Not only was there snow, but it was about -3C outside! Nevertheless, our pastor (Jerry Conner), Jim, and Ron braved the ice cold waters to declare that indeed Jesus does make us whiter than snow.

Congratulations Ron, and welcome to the family!

A very informative night with Joe McNally

2008-12-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

Kudos to friends Renee and Nathan Derksen for hooking me up with a seminar that Joe McNally was doing in town. Considering I had been following his work through National Geographic, Strobist, and his book ("the moment it clicks") over the past couple of years, I was stoked to be able to hear him speak in person. It was an inspiring enough to see him talk about pictures he had done, but even more inspiring when he did a sort of bonus live demonstration (complete with a ballerina as model). It was the live demonstration that was really neat to see.

He demonstrated how easy it is to be able to take quality, lit, on location portraits with just a few speedlights, and a reflector. He also demonstrated that even the pros experience difficulties on the field sometimes. (One of his flashes kept malfunctioning during the session.) It is comforting to know that even people who have done this for 25 years still encounter the same problems!

I put what I learned to practice that Sunday by doing a quick, lit portrait of Abby. She had needed a portrait for her upcoming prayer card / short term missions letter, and I thought what better way to practice what I learned. Here are some of the results:

Photo Caption: This was taken in a boardroom with 70s style wood panelling.
I shot this at ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 73mm with flash 1/2 CTO at 1/8 power
camera right through umbrella, reflector underneath subject to
slight camera left.

Photo Caption: Against a white wall. ISO 400, 1/200, f4.0 @ 70mm.

Flash at 1/8 power camera right, reflector underneath subject to slight
camera left, plus background flash at 1/4 power aimed at the wall.

Photo Caption: Taken outside against North shore mountains.
ISO 100, 1/200, f/16 @ 75mm. Flash full power camera right throwing
hard 1/2 CTO'd light from further distance than previous two shots. (attempt
to sort of emulate a setting sun.) Reflector camera left, close to subject.

It took about 20-30 minutes for all three scenes including setup. All things considered, this is really a very easy way to do some quick portraits - definitely good enough for the purpose she wanted. To be honest, this sort of stuff (off camera lighting on manual) used to scare me a bit - but as I've been practicing on how to effectively use off camera lighting, I'm beginning to understand how much more control one has over the photograph when you can introduce light.... and as they say, practice makes perfect.

Day 7: Safe arrival back in Vancouver and fun with Pocketwizards!

2008-11-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

We arrived safely back in Vancouver. I had been anticipating this moment for a while: not so much because I had been dying to come home but because I had been gearing up to take an interesting photograph of Erich and Karen with the train. Hey - Photographers think of crazy ideas when they have nothing better to do on a 16 hour train ride!

Now first some background: This was the first major trip I had taken without taking an SLR with me. On almost all previous trips, I had always brought along an SLR, and a sometimes with dizzying array of lenses. But when you're trying to travel light (read: married with kids), this doesn't work so well.

So this time, I brought along a Canon G9 point-and-shoot, a flash, two pocketwizards, and a compact light stand. Comparatively speaking, this was very light gear inspired by this Strobist article. The great thing about this setup was that it allowed me to take both interesting lit or available light photographs without the overhead of a lot of equipment. The very configurable G9 combined with the relatively fast f2.8 lens work well to suit any serious amateur or professional photographer wanting to travel light. Combine this with the power of a 580EX and the range of pocketwizard remote triggers and you have a great setup.

I digress. Back to what I had been dying to do. I had been anticipating that we would have decent morning light when we arrived back - a necessary requirement to making this photo work. (I had actually tried this same photo the night we left, but did not have sufficient available light to balance properly.)

With the train safely back at the station, I asked one of the train attendants whether it would be okay if we stayed an extra minute while I took a photo. I quickly handed Karen a slaved flash on pocketwizard mounted on a light stand. She placed it at the same position as one of the overhead reading lights inside the train. I guessed at the power setting, figuring I would adjust it by asking Karen to vary the distance via walkie-talkie. I went outside the train and took a photo. The result was this photo where you have dark window upon dark window with the exception of one lit (as if by reading light). It's simple, but illustrates the power of what one can do with a light setup like this.

Strobist Info: Canon G9 @ f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 400, Flash set to 1/8th power.

Day 6: The trip back and the rowdies

2008-11-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

We spent our last day in Jasper exploring some of the attractions frequented by local town folk. We rented skates and skated at the local ice rink. This is where we met some local high school students (on lunch break) who seemed to have nothing better to do than to make rude noises of flatulence in the public address system. This unfortunately made Erich very uncomfortable to the point of crying. Karen eventually gave them a piece of her mind, as I skated menacingly toward them (remember I have toe-picks on my skates!) and just as quickly as they had appeared, they fled. At last, we got some good quality skating time!

After lunch, we made our way back to the train station where Erich eagerly watched as the train readied itself for the journey home.

Once on the train, we were once again treated to beautiful views of the Rockies as the train weaved slowly along the tracks. At dinner time, we ate in the dining cart where we enjoyed a nice three course meal. (Erich's favourite course was the desert of course!) We also enjoyed chatting with some fellow travellers from Canada, the U.S., and Austria.

Then things began to get interesting. Being on a cross Canada train means you get to meet people from all over the country. Although there were many many nice people on the train, it's the obnoxious ones that we tend to remember unfortunately. Allow me to relate some examples:

One (who obviously had a bit too much to drink in Jasper) chatted angrily on the phone with his "buddy" (think: yo! whassup!) about how he had backstabbed him. He proceeded to pace up and down the car yelling obsenities until finally the attendants threatened to thrown him off at the next stop where police would be waiting.
Another talked about how he had just gotten a call from his parole officer. Boy! Just the kind of thing you want to hear as parents of a two year old... Actually he was mostly ok, except that he unilaterally served as alarm clock when he decided to make a 5am phone call. (I suppose the years of living in jail meant that you lose a sense of mutual politeness.)
One older fellow whom we had chatted with on the dining car also had a bit too much to drink and spent most of the night walking up and down the length of the train hitting on all the older women.

Despite the few obnoxious people, most others were very pleasant. I must say that all things considered, we really did have a very good ride back. At least we have good stories to tell! The attendants were extremely helpful, and it was comforting to see that they dealt with the rowdier people swiftly.

Day 5: Surreal Beauty

2008-11-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some more photos of the scenery in Jasper National Park. November is a very interesting time of year to visit the park because the weather can be so unpredictable (sunshine, rain and snow). The unpredictability makes for some rather unbelievable contrasts of light and darkness. These photos taken on Maligne Road illustrate my point.

Day 4 & 5: Jasper National Park

2008-11-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

Come Monday, we had arranged to rent a car. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday sightseeing through the National Park. We explored the Athabasca falls (photo left), looked at the Columbia icefields, walked through Maligne Canyon, and stood speechless at the magnificent beauty of Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake in the winter time. (Yes, I took lots of photos...)

We also came across lots of wildlife. (I had expected some, but not quite this many!) We saw big horn sheep, mountain goats, cariboo, white-tailed deer, and even a pair of wolves. About the only thing we didn't see were bears. But that was expected as most bears are likely getting ready or already in hibernation this time of year.

A not so common sighting of a pair of wolves (that's what
we think they were anyway!) on the way to Maligne Lake.

Maligne Canyon. This waterfall actually freezes over in a few
weeks allowing hikers to walk through the canyon on foot. People
with higher risk tolerance actually ice-climb the waterfall.

Medicine Lake: A beautiful scene as the sun highlighted parts of this
seemingly all enclosed lake with no exit point. Water in fact flows out
of this lake through several underground rivers / streams to Maligne Lake.

Maligne Lake. Incredibly beautiful and pristine views of the
Rocky Mountains were visible from the lake.

On the road between Maligne Lake and Jasper. It had just snowed a few
hours ago, and the trees were still sprinkled with snow, creating beautiful
contrasts in the trees. Notice the layering of trees in this valley.

It was so pretty outside, we decided to stop the car on the
highway and take a picture. (Not to worry - there was not
high traffic whatsoever!)

Day 3: Jasper Town

2008-11-09T23:53:00.000-08:00

Sunday was spent mostly exploring the town of Jasper itself. We began the morning by attending worship service at a local baptist church. Apart from having the opportunity to worship God in such a beautiful town where the beauty of God's creation was so abundant, we also noted the incredible sense of community in the church.

For example, we were greeted by Paul, a brother in Christ who also happened to be the Parks Canada tour guide at the train station. We also recognized other familiar faces from around town. Indeed Paul remembered us from the day before, and was delighted to see that we had come to worship with them as well. (It turns out Paul had also heard of the Bridge church -- spotting a recent advertisment for worship leaders at Regent College last time he was in Vancouver! God works in mysterious ways.) The tight knit community reminded us a bit of the ficticious "Stars Hollow" in the Gilmore Girls.

Much like the ficticious "Stars Hollow", much of the commerce and industry in Jasper revolves around tourism. During the peak seasons of the year, Jasper is bustling with people interested in skiing, seeing wildlife and generally having a good time. However, during the non-peak seasons (November is definitely one of those times), the town seems to settle into a more local mode. Some restaurants even close altogether during this month either for renovations or to enjoy some vacation time of their own.

Photo Right Caption: This one shown in the photo to the right was an example of a restaurant that had closed. Of course the sign caught my attention -- I guess changing times and demographics had this previously "Chinese Canadian Food" restaurant rebranding itself as purely "Chinese" food.... though a quick glance at their menu has me questioning that a bit.

Visiting Jasper in November thus gave us a bit of an insider's look at Jasper - which we appreciated. We even had the chance of visiting the local arena and community centre.

Here are some of the places we discovered:

Cafe Mondo seemed to be a local hangout. This italian themed cafe (I mean with the flag draped at the back - what was your first clue?) was buzzling with music, TV with the latest sports, local town folk and a wonderful variety of coffees, hot chocolates and cookies. Karen and I visited this cafe a few times during our trip to chat and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Other Paw Bakery and Cafe was also another place where locals and passing train engineers seemed to hang out. Though the atmosphere was more of a darker theme than Cafe Mondo's, we enjoyed their freshly baked pastries.

Day 1 & 2: All Aboard the train to Jasper!

2008-11-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

The Ng's climbed aboard the Canadian VIA Rail train enroute to Jasper in the early part of November for our annual "vacation in the winter time". (Vancouver is typically grey, rainy and wet this time of year, so it's a perfect time to get away.)

Though some may think we were crazy to bring a two year old on yet another 16 hour journey, the train turned out to be a remakably fun mode of transport for Erich:

The coach class had wide open seats facing seats (similar to sitting business class on an airplane)
The washrooms, though not huge were certainly bigger than airplane washrooms and were cleaned regularly.
The train afforded us the luxury of being able to walk up and down through cars.
Included in the train of cars was an observation deck, a games/activity area, a cafeteria, and a dining car - all of which meant that two year olds can have lots of fun exploring while we all took in the breathtaking view of the Canadian Rockies.

Shown here is a picture (right) of Erich assembling a paper VIA train after finishing a Thomas the tank engine puzzle in the activity car.

When we arrived in Jasper, we checked into a suite at the Jasper Inn. The Jasper Inn was a reasonable hotel. Our one bedroom suite included a small kitchen and a wood fireplace; we made use of both extensively. With the kitchen, we were able to prepare all of our own meals. This meant of course cost savings, guaranteed healthy meals and additional family time. The fireplace afforded me and Erich male bonding time as I dutifully passed on how to start a wood fire, the proper way!

After settling in, buying groceries at the local supermarket (photo left), and exploring the quaint (albeit partly closed due to off-season) town we settled in for a good night's rest. Unlike Erich, who could actually fit across two seats on the train to sleep, Karen and I had not gotten as much sleep as we would have liked. We traded positions throughout most of the night while we tried to get some sleep.

Jam packed days...

2008-10-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

September and October have been very busy for us - probably why you haven't seen too many posts on this blog lately.

Both Karen and I had major upgrades to deal with at work, and we've also been preparing Erich to attend his new daycare upstairs.

