The eve of this Christmas, I received a letter, from my good friend Daniel, an ex-air-force-officer from Singapore, who is now a priest. Knowing I am from China, he never let me feel any pressure, he is a warm-hearted man. It was a precious letter I received in winter 2007, very rare now, I knew form it that he had moved to a new place.
Not very far, he said it was up in the northern Burlington. As I drove with family up north, my heart started filled with delight. It was about 30 minutes from down town, but already we saw the hills and forest, all covered in white; it was smaller than the church that he use to have and looked very humble than the one built in stones we just passed, actually it is a country house, he had spent the whole summer to make a country style church. I admired his passion, and his spirit in making all this happen. “this is where a church should be and it is more closer to it’s original meaning, even the style” I was speaking to myself.
“I changed the garage into a dining place, and there was a pond right in front of the house, in the summer you could see the fish” he said to me, leading me to all the rooms, in the ‘in-house-sun-deck’ where I saw out of the window, the forest in the backyard, and in the hills; a long table was set up in the middle, tabled with foods for the Christmas lunch. He started his speech at a counter, set in the corner of the room chaired for 20-30 people only; his voice clear, thick, and filled in the room:
His son was sitting at the church piano; I had not had any decent conversation with him since I met him. His daughter Ana, a York Univ. graduate was in the left corner with another Chinese Scholar studying at one of the universities in Ontario. His wife Sophia set before us, all the other Chinese Friends sat in the back.
His speech was interrupted several times with cries from a child in arms of a women; he lead us to read few lines from the Bible in his hand, he tried to explain the ‘origin of Christmas’ Story to us, and he said: ‘the Santa’ and ‘Parties and gifts’ are modern ideas, well accepted all over the world but we should think of what is the ‘real gift’ to us; he asked us several times…
David, a Guelph Univ. Professor, stood up and took some pictures, and later on we went into a conversation mainly about differences between universities in the neighboring areas. Lunch was in self-helped ‘buffet-style’ followed by the ‘gifts-changing’, Daniel was smiling happily and I almost saw the tears in his eyes. Families were all in the happy mood. I saw few new Chinese faces; but I missed the Philippians’-Doctor, who taught me how to take care my car in winter; three Indian boys, who washes the dishes for the Daniel’s church; and their sister, another school girl I met last year.
I looked outside from all the windows, noticed it is surrounded by the trees and hills. “it is beautiful, it could be very nice and colorful when summer comes” I was speaking to myself, turned my last glance at it, as I drove down the hills along the country road. I shall come back.