Let's get ULTIMATE!

Last night was the beginning of a new era: The utter domination of team Black Rain in the Hong Kong Ultimate Players Association. 

Now, this ain't your grandma's ultimate. This ain't even Kanakuk-style ultimate. This is legit ultimate. Positions and strategy and all that stuff. Maybe it's the way ultimate is really supposed to be played, and I just know the toned-down version of it, but this stuff is the real thing. I didn't think I'd like it from the way it was described. But it was AWESOME.....and we destroyed our opponents. We beat them soundly. We scored more goal point units (thanks, Brian Regan) and the 14-8 score at the time of the lights being turned off at the stadium in Causeway Bay was more than enough to prove that Black Rain is not a team to be messed with.

Besides getting to play as a part of an organized league again, which is incredible, it also makes me think of something that my good friend Andy Braner likes to talk about a LOT: the idea of community.

Part of my community here in HK has remained pretty static since about the time I first moved here. There are a few of us who make sure that we hang out all the time. We do church together, most of us work in the same office, we randomly go eat American breakfast together early in the morning, etc etc etc. We are each other's primary community. It makes life here great.

But part of my community has been extremely dynamic since getting back to Hong Kong. The first week I was here I met Eric in the gym. He's not a believer from what I know and I think his priorities are extremely different from mine and the people in my 'static' community. Fortunately the first time we actually hung out was the night after he had become heavily intoxicated, so he wasn't wanting to do that again. Which I was perfectly fine with.

The next week I met "Steven" (I don't know his Chinese name, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to say it or write it, I'm sure). Steven told me the other day that he has only ever had any encounters with one other American, and he was black. I am the first white American he has been willing to play soccer with, talk with, hang out with. He told me it's "not a racist thing" but whatever. I don't care why he hasn't talked to Americans in the past. But now whenever we get to talk he has a million questions from "what do you think about the pollution" to "don't you think John McCain is too old to become president?"  For some reason he has decided now that he wants to know how other people think. And while I don't always have clear answers for him, I think it's helpful for him, and it's definitely helpful for me too.

And now I've met all these people whom I play ultimate frisbee with. A good number of them are Christians, but a good number of them are not, as well. It's a place where I can fellowship with other believers, and a place where hopefully we are examples to those who do not choose to believe what we believe. 

The point of this is that in the past my "community" has been 99% Christian (except for my 3 months at NOLS when I had no other Christian influence). It's been great. It's given me a solid foundation (I think) and I know that I have a HUGE support system, especially with the plethora of people from Kanakuk whom I know will be there in less than a heart beat if necessary.

But this time in life is so encouraging because I get to have my comfortable community around me almost all the time, and I also have the opportunity to go to the hungry, the lost, the broken down, the searching, the angry, and be an example to them. And while I write about how great this is, I also know in the back of my mind that it's something that scares me. It's freakin hard. But it's an honor to have this ability and I pray that I will use it well.

Thanks for being a part of my community.