Coffee with Christine

I thought I was just loading these photos but didn't realise that the pics were actually posted on my blog already..... until now....Since the pics are already posted, I might as well finished the posting :-) We worked hard over the weekend with the four services but we also played hard!! A friend bought us rooms for two days at Genting - a themepark resort in the highlands. The weather is similar to that of Nairobi! It was wonderful. The hotel had this advertisment of the illusive White Lion and White Tiger in a magic show. The girls had so much fun with all the crazy rides. I think we made full use of our "UNLIMITED" rides tickets we paid for, LOL! The flying Coaster, apparently the only one in Asia. The girls went on it so many times. It goes all the way up and then spin all around.... Just before we headed out to Genting, we celebrated Kathryn's 14th birthday... This is a picture that Vickie took of Anna with her new camera that also does these pretty scrapbo...

These are some pictures from our Young Adult Service at GTPJ. There were probably almost 100 Africans in that service - most of them from Botswana and about ten of them from Kenya! It was so great to see so many of them. Here, they are presenting a special African song. We felt we were transported back to Kenya. We miss the sounds of Africa! During the service, I took some time to describe Africa to the congregation. I also talked about Kenyan food.....Royco, nyama choma (grill meat), etc..The Kenyans came to us after the service and told us how they miss their food. We told them we will bring ugali (a maizemeal that is astaple to the Kenyans, just like rice/noodles are to us), Royco ( a seasoning mix which I have posted before in one of my previous post), the next time we return. They also shared with us some of their challenges living in Malaysia. It was good to fellowship with them! These were the young people answering the altar at the end of the service. If you click on the pict...

Sorry for the lack of posting and pics....we have been keeping busy - good busy! Last Sunday, Tony and I preached in two different churches. The girls and Tony's mom went with Tony and I went alone to a new church I haven't been before but the pastors are our friends. Both our services went well. Tony preached at Tabernacle of David, the church I grew up in. Pastor Swan took an offering for our family and specifically told Tony that half goes to the girls for their shopping! The girls were so excited!!! They were supposed to pick me up from a mall but instead of just picking me up, we went shopping. Vickie blew almost her whole share on her dream digital camera - a really nice slim lime green (her favorite color of the moment!) one. Kathryn told us that she will put part of her money, almost half of it, towards the laptop that we need to buy to replace the one that had died on us earlier (our poor Compaq) so that she can have the laptop!! What do you think?? Good offer...

We woke up early Monday morning at 6 am to drive to Putrajaya Hospital for Tony's surgery. He needed a lump removed from his back- it is a benign growth but was getting bigger and the doctor thought best to remove it while we are here in Malaysia. The surgery took about one hour, he chose not to go under, so they did it with local anesthetic. The surgery went well and we were home by midday. However, his gauze was soaked in blood by the evening, so we called the doctor and he told us to have the dressing re-done. We were up again the next morning (the hospital is about a one hour drive), the doctor cleaned his wound again and redressed the wound but this time with a lot more gauze, so Tony has a hump now on his back....like a camel...well, not really! I would have to convince him to let me take a picture so you all can see! All is well with him, we have to return Friday to the doctor, and I think that would be the final visit. The Lord is good and faithful to put all these tog...

This is the promised post on the "King of Fruit - the mighty Durian"! Many of you may not have heard about this fruit before. It's reputation is "smells like hell but tastes like heaven". Most Malaysians will disagree to that and will say instead "smells like heaven AND tastes like heaven". It is also sometimes called the 'forbidden' fruit because hotels in Malaysia will often post notices in their lobby and lifts that durians are not allowed on their property. The smell of durian is very very strong. We had one durian in our car for about 10 minutes when we were in Ipoh and it took us a whole day to air out the smell! We had to do that because our girls find the smell nauseating :-) Durian has a really tough outer shell with hard and sharp thorns. The thorns can actually puncture your skin if you are not careful. Because of this hard and thorny shell, openning a durian is a skill in itself! If want you to read more about Durian, I am sure you ...

We left for Ipoh last Saturday to minister in three services in two churches. We had a great time with Pastor Joyce and Pastor Christie. Pas Christie and I were in the same year at Bible College of Malaysia. Both these churches are Cantonese speaking. Ipoh is basically a Cantonese speaking city. It was so neat to hear our messages translated in Cantonese and really refreshed our minds on many cantonese words/terms we have forgotten living in Africa!!! But first, a picture of our two wonderful girls. They are such troopers. Both of them ministered with us. The first night, they played a duet for First Assembly. On Sunday morning, Vickie went with me to Emmanuel and played a solo flute piece (her first!) and then after the service, the Youth minister took her aside to speak to the youth group of the church. This is also Vickie's first. She usually prefers being in the background and let her big sister do all the talking. She answered questions and shared with the youth her life in K...