One Busy Week

We had a busy week with a 5-days long seminar on Nurturing Third Culture Kids. On Tuesday, we had a community dinner, on Thursday, Kok Mun and Mayron dropped by for a visit and on Friday we invited a couple of residents over for dinner.

This is the second community dinner that we had and there are new friends dropping by for a visit and to join us in enjoying the meal prepared by the residents and as usual, the varieties of food is just too good to resist!

On Friday, we had friends who came over to our apartment for dinner. From left to right, Sharon, Darren, Kok Mun, Mayron, Leslie Williams and Charles Weller.

Sharon even managed to squeeze in time to make some tasty "Char Siew Pau" during the week. In the photo, she is in the midst of wrapping the meat in the dough before steaming it. We have yet to find a store in New Haven that sells this! Maybe she should start a business here?

Kok Mun (brother in law) and Mayron drove for 12 hours from Charlotte, North Carolina to see us. We had a great time and they also left their car behind for us to drive around until we leave. That is great, right? No, that is not the car they left behind, it is the rental car that they will be driving back to Charlotte.

William Howard Doane & OMSC

Not many of us have heard of William Howard Doane, but if you were to look through the hymnals in your church you would find his name appearing again and again as he had composed many of the hymns that we sing every Sunday. He has also worked with Fanny Crosby on many others in their life time. He is the father of two daughters, Marguerite and Ida Doane.

OMSC owes her existence to the vision of the two Doane sisters, Marguerite and Ida who conceived the idea of "Houses of Fellowship" for missionaries returning home on furlough. They saw the needs of the missionaries and founded a place to house them.

These houses provided a welcoming rest for tired missionaries who often do not have a place to call their own. The "Houses of Fellowship" started in 1922 in Ventnor by the the Sea, on Absecon Island, New Jersey. For many years it served the returning missionaries, providing a place of rest and hospitality.

It was later renamed Overseas Ministries Study Center in 1967 to reflect a change in their goals. Now, besides providing rest and hospitality, it included a series of classes and lectures on biblical, theological and cross-cultural topics in their programs. It moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1987 as a result of a survey among the returning missionaries who indicated that they were pursuing advanced educational degrees during their furloughs. After much deliberation, New Haven, Connecticut was chosen as it was near Yale University Divinity School's Day Missions Library. It is now located at 490 Prospect St. New Haven, Connecticut. The full content of the history of OMSC in PDF format can be downloaded here.

Having said that, we are reminded of the legacy and contribution by William Howard Doane in the music and hymns that we sing. We cannot help but be amazed by the richness of the theology and the music that was written. I have been singing "To God be the Glory", "I am thine O Lord", "Pass me not O gentle Savior" and "Near the Cross" for as long as I can remember but it did not occur to me to look up the author for the lyrics or the music! And now I am benefiting from the legacy of the Doanes on my furlough here in OMSC.

A Visit to Carnegie Hall in New York

We were invited by the Korean community to attend a worship concert present by the Milal Missionary Choir that was held on the 3rd October 2010 in the Carnegie Hall in New York. We jumped at the opportunity to see and to sit in the world famous hall. On our way there, we stopped in Korea town where everything we see tells us that we were in Korea rather than New York! We shopped in a Korean supermarket H-mart and had dinner in a Sam Won Gahk, a Korean Chinese restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed our evening in New York.

The interior of the Carnegie Hall where I managed to take a couple of photos before I was stopped by the hall attendants who told me that we were not allowed to take photos within the hall without prior permission.

Sharon and her Korean friends Hye Sook and Young Ran in the lobby of the hall.

We were having our dinner in Sam Won Gahk, one of the many Korean restaurants found in the Korean town. The bowls of noodles were huge and very tasty, forgotten what they were called in Korean but you can take a look at their menu ! It was a treat given by the Korean residents.

Darren sitting beside Joy Chul , with Grace Chul next to her and Grace Jung waiting for our food to arrive!