On the note of daycare -- this was so touch and go ... coordinating daycare spaces is difficult, particularly when one wants to keep the child's best interest in mind. All of his friends had "graduated" to the upstairs daycare while he was still downstairs. But as his friends graduated, the upstairs spaces quickly filled, creating a situation where we were worried he might not be able to attend daycare with all his friends after he turns three. Fortunately, a space freed up in November, and so he has been able to attend his new daycare as of November 1st.

Phew! We need a vacation!

A week with an incredible team!

2008-09-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Part of the joys of being part of a small church plant is that we are often heavily dependent on outside support. In our case, the Bridge Church is blessed to have much support from various churches in Canada and the United States. While others may consider this a weakness, I consider it a tremendous blessing. It is a golden opportunity to see God working in the lives of His children.

Specifically, these churches faithfully pray for us, support us financially and send teams of 10-15 every summer. We are grateful not only to them, and to the churches they represent, but we are ultimately grateful to the Holy Spirit. These teams provide both the beneficiary of mission work (in this case our church and our community) and the giver of the work a glimpse into the providence and the abundant love of God.

Many of you know that Karen and I have a heart for missions; those at Joy Fellowship or Reading, UK know firsthand the impact God can have when He motivates people for Christ. What a blessing it was to fellowship with like minded people - youth no less, who have a genuine heart for the kids in our community and for our city at large.

This particular team, led by John and Pam Peccararo and Floyd Romero of First Baptist Church, The Colony, Texas came to help us with our summer kids camp (Vacation Bible School). Though the number of kids that attended were not numerous, this team had hearts that were big, and the kids that did attend benefited greatly from their ministry.

Throughout the week they were here, we were able to build relationships with many of them. We delighted in serving them, and were encouraged by their dedication to share the gospel, but most of all we were encouraged that they were willing to go beyond their comfort zone and experience God through contexts they might not have been accustomed to. As they toured around our city, they began to tune their hearts to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and in turn grasped the spiritual condition of our city.

Both Karen and I were particularly moved when this team (who normally are not accustomed to walking) covered our community in prayer. They walked and prayed from Broadway and Burrard through Kitsilano to the West End, and then on through Gastown and the Downtown Eastside.

God is at work in this city. After having spent a week with this wonderful team, I know this to be true. What a privilege it is to be a part of His work.

A very busy July!

2008-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well indeed it has been a very busy summer for the Ng family this year - so busy that this blog has been kept rather out of date for quite some time. Rather than do individual entries, I'll attempt to summarise:

The Bridge Church hosted our annual sports camp with kids from the community. This event has always been fun to watch, and to be a part of. It is amazing to watch what happens as youth from our mission teams interact and encourage these kids. Shown here is the awards night. This is where each child from the sports camp is presented with an award -- a character attribute that someone at the camp noticed about them. I cannot begin to describe how much this encourages them. What is more is that relationships are built, and kids in our community have a chance to experience what it is like to be a Christ follower.

Erich, keen as always to sing began some rudimentary piano lessons with his aunt this summer. It's been a really cool time for aunt Joycelin to get together and interact with Erich.

Emily, the youngest of the Bartlett family had her birthday over the summer as well. Shown here is a picture of her admiring the cake her mom made for her.

Erich had lots of fun too. He made quite the deal out of being able to 'drive' to Emily's birthday party!

We visited with good friends from high school (Karen) and university (Jonathan) to see their one month old boy. He is so very cute and so very tiny! I think I have forgotten what it is like to hold a newborn compared to Erich! It was so much fun being able to catch up with old friends. I even managed to put their baby to sleep for them!

Eddie, our IT consultant turned pastry chef, now long-term missionary tentmaking as a baker friend came back from Liberia briefly and had a wonderful stay with us. Erich graciously gave up his room so that Eddie could stay. I had the formidable task of transforming Erich's crib into a makeshift bed... something I managed to do with a few step stools, the top of an old desk, a futon mattress and a whole bunch C clamps. (Now Eddie, no jumping on the bed!) On a more serious note though, it was inspiring hearing what God has done in Eddie's life over the past 6 months, and he certainly encouraged me in my walk with Jesus and my faith. If you get the chance, I would encourage you to check out his blog!

Richard, a friend and relatively new member to our small group was baptized on Sunday, July 27th. I always like to boast about our baptismal tank - always available, never needs refilling and ample space. :-) Shown here are two photos - one just as he is making a public confession of his faith in Jesus Christ, and the next of his baptism. Congratulations Richard!

Erich took swimming lessons again over the summer. Shown here is him about to take a jump from the platform. Move over Michael Phelps! He's coming to get ya!

Erich has also taken to other forms of exercise. In particular, I've noticed he's become REALLY good at climbing stuff. Here at a playground near Port Moody (Belcarra Park), Erich easily handles the faux-stone climbing wall set out before him... and he searches methodically for the next best step!

Goodbye Sarah! Sarah Conner moved back to Kansas this summer as well. She finished her last year of high school this year and has moved back to Kansas in hopes of beginning her freshman year in the new year. We wish you the very best Sarah!

Happy Birthday Isaak and Elias!

2008-07-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

My nephews celebrated their 3rd and 1st birthdays this summer. The Tsos held a grand party to celebrate. What fun it is to see them grow, and to see them celebrate another year. I love these photos because they show so much of their individual personalities.

Elias, is quietly content and happy to be held by Opa as he blows out his candle. Isaak, the adventurous explorer is already curious what happens if you should touch the candle!

Happy Birthday Isaak and Elias, and many more to come!

Sarah's Photo Shoot

2008-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

With graduations come graduation photographs. This past July, I had the privelege of taking Sarah's "seniors" photos. Sarah, who has spent the last several years in Vancouver along with her missionary parents, is moving back to Kansas where she will begin her freshman year.

She is a beautiful young lady, and a joy to photograph. Some bystanders even mistook her for a model! Not a bad situation to be in considering we got a free cruise on the harbour because of that!

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens @ 200mm, f/4.0, 1/800 ISO 200. Gold reflector camera left.

From a photographical point of view, this was my favourite shoot yet. I had a lot of fun, and I was able to employ techniques I hadn't tried in 'production' before. For instance, I made heavy use of off camera diffused strobe lighting: first as the fill, then as the key light as the evening wore on. It made for a great learning experience and good confidence booster.

Many thanks to the Conners who trusted me with this opportunity and also many thanks to my wife Karen for encouraging me to pursue my photographic skills. (plus she's pretty good at getting people to pose also!)

Here are some of the results.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/60 ISO 200. (Strobist) Shot into sun, fill flash from off
camera flash @ 1/4 power through white umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 70-200mm f/4L lens
@ 104mm, f/5.0, 1/40 ISO 200, tripod mounted. (Strobist) Shot into
sun, fill flash from off camera flash @ 1/4 power through white
umbrella, camera right.

Exposure Information: Canon 10D, EF 35mm f/2 lens @ f/3.5, 1/60 ISO 100
(Strobist) Off camera flash @ 1/2 power through white umbrella, camera left.

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Ng family took a journey to Canada Place to celebrate Canada Day today -- probably our first time since our early university days. It's amazing how having kids will kick one's sorry butt off the couch and out doing something fun instead! Erich had a blast. We saw concerts, mounties, bagpipe bands, military equipment, and even tasted the very quebecois treat of maple-syrup taffee.... where they roll the maple syrup on packed snow into a lollipop. Mmmmm.... I remember having those in Quebec in the dead of winter as a kid. Of course, one does have to wonder the wisdom of having ice cold taffee (which melts almost the instance it leaves the ice) on a hot hot Vancouver day.

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Johnston!

2008-06-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Two old friends from university got married today at a chapel near Stanley Park. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Johnston! We are so happy for you two.

Two and a half...

2008-06-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

Another 6 month mark... oh just too cute. We were just coming home from a walk, and the sun had this interesting glowing quality about it on the porch. So I grabbed the camera, and this is the result.

I also took the opportunity to take a shot of the little guy hanging out with mommy. :-)

A weekend with intercessors - the praying princesses

2008-06-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

Four very special ladies - Trisha, June, Rubye and Barbara (right to left) - came to visit us from Garland, Texas this past weekend. They are an amazing bunch. Having been called to visit what was then a new church plant several years back, and having seen Vancouver, they were moved to pray inceasantly for our city and for our church. They do this literally: the four women gather together on Thursday evenings in Texas every other week and intercede for specific needs within our community and within our church. They also come visit Vancouver every year to regain a fresh vision of how best to pray for our city, and to put faces to people's names.

Imagine the surprise when these ladies, whom I hardly knew, greeted me and my family at our door by name, and asked specifically about how their prayers for my family had been answered. That is intercession indeed!

It was an incredible joy to spend a good part of my weekend with them. Here's why:

Intercessors, by their gift, are people who long after God's heart. They long to hear God's Spirit and they yearn to do His will. People who are filled with the Holy Spirit are attractive: they are genuine and they are a joy to be around. In fact, their joy is contagious!
Intercessors have an inherent assurance that the Lord is God, and that He is faithful to answering prayers. (They wouldn't be intercessors otherwise!) For the rest of us, who sometimes may wonder whether our prayers are even heard or felt, their steadfast faith reassures us that God is indeed who He says He is. Intercessors motivate me to pray even more inceasantly.
I was motivated tremendously by the level of committment these ladies had for our city and for its people. Having been on missions myself, I too have been moved to pray for others not within my community. But never have I seen such dedication. (Did I mention that the oldest of the group is in her 80s?)

Karen, Erich and I had a fun time getting to know them this past weekend - not only at dinner gatherings, but in their very element too. We particularly enjoyed prayer walking with them around Kitsilano, and it was a privilege and tremendously encouraging to be able to pray together with them for people I knew in the community (my coworkers) and for my community at large.

conGRADulations to Sarah Conner!

2008-06-06T21:54:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Sarah Conner who received her dogwood diploma (high school diploma) this past Friday from Richmond Christian School. It was great to see her reach this milestone. We are all very proud of what you've accomplished and especially for achieving a special award. Way to go Sarah!

Perched atop the balcony of the church where the ceremony was held was yours truly complete with tripod and camera gear. I looked like a bit of a ~~freak~~ geek (translation: quite obviously over geared for the occasion) but hey, I got some shots that not many others did! :-)

Happy Birthday to Karen!

2008-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday (May 30) to my beautiful, caring and joyful wife! We enjoyed having friends over for dinner. Always a joy to catch up.

"I had a pony!" (ride)

2008-06-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but think of that hilarious episode of Seinfeld when Erich had his first pony ride this past weekend. May 30th was Healthy Kids Day at the Langara (formerly South Slope) YMCA, where they had lots of fun games, free food and best of all free pony rides for all attendees. OK, so Erich didn't have a pony, but he sure got to ride one!

Erich also got to visit the fire engine and enjoy free tricycle rides around the parking lot. Very cool, very fun, and very jam-packed - so much so that the local radio stations were broadcasting traffic alerts in the area!

Like a kid in a toy store...

2008-06-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Wait, it is a kid in a toy store. While visiting Panorama Park at Deep Cove, we visited an ecclectic store which had a toy section. Erich was elated (and fast!). Well truth be told, they did have these really neat model cars and trucks where the doors would open and you could look inside for a scale model of the real thing. :-)

Let's play ball!

2008-05-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

It was "bend it like Erich" day as we went out to Panorama Park in Deep Cove to play some ball with Erich. He really enjoyed watching daddy and mommy kick around the ball and catching it.

Why did we go all the way to Deep Cove just to play ball? Well apart from discovering a new park, we were headed there to have a fun outing for Karen's birthday. Ever since trying one of the doughnuts from a shop called "Honey's doughnuts" in Deep Cove, ~~her mouth has been watering to munch on of of those delicious perfectly textured doughnuts again~~ she requested to go there for lunch.

All aboard at the Vancouver International Children's Festival

2008-05-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

One of the advantages to living so close to Vanier Park is the availability of good cultural shows. From Bard on the Beach to the Vancouver International Children's Festival to the man flying kites on Sunday afternoons, Vanier Park is a great place for Erich to be exposed to culture.

The weekend of May 19th, we took Erich to the children's festival. Despite it being a rather wet and soggy day (particularly disappointing after a long string sunny days), Erich had a blast.

We visited exhibits where he could work with clay, or play with various unconventional sound instruments.

