February 21, 2007 (Wednesday)
Mealtime Prayer
One of the daily habits that we have been doing for years is to say a prayer before we eat. Before breakfast and before lunch, SiowFong prays, and before dinner, I pray. In China, Lydia saw both of us bowing our heads, closing our eyes, and clasping our hands while one of us uttered a short mealtime prayer. Once we returned to America, we made more of an effort to involve her by clasping her hands before the prayer.
Tonight she surprised us when she spontaneously placed her hands together when she saw us preparing to pray before dinner. (We will see if she does this again tomorrow night.)
We are trying to teach Lydia that we depend on God for all that we have, including the abundance of food that we are privileged to eat every day. Tim Stafford, a senior writer for Christianity Today magazine and a father of three children, describes it this way: “We consider it essential to pause, recognize his [God’s] gifts and thank him for them. Like saying thank you to each other, even for the most ordinary help, grace at the table reinforces the understanding that we owe God thanks constantly. (Tim Stafford. Never Mind the Joneses: Building Core Christian Values in a Way That Fits Your Family. Intervarsity Press: 2004. page 154.)
Helpless
Philip Yancey, the editor-at-large for Christianity Today magazine, the author of twelve Gold Medallion Award-winning books, and an author who has had four books that have each sold over a million copies, elaborates further:
“Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby settled on the single word helplessness as the best summary of the heart attitude that God accepts as prayer. ‘Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves,’ he adds. ‘Only he who is helpless can truly pray.’
What a stumbling block! Almost from birth we aspire to self-reliance. Adults celebrate it as a triumph whenever children learn to do something on their own: go to the bathroom, get dressed, brush teeth, tie shoelaces, ride a bike, walk to school. When the child stubbornly insists, ‘I’ll do it myself!’ the parent takes secret pride in that independent spirit even when the child proceeds to make a mess of the task.
As adults we like to pay our own way, live in our own houses, make our own decisions, rely on no outside help. We look down upon those who live off welfare or charity. Faced with an unexpected challenge, we week out ‘self-help’ books. All the while we are systematically sealing off the heart attitude most desirable to God and most descriptive of our true state in the universe. ‘Apart from me you can do nothing,’ Jesus told his disciples, a plain fact that we conspire to deny.
The truth, of course, is that I am not self-reliant. As a first-grade student I hated having the teacher stand over me to correct my reading miscues; I wanted to ‘do it myself!’ But had the teacher not assumed her proper role, I may never have learned to read books, much less write them. As an adult I rely on public utilities to bring me electricity and fuel, vehicle manufacturers to provide me transportation, ranchers and farmers to feed me, pastors and mentors to nourish me spiritually. I live in a web of dependence, at the center of which is God in whom all things hold together.
Prayer forces me to catch sight of this my true state…
Most parents feel a pang when the child outgrows dependence, even while knowing the growth to be healthy and normal. With God, the rules change. I never outgrow dependence, and to the extent I think I do, I delude myself. Asking for help lies at the root of prayer: the Lord’s Prayer itself consists of a string of such requests. Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.”
(Source: Philip Yancey. Prayer -- Does It Make Any Difference? (Zondervan: 2006, pages 33-35)
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Happy Chinese New Year !
February 18, 2007 (Sunday)
Chinese New Year Dinner
One aspect of Chinese New Year in Asia that resembles Thanksgiving in America is that families that are normally scattered throughout the city, province, or country gather together to share each other’s company. A big event during this celebration is the sharing of a special meal at home.
Since this is Ma Wee’s first Chinese New Year outside Malaysia, she wanted to make it a unique occasion by making some special entrees; otherwise, the dinner tonight would just be an ordinary meal.
Two days prior to today, Ma Wee began her preparations. By 2:00 PM today, three hours before our four guests were scheduled to arrive for supper, Ma Wee was ready to cook the last of her dishes. All of her hard work culminated in three dishes, including boiled sea cucumber and pork, steamed stuffed Shitake mushrooms with minced pork, and steamed tofu that were stuffed with minced pork.
