Birthday Celebration in Hong Kong Part IV: Gifts

Birthday Parties mean Birthday Gifts! And for the celebration of my 90^th in Hong Kong GIFTS is spelled in capital letters!

Birthday Parties mean Birthday Gifts! And for the celebration of my 90^th in Hong Kong GIFTS is spelled in capital letters!

It all began when a former student and teacher on my staff, Margaret, heard that I was turning 90 this year. Her immediate response, “You must celebrate in Hong Kong and I will pay the air fare for you and Jane to come.” This was followed by a message from her husband David (also a former student), “And I will pick up the hotel bill!” Who can turn down an offer like that? Well, actually Jane could and did. She knew what the pace of activities would be in Hong Kong and she knew what it feels like t take that 14 hour non-stop flight from San Francisco to HK and return. So she wisely chose to celebrate only vicariously and that turned out to be just the right decision. Our son Tim decided to go and the hosts said, “No problem. We will pick up all his expenses” and they did. Just to make the air flight a little easier, a couple from my home church, Calvary in Solana Beach, upgraded out flight to Economy Plus!

Public transportation in HK is excellent but we were going all over the place with a very tight schedule. So immediately another female graduate, Tam, spoke up. “I am making available my Mercedes and my full-time driver. She will take you wherever you need to go at whatever time you need her.” We grabbed that opportunity.

When we got off the plane the driver together with Tam and friend John were waiting at the airport in the chauffeured car. We had barely sat down when each of them handed me envelopes. Inside was cash both US and HK dollars to cover expenses and a so-called “Octopus Card” which provides access to all forms of public transportation. And when we got out of the car at our hotel we were loaded down with 4 bottles of outstanding French wine!

As indicated in an earlier BLOG all our meals were more than covered, some by the persons already mentioned above, another by Heman, the Oxford graduate attorney son of Margaret and David and by Paul who hosted a major dinner in Macau with Tam, of course having purchased the firs=class ticket on the hover-craft that provided passage between HK and Macau.

At the first birthday party each table gave a gift, which ranged from a pen, through a lovely little statue of the goddess of longevity, to more little red envelopes, each of which contained cash. At the end of our visit the Concordia School principal presented me with a wonderful photo album plus a remarkable flash drive wrist band which, when plugged in my computer carried complete photo coverage of my entire visit plus photos of the history of the school, including shots of me with the graduates for each of the years I was there. The church at which I spoke gave tee-shirts with the Luther words, “Here I Stand’, and appropriately logoed umbrellas, photo albums and a new Chinese Bible. During the previous day another pastor had given me a book stand in which the Chinese characters of the 23rd Psalm had been beautifully etched.

Naturally, gifts of jewelry, purses and wads of cash were sent along for Jane.

The evening before we left I totaled up the content of all those envelopes. The combined total HK and USA dollars was astounding. The total was not in the hundreds of dollars but was in the thousands! I sat there alone for a few minutes but then sang out loudly in both English and Chinese the immortal words of ”Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!”

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