Big impact for little man

2008-05-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Our family took a well needed get-away to Seattle this past long weekend. It was part birthday gift to my wife (she got to go shopping) and part opportunity for me to spend some male bonding time with the little guy. So we booked a hotel in Seattle, and headed down there right after small group last Thursday.

Friday morning, I took him to the Museum of Flight. He fell asleep on the way there, but when he woke up, he could not contain his excitement! He said, "hehe, Daddy! Airplane over there! It's the airplane musemum!"

What really amazed me though was when we went to see the airplane park. Situated in the "parking lot" was Air Force One and the Concorde. As we were walking up to the Concorde, he said excitedly, "Daddy! It's the Concuarde!" Now that was astonishing. He had only seen the Concorde once before (the last time we went to the museum), so for him to recall that must have meant that the first visit had a big impact.

Here's a photojournal of our Concorde visit:

In front of the magnificent bird. The Concorde is really quite an
elegant plane to look at from the outside.

Better watch that maximum weight per step!

The inside of the Concorde is actually quite small. My head was close to
touching the ceiling, and Erich appreciated that it was more his size.

Erich looking up at the belly of the Concorde.

Little things matter: to encourage and to be encouraged

2008-05-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

The Ng family had a very busy weekend. In addition to Ruth Chan's memorial service, we also celebrated our friend Renee's 40th birthday. Then on Sunday, our church was involved in helping out with the BMO Vancouver marathon. As if that weren't enough, we also went to the Vancouver Christ Church of China to hear Annie, one of Karen's relatives (and our friend) give her testimony.

Amidst the busyness though, one common theme stood out: little things matter. Some examples:

How could Ruth have known that a little known thing she said to me two decades ago would serve to encourage me and possibly many others at her memorial?

How could Karen and I have known that answering Annie's recommendation for a church years ago would lead to her coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ? (which in turn served as an unexpected encouragement to us when we heard her testimony!)

I also didn't realise that handing out gatorade and cheering on complete strangers by name at a community event I once despised and grumbled at (because of the inconvenience it caused me) would be so fulfilling and so encouraging to others in my community.

Even Erich soon got into it as he helped hand out water and gatorade to marathoners.

Little, seemingly insignificant moments in life matter. Encouragement, particularly when spurred on by the Holy Spirit, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant matter. We may not see or reap the results of what we we are called to do for years, but God does. Our job is just to obey his leading and his prompting.

Tribute to a mentor and family friend

2008-05-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

I first met Mrs. Ruth Chan in 1984, when my [Jonathan] family moved to the lower mainland from Fort McMurray, Alberta. My family attended church at Richmond Chinese Alliance where Ruth was a grade 6 Sunday School teacher and was one of the adult leaders in junior worship.

Auntie Ruth, as we used to call her, was always keen on building relationships with the youth she mentored, and I am sure she prayed earnestly for each one of us. One day, as we were getting ready for singspiration, I distinctly remember her coming up to me, and saying something to the effect of "you should think about leading singing one day too." I don't entirely know what motivated her to say this - perhaps she had been praying for me, but I do remember shyly shrugging it off at the time. I was very much a quiet, shy person at the time. (Little did I know of course how God would begin to change me and use me in the coming years!)

At a gospel camp put on by the same church, I rededicated my life to Christ at the age of 15. Several years later, I went to univerisity, and my family moved. Meanwhile, Ruth and her husband Sam, after having studied at Regent College were commissioned to be COCM missionaries in England for four years.

It wasn't until 1995 (the year I met Karen) that I would reconnect with them. At the time, both Karen and I felt God leading us to Christ Church of China in Vancouver. To my great surprise, Ruth's husband Sam was pastoring there, and serendipitously, Karen's childhood pastor was also pastoring there at the same time. As it turns out, both Sam and Ruth finished their term in the UK in 1992 and returned to Vancouver accepting a position as pastor of CCC.

Pastor Sam and Ruth would continue to be an influence in my life. Pastor Sam baptized me in 1997, and officiated my wedding in 2002. Ruth continued to mentor women, and often shared her experiences with us through the career fellowship called "Faith fellowship".

It wasn't until Karen and I were called in 1998 to go out to Coquitlam (CCCC) that I began to feel the full impact of what God had done through their ministry. Though I never realized it at the time, hindsight provides me with a view of God's faithfulness in answering prayers of those before us. At CCCC, we were mentoring youth in grade 6, and indeed, I was called to lead them in singing praises to God.

Ruth fought a courageous battle with cancer this past year. She died peacefully and went home to be with the Lord on April 21st, 2008.

Today, Karen and I went to say our last goodbyes to Auntie Ruth. It was a bittersweet moment - one that cannot be described adequately in words. Though we both miss her dearly, we know that she is finally at home, resting with the Father and free at last of her failing body.

As she leaves the world, it was more than evident the impact and legacy that she left behind. Streams of people, young and old, unified as one because they were all affected by her and her husband's ministry poured in one by one to honour, comfort, show support and to say "until we meet again in heaven". I can only imagine what God has been able to do as a result of her dedication to demonstrating Christ to others.

Ruth, thank you for your dedication to following Jesus and for demonstrating his grace toward even the youngest of believers. You looked beyond the surface of who I was, and saw instead the person God could transform me to be. You prayed that a new generation of godly leaders could emerge from the people you influenced, and I am very grateful for that.

That is truly a life well lived, a life lived with purpose and a legacy left for the next generation.

Tourists in our own city - the grand tour

2008-04-12T23:20:00.000-07:00

In an effort to make our newly emigrated friends David and Laura feel more welcome in their new home, we took them on a grand tour of Metro Vancouver. David and Laura are from Delaware.

We started early with Karen's famous french toast for breakfast. After packing in the hearty breakfast, we headed out. We visited many places starting in Queen Elizabeth park. Oddly enough, our friends found the Nat Bailey Stadium (adjacent to the park) to be quite the thrill. They vowed they would revisit it to see an actual baseball game. We then drove through Cambie line RAV construction to make it to Richmond via the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Once in Richmond, I brought them to the little community of Steveston where some of the first Japanese and marine settlers came. I recounted to them how my family had started our B.C. life in Steveston, and how we used to buy fish every Saturday morning by the docks. We had a tour of those docks, and topped off our experience there with a visit to the famous Dave's fish and chips restaurant.

From historic Steveston, we took them back through the city of Vancouver to a relatively modern import - a bubble tea cafe (Dragon Ball) where they enjoyed some of the latest taiwanese/HK imported mixed fruit drinks.

After we got our drinks, we zipped across town to "Little Italy" near Commercial and Broadway. One cannot truly appreciate the diversity of Vancouver until one has visited Commercial Drive and it's various shops including the famous Santa Barbara market.

We proceeded along Hastings Street through to Simon Fraser University where David was finally able to see his current employer's rival school. (David is currently a post-doctorate fellow and lecturer at UBC.) Much to the bemusement of us SFU alumnus, they actually enjoyed the Arthur Erickson architecture of SFU.

Next up was a breathtaking view of the city atop Burnaby Mountain (where I had proposed to Karen). We stopped here briefly before heading on a longer drive straight across the North Shore to Horseshoe Bay where we explored one of my favourite parks - Whytecliff Park.

It was here that I learned something new about Laura and her incredible climbing abilities even whilst wearing a pair of (stylish) sandals! (see David's commentary on his blog...)

We ended our day with a quick tour of the downtown eastside (hey, we got to show the good, bad and the ugly right?) and finally dinner at a Vancouver classic - the old Spaghetti Factory.

As evidenced in the picture above, Erich had loads of fun too. It was great getting to know our friends more, all the while showing off this great city to them.

Home Depot! (and Erich)

2008-04-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things that continues to amaze me about being a new parent is the degree to which seemingly small and trivial events have great impact on your children. I had no idea, for instance, that my bringing Erich to Home Depot last month to surprise his mommy would stick with him for so long.

Ever since that day, "Home Depot" has been his favourite real and imaginary place to go. There was one time when we were at a playground. He sat me down in a chu-chu train and proceeded to "drive" the train. When I asked where we were going, he proclaimed proudly in a loud voice, "Home Depot!". Just then, a passing couple with their two-year old came strolling by. When the husband heard where Erich was planning to drive me, he gave me the strangest look!

Perhaps it doesn't help that I am in the middle of another home renovation project. (More on that in some future post...) Erich has been dutifully helping me measure walls with his very own measuring tape - and he's exact too! When asked how long the wall was, he replied as he stretched out his tape measure, "Ninety-four and an eighth!". That's just too funny.

He's been taking his newfound contractor skills to daycare too. He recently "discovered" a crack in one of the wooden support beams at daycare. He promptly asked one of the daycare workers whether he could "fix" it.

I know I've been praying that Erich would be a man after Jesus' heart... Well, I just didn't know he might take on his trade too! :-)

Congratulations on 25 years!

2008-03-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Mentors and friends, Danny and Claudia Tsang celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary lately. Their daughter, Queenie Tsang had organized a surprise party for them at the Howard Johnson in Vancouver. It is great to see them reach this milestone, and it is evident from the lives of Queenie and Kelvin that they are indeed leaving a great legacy.

May God continue to bless your marriage Danny and Claudia!

Another year, another birthday

2008-03-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday was my birthday. Those of you that remembered - thanks for the birthday greetings! It's always nice to feel special on your birthday. Rather uneventful this year... after all birthdays after 30 tend to be more inchpebbles rather than milestones. But it is kind of cool that this birthday is a power of two for the computer geek inside me. Hey, it's a pretty significant number according to this page.

Karen and I went out for dinner at the Watermark - and had a very enjoyable evening of appetizers and good company. (I highly recommend the prawn spring rolls.)

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

2008-03-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Our family has recently begun a new routine during church worship services. We have discovered that Erich really enjoys the singing and worship portion of the adult service, so we keep him in the sanctuary during that portion before bringing him to the nursery. We've found
that this really helps him get settled and it allows him to participate in the worship service as well.

Today, he decided that he would REALLY participate and promptly conducted himself in the way many adults would. Instead of sitting on mommy´s lap, Erich found a seat in the row in front of us. He sat, grabbed a church bulletin, and began to browse through the bulletin. Then, when Rodney, the worship leader, asked everyone to stand, he took a stand himself and enjoyed as people sang. When the music was done, he sat himself back into the seat, and looked again at his bulletin.

It was all very cute to watch. It also got me thinking - many of us when we first become Christians begin by emulating and imitating the outward actions of Christ (WWJD). It isn't until later that we discover and we internalize our faith from which our attitudes are changed.

My prayer for Erich is that his faith would become genuine and that the habits and disciplines that he may begin by simply imitating would become a genuine article, attitude changing part of his walk with Christ.

Opportunities for application

2008-03-14T23:04:00.001-07:00

In our quest to deepen our relationship with Christ, our small group at the Bridge has been tackling the various disciplines in which we commune and meet with God. Specifically, we've been looking at worship through prayer, and edification through the studying of His Word. One of the tools we have been using is homiletics: the process of breaking down then rebuilding a passage of Scripture. One thing I admire about this tool is that it allows the reader, through exposition of the passage, to extract application.

Laura, a person in our small group found that this tool really helped her. She put it succinctly when she wrote to me in an email that homiletics:

allows the reader to really meditate on a piece of Scripture, and
it provides the believer with an opportunity for application.

The word "opportunity" really stuck with me. I have never really thought of it quite this way - but in fact, she has nailed the aim of homiletics on its head. When we meditate on a passage of Scripture, in addition to its historical and theological significance, we are really given an opportunity to apply the passage in our lives. That is the beauty of reading the Bible to see how God may want to speak into our lives vs. reading the Bible to justify the way we have lived our lives. What we do with that opportunity is up to us.

My opportunity for application

We have been looking at Colossians 1 through 3 the past few weeks, and I must say that the opportunity for application for me is to keep on the "clothes" (or attitudes) of Christ. I need to remember to draw from Christ's strength rather than my own and that in all things, to all people, it is opportunity to demonstrate Christ's compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12).

