June17* Oyak?!

2010.06.17 Thursday Day4
A GOOD NEW DAY! :)

0745 woke up for morning prayer then having breakfast! :D

This table is for putting our food, normally we might have french bread and milk on it.

and everyone is preparing the meal.

N' toumi view

1000 going to Bro. Maxime's bible introduction! I like him so much! Quite funny and talkative and handsome... haha but he is a Brother :P

After he talked about the bible verses, he asked us to take a place to silent, I chose to be at church!

I read about the bible verses in church, and few minutes later, I fell asleep! :P

Many people was sleeping with me in church, was so peaceful and comfortable :D

And when I wake up, it was midday prayer!!! :P haha...

After lunch, 1400 I joined my first song practicing. NICE! Learnt some Taize songs!
And I got to know Sarah, she taught us how to sing.
She is so great as she can sing very well and can get the note from the tuning folk accurately! Amazing!

Took some picture before supper, this is the view inside my room.

This is N'toumi 2/F the way toward common room

Where was the cat came from? Someone said it's owned by Brothers?!

It's lovely! But I saw it jumped onto my roommie's bed! :P

After supper, someone asked me to write a birthday card for someone...

actually it's quite hard for me to remember others' name in my first few days.... :P

Very grateful that could get to know you all my lovely girls. The 1st pic for us! :D

From left to right: Elli(Germany), Karo(Germany), Tjitske(NL), Roisin(Scotland)

Kat from Singapore! So great to have you as you can speak Mandarin! :D

View outside N'Toumi

Zoomed view outside N'Toumi

It's still a mystery for me where people going after prayer...

The back of the church still not in use in June

I couldn't meet anybody that I knew even in common room!
I walked around and hope I could meet someone....

El Abiodh at night

I would like to find out the answer, so, after evening prayer, I went to Oyak!

I didn't think girls would be there, just try and explore~~~~

WOW~ someone playing something seems awesome!

Many young-ages love to be in Oyak after evening prayer 

They gather together and play and sing and laugh and seem like have load of fun! :D

At last, I couldn't meet anybody that I knew in Oyak.

I wanna play with them! But I was scared to play with strangers...

Anyway it's still funny to have a look! :D

This night, I went to bed at 2300. :)

June15~16* Taize's Mystery

2010.06.15 Tuesday Day2

How come jet lag is so ignoring! I went to bed around 21xx the day before, but still missed my 1st morning prayer. I woke up around 0900 by my roommate, and had my first breakfast in N'toumi.

Everything was not very real to me. After my breakfast, around 1000, I had a meeting with Sr. Elke.

Sr. Elke is a sister of St. Andrew and was working in Taize. She took care of Asian girls who lived in Taize for longer time.

So for that reason, she dated me in El Abiodh and walked around with me.

Inside El Abiodh

Sr. Elke told me many things that I should know and pay attention, such as what time for prayers, where to have bible introduction, where to join song practicing, how to use the phone card, how to use the washing machine, even every inch in N'toumi she explained very clear...... haha...

But jet lag was still affecting me, although Sr. Elke is so nice and pretty, although I had already slept for 12 hours, she told me such a lot information with ENGLISH, it was really really hard for me in my first day.

I felt soooooooooo sleepy =.=

So, as I was free then walked around, and felt tired again.
I had a afternoon nap after my first midday prayer in Taize and lunch.

When I woke up, it was supper time! Eating again :P
And After evening prayer, have a shower, went to bed AGAIN! =__________=

This is my second day. :D

June14* The Adventure to Taizé!

2010.06.14  Monday  Day1

When I arrived Lyon airport, it was around 1100, I expected there was a people holding a paper or sign to let me know they were gonna pick me up to Taizé.

But, God love make joke to me, when I arrived, there was NO ONE pick me up. I searched around the gate few times and there was no one seemed like waiting for me, and I thought maybe they were late.
So I wait and wait and wait......

Half hour later, I decided to buy some food, the first thing I brought in France - Salad! :P

And I wait and wait and wait inside near the gate, there was still no body came.

2 hours later, around 1300, I stepped out the airport and keep waiting...

I was not scared at all, I just thought that maybe I could arrive Lyon smoothly and peacefully, God gave me a little trail, so I had to have faith in God! 

Around 1400, I decided to call Taize community, but I didn't know how to use the phone box... Luckily a Franch man helped me. :) However, no one answer.......

Finally, I decided to use my HK phone no. to call Annie (Who arranged my trip to Taize) for help, but we could only talk for few minutes due to not enough money in my phone card....

Just then, when I was finding a value-added card for my phone in my bag, SOMEONE CAME and ASKED me: "ARE YOU GOING TO TAIZE?" 

I was sooooooo excited and touched!!! I gave her a hug hardly and said : "THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!"

There were 2 girls picked me up to Taize. However, I was not the only one, we had to wait for a boy called Sergio, my first friend in Taize and arrived at the same day with me.
But there was some problem of his journey to Lyon, so his arrived time delayed more than we thought.
Finally he arrived around 1530 and, in total, I waited for almost 5 hours in the Lyon airport... haha...
A girl lead us got on the car and drove us. WOW! FINALLY! GOING! TO! TAIZE!

I had not slept much and due to a long travailing time, I fell asleep in car. And after 2 hours, around 1745

ARRIVED TAIZE!!! It just like DREAMING!!!!!!!

