Because of the academic cooperation between our Center(CJS) and the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies(ISCS), I got an opportunity to study at Lutheran Theological Seminary(LTS) for several months last semester.During this short time, I experienced and benefited a lot in this relatively new place for me.

The most memorable scene for me is the new way of life I met with in LTS. Before went to the LTS, I acknowledged some aspects of everyday life for Christians. To experience it, however, it would be no exaggeration to say that it is a completely new thing to me. There are two chapels for daily worship at Tao Fong Shan. One is located in ISCS, and the other one is situated in LTS. Almost every student and staff will go to the seminary's chapel for morning worship from Monday to Friday. And the process for the worship service is almost the same, except for some special event. After lighting two candles before the cross, the lecturer who is one of the staffs in LTS will give his or her interpretations and explanations to the verses of the Bible. Most part of the time, the language they use are English and Cantonese.

Besides this formal daily worship, the similar scene I saw was in the dinning hall for the meal. It was the most interesting phenomenon for me. Before meal, two students who were on duty led us to sing some gospels song and then for a moment to pray. Even without a good accent, I've learned one song they sang regularly. Once, one of my friends asked me what the difference was between the food in LTS and that in our university's cafeteria. I said that the huge difference lies in these two words: pay and pray. I have to pay everything we want to have in my university, but here, I said, what I only have to do is to pray before having meal, though I knew that ISCS has financially sponsored us visiting students for the fee of food and accommodation. A big surprise for me in the dinning hall is that almost every faculty, from the president of the LTS, and some professors, to the students, even to the cook and the cleaner who work in the Seminary, equally sits around the tables enjoy their food. I cannot imagine this without seeing and experiencing it. This provides us with a lot opportunity to chat and know with each other. The most enjoyable time for me is the breakfast time. Firstly, I like the plentiful food, which includes milk powder, oatmeal, bread, and eggs, to name a few, they prepared for us. Most importantly, I can learn and know different cultural and costumes through talking with students from different countries in the breakfast time. If there was no class at morning, I always get up at around 8 o'clock, and then go to have breakfast with my roommate, who is a kind and interesting guy with humorous sense from Myanmar. While enjoying the delicious food, we discussing interesting topics like the different situation and lifestyle people live in Thailand and mainland China. After one hour's breakfast, the length of the time is almost twice than the time I usually spend to have meal, not only I practiced my oral English, but I also can get some different information and new ideas to some issue from different perspectives.

Another unforgettable memory for me at this place is the very quiet atmosphere it has. LTS, far from the prosperous while noise downtown area of Hong Kong, provides me an ideal place for my study. Besides the meal and class time, and the time for participate the church service, most part of the time left was used to read study materials I collected here. Sometimes, it can be counted as perfect situation without phone call come in, without thinking about secular pressure like affection, work, and life trifles, just devote our energy to the exploring of knowledge with the blue sky and green mountain around you. This is the situation where Tao Fong Shan can give us.

With new kind friends here, though I met with difficulties, most of them were resolved with the help of them. The most difficult obstacle I met with is the language we communicate with each other. I completely cannot understand what the conversation mean when they talk with Cantonese, this bring me a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages. For one thing, I can do what I want without caring about what they are talking about, but at the same time, this limits me the opportunity to further understand their culture. English is another most often used language here, with the poor ability in listening and speaking, I utilize every chance I can use to enhance them.