Yes, it was a big confirmation weekend at Advent Church, although we had been a bit worried that we might get typhooned-out!  Fortunately, in the event, Typhoon Goni passed by with heavy rains and some wind, but not too bad. Sadly the typhoon had already caused much death and destruction in the Philippines, but this time we were spared the worst.

Bishop Lai and his wife Lily came for the morning worship, and we had 4 confirmations, of which 3 were our students, past and present, from St. John’s University Student Fellowship.  One was arranged kind of at the last minute as the young man now works in Mainland China and only comes back to Taiwan every 2 months for a long weekend. Last time he came back he was baptized, and this time he managed to arrange to come back on confirmation weekend.  Wonderful!  Another is the leader of our student fellowship who was baptized at Easter, he initially got involved in the student fellowship through our English Conversation Group.  Great to see them all smiling away!

Bishop Lai presented each one with a cross to wear, and then at the end of the service, our rector, Rev. Lennon Chang, presented those who had just been confirmed with copies of the Book of Common Prayer…

Congratulations to them all ~ and do please pray for all 4 of them and their families!

And for the photographically sensitive, you will notice the challenges of trying to take a decent photo when our deacon, Rev. Wu, is so tall and he lifts Bishop Lai’s crosier so high that to get it in the photo means stepping back half a mile from the confirmation scene.  OK, I admit I exaggerate ~ but we did laugh afterwards!