My next move

4 days ago, I heard on local radio a news about how some elderlies in Hong Kong are mis-treated – they were striped to naked and putting on wheelchair to wait up for their shower, in front of other mates at the home. Some people phoned in the program and shared their disheartening experiences how their parents were mistreated such as they see bruises in different parts of their bodies each time they visited them when staff claimed they fell off or things happened accidentally. They said the staff could be peeling oranges immediately after the second they cleaned the elderly in the bathroom without washing their hands. There were just many horrible stories about these paid services but the key thing is – every elderly home in Hong Kong is the SAME and delivering poorly. People don’t have a choice! Our dear elderlies are not given the deserved respect and dignity is completely absent. And our society is ageing – there are more and more elderlies each year whose situations complicate from time to time. There are not much things we can turn these around but to accept them. What is my response towards this news or societal trend?  I tell myself: I am going to open my elderly home which delivers proper service, my brand of elderly home where there would be a better system, better people and most importantly – there is love for the needy ones.  I am thinking to charge a premium for the quality service that it delivers, but could it be an NGO? This I do not know yet.

My life’s first continuous volunteer work started at Mother’s Choice, an NGO for unwanted babies borne by underaged adolescents. I served there for 5 years nursing babies below 6 months old. I had a wonderful time because babies are adorable, cute and simply a joy to spend time with. The reason I left is that there is a long waiting list of volunteers waiting to take care of these babies when the numbers of babies who need the care were actually dwindling. I see no point spending my time ‘fighting’ with other volunteers to just cradle that one baby and when my time could be spent on someone who needs my help more? From then onwards, I steer towards focusing my spare time on the elderly. I did a number of things such as visiting those who live alone in their tiny flat…those who have suicidal tendency or the depressed ones, I spent time with those in nursing homes and lots of them are over a century old. Can you imagine how much they have seen and experienced? And I had the chance to work with the dying ones in Kolkata, India. It’s my goal to diversify my volunteering services so that I can see where my heart falls – over the years, I still choose to reach out to the elderlies.

My current job is a relatively new job (it’s my 7th months now) where I focused on branding restaurants and helping on building new ones. Many people ask me what do I do with this experience, are you gonna open your restaurants? No, it’s a flat no and I wouldn’t want to open restaurants, I just want to learn new things, and I don’t mind to learn more about F&B. Just last week, the project I have worked on for 6 months is eventually conceived. I helped out, with the help of numerous people, opening my life’s first restaurant. It’s a lot of sweat and tears, fun and stress. But finally, I started to see a little bit more about what God has planted in me over these decades. My education, my previous jobs training, my hobbies, my volunteering experiences, my church’s preaching plus my aspirations are ALL starting to connect – dots are connecting!  I want to open elderly homes which just would be operated properly. I have always wanted to see justice at work in my life, in the society and the greater world. 

The desire inside my heart is that I aspire to use my time in a meaningful way – I am reaching a very mature stage of my life now, and just want to make sure I use my time not in leisure and pleasure. I have a huge desire to defend the helpless and I truly believe the weak is strong, the poor is rich. The Vine is teaching us pathways to maturity today, and Pastor Andrew Gardener emphasizes that 6 months down the road, The Vine will equip us with the needed power and strength so we can be the big people God wants us to be. He is confirming my faith exactly this moment and right now. I do not know how I can achieve that, but I just know He has created me and given me talents which I just need to use it. Just go out and use it. Be a doer is my goal for the next 5 years. Act His will and be His light of the world. I could fail but if I don’t step out, my life is wasted. Wasting my life is a disrespect to the Creator, we should be steward of His creation. I want to honour His wonderful creation.

Once again, I do not know what and how to do it, but I know He will guide me. He will lead me through His church, His people my friends, all those whom I come across. I choose Him. I will take care of the orphans, the widows, the weak, the injured, the needy ones.  I am very weak also and lost…but I only know that through reaching out can I find my path. It’s not for self-glory that I do all these, but in His name, in His glory. To my parents, to my siblings, to my best friends, to all those who love me and I love I want to dedicate this flaming urge in my heart.

