Pleasant Surprises

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Today I led three workshops in Cantonese. Although I came from Hong Kong, most of my public speaking has been done in English or Mandarin so far. After the incidents yesterday, I know I have to lift my nervousness about speaking in Cantonese to Him.

We arrived BASS at 7:40 or so. When we opened the door of room N7, we were shocked! The room was not set up for workshop, it had kids stuff all over the place. We ran out to the open corridor and looked around. At that time, we saw the brother who set up the projector yesterday in D2. He was putting up signs and he told us to go to room N9. He came and set up the Power Point projector and we were ready before 8:00 a.m.

Although only one student showed up at 8:00, I was okay with it. After all, even we were not aware of the location change! My husband volunteered to go to N7 to redirect people, and one brother made a sign and posted it on the door at the old location. As people trickled in, I talked about developing EQ in Cantonese.

The rest of the day went pretty smooth. Some people who attended the 8:00 workshop also showed up at the Learning Styles workshop at 12:45 and my last workshop at 3:45 p.m. Before I got there, I thought many people would have gone home by then, since it was the absolute last workshop of the day. To my surprise, the room was full. I asked some simple questions and found out that not everyone in the room were parents. In fact, there were single people as well.

I shared my personal and professional experience about "Parenting American Born Chinese (ABC)" with gratefulness. Afterwards, I found out that the Editor-in-chief of Gospel Herald, a Global Chinese Christian Newspaper, was there in my workshop. We chatted in English and Cantonese. What a surprise!

Copyright © 2006 Winnis Chiang, Parenting ABC