Do you love your Jesus with all your heart? (call)
Yes, I love my Jesus with all my heart! (response)
We sang these words like little Ukrainian children today. As the energetic Ukrainian missions team sang the call, they cupped their ears, waiting for a response. And we would reply in song with the words of lovers' confession. I sang it too, at first bashfully. And then I sang it again, more honestly, a little more joyfully. And then I sang it again, more joyfully and triumphantly. I could feel something loosening somewhere; for but a moment, I was a child again.
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As I leaned intently on the glass table in the modern marble-and-wood kitchen, staring at a grade 11's math problems, I felt the deep satisfaction that came with offering my knowledge to him. I described ourselves as people looking for the right tools to solve the problems we were given. Perhaps we would try factoring this problem; or, if that didn't work, we would apply the quadratic formula.
I want to offer everything I can to him, in a situation where he is alone in a new country, living with a man (his dad's friend) who is recently divorced. He has understood that his new guardian works long hours and stays out late with friends, so he cooks instant noodles as supper for the seventh time this week. Today, he told me he woke up to the wonders of seeing his first snowfall on the ground. It was really a light frost, but to a child raised in urban Hong Kong, the difference in appearance is perhaps not as obvious.
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