A Christian youth worker once told me that giving a ride to youth would be good for our ministry.  Therefore, give a ride no matter how long the distance is.  People like to talk in the car. 

Good thing happened when I gave a ride to one young adult Christian back home.  He told me about some work ethic struggles he faced in his workplace.  He is a private tutorial school teacher.  One of his students who audited his course is going to study in U.S.  In order to get the student visa, he needs official report card from the school.   The problem is, his student only audited the course but not took the course for credit.  No official report card with marks should be issued by school.  All the other teachers and the principal (the boss) said it was ok to give them a faked report card to the student while he insisted he could not do that.   People laughed at him and made fun of him.

The other problem is, he was holding a working visa in Canada because the principal hired him as teacher.  If he lost this job, he might go back to his country.  If you were the young adult Christian,  what would you do?

I was fortunate to attend the 2007 National Student’s Forum hosted on the Parliament Hill and the Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa.

The National Student Forum is an opportunity for students and recent graduates from across Canada to meet with Christian parliament leaders and Christian leaders who are making a difference in their workplace.

This 2-day event started off with a panel discussion, a walk on Parliament Hill to observe question and answer period, a discussion on favorite Psalms with Christian MP’s from the Liberal and Conservative parties, and a dinner on Parliament Hill with Christian MP’s and their family.

The finale was the 2^nd day attending the National Prayer Breakfast – an opportunity to sit down with over 600 diplomats, MP’s from all parties, priests, pastors, teachers, and students. The main speech was from Serge LeClerc, a former drug boss who found Christ while serving a 20 year sentence. He was exonerated of his crimes due to his exemplary community work and reform. His life speaks wonders of Christ being the centre of his reform. His powerful testimony spoke about social problems facing youth coming from a low-income population, and abuses of drug on youth. He shined the light on the pressure facing young people using drugs and the need for leaders to address these issues.

What impacted me the most was from the MP’s sharing on their favorite Psalms. The theme ‘leading from within’ focused on the importance that strength is gained in quietness and meditation, time spent in devotion as recorded in Psalm 1:2-3. One of the MP’s shared that, we as sinful people who are easily corrupted must come before the father and wash ourselves daily and ask for forgiveness. This made me realize how important is the time spend with God.     

…his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers

 Nathan

We are well into summer now, a time when many have planned or are planning vacations. The first long weekend of the summer is already history. As for me, I had to face the issue of taking time off earlier on. The reason was that I had more accumulated vacation than allowable to be carried forward to the next fiscal year. As result, I had to burn off some of that time, and I took off for four weeks in a row, the first time ever that I have done that. I am glad to report that I thoroughly enjoyed my time away from the office.

This experience also caused me to look into this whole issue of taking time away from our usual routine/work. I just want to share with you one thing from my casual investigation. Early on in his book The Leisure Crisis, John Oswald explained that the Greek word for leisure is schola - the root from which our word school is derived. Now to most of us, the closest thing school is related to leisure would be recess. But to the Greeks, it is not about school. It is about freedom to learn. In the ancient Greek society, the only people who had leisure/the freedom to learn were people of means. When the vast majority had to work from dawn to dusk to survive, leisure/freedom to learn was the preserve of the wealthy. That is a sobering realization, that we need to treasure that freedom and exercise that freedom in a responsible and profitable manner. I visited a family where a girl in junior high was not enthusiastic about school. I related my discovery, and the mother really went to town with the concept of freedom to learn with her daughter. It was most amusing to watch that spontaneous exchange.

If that is indeed the original concept of leisure, then we need to think about what learning opportunities there are when we step away from our regular routine. Most of all, what can we learn from God when we withdraw from the office? Getting recharged and re-energised is one thing, but do we tend to step away from God also when we step away from the office? I simply want to raise a few questions here for you to ponder. Hopefully that will help you to make good plans for your summer. Have a wonderful and enjoyable summer, and God bless.

Bob Li

July is a natural break, a good time to have a half time reflection of the past year.  In this past year, God gave me 3 special friends. 

The first special friend is new colleague at work.  Something happened to her life this time last year such that she became a Christian on her own during last year’s Canada Day holiday.  This happened quite miraculously.   Some of her friends from out of town paid her a visit for the Canada Day celebration, and told her that they had been attending a Christian church. Even though her friends were not Christians, their attending church somehow prompted her to consider becoming a Christian.  I came to know that she did meet a Christian Professor while at University who demonstrated to her the love of Christ, and who also gave her a Bible.  God used this Professor to pave the way for her to make this wonderful decision one year ago.  Then in August of last year, she started to work as a recruit in our workplace, and found out about our workplace Christian Fellowship.  She started to attend our weekly gatherings, and started to learn about the way of a disciple.  Yesterday she shared in our noon hour gathering her anniversary reflection of how she was so excited to find real purpose in life, and how she found support in our workplace fellowship group.  As an African sister commented, we can see the church at work in the workplace through our supporting group.  On our own we are weak, but together we learn to struggle through work and life issues. 

My second special friend is a cleaning staff at work.  Our paths crossed in the past few months at work as he was assigned to our building and I met him about once a week.  I started to chat with him, and we became friends.  I started to pass him Christian literature, and he enjoyed reading them.  One day, he came to me to share his personal problems; I listened and also prayed for him.  I also introduced him to the Alpha group at church.  In God’s timing, he accepted Christ about two months ago.  Today, he told me  that he has been re-deployed to another building, and this means that I would not be able to meet him as usual.  However, I thank God that we are already brothers in Christ.  God has allowed our paths to cross so that both of us are changed one way or the other.  For him, he came to know Christ as his savior, and for me, I experience in a small way how the kingdom of God can be extended in the workplace, one individual at a time.