SJU is definitely a happening kind of place during Advent and Christmas! Taiwan doesn’t have any holidays for Christmas, so apart from weekends, the students are here in classes all over Christmas, the office staff are working all over Christmas, … Continue reading Advent & Christmas 2017 @ St. John’s University (SJU) & Advent Church, Taiwan
St. John’s University and Advent Church is THE place to be for Christmas, and especially when Christmas falls on a weekend ~ last week we had a whole week of Christmas activities in the university and local community, and now we’ve just had a whole weekend of activities in the church. It’s all non-stop action ~ and it’s back to work and classes tomorrow as usual! We really kind of moved from Advent into Christmas starting on Thursday December 22 in the afternoon when we did our final walkabout around St. John’s University, lighting all the candles on the Advent … Continue reading Merry Christmas 2016 @ St. John’s University and Advent Church!
Day 27 #celebrate #慶祝 Saturday December 24, Christmas Eve ‘Christmas is a feast of the senses! It is a celebration of our ability to see and know and taste and touch the power and glory and revelation of God. It is not just about a birth that happened long, long ago and far, far away. It is about the way in which God manifests himself to us in the person of Jesus as friend and food and hope and love. It is a celebration of our ability to grasp God and to sense him with all our being’. 聖誕節是一場「感知之宴」；在這慶典中，你我看見、知悉、品嘗、並觸摸上主的大能、榮耀、和啟示。聖誕節不僅與那久遠的某個生日有關，它跟上帝的自我顯明也息息相關：神，藉著耶穌，成為你我的益友、靈糧、希望與愛。這是我們可以緊緊抱住神，並全心全意來「感知」上帝的一個特殊節慶啊！ 聖誕快樂! … Continue reading Advent Word, Day 27 ‘celebrate’
Day 26 #live #生活 Friday December 23 ‘We are meant for life in all its fullness. Our getting together for the sheer pleasure of it anticipates the Kingdom and the heavenly banquet. Conviviality and celebration, especially in the face of difficult circumstances, bring light into the world’. 我們都是為了生命之豐盛、圓滿而做準備。你我相聚一起，其樂融融，乃是「預嚐」（提前享受）天國的饗宴。這無比歡樂的慶典，尤其在艱困的情境中舉行，確實為這世界帶來諸多光明！ A big Thank You to our new president of St. John’s University, Dr. Peter Herchang Ay for welcoming so many of us from the SJU Chaplaincy and Advent Church to his university home last night to share the good news of Christmas (報佳音), light the Advent Wreath and eat yummy TangYuan 湯圓. Ah, … Continue reading Advent Word, Day 26 ‘live’
Our amazing team of students from St. John’s University and church members from Advent Church combined to put on a spectacular performance for our Christmas Show 2016 this morning at LaoMei Elementary School ~ and the children were all very lovely and we had a great time! Thanks to our leader Yo-yo, who took a day off work to support his team, thanks to those who stood in at the last minute, and thanks to everyone for taking part. It was GREAT! Here we all are….. LaoMei is one of my favourite places in the whole world ~ and … Continue reading 超級好朋友 Supermaster and his Superfriends Christmas Show @ LaoMei Elementary School 老梅國小!
And what a wonderful event it was! As always, St. James’ Preschool / Kindergarten, Taichung put on a spectacular all-singing-all-dancing Christmas extravaganza for all the children to take part in ~ magical, and such fun! Two long months of rehearsals for about 3 minutes of performance for each class, but it was oh, so worth it ~ the children were delightful, even the few who cried all the way through, or who stood motionless throughout ~ next year, they’ll be fine, honest! Every ‘small’ class (aged 3-4) and ‘middle’ class (aged 4-5) performed to a song, and the older children … Continue reading St. James’ Preschool, Taichung ~ Christmas Show-Time!
And the Christmas cards are still arriving (thank you everyone!) ~ the latest one to arrive today clearly had the post office people here completely baffled. Beautiful classical style of handwriting but if you’re not familiar with this style, it’s true, it could be a bit difficult to read. It’s been stamped as saying that the address is unknown, but someone else has clearly worked it out and written on the envelope in pencil…. All the way from sunny Tyneside too ~ and maybe I’ll keep it for next year! Continue reading From Tyneside with love….
Monday morning…. Yep, Santa’s gone on holiday ~ and we’re clearing up! Continue reading And here’s to Christmas 2016!
Yes, a big day for Advent Church! On the first Sunday after Christmas, we always celebrate St. John’s Day ~ and as this is St. John’s University, all our students past and present from the St. John’s University Student Fellowship – plus church members past and present – are always invited back. And today was the day! Part of the theme of Advent is to ‘return’, and returning home to our home church is one of the things we’ve encouraged everyone to do this month. And as it’s the last Sunday of 2015, it also seems a great way to … Continue reading St. John’s Day @ Advent Church ~ and our Christmas Party!
Catherine Lee 