Two Memorable Days For John This Year

This year, there were two memorable days for John. The first was when he declared to the world that he believed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

Not having expected his turn to be so soon after the other Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys' water baptism, I was very glad with his willingness to take the step of faith.

Since then, he has been behaving as a more mature born-again Christian.

The second day he was to remember was the celebration of his physical birth as a baby sixteen years ago. I had noted the wrong date in my calendar. One week earlier, I already sent him my greeting and planned the celebration for the next day when I went to CCH to give him maths tuition. Last week, I still could only turn up on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Did John mind whether we celebrated his birthday on the exact date or another? Just look at his face when we gathered to have dinner together and then sing a birthday song to him,

and when he was cutting the cake.

Having learned my "hard" lesson with Daniel's "volcanic" coconut cake, I thought I was smart enough this time to use a packet of chiffon cake ready flour which Ping had passed to me some time ago. All I had to do was to add in eggs, water and oil, then bake the batter. My lazy plan did not work out very well--Not only I had not stirred the mixture until fluffy enough, I had forgot to grease the pan before I put it in the oven. As a result, the bottom of the cake was torn when I removed it from the metal container. Rushing to work that morning, I neither spread the half-melted chocolate properly. I think Ping would be shaking her head again at the sight of my dry cake which she would never associate with chiffon...

In spite of my numerous disastrous experiences, I was always consoled when I saw my little supporters drooling in front of my products which would by no means pass any quality control. The greater comfort came when one of them requested a second piece. The older supporters simply opened their mouths, chewed and imagined it was a kind of rice-flour cake.

John, you won't forget these two days, will you?