Along with steamed rice, the rest of the nine entrée dinner consisted of the following: taro pasta (brought by Peng), chicken curry (made by SiowFong), steamed whole tilapia with red peppers and scallions (Tom’s contribution), sautéed Chinese cabbage with dried shrimp (done by SiowFong), and two items done by Ranch 99, roast duck and char siu (Chinese barbecue) pork ribs. Dessert consisted of butter pecan ice cream, apple pie, fresh pineapple (brought by the Chews), and grapes.
By the time the meal ended, our guests, Peng and the Chews (Steven, Tammy, and their son, Nicholas), were full just like we were.
Pork
Ma Wee’s three main course meals for Chinese New Year all have pork. With respect to red meat, Americans usually prefer beef over pork. With the Chinese, it is the opposite. Since her arrival to America just a little over a month ago, Ma Wee has probably eaten more beef (e.g. beef stew and stir-fried beef with a vegetable) than she normally consumes during an entire year in Malaysia. (The Malays, who are Muslim, eat beef, and the Chinese, many of whom are Buddhists, avoid beef.)
“An estimated 70 percent of China’s meat dishes contain pork. This sometimes bland, sometimes richly flavored meat is particularly revered in the south, where roast suckling pig is essential to any festive occasion. Every day, along China’s snaking rail lines, trains speed cargoes of live pigs from vast piggeries to markets in Hong Kong and Guangdong, and to specialty restaurants further north.” (Jacki Passimore. Williams-Sonoma: Savoring China – Recipes and Reflections on Chinese Cooking. Oxmoor House: 2003, page 74.)
Chinese New Year Dinner
One aspect of Chinese New Year in Asia that resembles Thanksgiving in America is that families that are normally scattered throughout the city, province, or country gather together to share each other’s company. A big event during this celebration is the sharing of a special meal at home.
Since this is Ma Wee’s first Chinese New Year outside Malaysia, she wanted to make it a unique occasion by making some special entrees; otherwise, the dinner tonight would just be an ordinary meal.
Two days prior to today, Ma Wee began her preparations. By 2:00 PM today, three hours before our four guests were scheduled to arrive for supper, Ma Wee was ready to cook the last of her dishes. All of her hard work culminated in three dishes, including boiled sea cucumber and pork, steamed stuffed Shitake mushrooms with minced pork, and steamed tofu that were stuffed with minced pork.
Along with steamed rice, the rest of the nine entrée dinner consisted of the following: taro pasta (brought by Peng), chicken curry (made by SiowFong), steamed whole tilapia with red peppers and scallions (Tom’s contribution), sautéed Chinese cabbage with dried shrimp (done by SiowFong), and two items done by Ranch 99, roast duck and char siu (Chinese barbecue) pork ribs. Dessert consisted of butter pecan ice cream, apple pie, fresh pineapple (brought by the Chews), and grapes.
By the time the meal ended, our guests, Peng and the Chews (Steven, Tammy, and their son, Nicholas), were full just like we were.
Pork
Ma Wee’s three main course meals for Chinese New Year all have pork. With respect to red meat, Americans usually prefer beef over pork. With the Chinese, it is the opposite. Since her arrival to America just a little over a month ago, Ma Wee has probably eaten more beef (e.g. beef stew and stir-fried beef with a vegetable) than she normally consumes during an entire year in Malaysia. (The Malays, who are Muslim, eat beef, and the Chinese, many of whom are Buddhists, avoid beef.)
“An estimated 70 percent of China’s meat dishes contain pork. This sometimes bland, sometimes richly flavored meat is particularly revered in the south, where roast suckling pig is essential to any festive occasion. Every day, along China’s snaking rail lines, trains speed cargoes of live pigs from vast piggeries to markets in Hong Kong and Guangdong, and to specialty restaurants further north.” (Jacki Passimore. Williams-Sonoma: Savoring China – Recipes and Reflections on Chinese Cooking. Oxmoor House: 2003, page 74.)
Chinese New Year's Eve
February 17, 2007 (Saturday)
Today is the eve of Chinese New Year.
