Journal Entry #17

What is one thing I can do today to make someone feel like a human being?

Brief context for those who read this and aren’t in my Biblical Ethics class: We were discussing poverty (basically related to the proposal I posted before), and I learned that what poor people really need is not money, not bigger housing, but being treated like normal human beings. I already feel guilty using the description “poor people”, but what they really need is for us to call them people and act like they are normal.

What I can do to make someone feel like a human being is sit down and talk with them. It is ultimately embarrassing to have someone come and empathize with you as if you are incompetent; however, it as a completely different thing to have a conversation with a person like they are our friends, our neighbors. I would sit down or slow down to talk with any person who wants companionship, and I’d share some funny and sad stories about myself, and rack up a good conversation with the person I am talking to. Whilst I am talking with them, I may start seeping in bits of the gospel and eventually try to welcome them into the Kingdom of God. I might even treat them a McDonalds meal just to create an opportunity of conversation if I had enough money to.

I believe that everyone should have the chance to experience God, and what everyone really needs is to be treated the same as other people, because a society without social barriers is technically the ideal utopian society, and to get our world closer to that, we need to first start treating everyone like they are our friends, our long-lost friends, and break the obstacle that obstructs us from creating the perfect community.

Journal Entry #16

What can you do?

As an individual, my power is limited. However, a small man can do great things, and everything I do will be an impact to those in the cage homes.

What I can do is raise money for the cage dwellers. I am good at that, and I always get 80+ sponsors for Walkathon. This year, I got more than 90. If I raise money, we can use that money to buy supplies and actually physically help those living in cage homes.

What else I can do is motivate friends to do it with me. I am quite good at debating on topics where I feel motivated or personal to, and the caged homes fall into that category. Sam and I can debate our way through almost anything, and if we fight for the cage dwellers with words and motivate people, we can get more and more people to do us.

Look at the exponential graph. It starts with a slow and almost invisible change, but at the end of it, it suddenly erupts and has no end. It can be the same with this project. If our class starts to do it, starting from an individual, it can evolve into a pair, then a group of 4, then the class, then more classes, eventually the school, and finally a large group of people.

The plan I propose doesn’t require too much commitment. You just go approximately once a month to a cage home with a few other people. Since there are many teams, the workload is evenly split and the cage dwellers can feel some substantial support. Then, we can slowly seep in the word of God into their lives and make them feel the love of Jesus.

My mission is to spread the love of Jesus, and I feel that everyone should have the chance to know God and have their lives changed for the better.

Journal Entry #15

What can we do to help cage dwellers in Hong Kong?

It is a fact that there are more than 100,000 cage dwellers in Hong Kong. Many people talk about it, such as some forums, videos, and television programmes, but do we actually step out to help?

I went on Google to search for organizations that actually do substantial work. Every forum and website I go to points to only one organization: SoCO, the Society for Community Organization. However, searching their site, I found that all they do is raise awareness and fight for the rights of people that live in caged homes. They have many “photo exhibitions” and “artwalks” that show photos of cage dwellers to raise public awareness, even bringing in an actual cage to an exhibition in Central. But do these exhibitions and awareness projects really help?

There was a YouTube video showed in Ethics class of a man who went to a cage home to see its horrible conditions. A young girl, Jessica, has nearly no money to pay rent for a cubicle home. She has to go to school by herself everyday while her mother goes to work early in the morning. The kitchen and bathroom is not at all sanitary and is shared between 20 people. She has cockroaches crawling over her at night, and never lives a comfortable life.

After researching for more organizations, I couldn’t find any that specially help cage and cubicle dwellers. I appreciate SoCO for allowing the public to know how horrible cage homes are. It truly is surprising that in such a developed urban city, there could be more than a hundred thousand people who live in cages like animals. Even the cages aren’t cheap. Though they are stacked on top of another, they cost quite a lot for the people who live there, and the government has done nothing to help.