Planespotting in Vancouver

2008-03-08T23:27:00.000-08:00

As a treat, Karen and I brought Erich to the Vancouver International Airport to do some plane spotting. When I told him we would see airplanes, he was excited! After searching some hobby sites, we whisked down to North Templeton Road on Sea Island right under the landing path of airplanes and watched as plane after plane came in for a landing.

Some were small ones and some were "really really big airplanes" (as Erich would say). I must say that it is quite incredible to only be a couple hundred feet below a passing 747. In case you didn't catch the full impact of this from the picture above, this is what it looked like from my camera!

We had a great time, and this is a great way to bond with the kids. As planes flew by, eventually we sat in the car, trunk open and ate our lunches. Who says entertainment has to be expensive? :-)

I scream, you scream, everybody scream for ICE CREAM!

2008-03-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Now if this isn't mom and son bonding time, I don't know what is! :-) After an afternoon out at the Stanley Park Train, we all decided to have some ice cream on the front porch. Erich particularly enjoyed his strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone as evident in this next picture...

A huge project with daddy, and a big surprise for mommy!

2008-02-24T23:31:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted, but it's been a busy time at the Ng household. Karen recently took a one-day holiday to go on a road trip down to Seattle with Katherine. So, Erich and I decided to get busy making Mommy a huge surprise. We decided to renovate the bedroom.

If you've ever visited our house, you will know that we have these wonderful, full-of-character wood paneling pieces all along our hallway. You can sort of see them in this photo taken when Erich was younger. They were probably built back in the 1930s when the house was built.

Well to make a long story short, Erich and I decided we would try to replicate this along two walls in the master bedroom - to serve as a continuation of the hallway theme, but also to serve as a backboard for our bed.

We would attempt to, in one day:

measure and model the renovation using Google Sketch-up.
paint the top portion of the wall a new colour
paint the back of the door a new colour
obtain all the paneling from Home Depot.
cut all the paneling
paint all the paneling
obtain all the trim wood from Home Depot
cut to size all of the trim
position and affix paneling to the wall
position and affix trim to the wall.

The above photo shows the finished product. Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" picture - but it is essentially the two walls you see without any of the moulding, paneling or paint.

Ambitious. In fact - crazy ambitious, especially with a two year old. But apparently doable. We did it, and here's how.

In the morning, after feeding Erich breakfast, I told him we had a big project that I needed his help with. I warned him it would be an all day project, and that it was a big surprise for mommy. I then meticulously measured with him every wall, and every piece of existing paneling I could find, and inputted all of the information into Google Sketch Up. (Sketch up is a wonderful program to help with this kind of stuff by the way.)

Then in the afternoon: off to Home Depot we went. You'd be surprised at the number of heads that get turned when they see a Dad walking in Home Depot with a two-year-old in tow ... particularly when that Dad is talking to the two year old as if he's his fellow contractor. :-) No worries - Erich was totally game for the conversation and enjoyed immensely as I explained to him the difference between various types of plywood, and what we were going to do with them. He also enjoyed watching Mr. Home Depot cut up the wood in the giant saw. To speed things up, I purchased the molding pre-primed by the foot, and did all my cutting in the store.

We arrived back home where I proceeded to madly paint every panel. This was by far the most challenging part, as I had to hold at bay a very eager two-year-old helper. He was afterall eagar to use his newfound art skills he learned at daycare! He did get his chance in the end to do a few strokes with the paint brush. :-)

Then, we affixed the paneling. This is when I ran into my first problem. Finding studs on an old lathe and plaster wall is next to impossible. After I finally found one, all my 16" measurements stemmed out from there. But a tip I learned from my father-in-law really saved the day: use glue. Using some specially formulated moulding and paneling glue, I affixed the panels to the wall.

Needless to say, this went way past Erich's usual bedtime. He was such a good sport though and insisted on staying up to present Mommy with the surprise. In the end though, Erich dozed off while watching Daddy put the finishing touches. When Karen did finally make it home, she had the shock of her lifetime. :-)

A month of blessings...

2008-02-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

Oddly enough, this month has also been a month of great blessings and surprises. Count your blessings name them one by one... Count your blessings see what God has done...

An old, old, old time classmate (from elementary school) whom I used to carpool with recently found me on Facebook. After reconnecting, she told me that she is (now) a Christian and is serving at Willingdon. You don't know how encouraging this is to me.
Karen and I have had more opportunity (than usual) to connect with each another this month. (Perhaps it's because we've been sick so much...) or perhaps it's because we've grown to know how to serve each other better. Whichever it is, I have found a new appreciation for my wife.
Erich is growing up to be a fine young boy. He has an amazing affinity for remembering things (particularly people's names) which always brings a smile to them. He's also got a great affinity for remembering words in hymns. (I'm not kidding folks...) He already knows the chorus to "O to be like Thee!" and "Turn your eyes upon Jesus".
Erich has been adjusting well to his new daycare which he is starting to enjoy... particularly when Kimberly (one of the daycare workers) brings out her guitar. Erich promptly asked her where her guitar pick was - much to Kimberly's surprise.
The Bridge (the church we attend) is experiencing some new growth and we are excited at what God is going to do amongst us this year.
Eddie Wong has completed his training in Texas and is doing his practicum in the Dominican Republic. It has been a blessing and a great encouragement to see God working in those close to us.
A certain someone got offered a job this month - an answer to many years of prayer.
We sold our rarely used(!) exercise bike. Interesting story: we posted it on craigslist, found several interested parties.

The first was a guy who asked for "real" photos of the bike even though I had posted real photos. I have never felt so complimented and insulted at the same time at my photographic abilities.
The second was an athletic lady who had recently injured her foot and needed something to keep her in shape. She ended up purchasing the bike from us. When she came to pick up the bike she mentioned that she too was a Christian. We asked her how she knew. Apparently, she had read this blog.

It is good to take inventory of blessings - and they are good to remember particularly in difficult months. And it is good to remember that God is at work, even when we think we're not.

A month of sickness...

2008-02-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

It has been quite the month since I last updated this blog. They say these things come in cycles. Well, I guess we have been long overdue. :-(

My coworker (who incidentally is in his mid-30s) suffered a sudden stroke last month. I won't elaborate on it here. I have shared with some of you the details of this and am grateful that you are praying for him. My coworker has also written about it on his blog here, here and here.
A week after my coworker's stroke, Erich caught a cold at daycare which then turned into pink-eye. It's basically an infection in the eye which required antibiotics eye drops.
A week after that, Karen and I caught the flu. Stayed home for two days straight and slept almost the entire time. We woke up feeling just as tired as when we went to bed - horribly nasty virus this one!
When I returned to work, my boss got strep throat and my coworker suffered a bad cold.
This past week, Erich caught the flu. Vomit, and high fever for a whole week. Not fun, particularly for his poor parents who are trying not to be overly worried but are worried nonetheless.
Now, recurring coughs for Karen and I ... most likely still lingering from when we had the flu.

It has been one interesting month. I am hoping that this will all end soon. It is exhausting being sick or having your kid sick.

Good health wishes to all of you and make sure you get the flu shot! :-)

Turning Two Deserves Two Birthday Parties!

2008-01-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

So my son is one lucky boy. Because his birthday is so close to Christmas, we decided to postpone his "real" birthday party (the one with all his friends) until mid January. Thanks to my wife (who works at the YMCA), she was able to procure a handy discount for the child centre where his party was held. Pretty cool I must say - they handle all of the set-up and clean-up, so you just have to show up with your kid in tow.

Here are some pictures of him and his friends:

A room full of women!

2008-01-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

Not what you think!

Karen decided to host a baby shower for our friend Megan (from the Bridge). So, at around 6:30pm a whole bunch of women descended on our house and had a very lively party. Erich and I were relegated to sitting on stools in the kitchen for dinner and playing in his crammed little room. (We were the only two boys left in the house!)

Anyhow, the women had lots of fun, and had some really good chats.... and my wife was very happy.... which of course made it all worth it. :-)

BTW, Megan did have her baby recently - a beautiful baby girl named Addison.

End of year reflection: the Heart of the Father, take 2

2007-12-30T14:41:00.000-08:00

It's good to be given second chances. I had the chance to revise and give this message to the people at the Bridge toward the end of 2007. If you have been following my blog, you will know I gave an abridged version of the same message to some of the youth in Reading.

Having a second chance is neat. It has helped me to rethink some of the points and to better describe in words, what I believe God has been teaching me.

You can read it here, or listen to it here.

Christmas 2007

2007-12-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

Rib-eye Roast Beef with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Yummy.

Family dinner. Three generations here.

Lots of presents. Small living room.

Saskatoon in the winter

2007-12-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

OK, so in case you ever wondered what I do for a living, I work in the IT department of a small agricultural trading company. About half of my job involves Java programming (doing front-end UI design for a new business system) and the other half involves system and network administration. I enjoy both aspects of my job very much.

This winter (as seems to be the running trend now for two years in a row...) I had the honour of visiting Saskatoon again to install our new server ~~room~~ closet for our new office. It was fun! ...and tiring! Though at one point the thought did cross my mind, as I was bolting in server lockers, as to where exactly this was listed on my original job description. :-) Things evolve I guess...!

Anyhow, the real adventure didn't start until I was due to fly home. The flight out of Saskatoon (to Calgary) was due at 9:30pm. My flight was delayed until nearly 12:30am when of course all Calgary -> Vancouver flights were done for the night. It wasn't all bad though - it is quite interesting how events like this can bring the most unusual people together. I had quite an engaging conversation with a young, intelligent university student and a very old grandmother! It was also fascinating to observe the optimists and the pessimists in the room. It certainly made for some interesting conversation. Most of all, it was hilarious (though not helpful) to hear WestJet's (the other airline) constant jabs at Air Canada.

"For the information of those passengers traveling on WestJet flight 136, we are not currently affected by the weather [unlike Air Canada's flight] as we fly jets, not turbo props."

Probably the thing that worried me the most though was getting home in time for Erich's 2nd birthday, which, though delayed by one night, did happen. He was so happy to see me, and that is always a joy.

Erichxercise: Get in shape! (and way too funny not to post)

2007-12-23T23:06:00.000-08:00

Karen has an interesting nighttime regiment before she goes to bed. Out come the 3 pound dumbbells and the sit-ups.... not that I'm complaining of course - it helps to maintain her beautiful looks :-)

Anyhow, Erich decided one day that he must have dumbbells too. So I fashioned some out of his LEGO, and this was the result.

Erich turns TWO!

2007-12-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

A little taller. A little wiser. And a lot more talkative. Erich turns two today. As promised, we took a photo of him and his past portraits.

Happy Birthday little Erich!

More on Eddie's trip

2007-12-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

Karen and I have had the privilege of knowing Eddie over the past year. We met through the Bridge Church. In addition to being his small group leader, we have come to know him as a friend. We have seen him grow in his faith, and walk with Christ.

This year, he embarks on an incredible adventure to Liberia where he will be serving aboard one of the Mercy Ships - the African Mercy. This ship is a hospital ship and serves the people where she is docked by performing well needed surgeries. Eddie, who comes from an engineering / IT background, underwent a major career change at the beginning of last year to pursue what he has always loved. As a result of that change, he also saw opportunity where he can serve the Lord with his newfound skills.

Eddie -- we will miss you, but we are also incredibly encouraged by what God has been doing in your life. May your mission to Africa be fruitful, and may you remember that the Lord God is faithful all the time, even when the going gets tough. Since you will be baking lots and lots of bread, I thought it would appropriate to encourage you with this verse (okay okay, I just couldn't help it... :-)):

Deuteronomy 8:3 - He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

The context is that the Lord God led the Israelites out of Egypt and provided for them. Here, in Deuteronomy, the Israelites are being reminded of God's faithfulness. Jesus uses part of this verse to rebuke Satan in Matthew 4:4 while he is tempted.

The application here is that we are not to forget the Lord and particularly his promise that He will be faithful to His people. Therefore, when tough times come you may be tempted to be solely focused on doing your work (i.e. baking bread) - but do not forget that this trip is also about spiritual growth. Feed others (physically), but also let God feed you spiritually.

To the people of the African mercy -- you've got an incredibly dedicated baker coming your way. Fasten your seatbelts!

You can follow Eddie's adventure on his blog at http://tuborgx.blogspot.com/.

A very special birthday cake!