To commemorate that occasion, Lydia, Ma Wee, SiowFong, and I ate dinner at one of our local Chinese restaurants, T & T. We called the following three dishes: seafood chow fun (wet and wide noodles stir-fried with seafood), eight jewels hot pot (fried tofu and seafood), and sautéed pea vine with garlic.
After supper, we went next door to Ranch 99, a Chinese grocery store, to buy items for tomorrow night’s Chinese New Year dinner at our home.
Chinese New Year: The Basics
(Source: www.jackiechankids.com)
“The oldest and most important festival in China is called the Spring Festival. Many people call it the Chinese New Year. No matter what you call it, it is a time of celebration for millions of Chinese people all over the world.
The Spring Festival celebrates the Earth coming back to life and the beginning of plowing and planting. Because the Chinese use a lunar calendar, the date of the Spring Festival changes each year. It takes place at some time during the end of January or the beginning of February. This year it falls on February 18, 2007.
The Chinese calendar has a 12 year cycle and each year is named after an animal. People born in each of these years are said to have certain characteristics.
The year 2007 (year 4705 on the Chinese calendar) is the Year of the Pig or the Boar. People born in the Year of the Pig are honest, sincere and genuine. They have a heart of gold and people admire them tremendously. They are called upon when sincere advice is needed and will always give a helping hand. Pig people are the best friends anyone can have. They are fun-loving and know how to throw a good party, but if you anger or hurt them, they can be extremely vengeful. They can also be naive, which allows others to take advantage of them. They have a great thirst for knowledge.
To prepare for the New Year, Chinese clean their houses, repay any money they owe, get their hair cut, and buy new clothes. They decorate their houses with signs that wish peace and luck for the coming year. These signs look like the ones to the right and left of this story.
On New Year's Eve the Chinese light up their houses and gather together for a family dinner. Special foods are served. Most people stay up late and set off fireworks late at night to scare away evil spirits. Another tradition is the handing out of red packets which are decorated paper envelopes containing money.”
Today is the eve of Chinese New Year.
To commemorate that occasion, Lydia, Ma Wee, SiowFong, and I ate dinner at one of our local Chinese restaurants, T & T. We called the following three dishes: seafood chow fun (wet and wide noodles stir-fried with seafood), eight jewels hot pot (fried tofu and seafood), and sautéed pea vine with garlic.
After supper, we went next door to Ranch 99, a Chinese grocery store, to buy items for tomorrow night’s Chinese New Year dinner at our home.
Chinese New Year: The Basics
(Source: www.jackiechankids.com)
“The oldest and most important festival in China is called the Spring Festival. Many people call it the Chinese New Year. No matter what you call it, it is a time of celebration for millions of Chinese people all over the world.
The Spring Festival celebrates the Earth coming back to life and the beginning of plowing and planting. Because the Chinese use a lunar calendar, the date of the Spring Festival changes each year. It takes place at some time during the end of January or the beginning of February. This year it falls on February 18, 2007.
The Chinese calendar has a 12 year cycle and each year is named after an animal. People born in each of these years are said to have certain characteristics.
The year 2007 (year 4705 on the Chinese calendar) is the Year of the Pig or the Boar. People born in the Year of the Pig are honest, sincere and genuine. They have a heart of gold and people admire them tremendously. They are called upon when sincere advice is needed and will always give a helping hand. Pig people are the best friends anyone can have. They are fun-loving and know how to throw a good party, but if you anger or hurt them, they can be extremely vengeful. They can also be naive, which allows others to take advantage of them. They have a great thirst for knowledge.
To prepare for the New Year, Chinese clean their houses, repay any money they owe, get their hair cut, and buy new clothes. They decorate their houses with signs that wish peace and luck for the coming year. These signs look like the ones to the right and left of this story.
On New Year's Eve the Chinese light up their houses and gather together for a family dinner. Special foods are served. Most people stay up late and set off fireworks late at night to scare away evil spirits. Another tradition is the handing out of red packets which are decorated paper envelopes containing money.”
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