Friday, June 15, 2012

Phone Chat with New Zealand friends

Yesterday we had lunch with our New Zealand friends - Lieut. Colonels Robert and Janine Donaldson. Her parents are very good friends of ours and through Janine, we received the telephone number of Lieut. Colonels Russell and Doreen Hamilton.

What a  thrill it was for us to contact them this morning our time 9.30 a.m. and New Zealand time 1.30 p.m. It was a surprise to them and what a delight for us to chat for several minutes recalling old times!  We were stationed in Hong Kong and I made a visit to the Philippines for the Congress and Commissioning. I was invited to conduct Officers' Councils and that was the first time, I met the Hamiltons.

They came over to Hong Kong and spent some time with us. The General Secretary then was a New Zealander Major Moira Wright and she billeted them Our friendship developed through the years.

Our last visit to New Zealand was 2001. It was through Lieut. Colonel Russell Hamilton that we were invited to conduct a series of Bible studies at the Retired Officers Convention for the officers of Australia and New Zealand territories.

We were supposed to visit New Zealand again in 2003, but because of SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) affecting Singapore this had to be cancelled. We were terribly disappointed.

Come to think of it some of our best friends are New Zealanders or Kiwis. We visited New Zealand several times and each time richly blessed.

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