So how can my class and I help? Our small class of 20 has many possibilities. There is a saying along the lines of “small people can do great things.” I propose this method:

Project “Uncage”

Purpose: To significantly/solidly help the people who live in cages and cubicles (not just raising awareness within our comfort zone)

Materials: Our class and whatever else is needed, lots of Bibles (probably Chinese), possibly subsidized by our school

Procedure:
– We split the class into 4 or 5 groups
– Buy tons of Chinese Bibles
– Each group goes twice a month (so two groups go at a time), maybe on the weekend, to do service for cage dwellers
– Examples include helping them clean their cages or cubicles, giving them food, etc.
– Give a Bible to each cage dweller and teach them about Christ
– Give Chinese lessons and/or English lessons to those who are less educated or illiterate
– Make this a mandatory class participation assignment worth lots of points, only excusable if the group really can’t go

Expansion:
– If our ideas work, we get more people to help and spread to more cage homes, such as other classes and possibly the whole school
– Most of our school’s families are rich, so we can get donations from them, possibly even start an organization with a parent who has resources and power
– If the school starts working with us, we can get the school to open a class or a few specially for those who live in cage homes so they get free and good education with more education on Christianity

I believe that everyone should have the chance to meet Christ, and if our school is truly a Christian school and not a commercial product, our school should approve this project and expand it so that even the lowest of the lowest can meet God and have a chance to go to heaven, because this is the true Great Commission that Jesus sent us to do. If we are really Christians, then we will help the lowest of society, those who don’t have the ability to know God by themselves.

Journal Entry #14

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”

– Gandhi

I think that Gandhi is trying to tell us not to be hypocrites. When we always want to “change the world” and “make the world a better place”, we need to first follow our own rules and morals, or else the changes we preach are useless and unconvincing. When we want others to improve, we need to improve ourselves too, so that we become what we preach and the role model we set will enhance our message.

An example of not “being the change” was the Pharisees from Jesus’ era. I don’t know about Pharisees nowadays, so I can’t say anything about them. However, the Pharisees of Jesus’ time always spread the “law” and the rules that people should follow so that they could be safe from God’s wrath. Jesus comes in and tells them that God doesn’t need all these rules besides true love from his followers, but the Pharisees didn’t listen. Being known for hypocrisy, they always preached rules they didn’t follow. Once chided by Jesus, they became furious and tried to save their “reputation” by killing Jesus, another example of hypocrisy.

Many people always talk about solving the problems of poverty, but does nothing to fight against it. Why debate all the time, when all it takes is you yourself donating to the poor? I learned in Ethics class today that if all the people in Christian churches followed the 10% of your earnings rule and gave it all to the poor, all poverty in the world would be gone in two weeks. Just two Sundays!

Therefore, we must be the change we wish to see in the world and not be hypocrites who sit there and do nothing.

Journal Entry #13

My Camp Experience…

I went to the ICS high school camp on Tuesday to Thursday (Oct 8-10), and this is my experience.

Being a lover of classical music and a disliker of pop, I didn’t really like worship much. Worship was way too loud and out of my tolerance boundaries, so I just sat in the back for worship. I can tolerate quiet and soothing pop style worship music, but all the screaming and loud guitars annoyed me. However, we went bowling on the second day of camp, which lifted my spirits up. Bowling with my tribe was fun, because I got to bowl with different people rather than the usual group of close friends. Please note that I am organizing this into alternating good and bad thoughts about camp. A bad experience/complain would be that the students got no say about rooms. Before, in middle school camp, we were allowed to choose 2 people we wanted in our rooms, and the teachers tried to fulfill our wishes. In high school camp, though, we were just given rooms with people we aren’t really good friends with, and these rooms never end up being optimal, creating an awkward and obstructed environment. On the good side, water games and house sports were fun and kept us active, filling hours with team spirit and endless fun. However, a problem with water games was the point system. We used cheerios strung around our necks, and if some people strung it tight or had lucky cheerios, even 100 water balloons couldn’t hit them off. I want to end with a good note, so allow me to introduce the zombie apocalypse. Replacing senior hunt, zombie apocalypse was a scary game where everyone except for Joey and Louise started as humans and were quickly infected by being tagged. I had perfect camouflage with a dark umbrella and water gun, but I started getting cramps after crouching safely in my hiding spot for 30 minutes. Though the game could’ve been shorter to make surviving easier, it was one of the best games at camp.