2007-12-15T15:55:00.000-08:00

Our friend Eddie Wong (former IT consultant, turned pastry chef) is about to embark on an incredible adventure to Africa where he will be baking and serving aboard a hospital Mercy ship. More on this in a later post.

Anyway, before Eddie left, he wanted to make something very special for Erich. In line with Erich's passion for trains, and our taste for good dark chocolate, Eddie made a chocolate-almond mousse cake for Erich's 1 359/365th birthday. It was delicious!

Erich called it the eisenbahn cake. (German for railway cake). We took some photos of the cake, then when Eddie went to cut it, Erich was so upset! He didn't want his locomotive cut in half. Oh well. He stopped complaining soon after we gave him some. :-)

Oregon: a trip Erich won't soon forget!

2007-11-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

Toward the end of November, we took a family road trip down to the Oregon Coast. We had gotten some inexpensive accommodations in Seaside, Oregon so we decided to make a short trip out of it. It just so happened to be American Thanksgiving (and black Friday), and it also so happened that the Canadian dollar was flying at an all time high (about $1.10). That meant that while I was taking Erich to see lots of museums, Karen got to do some early Christmas shopping.

View Larger Map

We started Thursday evening, stopped by Seattle Premium Outlets, then proceeded to South Seattle where we stayed the night. Little did Erich know what his Daddy had in store the next day.

Museum of Flight

Cashing in on the success of our previous trip to the Canadian Museum of flight, I decided I would take him to the Museum of Flight at Boeing. His face lit up as he saw the numerous planes parked on the lawn and he could not believe that I was bringing him to see another airplane museum. (or as he says: "daddy bring me to the airplane musemum")

One of the major showpieces of the exhibit was the Concorde. Karen and I had the privilege of seeing the Concorde back in 2003 when it was still flying. It would sonic boom just over Reading, UK each morning, so the sound was unmistakable. Now, Erich was able to see this piece of history first hand. We stepped onto the plane and observed the rather small but comfortable seats.

Erich also had lots of fun sitting and playing with the various children's exhibits designed to demonstrate the various controls of an airplane.

Woodburn, Oregon

After we took in a few acres of exhibits, we fetched Karen from the mall and proceeded to drive down through Portland to Woodburn. Woodburn is the outlet shopper's paradise: with the high dollar, no sales tax in Oregon, and the enormous selection at the Woodburn Company Stores, we stocked up on dress shirts and trousers that I seem to wear out almost like candy.

Seaside, Oregon

After staying the night in Woodburn, we proceeded to drive to the Oregon Coast and stayed at a coastal town called Seaside. Here, we mostly stayed, taking in the beautiful scenery and the unique sights. We took Erich to the Carousel Mall where they have an old fashion carousel.

We also took Erich down to Tillamook where we visited the cheese factory and saw yet another airplane museum - this time of old World War II planes housed in former blimp hanger. Erich thoroughly enjoyed both. I find it so interesting how he is fascinated at these big marvels of machinery at such an early age, and I wonder what the influence it will have on him. I still remember that some of things I became most fascinated about as a young adult stemmed from my experiences as a child.

The Weather!

Part of the reason why our accommodation rates were so inexpensive was because we were going off season. The weather played a huge role in helping to deter tourists, but as Vancouverites who are used to the rain, it wasn't so bad. Besides, I often find that just after a rainstorm is the best time to take beautiful pictures!

The only really scary part of the trip was driving along Highway 101 (the coastal highway) one night in pitch darkness with the rain pouring down in droves. I mean the rain was BAD! Visibility was next to none, and the locals were still tailgating me expecting me to go the speed limit (of 50mph). In hindsight though, it could have been a lot worse - in fact a week after we got back to Vancouver, the area was flooded and Oregon and Washington declared temporary states of emergency.

Future pilot?

2007-11-12T22:32:00.000-08:00

Remembrance Day fell on a Sunday this year, so Monday was declared a statutory holiday in lieu. This worked out well as most places were open to visit. We took advantage of the day off and went down to the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley, BC.

Erich was so eagar to be able to see airplanes again, he could hardly contain his excitement. He particularly enjoyed looking at all of the model airplanes they had on display.

We were lucky that most of the exhibits were indoors. We had pouring rain and wind gusts up to 90km/h that day. We did manage to get this picture outdoors with the Snowbird. With all the wind, it kinda looks like they were scrambling to the jets. :-)

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2007-11-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

My friend Nathan got a year older so I decided to send him a little gift along the lines of his hobby. Here is a custom birthday card painted entirely of light.

Darkened room, ISO 100, f/22, 30 second exposure. Handheld flashlight.

It took quite a few practice runs to be able to get all the letters in a straight line, facing the right way all in 30 seconds!

Day 15: Home, Sweet Home

2007-10-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Flying home was not nearly as difficult as flying there. We arrived at the airport early and bumped into some familiar faces (Mandy and Hannah from our trip there) as well as meeting some new ones. There were a total of 5 couples with (small) kids on board, so Erich definitely had some playmates. It was also the first time since the beginning of the trip that we once again saw Canadians so we were happy to converse with them in English.

Day 13, 14: Life in Germany

2007-10-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

We spent the remainder of our vacation in Germany with extended family. We wanted to give them opportunity to ~~fall in love with~~ get to know Erich (and he them). We had some endearing chats over the dinner table and got to eat a lot of sausages, bread and cheese (German staple diet).

Much of this time was spent on the sofa sipping glasses of wine or bottles of beer (yes, it is really cheaper than water in Germany). Erich must have picked up on this too because soon after we got back, he began jokingly referring to his milk as "bier". When asked "was ist das?" (what is that) he would say "ein bier! ein milch bier!".

Great-grandpa and great grandma were delighted to have the chance to know Erich and are even thinking of visiting next year. We can't wait. :-)

Day 12: An old old castle

2007-10-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

A visit to Germany, and indeed Europe would not be complete without at least one visit to a castle. For our visit, we decided to visit the castle Geilbahn Burg. It took us almost 2 hours by transit to get there, but it was worth it. For the most part, simply admiring the age of the castle was awe-inspiring enough. From what I could tell (and I am no expert), the castle was built during the middle ages and many of the period's relics adorned the place.

Erich had fun looking at the various exhibits, but soon grew too tired from all the traveling to appreciate the full magnitude of what he was seeing. He did, however have lots of fun running around the various hallways of the castle.

I had considerably more fun practicing photographic skills. After visiting the torture and execution chambers, I decided I could do some interesting "scary" pictures at the castle with off-camera flash. I experimented with the flash set at 1/4 power shot from a low angle at camera right.

I also shot this photo atop the castle's tall lookout. Flash set to 1/8 or 1/4 power from subject right. It was a bit risky: I set my camera on self-timer, placed it on a wooden ledge (hundreds of feet above ground level), took a few steps back with my flash and waited for the shutter to click. Had a big gust of wind come along, my camera would have been toast, but hey at least I got the shot! I love how the light from the flash falls off nicely just in front of the camera and reveals subtle texture of the surrounding wood.

Day 11: Jaded Cuisine

2007-10-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

We stayed near our grandparents place on Wednesday. Some out of town relatives were in town to have dinner with us. We went out to the local Chinese restaurant (Jade Garden) in Bochum-Linden. This was a most interesting experience.

We filed into the restaurant one by one, each saying "Guten Tag" to the host, except Karen and I who decided we'd use our more natural tongue and said "Knei ho" in Cantonese. The host, rather surprised, answered back in Cantonese but then had a rather distressed look on his face. Perhaps he was worried that we might overhear conversations in the kitchen or perhaps he was worried we might have undue expectations on his restaurant.

Actually it didn't take long to figure out what he was worried about. It was quickly exemplified when I tried to order Chrysanthemum tea. The look on the waiter's face was priceless. It was one of "what do you think this is, a chinese restaurant?!" To my tea request, he replied in Chinese, "we only have the stuff the white man orders". So I said, "fine" and received Chamomile tea.

Well tea mix ups aside, it was quite amusing to watch as we ordered what we considered more traditional Chinese dishes, and most of the other guests ordered what it seems most Germans liked to eat. In hindsight, perhaps we should have caved and ordered the popular dishes too as ours looked like it was a bit out of practice.

In all fairness though, restaurant owners really do have to cater to their guests tastes. This case is no different even if it does mean changing the meaning of "chinese cuisine". We did have a fun time getting to know the staff (as the only other chinese in town) and Erich got to know his great granduncle and aunt (seen in photo).

Wii: Get off the couch!

2007-10-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

My father-in-law is a funny character. Sometimes he comes up with the most hair brained ideas, we wonder whether we ought to take him seriously. So when he suggested he get his parents a Wii, we thought he had gone completely mad.

(You need to understand that Erich's great-grandparents usually sit around the table after dinner and play Uno... sans TV on.)

Anyhow, after much coaxing, we managed to get them to try it. Off the couch they went and into the virtual bowling alley. They had so much fun that Nintendo should have been there to film a commercial. :-)

Day 11: Hello Mr. Beethoven, may I please come in?

2007-10-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Bonn, Germany on our 11th day of our trip. Those of you who are musically inclined will know that Bonn is famous because it is the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. It also has some of the best shopping in the Westphalia area of Germany, so you can guess who did what. Since shopping isn't terribly interesting to blog about, I will share briefly about my run-in with Mr. Beethoven.

We went to the house where he was born. Erich was especially keen and knocked promptly on the door (as shown in the photo). Once inside, I explored the various rooms. Though I had actually been here briefly once before (on tour with the VYSO), I finally had the chance to see the museum in detail. I found particularly fascinating the collection of Beethoven's actual instruments that had been amassed. To hear actual pieces as they would have been played on Beethoven's own instrument is certainly a rare occasion.

Day 10: Off to the zoo!

2007-10-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Germany is known for is its abundance of world-class zoos. We went one nearby called ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen where they had a "real" African Safari. (We put "real" in quotations because they also had a section on the Pacific Northwest where some claims of authenticity were somewhat questionable...)

Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun touring the landscape and seeing animals not normally seen in North America. We saw hippopotamuses, giraffes, lions, tigers and even zebras. Erich especially liked the pink flamingos. :-) What fun it is to actually see animals we previously only identified in books!

Of the many stories that came out of this trip, one animal encounter was particularly memorable. Midway through our African safari tour, we were taken on a 'boat ride' through a man made canal. Just as we rounded the bend, a flock of birds decided they would use our (open) boat as a potty... you can guess the rest.

Day 9B: The Evangelical Church in town

2007-10-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was that it was a Sunday. Being a Sunday, and realizing that we were going to be staying mostly in town that day (going to the eisenbahnmuseum), we decided to attend a church service that morning at the local evangelical state church. Grandma seemed pleased that we desired to go to church, and grandpa promptly asked his neighbours when the service times were.

Although they did not attend with us (to my knowledge, they are not believers), we had an enjoyable time nonetheless. Three things struck me about the church:

1. It is very much about community: unlike North America, German towns for the most part still close shops on Sundays. Therefore, at church service, you meet the local baker, the local shoe repairman, even local chinese food restaurant owners.

2. Though there are language barriers, Christians worship the same God, read the same Bible and believe in the same Saviour. At its most basic form, worship can be understood regardless of language. At this particular service, there was confirmation and an entire trumpet band perched secretly on the balcony to announce it! One's heart was overjoyed at the sound of the trumpets blasting throughout the sanctuary.

3. State churches create an interesting (though not necessarily healthy) dynamic. Toward the end of the service, some kids (who had obviously not been around earlier), came in, sat down and kindly asked if I was going to keep my bulletin. Puzzled at why they would want my bulletin, I said they could have it, and the boy thanked me profusely. It was only after did I realize that the kids went to get their bulletins stamped by the pastor. I wonder if it allowed them some sort of thing (free transit perhaps?) in return?

Comments regarding state funding of the churches also came up a few times in conversation with grandpa. In particular, there was some bewilderment as to why they still take offerings and donations in light of (big) state funding. As I said, it creates an interesting dynamic.

Day 9: Full steam ahead!

2007-10-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

We took Erich to the Eisenbahnmuseum in Bochum-Dahlhausen today where ~~he drove a locomotive~~ German workers have turned a former industrial rail yard into a modern museum about trains. In stark contrast to our visit to the Bluebell Railway in the UK, much of the museum was devoted to the area's industrial roots - particularly that of coal mining. As such, much of the machinery was industrial sized.

