True Friends are Better Than Gold!

A big tree on our property north came down and blocked the driveway

We got a call from our neighbour up north that one of the big trees was down on our lakefront property.

A small part of the fallen tree landed on our neighbour's driveway.

We were anxious about this news.

Feeling anxious about the damage to our little cabin, we drove up north for the weekend to assess the damage.

When we got to our property, we saw a big soft maple tree down blocking our driveway completely and also a little bit of our neighbour's.

But we were so thankful that there was no real damage to our little cabin except the lock was broken on the front door.

Our friend helped us to clear part of the tree

I went over to see my neighbour and she was quite upset. She told me that we needed to remove the part of fallen tree from their property and that her husband could do it, but not for free. She suggested $300.00 for her husband to remove that part of fallen tree.

We cleared our neighbour's drive way

I took a look at it; it was not a lot. Frankly, I was surprised that they did not remove it since it had been sitting there for almost two weeks according to my neighbour.

A true friend is better than gold!

Our friend who was with us to see the damage came prepared. He took out his chain saw and started cutting the fallen trunk.











With our friend cutting away the branches, my husband and I removing the cut pieces, we were able to clear the fallen part of the tree landed on my neighbour's oil tanks. It was less than an hour's work.

We also went around and marked the trees that need to be trimmed or removed.

I was really glad that our friend was here to help us. He has been extremely busy with his own property in another town, but he was willing to take time out of his busy schedule to lend a hand to help us!

We numbered the trees to be trimmed or cut down

Good friends who are willing to help in times of need are like gold, even better than gold!











We are extremely grateful we have true friends just D.M.!

R.T.
Bracebridge
Ontario
0826

Good things about Guangzhou; Two Thumbs up for the City of Guanhzhou!

We just came back from our two week trip to China, safe and sound! Considering how fearful we were prior to our departure for China, we are happy to say that this was a very successful trip!

View of Guangzgou from the top of Baiyun Mountain, with the Canton Tower in the background.

The last time we visited Guangzhou was the year 1990. Two young children in tow, our family of four embarked on our first family trip to Asia. That trip did not leave us a good impression of Guangzhou as the weather was too hot and humid; it was the first trip for our young sons and we jointed a tour from Hong Kong for a three day trip of Guangzhou.

 We did not see much of Guangzhou and the only thing we remembered was the garbage we saw littering along the highways as the tour bus took us from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and its surrounding cities.

It was a pleasant surprise for us on this trip to discover how much the city of Guangzhou has changed and how hard the people, city officials, and Chinese government have worked at improving the city since we visited it thirty years ago.

Followings are what impressed us the most about Guangzhou on our recent visit to the city:

 1.  Cleanliness of the city – Our memory of the garbage lining the highways, roads and alley way haunted us from our last trip. But on this trip, the city has cleaned up so much that we did not see a lot of littering or garbage! What we saw was uniformed city cleaning crews diligently sweeping and picking up litters off the streets of the city.



In fact, we were so impressed by their work that we stopped, talked to two of the city cleaning crew members, gave them a thumbs up and thanked them for their excellent efforts in keeping the city so clean and pleasant for residents and visitors alike!

One of the city highways of Guangzhou

  

 2.   Greening of the City – It is not easy to keep a city of eleven

million people clean and free of litter and garbage. 

Not only is the city of Guangzhou doing a fantastic job in keeping the city clean, it has even managed to beautify the city’s highways. 

      I was awed by how hard Guangzhou at trying to greening their city by using climbing vines to wrap around 
     and beautifying the support columns under the city's highways!  Seeing these huge green columns remained me of the majestic tall trees we saw in Tuscany, Italy!

    ( City of Toronto can learn a thing or two from Guangzhou and making its city cleaner and highways more beautiful!)

  

City highways in Guangzhou are lined with beautiful flowers!

 3. Affordable and Efficient public transportation – We traveled on public transit systems in a number of big cities across the continents such as New York City, San Francisco, Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Paris, Rome, Tokyo,  and Hong Kong. The Guangzhou Metro can hold its candle to and at times cleaner and more efficient than some of the subway systems we have taken in our travel!!! Two thumbs up for the city of Guangzhou!

A daughter and her dad on the Guangzhou subway

   

    4.     Improved living standard – It was evident to us that the living standard of  many Chinese has improved drastically over the past thirty years.

     Off course there are poor people living in every country.

Little well dressed girls and their mothers in a park

     However, when we visited our ancestral villages, we did not see the very poor peasants starving or living on a meager existence as described by our parents and in some media. 

     What we saw in Guangzhou on the streets were many happy kids beautifully dressed and taken care of by their parents.  We were delighted to see this happy blissful scenes repeated many times during our trip in China.

