More on Eddie's trip

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!

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!

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.


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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?

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!

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

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

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

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.