Visitors From South Korea To Calvary Care Home

Last two Sundays, Albert P announced to us that a group of South Koreans would be coming to Calvary Care Home (CCH) on 13 July. At first, I thought the visit might be related to my trip in South Korea more than one month earlier during which I had given a CCH card to my tour guide Jeson. Later, when I talked to Siew Hong about this, she told me that Pastor Roy, who was in charge of arranging this trip, had already been based in Melaka as a consultant of WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) Partners in Malaysia for one year.

As I was exceptionally free this whole Tuesday afternoon, I was very glad to be able to help to receive the guests. Very soon, the workers George and Joshua brought the visitors with two vans, led by Ps Roy and Ps Joshua Kim from Walpyung Hill church in South Korea.

After hearing comments that he looked like a Korean, the CCH administrator finally had a chance to be surrounded by real Koreans. Unfortunately, he could not even pronounce a greeting word in Korean correctly. Nonetheless, his effort was appreciated by our brothers and sisters in Christ who kindly clapped their hands in return.

As many of these Koreans could not understand English very well, Ps Joshua gave a simple translation in their mother tongue of Albert's presentation.

Compared to the other time with the folks from Muar, this session of the "Albert Talk Show" was much more moderate. The host did not highlight the CCH boy's academic achievement.

Anyway, the South Korean visitors were only interested to know if the boys opened their hearts to accept them as friends, not their results in schools.

After their self introduction, our new friends turned the living room into a stage where they lively presented two praise songs in English

and Korean respectively,

and a meaningful short performance about our lives when we have Jesus as our everything,

and when we allow the devil to control us with the love of money, depression, alchoholism and lust.

Of course, if we repent of our sins

and turn to our Lord, we will always overcome the world, like Jesus.

I enjoyed this skit as much as the one by the Doulos team last November.

Next, the young adults took out balloons

and painting materials they had brought.

Not only they were talented in singing, dancing and acting,

they were also good at art.

The former full-time guardian Sis Fei Gin happened to step into the home during these interesting activities. It was a pity that she did not stay long. Otherwise, she would have got some beautiful flowers on her face

like Albert

and me.

Looking at Daniel, I thought of the face paint I had done to the children in the Philippines in September 2008.

David's face with white stripes reminded me of the aborigines in Australia.

Paul would have given me a fright if he had suddenly appeared from the back passengers' seat of my car while I was driving.

Needless to say, Luke's "facial flag" could have gained from Germany a free entrance ticket of every match of FIFA World Cup the team was playing to thank his fervent support.

Our painters themselves looked cute with moustache or musical notes on their sweet faces.

The visitors in their yellow T-shirts now cheered CCH up more by organizing outdoor games.

While most of them were playing with the children in the field,

George plucked ripe rambutans from the trees to make our guests from East Asia taste these tropical fruits. He also put a lot in a big plastic bag to let them take away.

Albert left to check out available seats at a nearby restaurant where all of us were going to have a meal together. The home administrator whose mind was in South Korea had forgot about the green flower and yellow dots on his left cheek. When he came back, he told me that his already handsome face had drawn even more admirers...

We entered the house again to rest for awhile. While getting ready to leave for dinner, Ps Joshua represented the group to express their desire to have a long-term contact with the CCH children by pairing them up as pen pals.

During the past three hours, they had already developed some friendship with the younger boys as well as the older ones John

and Isaac.

Matthew whose participation was the least active had not lost his popularity. He had two vibrant fellows to write to him in future and to add in his Facebook friends' list.

At seven o'clock, we went to "Chicken Delight" at Bukit Baru.

Our South Korean guests continued to bless us by giving us a treat and souvenirs from their country.

I suppose Sis Martha, the CCH cook, would have preferred serving others, like the Bible character with the same name, rather than being served.

The juniors were gathering around a long table

while the seniors were having fellowship at another table near the wall.

Where was I seated? You guess.

We said goodbye to one another outside the restaurant and looked forward to meeting again at Calvary Life Assembly this coming Sunday morning.

Sending Kit To The Barber's

Last Monday afternoon, my handphone rang. Kit asked me if I would be free to send him to the barber's the next day. The previous Thursday when I had visited him, I had already noticed that his hair had grown long but I had never thought of offering him any help for a hair cut.

My afternoon BOM class at Malim had happened to be cancelled Tuesday. So I was planning to spend a few hours at Calvary Care Home before attending my night MLM class. Even though Kit's request would not disturb my programme at all, I did not confirm with him what time exactly I would be at his place. That evening, however, I told myself that if I wanted to lead a sincere externally focused life, I should change my attitude to help people not only when it was convenient for me.

When I arrived at his place the next day afternoon, his room door was locked. While wondering why he was not yet back from the centre where he received his physiotherapy during weekdays, I read my MLM notes. About an hour later, someone sent him back. Actually Kit had also waited for me there from 4pm onwards. I was the one who had not listened to him carefully and so had misunderstood where I was supposed to pick him.

