Of salt and rice ...

Did my first sermon in the Chinese service last Sunday. It was quite a surreal experience - I really felt that I was speaking to my grandparents. It required a different style and content.

There were the necessary boo-boo's of course.

I mixed up the Chinese idiom and said they ate more rice than I ate salt. (It's the other way round).
I kept forgetting I was speaking in English and occasionally reverted to Mandarin and Hokkien (much to the consternation of Sis Jocelyn). Kudos to her for not giving up on me half way.

I learnt a few things along the way too.

I realised the church family isn't complete without the older folks. They bring a completion to the whole cycle of nursery, children's church, youth and adults.
I realised we haven't included them enough. Nor have we learnt from them enough.

Jocelyn used a Chinese idiom : "bao si liu pi, ren si liu ming" (too lazy and inadequate to write in Mandarin, go figure it out).
My vague English intepretation goes : "when the leopard dies, it leaves a skin; when a person dies, he leaves a name".

What legacy do we leave behind ?