Overall, I would call camp a fun experience, and would look forward to camp next year.

Journal Entry #12

Write a letter to someone concerning the prophecies of Jesus and what you believe out of it.

Dear   (blank)  ,

Hi! We didn’t talk for a long time, but I would like to share interesting things with you today.

I know that you are not a Christian, but I personally think that Jesus is real, and what he did is real.

Research has shown that there is 1 in 10²⁵⁸ probability that someone could fulfill about 50 prophecies in the Old Testament. However, Jesus fulfilled all those, from being born in Bethlehem to riding a donkey in Jerusalem to dying on the cross for our sins. Even with 8 prophecies of Jesus’ birth, betrayal, crucifixion, and forerunner (John the Baptist), it’s a 1 in  10¹⁷ chance that Jesus could have fulfilled all those prophecies. Some people argue that he read all those prophecies and followed that outline, but hey, who could control their birth according to the prophecy?

Some examples of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled included being born in Bethlehem, from a virgin, and being a descendant of David (his birth and lineage). In the old Israel society, if a woman was found to have given birth as a virgin, she would have been either stoned or shunned from society. So responding to people who say that Jesus crafted his life, who would give up their life for something they know is a lie? Who would forge the “Messiah” and in return get himself isolated or even killed?

I believe that Jesus is true. We always say that there isn’t evidence of a Messiah, but Jesus has had more written accounts than many people in history that we believe are true. Is it just because of Jesus’ significance and specialness that people don’t believe in him? Is it because people are forced to account for their sins that they stop believing in Jesus?

Given all these evidence, I think that you should believe that Jesus is real and that he is who he said he is: the Son of God. Evolution (humans are from monkeys, frogs from fish etc.) has even less evidence and even requires more faith that Christianity and believing in Jesus. So given this proof, you should know that Jesus is true.

I hope we can talk more about faith and religion next time!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Journal Entry #11

What do you think about the people who camp out for new technology (e.g. iPhone 5s)?

I personally think that it is pointless to camp out for new technology. We always learn about being happy with what we have, and hey, I used an old Nokia for many years before finally getting a old smartphone in Grade 9 (my brother’s old HTC Desire). Besides wanting to be an engineer, technology, and especially Apple technology, does not spark me to camp 15 days to be the first to sweep up tons of new phones to use them and raise their prices in the market (in Chinese we call it “frying prices” (straight translation)).

Driving away from the smartphones for a bit, I feel like trends are a destructive force. Trends seem like those generic “appealing traps created by Satan”. And it is true. Those who follow trends waste tons of money buying things that they won’t even use for more than a few months. I know of someone (no names) who always followed trends and at one time bought the iPhone 4, then the 4s, then the Samsung Galaxy SIII, then the iPhone 5, and now he wants to get the 5s. I don’t want to be offensive, but there are many like him that wasted lots of money on trends and still think they gained.

My second argument against smartphones is striking against the “frying prices”. I see it absolutely horrid that people buy 20 new iPhones and don’t use them, but sell them at a much greater price, hence the frying prices. One of the greatest problems in Hong Kong is the housing issue, which is intertwined with the gap between the rich and the poor. Because the rich people could afford to buy many houses (such as Li Ka Shing), they buy many apartments and raise its price high so they could profit much from just a few houses. When they get more money, they buy more and sell more, and fry more housing prices, and in the end they become very rich. However, these people are viewed as the evils of society. They pay the government so that the government will have more money for its purposes, which mean that the government can’t and won’t do anything about this issue.

The housing issue is much like the smartphone issue (trends and prices), where many people sit and wait for the new phones to come out either to brag about it (not a lot of people do this as a primary purpose) or fry its price to the extreme (many people do this). I think that it is not worth it to wait for new phones, because it only wastes our time, marks us as inconsiderate people, and wastes lots of our money if we fail to “fry” the price well.

