Thanksgiving Letter 2015 (updated on Mar 23, 2021)

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. (William Arthur Ward)

Happy Thanksgiving!

May God continue to bless you with good health, peace and joy!

          First of all, I want to thank you very much for all your support, love, gifts and especially your prayers as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day.    How is your Thanksgiving celebration? Our community was invited to celebrate Thanksgiving at Maryknoll Society House Hong Kong this evening.  It's a very nice celebration.

     It’s my farewell time at Holy Family Church these days as I will leave for USA on December 7, 2015 so I want to share the farewell story.

On my way to Shenzhen last Sunday morning, Ms. Liang asked me to arrive at the Church before Mass as she needs help.  Our community organized an open day last Saturday afternoon as part of the Year of Consecrated Life celebration so I went to Shenzhen last Sunday instead of Saturday. Not so long, Mrs. Liu also asked me to arrive as soon as possible because they are waiting for me.  I could guess that there would be a surprise for me.   I arrived just before “Our Father” and immediately Mrs. Liu asked me to sit with Ms. Liang in the front section.            
After announcing the couple’s gathering on Nov 28, Fr. Lu asked me to sit on the first pew because Ms. Luo, Mr. Wu and Ms. Xiong (who was intentionally removed her choir uniform and wore pink blouse) would share their appreciation on my voluntary works while showing the compilation of my pictures with parishioners.  Ms. Xiong then led the choir to sing “不简单的路”（=not a simple road） and gave her gifts. Mr. Li, the leader of parish council, expressed his appreciation including on the presentation about “How to build together the Holy Family Church" and asked me to come back next year.  Fr. Lu also expressed his appreciation and asked me to come back besides sharing how I love the parishioners.  Fr. Lu asked me to speak so I said that I am grateful for what God prepares for me at Holy Family Church: the parishioners are generous, care and understand my limitation on Putonghua.  I couldn’t hold my tears.  Two children presented a card from the Sunday’s School Team, Mr. and Mrs. Fan with their daughter presented a pink rose bouquet and then Mr. Li gave a Holy Family Statue.  Here is the link of the video of the pictures: https://youtu.be/kVKErS3Gxo4

          Several parishioners expressed their gratitude after Mass and wish I will come back.  After praying with a non-Catholic guy, whom we visited at the hospital two weeks ago, I went to the back of the Church as the children and parishioners were waiting for the gathering.  Mrs. Cai provided a pink cake for the gathering.  Ms. Huang asked me to make a wish while Fr. Lu invited all of them to sing “祝你平安”（=Peace be with you）.  It’s really a big surprise, which was organized by several youth.

          After the celebration, we had a meeting for youth gathering.  I expressed my gratitude for their help, informed the summary of survey and gave some guidance in planning for the 2016 gatherings.  Then, I divided them in small groups and asked each group to write a youth gathering plan and they are ready with 6 plans!  They always did more than I thought for surprise requests of e.g. pick up the cigarette butt on the street in doing charity work and gave away the bookmark on the street in doing evangelisation work.   

          Then, Fr. Lu, several parishioners and I attended Mass at the Christ the King Church of Bao An District for the feast of Christ the King followed by dinner, rosary prayer and Mass at Holy Family Church.

        Mrs. Wu and her husband invited me for hot pot dinner after evening Mass as she missed the dinner with her circle and me on Nov 9.  The Sunday’s School Teachers invited for lunch last Sunday.  
   Here is the link of the pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbuWrFm4ZM2aj 

          Ok...that's it for now.  Once again, Thank you very much!  Terima kasih banyak!  多谢你！

Hong Kong, November 26, 2015

with love and prayer,

Sr. Anastasia B. Lindawati, M.M.

Let’s do simple things with simple love to make God’s love visible

Dec 4, 2015:

Fr. Lu and 8 parishioners accompanied me to go back to our convent on Dec 1, 2015.  Fr. Gabriel, MG was our host at St. Theresa’s Church.   One of the youth Ms. Xu visited our convent in the evening as she is working in Hong Kong.