I search Taize in Google map before I went there, when I arrived and seeing the same shot but in real,

I felt sooooooo AMAZING! :D

WOW I used 24 hours for traveling! so crazy! But everything is worth!

The first one I met in Taize is Sr. Elke, she look like an angle. :) 

They welcome me in El Abiodh, with Taize tea and cookies! :D

Afterward, a girl from N'toumi (girls' living place) called Joé helped me to pick the luggage to my room! She looks so strong in my first impression! :P

And have some time to settle down, Sr. Elke told me what the most important things were, like where to take shower/ take meals/ sleep.

At 1900, first supper in N'toumi!

But still, felt soooooooooooo tired after travelling and had some jet lag, I had not join the first evening prayer. Took a shower, then went to bed around 21XX. :)

June13~14* On the way to Taizé...

In mid of April 2010, Revd. Wong invited me to consider for the 3 months stay in Taize.

In mid of May 2010, I had an "interview" with Revd. Lam. He told me something about Taize. 

And finally, after a month I have applied the application, he confirmed I could visit Taize for 3 months!!! How excited I was but followed with the anxiety...

Because of this stay, I got to know Annie, who helped me a lot for the arrangements before I went to Taize. She is a very nice person! After she told me what should I prepared, I asked her to pray for me, and I felt more peaceful to make the decision.  :)

I knew that it must be God's plan and I'm so grateful that I could be one of the lucky person, it's just like a dream... I couldn't believe I was the lucky one!

It like an adventure for me : with the very poor English skill, 1 st time to go out Asia; 1 st time to travel alone; 1 st time to leave home for 3 months! WOW! 

God choose the foolishness!

But I really give thanks to God, HE gave me such an precious experience, HE love me sooooo much!

Also, thanks so much for my family and friends, gave me a lot of Love and encouragement before I left HK.

Lovely Hoyee and CC :)

Special thanks to Hoyee, the permanent in Taize of 2009, she helped me a lot esp. for my  mind's preparation! :D

I finished the exam on 8 June, and I only have 5 days to prepare my trip because I need to come back HK in early of September for my beginning of school of my final year!!!

I was really really really nervous!!!!!!!!!! I still don't know what's exactly I was nervous about... it seems like toooooooooooooo rush!!! everything not prepared well... the bills, the school fees, the stuffs in my home......etc....

These 5 days before I left, I bought many stuffs to Taize, like souvenirs of HK, cloths, daily commodities...etc. 

The most important thing --> had a hair cut! :D

Also I had farewell dinnersssss with my family and friends every night... hahaha... it's just too exaggerated :P

Farewell dinnersssss :)

A thing begun is half done... 萬事起頭難！

Dear all my friends esp. my Taize friends:

Finally, I got some time to establish this blog!

The main reason for me to establish this website is I would like to have a sharing of my stay in Taize last year...

right... it's already a year! I felt a bit guilty that it was such a long time but I still couldn't find out some time to begin!

And now, in my summer holiday, I would like to update it everyday, like the time is going back to last summer!

I'll add some pictures and videos day-by-day! :D

To begin, I would like to share the article I wrote for selection before I was confirmed to go to Taize in May 2010.

One more thing, I know my English is really horrible, but I still wish all of my friends around the world can understand what I am writing about. So, please be patient when you read it :P and sometime maybe I'll write Chinese if the meaning is not easy to translate :D

My article for Taizé

My name is Pang Wai Sze, CC. I am a Christian of the Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal). I am now 21 years old and I believed in God since I was 12, and I got baptised when I was 18.

I was not grown up in a Christian family, I believed in God because I studied in a Christian secondary school and was influenced by the religious atmosphere. God’s work had great impact to me when my father passed away when I was 17. Bible said: “Have faith in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will have salvation.” This is true. My father got baptised just one week before he passed away. I believe that it must be God’s work. This sudden change made me grow up and also started to affect my family to believe in God. Although my mother and sister are not ready to be a Christian, I still believe God is leading us and now we can look forward to meet dad in heaven in one day.

I enjoy my church life very much. Since God first loved us, we establish a very close relationship among brothers and sisters. In my teenage, church mates led me to explore myself from activities and functions. And then I started to participate actively in those church functions. Such as being a member of church choir; joining the music worship team of the diocesan; helping to organize a joint-church fellowship in the diocesan; to be the organizer of a revival camp in church. These activities helped me to be more committed in church and learn to how to have proper attitude towards serving God. These are the gifts that God gave me. I enjoy to serve God because I really hope more people can hear his gospel, know the good news of God, especially my family, my relatives and many friends that are still confused in the world.

I believe it would be enjoyable and comfortable experience in the common prayer of Taizé. The reason that I wish to come to Taizé is I feel the need of revival for my spirit. I know Taizé is a pure paradise, people need to have quiet mind to be there. The daily living in Hong Kong is rush, everyone is under high pressure. Although I am a student, it is hard for me to find just a little silent moment in a day. I hope I can be there to learn how to be with God in silence; to learn how to listen from the others; to learn how we live out our faith in God. I hope I can find out another ways to enjoy life or to find a deeper meaning of God of their lives after staying in Taizé. If I can be there, it would be a chance to revive my life, to help me grow, and to give me something that still lives with me. After I go back from Taizé, I will share this to everyone. I think the most important thing is to live out my faith, live like Jesus Christ.