If we don’t tackle this issue soon, the world will fall into a chaotic realm of trends and prices, which is just what Satan (the devil) wants for us: The devil wants us to indulge in these trends (fashion, technology, etc.) which makes us more distant from God our Father, and many of us are falling into Satan’s traps today.

Journal Entry #10

What area in your life requires the strongest guardrails?

I think that the area of “food” requires the most guardrails in my life. Food has always been a temptation that made me become fatter, and fatter, and fatter…

Food, by itself, is a good thing. Food keeps us alive, and food is also enjoyable according to our tastes. However, I keep telling myself this whenever I see good food: “Oh, it’s just another (food), it doesn’t matter if I eat one more (food). I won’t become that much fatter. But think of how happy I’ll be! Oh this (food) tastes so good, so I should take one more!” Through the years, this temptation and lack of guardrails has led me to becoming quite overweight, and may create some health problems like diabetes when I grow up.

At the present (September 2013), I am very overweight in comparison to my country (Hong Kong)’s average. I feel like I need to establish many guardrails against the amount of consumption I should eat, but it isn’t easy. Every time after I eat, I go: “Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that much. Oh, I’ll be able to eat less next time. It’s okay.” As a matter of fact, it’s not okay. I keep eating and eating, and gaining more weight in the process. I should have established guardrails before I know what will happen, because I know the end result. I especially chide myself when I get stomachaches from eating too much (actually happens quite often, at least once per 1-2 weeks). After the chiding, I eat as much the next day.

I think that I should establish more guardrails before the real problems start to occur, and that I should pray to God for the strength to resist such temptation. Guardrails are an important part of my life that I need to create before it’s too late.

Journal Entry #9

What is one tangible intentional way you can practice “walking with the wise”?

Walking with the wise generally means hanging out and socializing with those who think before they act. Wisdom, as defined by today’s dictionary is “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment”. However, in a Biblical sense, wisdom is the ability to judge and act accordingly to God’s good and pleasing will. In both, there is judgement, but what makes the Biblical wisdom different is that it relies on the righteousness and knowledge of God. God will never want us to become evil, so his good and perfect will is what we need to follow, and if we see Jesus in somebody else, then that person is wise.

One tangible and intentional way I can “walk with the wise” is find some friends who always do the right thing and think before they act, and hang out with them so I can obtain their positive influence. And, when I am wise enough, I can go help others to become wise. In that way, wisdom will spread at a small scale, but exponentially too.

This journal entry isn’t very long, but to sum up, we can always “walk with the wise” and gain their positive influence. We know who’s wise and who isn’t from their actions and the “fruits” that they produce. Jesus said that a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit, and that trees are known for their fruit. So even if everyone looks the same on the surface, their actions will vary and from those actions we know who we should hang out with and who we shouldn’t, because friends are one of the greatest influences on our lives.

Journal Entry #8

Describe a past situation where you didn’t establish a “guardrail” but wish you did.

When I was in fourth grade, I had a surgery with 20 stitches because I didn’t establish a guardrail.

This guardrail was physical (not emotional/mental), and it was that I shouldn’t become too excited during games and lose myself. I was in church that day, and we were playing mini golf. A golf ball went over the fence, and everybody rushed to see it. Excited, I ran, not noticing a dome shaped sewer cover on the ground, then tripped. The fence had an extra screw that was sticking up which it hit my glasses and my glasses cut my right eyebrow. I immediately bled heavily and was rushed to the hospital.

I realized that if God hadn’t given me glasses, I would have been blinded in my right eye and it would have hurt quite a lot. God, in saving my eye, seeped a message and guardrail that I should control myself while having fun, not becoming overly excited and losing my self-control.

After my surgery and 20 stitches, the experience didn’t hurt as much as I expected it to be, and I now know that God always protects us, and through mistakes he teaches us to establish guardrails against doing anything foolish.