Nevertheless, Kit was happy to see me. He slowly lifted his body from the wheelchair, sat onto the front passenger's seat in my car and directed me to the barber's. He told me that the man who used to transport him had resigned from his voluntary work two months ago. Since, his hair had not been cut.

The shop was at the roadside nearby. At first he asked me to stop right in front of it. As it was too near the junction, I preferred to park further. When he got out from my car, Kit suddenly realised that he had forgot to bring along his walking stick, without which it was very hard for him to drag inch by inch to his usual sitting place.

Seeing Kit's slow and tedious move, the barber who was going to close his shop soon decided to place a chair next to my car, pull the extension wire from the window

and start shaving Kit's head there and then!

It must be the first open-air experience to both the boss and the client. I was amused by the scene very much.

The barber looked stern in the beginning. As I walked around to take pictures, he smilingly introduced his shop which had been existing for forty-five years.

"You can't find this kind of barbershop elsewhere in Melaka."

"Has any newspaper ever reported on your shop?"

"Yes, Malay papers."

"Then I'll be the first to write about it in English."

He proudly showed me a family picture of the former Indonesian president Sukarno above a mirror and another black and white portrait of himself.

When I stared at his younger handsome face inside the frame, I thought of one of Dad's old photographs with the similar hairstyle and contemplative look.

"Have you been to Medan?"

"No, I haven't visited Indonesia yet but I'd like to go there one day."

"I was born and stayed in Medan until the age of eighteen..." Now I understood why he had an attachment to our neighbouring country.

Kit's hair was trimmed neatly within minutes. When I took out my wallet to pay for Kit, Uncle Maze said to me in Hokkien, "You're very kind hearted, that's good!"

I was amazed at this 74-year-old Malay elderly's fluency in the Chinese dialect. I had no intention of digging up his past stories. However, he was not reluctant to tell me more about his family background. He actually had grown up with Chinese Indonesian relatives from his mother's side.

If I were a man, I would have liked to be the next client to be attended to in this antique barbershop by Uncle Maze who was two years Kit's senior.

I thanked God for this interesting encounter. When I looked at Kit's satisfied face and fresh look, I was also glad to be his driver for this short trip. The joy I felt in return was worth much more than the half an hour and the RM5 I had spent. May God continue to use me as a blessing to whoever in need.

I Have Become A Professional Wrestling Valet!

Last Sunday afternoon after a short meeting with the Calvary Care Home (CCH) children, Albert P and I asked them what they would like to do next. Without hesitation, they answered, "Wrestling!"

Last November, when they first came to my place, they were keen to play a PS2 wrestling game. When I brought David to a shopping mall in Batu Pahat this January, his eyes were fixed at a professional wrestling match showed on the television screen in a shop for at least twenty minutes. In the swimming pool in February, they wrestled in the water! During the CCH 10th anniversary drama, they were most excited with the wrestling scene.

All these proved how much they loved wrestling, which had been allowed at CCH until last year after the new comer Joshua was injured and thus taken back by his mother who was worried about his safety. Despite countless warnings and punishments, the boys had been practising it behind the guardians.

This time, we two symbolic parents temporarily lifted the ban and let them hold an open wrestling competition with supervision as part of the "Feel At Home" programme we had promised early this year. The boys immediately shifted all the mattresses from their rooms to downstairs and piled them on the floor to serve as the mat.

Joseph who was back from Montfort Youth Centre for one-week holiday volunteered to be the referee. There began series of the familiar actions that the boys had learned from the wrestling shows on television, namely pinning the opponent's shoulders to the mat,

incapacitating the opponent,

forcing the opponent to submit, etc.

Before each match, Albert and I selected our respective wrestler and sent them to the ring. As a valet, my "man" often emerged triumphant.

I also picked Joseph to fight. He did not disappoint me by conquering his opponent. Therefore, I had the honour to pose with him while he was holding his trophy belt.

Albert had chosen Isaac, the most impressive in size, and had won in the first match.

When he noted that his following appointed wrestlers were not as strong as mine, the manager with the big buttock suddenly entered the arena,

jumped onto his own "man" Daniel to "finish him off"

and grabbed the victory illegitimately.

Later, John participated in the hand-to-hand combat as well to oppose Isaac.

Despite his tiny frame, he was able to resist Isaac's weight and attacks for a long time.

Lastly, all the boys joined the ring to have a group wrestling.

Even though we did not go out from the Home at all that afternoon, none of the boys felt bored. They had so much fun with the wrestling that they did not even think of requesting to watch a movie on DVD.

Had there been any walk-in visitors, they would surely have been wondering what kind of godly programme we two volunteers were running at CCH...

Don't worry, this was only once in a blue moon.