We saw numerous steam locomotives - many of which were so big that Erich dwarfed in comparison. There were locomotives from as early as 1920, to more modern things from the 80s. Surprisingly, many of the earlier locomotives (i.e. those built in 1920) were in production until the early 90s in East Germany. Now that is German Engineering!

Perhaps what was most interesting (to me at least) was to see the various political and historical remnants on each train. Some of the trains still had "Deutsch Reichsbahn" from the pre-World War II era printed on them. It is a bit eerie staring at these magnificent machines and imagining the kinds of cargo they saw over the years.

To Erich of course, even being near trains brings a huge smile to his face, and being able to see a rail house JUST like that of the Thomas the tank engine rail house must have been a real treat for him.

We ended our day with a little bit of "eis" (ice cream) from a local Italian shop. Evidently, Erich remembered this very well too, as every time I show him this picture, he says "ou-oma give me ice cream". :-)

Day 8: Hats off to Hattingen (and other very old cities)

2007-10-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

Day 8 was spent shopping and strolling in the nearby old town of Hattingen. Resembling much like a textbook middle-aged city (complete with city walls, square, hall and church), Hattingen offers some unique looks into the past. Of particular fascination is how modern life has integrated into these old buildings. Adjacent to where the above photo was taken is a bar, complete with modern beer-branded lamps adorning its side. It too is in a very old building built around the same era.

What is also interesting is how long these ordinary buildings have survived. ~500 years is an awful long time for a building (especially compared to North American standards) and makes for some interesting comparisons in workmanship. (Think leaky condos vs. 1576 A.D. building...)

Apart from the stroll, I also had some interesting fun with off-camera, strobist style flash. (This was much to the chagrin of my travel mates of course.) Thanks to my father-in-law who reluctantly acted as a light stand, and to Karen and Erich for being my ~~guinea pigs~~ models.

Strobist Info: "Daylight effect by overpowering daylight". Camera set at 1/50, f7.1 to capture ambient at ~ ev -1/3 stop. Flash at 1/2 power, to the top left of my subjects to overpower ambient sunlight. Fired using Cactus (eBay) triggers.

Day 7: Willkommen in Deutschland!

2007-10-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

1 plane, 1 shuttle bus, 1 ICE train, 2 S-trains, and 1 city bus later, we finally arrived at Karen's grandparents home in Bochum , Germany. With all the traveling behind us, we took comfort in the fact that we were going to be staying here for the next ten days. The full weight of what we had just gone through on Day 6 was finally starting to set in. The irony was that all German train workers were actually supposed to be on strike the day we were arriving, yet postponed their job action at the last minute. Had they actually been on strike that day, I'm sure our travels from Cologne to Bochum would have been even more adventurous!

Nevertheless, by Day 7, none of us were anxious to travel anywhere far, so we mostly stayed put. Unfortunately, I was nursing a cold by now also, so resting was a good thing. In the afternoon, grandpa took us for a short stroll in the neighbourhood (Linden) and we went to have coffee and cake.

Before long Erich was settling in too. Here, in this photo, Erich Guenther looks up at his namesake (his great-grandpa Guenther) as the family takes a stroll down Ax Strasse (Ax Street).

Day 6: Blessings in disguise

2007-10-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

We arose early on Day 6 to board the tube train back to London Heathrow. It was mostly uneventful. We had made all the tube connections Stephanie had printed for us, and even arrived early. At Heathrow, we picked up our bags from Left luggage and proceeded to line up at the Lufthansa check-in desk. We waited in line with dozens of other travellers. Thirty-five minutes later, we were in front of the Lufthansa agent. We presented our itinerary to her when things started to go wrong.

She asked us rather agitatedly, "Are you sure you are on this flight?".

I replied, "of course we are on this flight - it says right there on our itinerary!" (In actual fact, we had even checked our flight the day before at the Lufthansa ticket office.)

We were then told in no uncertain terms that our flight had been canceled due to fog and that indeed we were in the wrong line-up. Yes, I did say wrong. It was further implied to us that we should have heard the announcement broadcast over the PA system an hour ago, and that we were otherwise wasting her time. Apart from the fact that we weren't there an hour ago, attempting to hear an announcement in a crowded airport like Heathrow is a bit like trying to hear the take-out window clerk at a drive through intercom.

In short, we needed to stand in another 45 minute line-up and rebook our flight at the Lufthansa Ticket counter at the other side of the terminal. This presented a further logistics problem as my father-in-law who was still mid-flight from Vancouver to Düsseldorf had no means to know how to meet us now.

This was shaping up to be quite a travel nightmare, but instead of throwing up our hands in frustration, for some strange reason we began to see a number of blessings in disguise.

Blessing #1: Thank God for Sam!

One of the youth we had connected with back in 2003 was a fellow named Sam Leung. He is quite an interesting guy from Taunton. Because we did not know that he was now studying in London, we had not made plans to see him. He, however, upon hearing that we had arrived in London suggested that he could meet us for breakfast at Heathrow. We thought - what a great idea and consented. Our original plan was to pick up our luggage, check in, then have a nice sit-down breakfast with Sam before going through security.

However, when our plans took a turn, Sam happily blessed us. He helped us to remain calm through the ordeal. He looked after Erich for us. He helped us carry our numerous pieces of luggage as we snaked from one queue to another. Thanks to Karen, we even got to have breakfast after all, albeit take-away breakfast standing in a queue. All the while, we were still able to chat about how his life was going now.

In the end, Lufthansa decided to rebook us on an already full and very late flight to Cologne, Germany (we were due to arrive at Düsseldorf). It was so late in fact that after we had received our tickets we were told we were supposed to have checked our bags in 10 minutes ago! But Sam again went to the rescue taking our bags for us and standing in the check-in queue so as to expedite our check-in.

Both Karen and I remember thinking how God, in His infinite wisdom and timing had sent Sam to help us remember that God was in control.

Blessing #2: The two English gentlemen on the plane

After we rushed our bags through check-in, and rushed through security (we felt like we were on the Amazing Race), we finally breathed a sigh of relief as we walked onto the airplane and took our seats. An inspection of our assigned seats however indicated that we weren't seated together. Not wanting to subject too many of our fellow passengers to the restlessness of Erich, we decided we would ask if one of our seat mates would be willing to switch seats with us. Our immediate seat mate rudely told us no. However, the other seat mate decided he would bless us and kindly rearranged himself AND his colleague so that we could all sit together as a family. Now THAT is courteous!

Blessing in disguise #3: We lost our car seat

We arrived in Cologne as planned, and a shuttle bus took us into a secured building where we entered through German customs and immigration and collected our luggage. It seemed however that our car seat did not make it with us on the plane. We were dismayed at first, but then we realized this was yet another blessing in disguise. Not only would we not have to carry this on all the trains (we didn't really need it for the Germany leg of our trip), we would get it hand delivered to our destination in Bochum, Germany. As if this wasn't enough of a relief, losing the luggage also meant we got to visit Luthansa's lost baggage desk where the very nice lady filed our claim and allowed us to use her phone to contact my father in law. Had we not have 'lost' the car seat, we would have had to find our own way to the train station, and scrounge up enough cash to make a very expensive pay phone call.

Blessing #4: The two German girls at the train station

Our final blessing was in the form of good Samaritans who helped us in our train journey to Bochum. Because Hans, my father in law, was not there to greet us, we were forced to find our own way to Essen, a nearby city of Bochum. We used our very limited knowledge of the German language to try to find our way around. I got very used to saying: "Guten Tag, meine Deutches ist nicht gute. Ich mochte nach Essen gehen." or "Guten Tag, sprechen sie Englische?"

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The latter question was mostly met with either rehearsed and heavily accented answers or very polite "Nein". That is, until we met a pair of traveling German girls who just said "follow us!". I must admit that had these two girls been two menacing looking men, I might have had second thoughts about just blindly following them, but they seemed innocent enough and willing to help. They directed us to the nearest Hbf (main station) where we were able to find our way.

All in all, the lesson I learned this day was that all is not always as it seems when we choose to look for the blessings rather than the bad circumstances.

Day 5D: Visiting cousins

2007-10-10T12:15:00.001-07:00

We ended our one day in London with an evening with Karen's cousin and his fiancee. Michael Ling, an accomplished (and very busy) London attorney took time out of his busy schedule to take us out to dinner as well as to let us stay the night in London. We enjoyed some very delicious Italian food at a local restaurant.

Stephanie (Michael's fiance) was also very kind to show us around the transport system so that we would be able to find our way back to Heathrow in the morning.

We were very grateful for their hospitality and particularly for hosting us that evening. Being able to stay in London that night helped us to get to Heathrow quickly in the morning.

Erich still remembers very well this evening, because every time I show the picture above (of the outside of their flat), he says "Michael's house".

Day 5C: Prime Mark of London

2007-10-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

One of our UK friends suggested we take a look at Primark, a bargain clothing store, whilst in England. Karen has a knack for finding great deals on clothing, so she jumped at the chance to bargain hunt in the UK. Therefore, on our second half of our tour through London, Caroline took us to the nearest tube station where we would be able to get to Primark on Oxford Street.

By this time I had gotten quite tired from all the walking, and carrying the stroller + Erich + bags up and down the tube stairs. I decided I would hang out with Erich near the front of the store while Karen did her shopping. Now this store, being rather big, has several entrances. At each entrance was a security guard checking for shoplifters and kindly asking passerbys not to eat in the store.

The first few minutes of my stay near the front door were rather uneventful. Customers strolled by, guards checked bags, and the sounds of people elated with the low prices filled the air. Then, just as I was settling into my spot, an alarm went off. A few of the security guards congregated and discussed about "the situation", decided it was nothing and life went on. Most shoppers even handily ignored the alarm!

But the alarm kept on ringing and as the alarm rang, so did my nerves. I wonder what the alarm is for, I thought. I don't see anyone shoplifting! It didn't help that the security guards looked nervous too. Then the tension was finally broken when suddenly, a voice over the PA system advised customers to please evacuate the store immediately.

"What in good heavens is going on?", I thought. Of course, being in London, unfortunately, the worst crossed my mind first - what if this was a bomb threat or some other sort of terror related incident? I mean after all, the person on the PA definitely had a sense of urgency about him.

I rushed out with Erich, and stepped aside as a crowd of several hundred people piled out of the store. I watched nervously as security guards hustled people out, and told them to drop whatever they had picked out on the floor and closed the doors behind everybody. I waited for Karen to emerge from the crowd. No sign of her. It was heart wrenching not knowing what happened to her.

Finally, amidst lots of shouting, we finally found each other. I decided that we would not visit the store again.

In the end, it turns out that the alarm was caused just because of one malfunctioning sprinkler head.

Day 5B: Good ol' friends in London

2007-10-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Back in 2003, Ether and Caroline were still doing their GCSEs in secondary school. Now, they are young university students at some of the most respected colleges in London. They were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to meet us, and to have lunch with us. They took us on a tour of some of the museums in the neighbourhood.

Among the places we visited was the Natural History Museum of London where we met some really, really old friends. Erich was particularly fascinated at the various animals on display.

Day 5A: London Madness

2007-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our fifth day in England was spent mostly in London. I got up early again, and went into Reading town centre as Pastor Sam dropped of E-yan for school - this time to return the rental vehicle. Then it was off to Heathrow Airport where we dropped off two big bags of luggage and Erich's car seat at Left Luggage. This was a suggestion that our british expat friends Nick and Becky back home had given us. Brilliant suggestion. The thought of roaming around London's underground all day with two giant pieces of luggage.... We decided to travel 'light' instead - carrying only our carry-on backpacks with us.

However, as we soon discovered, roaming around London's underground system with a toddler, a baby stroller, and three heavy backpacks is quite a feat in itself. For one thing, almost none of the underground stations have lifts (elevators) which makes pushing a stroller around quite difficult. So we are left with the option of folding up the stroller, and carrying everything (toddler, bags, stroller) or having the stroller go to places where it shouldn't.

