Jesus Christ is my Lord and Master. I hope and pray for guidance in all I do that I might honor His name.

The Erywilde project is my legacy to my children, grandchildren and hopefully many generations to come. But it is not all I do.

In June, I and three others from my town of Marietta Georgia took a mission trip to Macau Communist China. These pictures are just a random sample of some pictures from the trip. If you are interested more, visit http://www.macaumission.wordpress.com

The author, Greg M., Chris M, and Kristi D getting ready to depart Atlanta for about a 29 hour trip, spanning three days (we crossed the International Date Line. I still hurts my brain to try to figure out the IDL concept.)

We flew to Hong Kong, one of two Special Administrative Regions (called S.A.R.s), the other S.A.R. being Macau. We then had to wait for a ferry (5 hours!) in the Hong Kong airport on Sunday morning when we arrived. Here is a sign in the airport pointing the way to the ferry.

Both Hong Kong and Macau had thriving economies and the Communist Chinese are treating them very carefully so as not to disrupt the flow of business (and taxes!). Hong Kong is truly an international city, with British roots as it was founded by the British. It is a financial powerhouse and has a rather diverse economy.

Macau was settled many years before Hong Kong by the Portuguese. 98% of the tourists in Macau are Asian and they come for one thing – gambling. Macau makes Las Vegas look like the minor leagues, doing 4 times the volume in gambling. It is so big, it has two primary gambling areas, one located on an island that is essentially dedicated to gambling.

We heard that Macau had the highest population density in the world. Easy to believe. Virtually no private residences (about 5 I think), no suburbs, lots of people walking and scooters. Scooters everywhere, putt putting out their poluting exhaust. But all is not lost, one can retreat to the parks like the one above. Just don’t expect them to be very big (abour 1/4 of a city block) or that they would have fields of grass. Small fields of stones as pictured above.

We had a “Party in the Park” featuring the Americans and our amazing ability to speak English like a native. Wait, we are natives. Many people want to learn English and our trip was connected to my church’s mission arm. The ministry hosting us is the Concordia English Center and they teach English (with a lot of bible stories for content).

We taught English to the youngsters in a Vacation Bible School format.

Since the Westerners who developed Macau were Portuguese and the Portuguese were Catholic, there are some interesting chapels, churches, Christian graveyards and other signs of Christianity sprinkled throughout Macau. Sadly, the Chinese have been amazingly resistant to the Gospel. Only about 2% would be considered “born again”.

Ancestor worship (this is really a misnomver as they respect their dead ancestors but don’t think they are gods, just still extant in the afterlife and need things from the living – sort of a dependent god. Man, if you didn’t get along with your in-laws, they could haunt you forever!) is very prevalent with small shrines and offerings everywhere. Buddhism is also practiced but it did not look like it really affected people’s lives much.

For all you Catholic readers (or any general know-it-alls), please enter another one of my contests. The first reader to identify the saint associated with this symbol receives one trip to Macau. Sorry, I just have enough funds to get you there. Maybe you can win enough to pay for your return trip. Post your reply below and WIN!

One of the casinos – Venetian. This was taking as a typhoon was blowing in and it reminded me of the building in GhostBusters that was demon possessed.

Buddhist goddess of the sea. This is near the coast (Macau is a peninsula that supported a lot of sea faring men) and there is a large temple close to this idol.

Here is the reason we came – the children. Each morning we opened with a scripture reading, songs, and a skit. This picture is our skit of the birth of Jesus. Kristi and Chris were great at putting these together. I thought the wardrobe was very creative too.

Some of the younger ones hard at work on their crafts. We were able to piggy back on the same theme that our church had for its VBS – God is Wild About You. It featured pandas, which was amazingly appropriate because the Macau zoo had just acquired two pandas and they were the talk of the town.

Greg with Bingo. Bingo wants to be a pastor when he grows up. A real active child shall we say.

Chris and Kristi with one of their classes.

I loved this skit (and the story). It is about the four men who carried their paralyzed friend to be healed by Jesus. They were determined to get to Jesus – nothing was going to stop them. To me, this is a pivotal point in Jesus’s ministry – the forgiveness of the paralytic’s sin. He heard the true cry of the man’s heart, the cry to be reunited with his God and to have his sins forgiven. Jesus answered that deep cry and also healed his legs. Healed his heart and his legs – what a day!

There is a Christian community in Macau and we joined them in worship on Sunday. It is a wonderful experience to worship as one in the spirit.

Now that I’ve whet your appetite, go to http://www.macaumission.wordpress.com.