I have followed English football since I was in secondary school. I was even in Bolton, England. The closest I got to a football match was shopping at Tesco under the Reebok Stadium. My daughter Elaine does not follow football. She asks the odd question and get answers from me (Arsenal fan), Joshua (Chelsea fan), and Matthew(Liverpool fan). Yet she has entered the Old Trafford of the Manchester United 
Football Club and watched a football match where the host played West Ham Utd. You can call this grace! The person who worked got nothing; the one who was not even looking experienced the Old Trafford atmosphere. I sent her a terse message on her wall in her Facebook, “Dear, if you decide to become a Man Utd fan, don’t bother to come home. Love, Dad” 🙂
My daughter Elaine went to stay with my wife’s sister and husband, Amy and Mike in Bolton, England. This is the coldest in England in perhaps two decades. All of us are going to miss her but she is all wrapped up in warm comfort and care.
She will be an exchange student in the University of Manchester for a semester. How the Lord opened the way and provided the funds for her to go there is a testimony in itself. We are grateful to God for his undeserved blessings, and the
generosity of friends and family.
We were with her on skype and she looked happy and spoilt! She showed us a smart jacket and some warm turtleneck from sales there- snazzy stuff. We were happy for her and appreciated the Blyths for the love and generosity in hosting her for the period.
As all football fans know, Manchester is the home of the world’s second most famous football club: Manchester City FC. In case you wonder which is the most famous, and greatest, it is Arsenal FC. 🙂
Wen Por and Wen Mun live in Bangkok and study in an international school there. Their mum, Baby, is my wife’s younger sister, a Singaporean who has worked there, met her husband and now has her home there for over twenty years. Her husband Jack, is Taiwanese, and they run a trading business there. They have visited us over more than a decade now, usually during the Christmas season and they are great to have around. They are very well brought up and well behaved and this time it struck me that they are mature young folk and love doing things young people love doing. They are no longer young kids. So my son and daughter who were on vacation brought them to an overdose of shopping, church events, and activities and I am sure it built strong bonds of love.