We decided mostly for the latter. Gone were previous apprehensions about using the stroller on escalators and ~~pushing~~ bumping it down stairs. All I can say in the end is that:

1. MacLaren makes the best strollers. British made, takes a pounding and keeps on ticking.

2. There are a lot of very courteous people in London, despite what some tourist guides would have you believe. (I have always been paranoid about being pick pocketed after my brother in law caught one red-handed last time on the London underground...) More than once, people without hesitation offered to help carry our stroller up the stairs.

3. We lived the "Mind the gap" experience. Yes, one definitely knows there is a gap there when you're trying to push a stroller on and off a train.

The ironic thing in hindsight? Many of London's underground stations (many built before the Second World War) actually HAD lifts once upon a time, but were taken out in favour of escalators.

UK: Right hand drive and other oddities

2007-10-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Driving in the UK was certainly a fun and fascinating experience. Here I am posing next to the Vauxhaul/Opel Corsa that we had hired in Reading. It is quite a nifty little car, and the sad part is that you can't get stuff like this here in North America.

I got to observing the distinct things that I noticed were different. Here are my top 10:

10. People drive on the left hand side of the road and the right hand side of the car. (Duh, but I had to start with the obvious! :))

9. Driving on the other side of the car of course means that my usual habit of turning right to look behind me when I am in reverse doesn't work. This one took a bit of getting used to.

8. Roundabouts are everywhere. I have grown to love these things: why stop at a four-way stop or a traffic light when you can just merge into a roundabout and exit just as efficiently? Think of all those left turn accidents that this avoids.

7. Speed limits are reasonable. On country roads and dual-carriageways, speed limit can be up to 50mph. Considering the width of these roads, there would be a media circus if this were the speeds in Vancouver.

6. Cars are much smaller. This could be purely because things are just generally so much more expensive in the UK, but cars are much smaller, compact and practical than the bloatware you often find roaming the streets in Vancouver. The Opel/Vauxhaull is affiliated with GM by the way. Why does GM have this obsession that North Americans like big cars? If only they sold their European cars in Canada, I might actually use some of my GM points I've racked up over the years...

5. Petrol (gasoline) is very expensive. Think same price except in pounds per litre.

4. Everybody knows how to drive standard. Had I not had the chance to practice driving a standard transmission, right hand drive, 12 passenger mini-bus back in 2003, I think I might have freaked at this one, but this is old hat now. That and driving a manual transmission Mazda5 back home helps.

3. Standardized road signs. They were a bit difficult to figure out at first, but once you had them figured out, it was easy to navigate with them. Of course the hardest one for me to figure out was the white circle with the slash through it - I didn't know it meant "National Speed Limit" until I was told.

2. People know how to drive. In general, drivers are alert, aware and observe fast/slow lane rules. On the motorway, the slow lane really is the slow lane, and the fast lane is really the fast lane. You don't have people who drive in the 'fast' lane just because they feel like being on that side of the road.

And the number one thing I found was different...?

1. Drivers are much more courteous. I guess it has to do with knowing how to drive well. When you drive well and are aware, letting someone else go ahead of you means you'll know they'll be paying attention and you'll be making traffic flow more efficiently. Compare this to the "me-first" or the deadlock "you first, no you first" situations one often finds in Vancouver.

Day 4: Bekonscot Model Village and Oxford, UK

2007-10-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

We took the car we hired to Beaconsfield on day four of trip in search of the world's oldest model village (The Bekonscot Model Village). Our visit would have been much nicer had it not been pouring rain, but nevertheless, it was quite enchanting. The museum itself is located near the centre of town, but on an otherwise residential street. If the signs were not there, you would think it was just another house. We parked, as instructed, at the Catholic church across from the model village and made our way through the driveway of what appeared to be just another house around to the back. What looked like an ordinary driveway now turned into an amazing display of multiple villages all interconnected by trains.

Erich enjoyed looking at each display and proudly shouted out the names of each thing that he saw. At one point in our walk through the village we heard a choir singing. The sound was so realistic that I was actually fooled into thinking that it came from the Catholic church we had parked at. It was only upon further inspection, I realized that the sound was actualy coming from the model Anglican church in one of the villages. (We got a kick out of name of the 'rector').

[It was raining so hard that day I didn't dare take out my camera. Here is a photo of the church taken by Andy P. Be sure to visit his other Bekonscot pictures.]

Some of the other displays were pretty incredible too. Along with the model train system that runs across the entire display (outdoors no less!), there was a house on fire with model firemen putting the fire out. The display came complete with "fire", and smoke. It was quite incredible.

After lunch, we headed for Oxford on the M40. We had never been to Oxford in any of our previous visits so I was glad we got the chance to do so this time. Although the interest was mostly academic (haha), we enjoyed being in the same places where many famous scholars had once been. Here's a photo of a future scholar (though I think his Mom seems more enthused than he does about the prospect...)

Day 3B: The Bluebell Railway, UK

2007-10-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

If you were to ask Erich what his favourite toy is right now, he would undoubtedly point to his box of wooden railway tracks and trains and say "die eisenbahn" (german for railway). Ever since he was young, Karen would often bring him to the Chapters store below where I work. At that store, there is a Thomas the tank engine demonstration table. He can spend hours on end playing with Thomas and his favourite character Bertie the bus.

As a behavioral reward on our trips this year, we started to give him parts of his own wooden railway set from Thomas. He was overjoyed to receive them. So imagine the awe on his face when we told him where we were going to bring him in England. We were going to go see a REAL steam train with real observation cars.

After hiring a car in Reading, we drove an hour an a half from Reading to Sussex where the Bluebell Railway operates. We boarded the train (a genuine restored observation car from 1913, being hauled by a restored steam engine from the same era) and began a 1.5 hour tour from Sheffield Park station to Horsted Keyes. Most of our fellow passengers were more elderly people from the era who were on the train reminiscing about a bygone era. However, there were also a few families on board with kids just like Erich who were Thomas fanatics.

So imagine the reaction of the kids when the tour guide introduced the steam engine that was towing us today. Her name was Stepney and is actually one of Thomas' friends. (In fact the Stepney in the Thomas story is actually inspired by this very engine.) Needless to say, the kids on board just about went crazy when they heard this!

All in all, Erich had a grand time on the Bluebell railway as is evident in his facial expressions on these pictures I took.

Day 3A: Learning from a mentor

2007-10-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

We stayed with our friends and missionary pastors in Reading (England). Pastor Sam and Teresa are an incredible couple for which I have an enormous amount of respect. They minister primarily to the Chinese speaking in Reading (primarily restaurant owners and professionals) through the COCM. Theirs is truly long term work - planting churches and building relationships with those in the community in order to bring them to Christ. Ours, incidentally, (and those of the CCM short term teams) is to minister to the British born Chinese youth who often are caught between two cultures and one faith.

I said that I have tremendous respect for this couple because, at least from what I have observed, this couple just oozes with the attitude of Christ. It is humbling and a privilege living with them even for a few days. Their practical, down to earth attitude, faith-based living and genuine love for people is always a joy to observe. Their daily habits remind me of what is truly important.

This is not to elevate them to anything more than a fellow brother and sister saved by grace, but I am humbled because I realize each time I interact with this family that there is much for me to learn.

Monday morning: I wake up early along with E-yan, their daughter. I want to catch a ride with them into town (where E-yan attends school) so that I can hire a car. Karen and I had planned several places to take Erich, and since many of those places would involve many trains and buses to get to, we decided it would be more convenient (and fun!) to hire (rent) a car.

As I sit, wide-eyed and bushy tailed (I am not a morning person...) on their couch awaiting their departure, I observe their morning routine: Auntie Teresa is in the kitchen busily preparing the meals she will need to cook that day. The BBC radio is blaring and the announcer in the oh-so-british voice announces the news. Pastor is seated on the couch doing his devotions and planning his day. E-yan sits at the coffee table perusing a magazine dedicated to prayer items of missionaries abroad all the while eating her breakfast. Few words are exchanged, but it is obvious that the Shams' day begins with the Lord in mind.

Teresa walks into the room when the news finishes. She announces that they are going to have family prayer time, and asks if I wish to join in. I nod. We pray. Quickly, one-by-one, they pray giving thanks for the day and asking for God's grace to lead them in their activities that day. They pray for us (even so we are on vacation) and pray that God would grant us an enjoyable time that day and that God would grant us safety as we drive. The three of them (and me in spirit) finish, and we are off to town.

As we are driving into town, thoughts running through my head are: how often do I wake up, and rush out of the house without so much as acknowledging God? How much more unified as a family would it be if I were to pray with my wife and son each morning? What I observed was more than simple ritual - it was practicing the presence of God each morning, and it was keeping one's attitude in check.

More on the actual trip we took this day in the next post. But when we came back that day, Auntie Teresa had prepared dinner for us to eat. It was a delicious meal! What astounded us the most was the number of dishes she had put out and the relative ease in which they all came flying out of the kitchen. We had protested mildly that she really shouldn't fuss over us, but in actual fact she really wasn't - making meals and serving others in this manner was second nature to her. In fact, the previous day, she had made a meal for her bible study group, as if it were effortless. How many times have I struggled to make meals for people coming over? It never ceases to amaze me how they have placed their home in God's hands and let God use their home for His glory.

We feel privileged to have stayed in their home and to have grown as a result. I have made a pledge to practice more of these habits. Though I am still only half awake in the morning, like a determined runner who is out of shape, I am pledging (by God's grace) to pray with my wife and son every morning. I am pledging to make my home as hospitable and open for ministry. My goal is to do these things so that they become so habitual that they become part of my practice of the presence of God.

Day 2: Sermon from the heart of a father

2007-10-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to speak to the Reading CCF youth group on the Sunday after we arrived. I had a little bit of prep from Kim Tsang, the current youth coordinator. I wanted something that would encourage both her (and the other youth coordinators), and the youth, but also something close to my heart. I decided I would speak about being a father and how learning to be a new father has taught me much about our Heavenly Father.

Sermon and Testimony to the youth at Reading CCF
October 7th, 2007
Jonathan Ng

(I have moved the text to a separate page - click on above link to read.)

Day 1 & 2: Reading, UK

2007-10-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Our first few days in England were spent mostly visiting people with whom we had developed friendships during our 2003 short term missions trip to the UK. Back in 2003, we had spent a month living with many of the folks in Reading. Not only did we all grow as a result, we developed friendships with many of the youth and their families.

For this reason, we have tended to stop by the UK whenever we can whilst visiting Europe. We visited briefly in 2004, and were excited to be visiting again this year. We have found that these visits end up benefiting all and is a testament of the greater work at play in the Kingdom.

From a missionary's perspective, keeping up these relationships enables us to better minister and better pray for those we are helping. For the local church in Reading (our particular 'mission field'), meeting people who pray for them and support them face to face gives encouragement. For all, it is always an eye-opener to experience different culture: to see how culture affects the manner in which we relate to and worship God; but at the same time how we all can worship God in unity as brothers and sisters in Christ.

For me personally, it is most encouraging (and humbling!) to see so many we had once helped grow to be strong young men and women who are fervent in their walk with Jesus. (More correctly, it has been a testament to God's faithfulness in their lives.)

Case in point #1: being able to meet-up once again with Raymond (youth at the centre of the picture in sunglasses) was really encouraging. Back at youth camp in 2003, I had the opportunity to talk with someone about a relationship with Christ. Little did I know that God was using this opportunity to touch the heart of someone nearby. Raymond was listening intently in the background as I talked to this other person and he made a decision for Christ. When we visited in 2004, he was already off to university. Can you imagine how affirming to my faith it was to see him still engaged in his relationship with Christ in 2007?

Case in point #2: back in 2003, in addition to running a youth camp, we also helped organise a week long kid's "vacation bible school" for younger kids. This visit, I had an opportunity to visit with and speak to the youth group. Can you imagine the excitement it was to see many of those kids are now in youth group worshiping God? (Compare the kids in this 2003 photo with the youth in the front few rows of the top picture) It is amazing to see them now having grown so much both physically and spiritually, and I am in awe once again of God's faithfulness to His people.

Rekindling friendships and seeing how God has been working in each of our lives was a recurring theme of our time in England. Many youth and their parents also met Erich for the first time. As new parents, Karen and I found ourselves relating to the parents of the youth in a whole new way. Scary when that happens isn't it? :) Well as it turns out, gaining new perspective on life as a new parent is what I talked about with the youth.

