我到了歐洲 I went to Europe
从没到过欧洲，以前有被邀请去服事过，但要不是没有跟进，就是太忙或当时没什么感动，所以都不了了之。。。可能很多人都会认为我“错失”了几次能到欧洲一游的好机会，但我基本上不会为了要去旅游而接受服事的邀请，当然我也不排斥能在服事的前后或“空档”顺道休息或观光一下。。。
几个月前透过吉隆坡美玲姐妹的介绍下，接受葡萄牙里斯本华人教会的邀请，作他们首次主办的青年营会的讲员。。。日期较靠近时因太忙碌和许多事务要处理，本想临时推掉所答应的邀请，但基于他们说已宣传和安排一切，所以没办法推掉，就硬着头皮前往。。。这也是为什么有时我不太喜欢太早答应或接受任何邀请，恐怕临时变卦使别人难堪，自己也尴尬。。。
结果9月2日就从吉隆坡起飞，为了买较便宜的机票，我们一行七人转了几次飞机才抵达葡萄牙呢！首先到曼谷转机几个小时，然后又在瑞士转机几个小时，最后一直到9月3日才抵达葡萄牙里斯本！总共花了20多个小时才抵达目的地呢！随行的其他六个人包括了两位教会的Aunty和四位将要出唱片在华语流行乐坛大展拳脚的“例外人”，有关“例外人”的资料请参看他们网站：www.liwairenmusic.com。抵达里斯本机场时，例外人之一田圣的行李箱却没抵达！结果他需要买几件需用的衣物来顶一下，感谢主行李第二天也安全抵达了。
这次欧洲之旅总共去了3个地方：1.葡萄牙的里斯本，2.法国的巴黎，3.瑞士的Zurich。至于在这几个地方的经历请稍等改天再刊登的文章吧。。。
I’ve never been to Europe. I’ve been invited to minister there before but either there was no follow-up or I was too busy or didn’t have the burden to go at that time, so it was left as that… Perhaps many would say I have thus missed out on many a good opportunity to tour Europe but basically I don’t really accept invitations to minister just ‘cos I want to go for a tour of the place, but of course I don’t reject the idea of taking a break or tour too before or after or during some free time while on mission trip….
Few months ago, through a KL friend, May Ling, I accepted an invitation from Lisbon Chinese Church in Portugal to be their first ever Youth Camp speaker… As the date drew closer, due to my busy schedule and many things to settle, I wanted to back out on my acceptance to go, but they said they had already promoted and planned everything, so I had no choice but to go ahead despite my “reluctance”….This is also why sometimes I don’t quite like to agree to or accept any invitation too early for fear of a last-minute-change-of-mind that will cause awkwardness to others and myself…
So we took off from KL on Sept 2. In order to save costs by buying cheaper tickets, the 7 of us had to be in transit a few times at different airports before reaching our final destination, Portugal! First, we flew to Bangkok, waited a few hours and boarded the flight to Zurich, Switzerland, waited another few hours to board the flight to finally arrive at Lisbon on Sept 3! All in all it must have taken us more than 20 hours to reach Lisbon! The other 6 team members consisted of two aunties from church and the four Remnant members who will be releasing their debut album in the Mandarin pop market soon. For more information on The Remnant, please visit their blog at: www.liwairenmusic.com. We arrived at Lisbon airport only to discover one of the Remnant members, Daniel’s luggage didn’t arrive! Therefore he had to buy some essential items to use first for that day. Thank God his luggage arrived safely the next day.
We went to 3 places for this trip to Europe: 1. Lisbon, Portugal, 2. Paris, France, 3. Zurich, Switzerland. As for the experiences in these 3 different places, please await other postings some other day…