Quote of the Day
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

I pray to God that I will not be afraid. I will seek Him to do things which so delights Him and the world. Justice we stand, justice we fight and justice we live.

Postscript Quote 

Sure I’m for helping the elderly. I’m going to be old myself someday.
Lillian Gordy Carter 

Social justice starts from you

Justice seems like a huge, high and distant topic. I saw a short film at church today which asks around 20 people what justice means to them. These people came from a diverse background from age, gender and race. They all shared a bits of their thoughts here and there, but it’s really similar of their thinking that justice starts from you. Not just the police, law makers, judges, high court etc. I see justice as treating people fairly. And these weeks our pastors and elders have all been preaching how the Bible speaks prophetic justice and the relationship. Just one simple thing – if you treat others and neighbours like yourself – there would be justice. Why are we facing appalling rent here in Hong Kong? Why is the wealth gap worsening period after period? Not long ago I went to Bangkok, and strolling in the famous Chatuchak Market, numerous amazing hand-made crafts and counterfeit such as sneakers, tees, jeans etc they are just dirt cheap even when you have not started to bargain at all. I told my friend imagine how much the person who made it at the end receive for the amount of time and heart they spent? Maybe US$1 a day, probably less…thinking of that, I couldn’t even move my hand to touch the things in front of me. The more people buying from these sweat shop, the more workers would suffer. And you cannot blame the young girls wanting to sell their body as sex slaves when the earnings are beyond comparison. That is why all these south east asian countries have been exporting their women to be helpers of the more affluent countries. I attended an Intellectual Property course on trademark, and this subject is neglected in Asia and brands simply find it a super dilemma to attend design fairs in China, coz once they exhibit their latest designs, the next second you will see people copying your work 100% and mass produced and selling like hotcakes on Taobao. If you were a designer, how do you feel when your own designs are being copied and selling at super low rate and you are not even getting a commission. On a day to day basis, there are countless ways we can sustain justice: pay people fairly and do not haggle for discount; respect people like even your waiters and waitress or guard and be polite and smile at them! Compliment people when you feel they are delivering their jobs and duties, say thanks! These are just extremely easy things to do to those around you, and they will come back to you ultimately. Please keep justice in your hearts and live up these values fairly to other people, and not just yourself or those you love.

Quote of the Day
Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness

1 Kings 10:9

I pray to God that we will live His values in us every single day, and not just reading them from the Bible, but truly living them.

Postscript Quote 

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
Albert Einstein

legal disappointment

My studio was being given a creative brief by one of the legal department of the HKSAR Government last Friday, I attended the session and noticed there are nearly 10 agencies in total who are being approached for this pitch proposal. The brief document was super comprehensive with all the legal terms well defined which made it into a pile of almost 30 pages paper. Although it’s comprehensive in terms definition, but the project scope itself was actually quite ambiguous, and during the Q&A part, we queried the authority in details. I was hugely disappointed with the project even at the request for proposal stage, as I realize almost all terms are for the protection of the legal department but not the vendor. The revision period was super long, and the requirements are terribly demanding, and the fees they expect the lowest bid agency would get the job and all the revisions or additional requirements would be expected to be covered by the price quoted at initial stage. There were a lot of uncertainties and the authority is expecting the supplier to bear all the related cost and time. If these are raised by a commercial entity, I guess I would not find it surprising, but the government is the trustee of the people and should be in any case be as fair as possible. During the session, they emphasized the project requires the spirit of the legal system to be reflected and I doubt that is a false commitment as the staff or the committee could not even deliver what they promise. This reminds me how each of the Christian in our daily life must adhere to our religion, even one word or move would be noticed by people, if we fail – it affects the whole ‘system’, just like how all those HK government officials’ irresponsible behavior disappoints me.

Daily Quote
At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality,
2 Corinthians 8:19

I pray to God that I will be able to live Him in me day in and day out.

Postscript Quote
If we don’t change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.
Chinese Proverbs