My dad knew a lot of people, and a lot of people looked up to my dad. They looked up to him as Rev Kwok and respected him, and they respected his preaching.

But I feel honoured to say that, of the whole wide world, only my brother and I had the priviledge to be his kids.

And I was the only one who was privileged enough to be his only daughter…

I just want to share with you today about this great Dad of mine, share with u a side of Rev Kwok you didn’t know about.
Though sadly, to be honest, I have to say that I didn’t quite think about Dad as being a great Dad before he passed away.
I still remember shopping for a father’s day card last year, and finding all these cards that go on about Dad being the handy man around the house, Dad for doing this and doing that…..
And I thought: but my dad isn’t like that… he doesn’t do anything…

But I guess, sometimes, you don’t realise how much something means to you until u don’t have it anymore…  and how much someone loves u til they’re not there to show their love anymore.

and with Dad, I know I never paid much attention to the little ways he showed his love to us, cos they just weren’t the conventional ways… not the ways my friends’ dads showed their love…

But looking back, I can see it now. Dad loved us alright.

I’ll just share with you some things I remember in the 21 years I had with Dad…

One of my earliest memories go back to when I was just a 2 year old, when Dad went to study in America, even tho he was only away for 2 years, he sent us heaps of cards and presents,

I remember him sending us giant packets of Gummi bears, and in those days, gummi bears were hard to find in HK… so they were a big treat for us!

And he’d send us our christmas presents,
we used to get soo excited…
I remember getting these Superman slippers, tho I don’t recall ever liking Superman, but I loved those slippers!! Perhaps because they were orange, and orange being one of my fav colours at the time, or mebbe because it was from Dad that made them special.

Dad loved animals, through out the years, we’ve had many different kinds of animals… in our teeny apartment in HK… we’ve had guniea pigs, hamsters, chickens, ducks, mice, quails, birds, and fish, Dad loved fish… he had 2 big tanks full of them when we were in HK!

Several years ago when I wanted some ducks, all I wanted was 2… but Dad went out and brought back 4!!

And I remember how worried I was when we got our cat, cos tho dad liked animals, I don’t think he liked long term animals… cos I got the cat outside my primary school one day after school, it was totally not planned…

So I rung Dad at work, and at first he seemed real cranky, then when he asked me what colour it was and I told him, he was like: oh ok, I’ll see then.

And he’s loved the cat since, soemtimes when he’d be too stressed to talk to even us, he’ll still talk to the cat…
And last christmas, he even bought her a toy!!

I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but Dad’s got a couple of teeth missing…
That was the result of Dad, I guess, trying to show his love in his own ways…

U see, every year, we’d go off to Long Island in HK for a holiday… that’s when we were young, and Dad was as enthusiastic as we were about going out and seraching for bull frogs and catching little fish in ponds……

So this time, we were walking around looking for fish… and we spotted some but it was way too far away from the edge… we wanted them but we knew we couldn’t get them, but Dad being Dad, he jumped (or tried to) onto this rock in the middle of the pond to get closer to the fish… and slipped and fell and hit his jaw on the rock, and his teeth fell out…
That was pretty scary, actually, but that was Dad’s way of showing us he loved us!!

Dad, being a typical chinese Dad I guess, found it hard to show his love for us.
and living in a materialistic society like HK, the only way he knew to show his love was to buy us stuff….

He was always the person we’d go to if Mum ever said no to a toy we wanted to buy… I dunno whether he just couldn’t be bothered arguing or what… but he’d always get the stuff for us, even nowadays, if I ever ran out of the money mum gave me, Dad would always give me some more, usually more than I asked for!!

And I remember this toy he bought me when I was in kindegarten I think,
And he’d hid it on top of a cupboard which was just across from where I sit at the dining table… so I spotted it!! I didn’t even ask for that!! And he bought it! I still have that toy now, it’s a lil bunny rabbit that sucks on a bottle….. it was one of my favourite toys, and it still is..

Now dad didn’t always talk to us, I think he was too stressed to speak…
But in the months before he died, he talked to us a lot more that he used to, and showed he cared, by little things like coming to the door and saying hello with a smile when we’d come home from uni or work…

And I remember one time in particular, not that long ago, when I asked him some bible questions, and asked him about stuff regarding youth group and church, and he sat down on my beanbag in my room and we just talked, about church, he told me things that I should look out for in youth minisrty, and shared with me difficulties he’s faced in the past, we looked at the Bible together… it was great!!
Even though I wish there could’ve been more, but I will treasure that one time for the rest of my life.

He’s really shown an interest in my ministry in the past year, like, after Mid Year Conference, Katoomba, mission and stuff like that, he’d ask me what I’d learnt….

And I’ll never forget the look of joy on Dad’s face when I told him about a catholic girl I met at Gunnedah Summer Mission, and how she has made it her goal to get to know God better…
He was so happy to hear that that he gave me a hug!!

And that’s one of the last good memorys I had of Dad…..one that I will treasure forever.