     However, China is still a country without universal health care and pollution is a big problem. We did see on two occasions,  family members with their sickly loved ones begging on the street for donations to help pay for their medical treatments. This broke our hearts. But providing free universal health care to 1.4 billion people is a huge challenge! Is it even possible?

     We were glad to see that China has made great strides in improving its country in terms of creating employment opportunities for its citizens, investing heavily and building massive infrastructures such as public transportation enabling the mobility of great number of its people throughout China, and recently, increasing educational opportunities for students from Grade 1 to junior high school etc. 

     All these are good signs of progress and proud accomplishments achieved through the hard work and determination of a stable government and its people.

     It is our sincere hope that China will continue to improve the living standard and especially the medical care, pollution problem and human rights of its citizens!

     R.T.

     Reflections of Our Trip to

     Guangzhou, China

A busy week for us with our loved one home to visit

On our way to London, Ontario!

It was a busy week right after VBS!

We attended a couple of social gatherings during the week and even managed to go away for a couple of days to London, Ontario, got together with friends whom we had not seen for over forty years!

The guys were manning the BBQ while the rest of us relaxed! 

It was good spending sometime with Anna and her family.

We caught up with each other and exchanged stories about our grown children.

We had a reunion with our elementary school mates!

 Josephine and her sister were there as well!

We came back to Toronto for F.'s fantastic BBQ at his house. E. sent an email telling us he would be home for the weekend as well on the same evening. It was perfect timing! We missed him when he was in Toronto recently and glad that we were home this time.

We were happy that  E. came home for his high school buddy, Eric's wedding. He came home straight from his  two and half week trip to Europe, and stayed for a few days in Canada.  He has changed job recently and he seemed to be so much happier, more talkative about his new job, his recent business travel in London, Stockholm and Cologne. We loved listening to these stories!

Theodore was born a few weeks ago; he's very cute and alert!

I didn't want to leave the house when E. was at home for the weekend. On Sunday, we were invited to Rose's house for a BBQ to see Richie's new baby. Theodore was just born a few weeks ago and looked absolutely adorable!

A new baby was born to the family!

As I was holding him, I talked to him and he followed me intensely with his big eyes as if he was listening to every word I was saying! It could be that the little fellow mistook my voice for his grandma's!

Wrapped in a cosy bathrobe, E. was working from home on Monday all day. I actually got to see and hear him in action!  He was working in the dining room while I was in the kitchen. All of a sudden, he rushed up to his room and changed into his work clothes. Shortly after,  I overheard him interviewing an applicant for new staff on Skype. He sounded very professional and knew exactly what he was looking for in the applicant applying for the job in his company.

We are immensely proud of our son! Praise God for giving him such a wonderful opportunity in the States!


R.T.
A Grateful Mom
Toronto, Ontario

A Perfect Ten BBQ Dinner Paralleled to None!

F. & A. hosted a BBQ dinner for us in their backyard

My spouse and I are both involved in a few charities in Toronto. The organizing committee meets every month to discuss and plan our fundraising activities.

 We have been involved in the charitable organization since 2010. Little did we know that our involvement with this group of wonderful individuals has also cultivated some great friendship!

F. built the deck, and both shelters for his guests and the BBQ stove by himself! 

For our last month's planning meeting, F. , a member of the group invited the whole committee and their spouses to his home for a BBQ dinner.

Delicious appetizers! 

What a feast F. and A. had prepared for us!

Tomatoes in lychee juice, extraordinary and absolutely delightful!

We could not get over the amount of planning, organizing and preparation it must have taken this couple ahead of time to prepare this BBQ dinner for us.
























It was a feast fit for a king!

Our BBQ chef did an outstanding job!

With a great BBQ chef, C. taking charge, we were treated to a 6 star plus dinner that we could not have tasted elsewhere!

Korean marinated beef ribs were just out of this world!

With every course and wine list of the party's menu neatly typed and displayed for the guests,
F. and A. served us starting with cold appetizers: smoked salmon, Alaska clam meat, mixed salad and a very special dish of tomatoes in lychee juice, which few of us had tasted before.

They were delicious!

Perfectly BBQ chicken wings

When C,. our BBQ chef arrived, we were served Korean marinated beef ribs, followed by chicken wings, then lamb chops and tenderloin steaks!

BBQ lamb chops!

F. and A. were in and out of their house trying to fill our drinks, making us teas, coffee, always serving us something to eat.

Our gracious hosts provided us with a culinary experience that was unparalleled!!

Their kindness, hospitality and genuine interest and attention towards their guests were unparalleled and incredible!

A delicious, refreshing new dessert for us - Mango and Noodles !

                                                                                 
We had an absolutely marvelous time at F.'s BBQ dinner!

Basking in the laughter and friendship with wonderful people, enjoying scrumptious food and some extraordinary desserts, being safe and sound at home, we felt blessed!