A Christian Heritage Tour of Yale

We went on a tour of Yale yet again, this time with Jon Hinkson who retold the story of the beginning of Yale university from a Christian perspective. It was an educational tour that took us back to the early beginning when Yale was set up by faithful men who saw the importance of education, not for economic reasons but in order that they could minister the word of God rightly. Sadly, this heritage is now lost to the thousands of graduates who see the degree more as means to greater economic opportunities.

Our journey started from the Phelps Gate, the entrance to the old campus where many of the colleges that housed the freshmen are located.

We were introduced to Reverend John Davenport who first initiated the idea of a college; From a humble and difficult beginning, it has now become a great institution. Like an acorn, it has now grown into a great oak tree with its branches spread over a wide area.

We rested in the college of Jonathan Edwards who entered Yale when he was only 13 years old, he left behind a legacy of faithfulness that still inspires many of us.

We heard the legacy of Noah Webster who created the world's first dictionary, yet none of these people were rich in the sense of the word, but they gave the generations that came after them a world of opportunity through what they left behind!

We had a glimpse of the very first bible ever printed; the Gutenberg Bible displayed behind glass panels lest it is destroyed by the environment and human contact! It is located in the Beinecke Rare Books Library in Yale where the books are stored behind glass panels with a fire suppression system that would suck out all the air in the storage area creating a vacuum to put out the fire; Question: What about the librarians working in the area at the time of the fire? Your guess is as good as mine!

The interior of the Beinecke Library with the center core displaying the rare books.

Common bond that binds - Food!

We had our first Community Dinner last night and were we stuffed! There were so much food that we had to ask everyone to take some back. It is a monthly event that is organised to bring the community closer. As the staff members will also be present, it is a good time to get together. Each group has a specific task, main dish duties are coupled with organising a program for the night; then there is a group that is to prepare different kinds of salads, another group to prepare desserts and the last group to clean and wash up. Each month the duties will be rotated among the four groups! It was a harrowing time for some as they are not sure of what to prepare or what to do! but in the end they all did extremely well. The evening meal went without a hitch and we all had a great time sharing food and having fun with the staff and residents.

Though we had lots of food, it was not the most important, it was about the people who had put their hearts into it to make it happen. It was about a diverse group of people from different nationalities coming together as a family in Christ!

The next evening we invited some new friends over to our apartment for a home-cooked dinner. Sharon prepared Malaysian styled curry chicken, sweet sour prawns, steam egg pudding with dried scallops, pan-fried vegetables, home-made soya bean milk and seaweed soup. An enlightening evening meal with 2 Yale students, one from Divinity School and the other from the Law School. The were two other friends, an Iraqi lady (a refugee) and a TTC professor Dr Pan.

A Day at the Guilford Fair

It was a beautiful Saturday morning at 8.30AM when we set off for the Guilford Fair that comes to town once a year. It took us about 30 mins to get to the place where it was held, somewhere off the Interstate 95 highway. It is an old fashioned fun fair that attracts families from all around the town

It is a mix of carnival rides, games stalls, farm animal display, children's art and craft competitions, food stalls and a circus. It was preceded by a parade that brought out the whole town! We were lining the streets watching bands, clubs of various kinds, scouts, karate and hockey. There were politicians who also went about meeting the town folks. (See my Facebook album)

One of the many marching bands that paraded through the street, and take a look at the old English costumes they are wearing. Once upon a time Connecticut too was a colony of the British Empire (There were originally 13 colonies in USA then)

Darren standing near the fence that surrounds the circus with the ring-master in the background.

The main street where the stalls sell food, gifts and toys and clothes. There are also games stalls and fun rides for the children.

One of the several animal stalls where the farm animals are put on display, there were cows, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens.

A newly shaved and sheepish looking sheep (pun intended) that was among the exhibits

Evening meal alfresco style!

We had a special dinner organised by the staff right outside our apartment at the patio area. There were hamburgers, frankfurters, chicken, pasta, chili beans, salads, chowder soda drinks and ice cream! We were stuffed and very grateful to the staff who had prepared all these for us.

Darren who is clearly enjoying himself, digging into the chicken, chili beans and franks!

This is the kitchen where all the food preparation took place. It is completely functional and will be used to hold cooking and baking classes for the residents!