Above all else

I'm sure we all have long-time acquaintances whom we've known for years and years, but don't really know , because we only speak to them once every 5 years, usually about the weather!  On the other hand, we probably also have friends who, within weeks or months become true friends because we're able to "click" and share our thoughts on things that really matter.  It's the same with God. This truth was demonstrated ever more clearly to me during this last mission trip.  On the trip with me were my brother-in-Christ A and his family, and my church leader SK and his wife.  Brother A has been a Christian for about a year.  My leader SK has been a Christian for about 10 years I think.  By my own counting, I have been a Christian the longest - about 18 years i.e. the day I realized Christianity meant more than turning up in church occasionally! It was a humbling experience to see how my brother A stepped up - first of all, to open his eyes to see the nee

How old were your kids when you brought them on their first great adventure?  I remember stories from my Dad about his life as a kid - he's something like the 13th child in the family or thereabouts (who's counting eh?) and the stories were about rowing sampans out to fish, shooting flying lizards with catapults and "borrowing" a neighbour's sugarcane.  I recall the sampan story in particular, where my Dad used to take himself out to sea all by himself, at the age of 6!  Today, it seems to me that many of us don't even consider bringing our children out anywhere till we think they're good and ready! Perhaps being inspired by my Dad, I brought my kids on our first mission trip in 2005 when they were 1 and 3 years old respectively.  Admittedly, this was a city-based mission to Tokyo, because yes, I was afraid a "rougher" trip would be too much for the kids.  But I still remember it being cold in that Japanese dormitory, and having to bathe pr