And we're off! The great two seats for three deal.

2007-10-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Erich was born, Karen and I came up with this idea of visiting Erich's great grandparents in Bochum, Germany. Erich is afterall named after his great grandfather so we thought it would be an incredible honour for him to meet Erich. So we devised a plan to take Erich just before he turns two on a trip to Germany. The before-two part is because airlines don't charge for infants under two, and thus would be a much more economical way to travel. Catch is though, under twos don't get a seat. So one has to either hope for extra empty seats (which ended up happening on parts of our trip) or come up with creative ways to make two seats seat three. :)

Here we are anxiously awaiting to board our LTU flight at YVR to Dusseldorf, Germany. From Dusseldorf, we will change planes and board a Luftansa flight to London, UK where we will stop by for a few days to visit some friends (STM 2003) in Reading before heading back to Germany to visit o-opa and o-oma.

Sitting next to us in the same waiting lounge is a mother (Mandy), her mother, and her 11-month old daughter (Hannah). They are doing a similar trip as us - going to visit Hannah's great grandparents in Germany. What a coincidence! We chat, and discover that they will be returning on the same return flight. I feel better already: at least we're not the only ones crazy enough to bring a baby on a long-haul flight. Besides, Erich now has a playmate.

Congratulations Renee and David Yang!

2007-09-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the newly wed couple Renee and David. Renee (nee Cheng) is Karen's cousin. Over the past ten or so years, we have gotten to know her well through visits to LA and her visits to Vancouver. We are so happy to see her ~~finally~~ get married to the love of her life!

The wedding took place in Santa Monica at Shutters on the Beach - a beautiful and romantic hotel set at the beach. The ceremony, set atop the balcony overlooked the water during sunset. It was extremely picturesque. Three photographers stood by to capture the moments. Several of us family photogs also tried to get in on the action, but at the same time trying to be courteous to the professionals. 'Twas most definitely a difficult balance!

As with many of such gatherings, it was also a time of reunion with Karen's side of the family. Aunt Mabel and Uncle Michael hosted us at their house. We were grateful for their wonderful hospitality. It was also great meeting some of Karen's uncles, aunts and cousins for the first time - particularly those that live in such far away lands as Australia.

Among some of the highlights of the ceremony was watching my niece (Emily) be one of the flower girls. She is the middle one in this photo. The first time I met Emily was shortly after she was born, so it was quite amazing watching her grow up so fast. She is talking so much now and with such eloquence. It was quite the funny conversation we had one night while I was rather tired: she had actually managed to convince me that she was in Grade 2! I had myself second guessing how old I was! In actual fact, she's only 4 of course....

Erich had a great time with all of his cousins. He took particular affection to Emily who took him around like a younger brother. That was very cute to watch. Here he is posing with the girls. Check out the immense smile on his face! :-)

A few other notable pictures from the wedding:

The three flower girls sprinkle the aisle with flowers.

Renee's father escorts her down the aisle to be
greeted by an eagerly awaiting groom.

The wedding ceremony as seen from the back.

Santa Monica Boulevard

2007-09-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

I could just hear that song in my head as we drove down the Santa Monica Boulevard not far from where we were staying in LA.

As the Ngs got ready for the Saturday evening wedding, we had a chance to stroll around a few places in town. For Erich, the highlight was visiting the Santa Monica Pier where he was able to explore the many sights and sounds of the bustling pier. His favourite of course was the arcade where a number of adventure vehicles awaited him out front. Most notable was a train named "Elias", and a safari car that matched his jacket. Erich enjoyed driving both!

The next day, we met up with some former neighbours of ours here in Kitsilano. Though they normally live in LA (they are in the movie/TV industry), during the summer months of 2006/2007, they all attended the Bridge Church while filming in Vancouver. I had taken a few photos of them during our recent child dedication ceremony that I wanted to give them. After trying to figure out how to navigate around Beverley Hills (one does pass by all those familiar street names you often hear on E.T.) we were able to meet briefly with them. Erich particularly enjoyed his reunion with Parker, their 3 year old daughter.

Perhaps the most encouraging part of our meeting was the realization that God, through his call for us to minister to our own community, has placed us within reach of people from all walks of life and all parts of the world. They had shared with me how they were encouraged by a recent sermon I had preached at the Bridge. To think that God would use the likes of us to encourage others even though we are so far from perfect, is indeed a humbling experience. It makes me in awe of what He is capable of doing, and in awe of the enormity of God's grace. To God be all the glory.

Erich's first plane ride

2007-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

This fall, the Ng family is doing quite a bit of traveling, and of those most will be by airplanes. We have been busy preparing for these trips. One of the things we needed to do was to prepare Erich (and us!) psychologically for the plane ride. For weeks, we have been telling Erich that we are going to be on an airplane. He had previously seen airplanes in the sky and was excited to be on going on one. Then we told him that on that airplane, he would have to be a really good boy.

"Do you know what that means Erich? It means you have to be...?", we would ask periodically.

"Qriwet", he would answer in his talkative voice.

"That's right Erich, you have to be quiet. Can you run around on the airplane?"

"No!" quips Erich as he confidently smiles because he knows the answer to my question.

(Little did he know he was going to be couped up in a confined space for 3 hours. Umm - just wait till the Germany trip Erich! You ain't seen nothin' yet!)

Well, the time had come to put the theory into practice. First up was Renee Cheng (Karen's cousin) and David Yang's wedding in Los Angeles. More on the actual wedding in our next post.

We arrived at the airport early, and attempted to check in. It had been a while since we had flown on any US destined flights, so it took a bit of reminding to remember that you actually cross over into U.S. Territory at the Vancouver airport. Keeping Erich calm throughout the entire customs, immigration and airport security process turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I now have much more sympathy for parents traveling with small children.

Once we were on the plane though, Erich was excited. He couldn't believe he was on a real airplane. As he gazed out the tiny window and saw other airplanes, he kept saying, "Airplane! Airplane!".

All in all, the experience was positive. We learned a lot from this short flight to LA - much of which should hopefully benefit us when we are on a plane next. (Next week!).

Erich's got appetite!

2007-09-04T23:43:00.001-07:00

What 20 month old you know does this?! Erich asked for corn. When Karen gave him some by picking off the kernels and putting them in the bowl, he said "no" and instead insisted he be able to eat it "on the cob" like the rest of us. (Afterall, he's a big boy now!)

By the time we had finished ours, he had polished off his as well!

This past weekend, we also had a surprise visit from Karen's cousin Keane from Seattle, WA. As part of the "get to know Vancouver" tour, we took him to have bubble tea at Dragon Tea House (King Edward and Oak St.) Erich, of course was all excited because he overheard that we were getting some sort of mango drink. When the drinks finally arrived, he grabbed it before anyone could stop him and gulped down a few sips. The other patrons at the tea house could not stop laughing! After that, it was game over - he insisted on sharing that drink with mommy. (See photo.) The funniest part was that we had actually gotten one more drink than there were adults because we thought we'd bring one back for Katherine. When asked whose drink that was, Erich gladly pointed out that it was "Ewich's drink" implying he was going to drink it later. Sorry Kat!

So much for baby food! Our little boy has become well versed in indigenous Canadian food as well as Hong Kong/Taiwanese cuisine.

Editor's Note: for all those parents reading this - not to worry... Karen always orders bubble tea with no added sugar and no tea, so nothing but mangoes, ice, milk and okay maybe a bit of sugar in the bubbles.

Blog Hiatus

2007-08-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been able to update our blog. Apologies about that. Life has just been so busy the past few months. Well, after burning the midnight oil for a few nights, I think I have finally caught up on late July and August posts - you can find them here:

Anniversary Dinner at the Watermark, Kits Beach

2007-08-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

Karen and I finally had a chance to go out for dinner this past Sunday to celebrate five years of marriage. It was good to be able to have some time to celebrate, reminisce and reflect on our marriage journey thus far. And being able to do this in a romantic setting sitting on a patio overlooking the sunset on Burrard Inlet was an added bonus.

Although our marriage does have its ups and downs (anyone whose marriage is perfect, please raise their hands...?) one thing I really appreciate about my marriage is that we are able to communicate with each other about the things that matter. With the day to day duties of taking care of Erich and running a household, Karen and I had not had as much opportunity of late to do this, so this was a refreshing moment to encourage one another.

Aunt Joycelin came over to look after Erich for a few hours while we took a nice stroll down to the beach front restaurant (The Watermark) two blocks away. This year, our dinner was made all the more special because a friend of ours, Eddie Wong, works at the restaurant in the pastry department. In addition to arranging our reservation and ensuring we had a great table and server, he also baked us some fresh bread, and made us a beautiful dessert platter to compliment our already delicious meal. Thanks Eddie for helping to make our day so special. (The creme brulee was exceptional by the way!)

Erich @ 20 months

2007-08-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Our little Erich is growing up to be a fine young boy. He now readily talks and we can carry on reasonably complex conversations with him. He has also started imitating things we do: for instance, his favorite thing to do at grandma/grandpa's is to sweep and swiffer the floors. It is always so funny to watch him handle a swiffer stick and go around the house ~~pushing dust around~~ cleaning everything!

Today, I was cutting up some boxes so that they would be easier to take to the recycling box... (er...not that we have recycling right now thanks to striking city workers, but that's beside the point). I had Erich help me take the cut pieces and put them into a giant box. He was studious taking on that task - placing each piece properly in the box and pushing them down gently. You could also see the pride he had in helping his daddy do chores. :-)

Sometimes he helps even when we'd prefer him not to. He helped unload the dishwasher today - taking and passing everything dish and plate in the washer to me as I put them away. I have never done dishes so quickly as I did not want him to hold any dish longer than necessary lest he drop and break it!

Erich also has begun to develop a keen sense of humour. The other day, he was eating some food when he decided he'd offer some to mommy and daddy.

Mommy? he asks.

Mommy said, Thanks Erich, but you can have it.

Daddy? he asks again.

Thanks Erich, but you can have it. Daddy responds.

With a great big smile on his face as if he knew he was about to crack a joke, he turned around and said:

TV? ... No! he exclaims as he knew the TV could not eat and then sticks the food in his mouth.

He's actually done this several times each time offering us something, then offering it to an inanimate object he knows cannot eat. Hilarious!

Finally, Erich has also grown in strength. We have taken him to the playground at Kits' Beach several times now where he has climbed onto monkey bars and swung from monkey bars to our utter amazement.

Happy One Month Isaak, Happy 2nd Birthday Elias!

2007-08-05T00:36:00.000-07:00

We had some big parties this week for our nephews Isaak and Elias. Isaak turned one month on the fourth, and Elias turned two years on the fifth. In honour of the occasion, a portrait:

Taken on our front steps. Canon 10D, EF 50mm USM f/1.4 lens @ f/5.6, 1/10, ISO 400, magic hour. I love the slight motion blur on Isaak's arm - gives the picture character.

Happy Birthday Elias and Isaak!

Congratulations Robin and Yoonjeong!

2007-07-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Karen, Erich and I had a crazy fun weekend up in Kamloops at the end of July. We had gone up there (along with my photographic assistant Danila) to do a wedding shoot and to attend Robin and Yoonjeong's wedding. For those of you that know Robin, you will know that ~~this is a long time coming~~ this was the event of a lifetime! :-)

Caption: Robin and Yoonjeong walk together across a crosswalk in traditional Korean wedding garments.

Congratulations to this beautiful new couple. We hope your new life together in Korea will bring wholeness to you and your family. May your marriage be holy - set apart for God's purpose. May you walk together in His truth and by His grace appreciating each other's differences, strengths and weaknesses.

I had a particularly fun time tagging along as the embedded photojournalist. Although this is not my first wedding I have done this, it is the first one for which I have spent so long preparing. We witnessed moments of joy, of anticipation, of frustration, of surprise, but most of all moments of memory making. Wait till I tell your grandkids about the mice! In all seriousness though, thanks for giving me and Danila this opportunity to document your wedding day.

I will be posting up more pictures but not until I have finished processing them and not until they have passed through the bride and groom's eyes.