Before evening, we've given gifts to all but 1 intended neighbors, which would make 5 gifts in total: Joe, Zaira, "Frilet?" (new neighbor), Zach, and I'm missing Adam, which we'll try tomorrow.
Listened to GRII 2020 Christmas (25th) Mandarin+Indonesian Service on Youtube with Nana and Willy. I worried at first that this is going to be too long due to the side by side translation, which I have now come to frown upon (time wasting), but the message did finally get interesting gradually.
I did not record it. Should have. Hopefully they will put in the recording. I guess all of Pak Tong's should be recorded.
(Update: here is the official recording)
Mid session, our Christmas lights, I think, shorted the circuit. Good thing that our outdoor socket is GFI, so I don't need to check the breakers in the basement. My guess is due to this long night storm, mostly strong wind than rain, water must have gotten into one of the connectors of our Christmas light chains. Possibly the ones on the floor and there is one without proper covering which Nadia covered with plain food wrapping. I'll check this in the morning. Too much wind, too much rain, too dark right now.
Back to the sermon. Classic Tong rebuked a couple of people who played with his/her nails, fingers. Hopefully it's truly a rebuke on the attention deficit and not wrongly against those with good reason, but this kind of rebuke is rare and much needed.
Tong mentioned Jahja Ling after traveling from Los Angeles to NY, called him telling him that many American Christians listened to Tong's critic on U.S. politics (which is very crazy these years with Trump vs. Biden) and loved it because all news media in U.S. are so bias and fake. And that a pastor (NY?) is trying to work with Pak Tong to prepare a possible 5 session series on this kind of politics. I definitely will look forward to it. Willy asked if this pastor is Rev. Lin. I had thought of such for a split second but disregarded it until Willy asked. Then I gathered my thoughts again, and replied him that "it's possibly her, because if not, then shame on her!" Why? Because this kind of talk is so rare that it's superiorly important! And she would be one of the closest to Tong to do this. Which reminds me, that I should follow up on this with Tante Lyna. Of course, I must add that I don't really hold Jahja Ling nor Rev. Lin on any high regard because I know their focus is more on the reputation, not that they would admit it but it's a confusion of it with serving God that they have, so I'll leave it at that. They could probably spot a good opportunity in God's kingdom, like the old prophet in Bethel in 1Ki 13:11, that is all. But I could use this to my advantage, although I fear that this series may not happen if Tong is flooded with other burdens. If it does, I would have to record this myself as I fear these folks would cut out sensitive parts should they produce their own recordings.
At the end, I noticed that everyone sang We wish you a Merry Christmas, but Tong didn't sing, merely smiling...I think it's a smile. I wonder why? Too secular? Just want to observe others singing.