All of us enjoyed ourselves at the BBQ tremendously!

We are grateful that God has blessed us with a great group of friends by being involved in the  charitable organization!


R.T.
Feeling Blessed at
Francis' BBQ Dinner
Markham, Ontario

Sharing Games and Crafts Ideas for the Joseph Bible Story in a VBS Camp

The annual vacation bible school took place at the beginning of August in Waterloo

After our two weeks of holiday in Asia, we were busy as soon as we landed in Canada.

We had a week of leadership training for the teens prior to the Vacation Bible Camp the following week.

There was a leadership camp prior to the children's VBS day camp

This year was the first year we ran a week of leadership camp for the teens and the responses were very good!

Leadership camp prepared the leaders for their roles in VBS

Without any advertising, only through words of mouth, we had fourteen teens signed out for the week long camp!

  This year our bible stories focused on Joseph, his relationship with his brothers and his rise to power in Egypt.

Most leaders felt confident to teach their group of kids

During the leadership camp, the teens learned the songs, something about teaching children and the bible stories.

Michelle came back to help co-direct the camp

They also had time to practice their drama skits for the VBS children.

The leaders enjoyed learning meal preparation

The leaders learned to developed their leadership skills, gain independence and confidence.

They did a fine job working with kitchen equipment

The even learned how to prepared their own meals.

The leaders prepared their own meals for the whole week!

In fact, surprisingly learning to prepare for their own lunches turned out to be one of their most favourite activities!







Some of the leaders came up with some creative crafts and games and I would like to share them here so that other VBS directors and leaders can also use them in the future.

Leaders cut out the Joseph coat for the children before class

Craft # 1
Joseph's Coloured Coat

Step 1 - This was a craft prepared for kids aged 5 -7 years old.

The leader prepared a template for Joseph's coat and pre cut a number of pieces prior to our craft time.

The dye/ paint were made out of shaving cream and food colouring!

 Step 2 - Get a tray and put about half of a small can of shaving cream in it and stir it up to make it foamy.

Add a few drops of food colouring in the foam and mix the colours.

Each child takes turn and lay one side of their paper coat to this colourful mixture.

The paper will pick up the colour. Let dry on a flat surface

The youngest kids did this craft with good results

The same craft can be modified for older children or children with different learning abilities with the following changes :

- Have a few templates cut out, pass them among the children.

- Children trace the template on white paper and each cut out a coat

- Each child colours his/ her coat with their favourite colour

- For brighter / older children, they can draw designs on the coat and discuss how this special coat make Joseph's brothers feel

Craft # 2
Making Chains  - Joseph Trusted God When He Was Chained in Prison




- Leaders show children how to make 2 inch folds on pieces of paper,  can use recycled paper or old newspaper or magazines
- Children cut out strips of paper along the folds

- Using clue or tape, children make loops out of the strips of paper















- Attach the loops together to make two chains for themselves

 ( These chains can be used for a game in which children can race each other with these chains attached to their hands and feet like Jopseph being held in prison )

- Or children can make a long chain to decorate their room



Game # 1
Joseph Running Away from his brothers who were jealous of him

Walking in pairs, children are safe from their enemies

Choose a couple of children as Joseph's brothers to chase the other children.

Joseph and all other children will walk in pairs. When they walk in pairs, they will be safe from Joseph's brothers.

Every 15 seconds, a caller will yield " Joseph goes home" Then Joseph and the children leave their partners and run towards home.

After 5 seconds, the caller yields" Joseph be careful!" all the children have to be find and attach themselves to a partner to be safe.
These who are left standing alone or were touched before they find a partner become Joseph's brothers who will chase after the other children. The game ends when all the children get home safely or when there are too many caught by Joseph's brothers.

Game # 2- Joseph getting away from his brothers

Children need to know three key words and their actions in this game


Row - Have all the players standing in rows and extending their hands in full. They can be 5 or 7 people to a row.

Alley - All the players in the entire rows turn clockwise 90 degrees

Post - All the players stand where they are and put their hands down






Pick one person to be Joseph who is running away from his brother.
Pick another person as Joseph's brother chasing after Joseph.
Pick one person being the caller of the three words - Rows, Alleys, Post
Joseph and his brother have to be running within the perimeter of the players forming rows and alleys.

Listening to the caller's instructions, all the other players stand and form Rows or Alleys blocking Joseph's brother from getting to Joseph.

However, if the instruction is Post. then all the players will have their hands down and Joseph can be caught easily by his brother as there will not be any barriers between them.








These games and craft gave the VBS children a lot of fun!

Leaders taking a lunch break

 I was very thankful and honoured to have worked with such a great group of young people!

















Thank you, Lord for providing this group of great helpers to run the VBS camp this year!

R.T.
Director - TECA
Leaders Training Camp &
VBS Camp
Waterloo, Ontario