Christmas Morning at 8 a.m this morning when the street light remained and Christmas lights were still on from Balmoral Bay Brandon. Painted this quick oil sketch at the crack of dawn this morning while listening to the live performance of Hendel's Messiah on CBC Radio 2. Some distant memory flashed back to me from the Christmas Eve of 1989, 26 years ago. I remember it must be on a Sunday. I was teaching high school in China back then, and as a rule I had to go to class to teach that day as well. Facing reluctant class of over 50 students, instead of a normal routine class, I played to them from an old cassette recorder Hendel's Messiah telling them some stories from Bible using a copy of Bible Stories for Children published in Australia as a reference, the book which I had just translated into Chinese language then.The students so enjoyed it for never ever beofre had they heard anything like that. However, When the school principle who was also the Party secretary found out later, I received a server warning as a result. Maybe it just further firmed my will to leave China even at the price of leaving my young family behind. The urge of leaving was so strong , I remember, that I even wish to be able to spend the rest of my life in a snow-covered land where you could have a real white Christmas. That year, I started my two year long process of trying to get my passport, writing my Test of English as Foreign Language test , sending my applications to Canadian universities from coast to coast, and approaching Canadian Embassy in Beijing for my entry visa. I remember after my last visit to Canadian Embassy in Beijing at the end of March in 1991, I bid my farewell to my Praying Grandmother in her late 80s wheelchair bound who resided in Beijing with my Aunt then. . As I stepped outdoor on that unforgeable morning, it started to snow , and it snowed non-stop so heavily that the whole northern China seemed to be completely covered with snow as I was travelling down south by train. I remember vividly on that train how two passengers got into fist flight over the dispute of a seat, and how the rest of passengers cheered on. I felt so disgusted by the sight. I just started to pray that please God takes me out of this miserable place and take me to Canada so that I will have my first white Christmas. At that very moment, I just could not believe my ears, of all the places, right there and right at that particular moment, there came on the air via the speaker system of the passenger train, a children's choir of Silent Night and Holy Night! I remember tear streamed down my face , and I started to write to my grandmother a letter sharing the experience with her. When she received the later a week later, she wrote to me telling me that it was a sign that I would leave very soon for that far faraway land. A month later I received my visa from Canadian Embassy, and on Christmas Eve of 1991 I was found on board of Grey Hound Bus heading for Three Hills Prairie Bible Institute to attend Chinese Christian Winter Camp hosted by that college!
