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…

9月11日在瑞士机场写的文章，一直到今天(18日)才有机会刊登，原因是在欧洲那段时间住的时间很难上网，要不就非常贵，加上也有服事也很忙。。。所以才拖到今天才登，而且还是在吉隆坡LCCT廉航机场等飞机时登的！
That Sept11 blog I wrote at Zurich Airport only got to be posted today (18th) ‘cos while I was in Europe, it was rather hard to go online where I stayed, or it would be very expensive, plus I was serving and busy then… that’s why I waited till today to post it, and it was posted while I was waiting for my flight back to Kuching at KL LCCT airport…

是的，我回来了。。。从17日下午1点半就飞离瑞士，在曼谷转机，后又在吉隆坡转机，一直到18日的傍晚6点40分才抵达古晋呢。。。本来已很累，但看到一些留言，就很被激励的简短回复一下，更有内容的文章我看要等今天过后了，希望过一两天就有了，哈哈。。。
Yes, I’m back! We left Zurich at 1:30pm on the 17th, transit in Bangkok and KL subsequently before arriving at Kuching at 6:40pm on the 18th! I’m actually very tired now but upon seeing some comments in response to my just-posted writing, I’m motivated to give a quick but short reply, but as for writings with more substance, guess those will have to wait till after today…hopefully only a day or two after, haha….

也希望能把一些欧洲之旅的相片放上去给大家看，这一方面我还要学因我还不会，我是老前辈，不是电脑时代的小孩，哈哈。。。
I hope to post some photos taken from my Euro trip to share with you all too, but I’ve got to learn the technique first as I’m an “elder”, not a computer-age kid, haha…

哦，在还没停笔之前先跟你们分享一个又奇妙又不可思议的好消息！Danny丘历在14日我们从巴黎抵达瑞士时把相机遗留在从机场下来的火车上了，除了被我们又骂又碎碎念，我们当然也迫切为他祷告，他那晚都睡不着，因那很新的相机值好几千马币，又是跟朋友借来的，而且里面已经拍了几百张葡萄牙和巴黎的照片。。。所以这几天他都有点沮丧，每天都向当局询问找到相机了吗，一直到四天后我们要飞回国的时候还抱着最后一丝希望在火车站报失处再问一次，他们也说那是不可能找得到了，因那火车站是整个瑞士最繁忙(每天3千辆火车来来回回！)，再加上他们说有谁这么好心，捡到那么贵重的新相机那么多天后还会拿来归还。。。但是上帝就是那么奇妙和信实，刚才Danny才打电话给我说，瑞士方面email给他说相机找到了，而且会寄回来给他！怎么有可能！！我们的神真是太奇妙了！！我相信Danny本身会更详细的报道这见证。。。
Oh, before I pen off here, let me share something wonderful and beyond our imagination! On the 14th when we arrived Switzerland from Paris, Danny left his camera on the train when we came down from the airport! Apart from being bombarded by us and receiving constant nagging for his carelessness, we of course prayed fervently for him too. He couldn’t sleep well that night ‘cos that very new camera is worth quite a few thousands Ringgit and it was borrowed from a friend! Also we have already taken so many hundreds of photos of Portugal and Paris using that！ So Danny was feeling rather depressed about this the past few days enquiring from the “lost and found” department everyday about the camera, until just before we flew home four days later… Even the officer finally told him it was quite impossible to get it back as the Zurich railway station is the busiest in Switzerland (with at least 3000 trains passing through each day!), plus the officer said who would be so kind as to return a valuable camera found after so many days! But that is just exactly how amazing and faithful our God is, Danny just called me a while ago saying Switzerland has just emailed telling him that the camera is found and will be sent back to him duly! How can this be!! Our God is truly amazing!! I believe Danny will report on this in greater detail…

在瑞士Zurich机场很认真的打着这封信 Very seriously typing away at Zurich Airport, Switzerland

沉寂了一段日子，没消息、没声音、没留言。。。好长的时间都没更新我的部落格。。。
Been silent for a while, no news, no sound, no message…and for a long time I haven’t been updating my blog…

朋友说游览我网站的人次已大大削减，“朋友”说－因为我自己都没到自己网站看看！太失败了，哈哈。。。
Friends told me the number of visits to my website has dropped drastically, “friends” told me – ‘cos I haven’t been visiting my own website myself! How terrible, haha….

我想很多人都在猜测我最近怎么了，在做什么，还活跃吗，还事奉吗，还“健在”吗。。。哈哈。。。
Probably many people are guessing whatever had happened to me, whatever am I doing now, whether I’m still active, still serving, still “alive and kicking”…haha…

没写部落格的原因还不是一贯的牧养、事奉等太忙碌，加上自己没这个节制和习惯，所以也常常拖延。。。每次告诉自己要改过，但还是不太有改善，真不好意思。。。
The reason for not writing my blog is no other than the usual very busy with pastoring and ministry couple with the lack of discipline and that blog-writing isn’t really my habit, hence the constant delay… Each time I told myself I must change, but still there isn’t much improvement,it’s my bad…

最近收到一位朋友的来信，她说听到谣言说，我的喉咙严重损伤，还说我从此不会再录唱片了，故她很焦虑的写信给我问我到底发生什么事，落到如此下场！我读了信哈哈大笑，消息传得可真夸张！
Recently I received a letter from a friend telling me she heard a rumour that my throat or voice is severely
damaged that I won’t be able to record another album again. That’s why she wrote with great concern asking whatever had happened to me to result in such end! I laughed upon reading her letter, such exaggerated rumour!

事实是，我的喉咙的确有点状况，但也只不过是这些年来因用喉咙过度而常出现的沙哑和“失声”状况，还不至于从此不能再录唱片那么严重，然而经长辈牧者的劝导，我也必须采取行动保护喉咙，不要让喉咙操劳过度，免得以后恐怕真的不能再录唱片了。。。
故此，我就听取意见加以“补救”，为了来日能继续以声音和诗歌服事耶和华。所以我刻意从今年(2009)的二月开始放自己喉咙
六个月的假，不接外面的邀请，没有演唱，也把一些台上事工分配给同工们负责。感谢主，喉咙果然大有进步，同时同工的事奉也有长进！
The truth is I do have problem with my throat, but it is just the same problem of over-exertion of my throat which results in coarseness and occasional loss of voice which has been bugging me these past few years. However it is not as severe as not being able to do any more recording. But with the advice of more senior pastor, I must also take good care of my throat so I won’t over-stretch it or I might truly not be able to do recording again. Therefore, I took heed to the advice to “rescue” my voice, so I can continue to serve God with my voice and songs. I deliberately took a 6-month break for my throat starting February this year (2009), I didn’t accept outside invitations nor hold concerts, I also handed over some speaking responsiblities to my co-workers. Thank God my throat has remarkedly improved and my co-workers’ serving has improved too!

话虽如此，休息够了我也不可毫无节制的再把喉咙累坏，比如现在到欧洲服事，在葡萄牙里斯本华人教会从九月4日开始一直到
10日每一天马不停蹄的又讲又唱，到最后几天真的感觉到老毛病又浮现了。。。现在(九月11日)从葡萄牙飞到瑞士要转机到巴黎，还好这两天有好休息，礼拜天只有一场聚会，过后再飞来瑞士休息三天再回国。。。感谢主的恩典！
Having said that, after my rest I must not damage my throat again by not disciplining myself. For instance, I’m now ministering in Europe, from Sept 4th to 10th, I sang and preached non-stop in Lisbon Chinese Church, Portugal, and by the last few days I could feel the old “throat problem” coming back… And right now (Sept 11th) in transit in Zurich, Switzerland from Lisbon, waiting to board the flight to Paris, I’m glad I have at least two days’ break before my next and only speaking engagement on Sunday. After that I’ll be flying back to Zurich again for 3 days’ break before flying back to Malaysia… Thank God for His grace!