Choice Asia in Hong Kong

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This October I got a great opportunity to attend a Choice Asia Conference in Hong Kong.  Nowhere in my wildest dreams would I have believed that I would have gotten this fantastic opportunity to represent Choice T&T in Asia.  A few months ago I did not even know that there was Choice in Asia!  

The Choice Movement is an international movement that hosts weekend retreats for single young adults between the ages of 18-40 years of age.  These weekends are filled with personal testimonies, spiritual inputs, activities and group sessions all with the intention of creating a space during the weekend that the young adults can do a lot of introspection and reflection with the help of the Holy Spirit on what their vocation maybe.

As the spiritual director of Choice T&T, I along with the Gabby the chairperson was able to attend this momentous event in Hong Kong.  The moment we landed in Hong Kong, after twenty-three hours flying and hours spent awaiting the three planes we had to take to get us there; it was all forgotten as soon as we  arrived in Hong Kong to many smiling faces of Choicers (someone who did a Choice weekend) from different parts of Asia.  

The conference was made up of many young adults who were single, a few newly married, also religious sisters, priests and couples who were married for many years.  We literally met our wider Choice family, who came from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, China and Korea via Skype.

This was a chance of a life-time and I feel very blessed for the experience.  I met wonderful people.  My Facebook page is now overflowing with news from my new Asian friends.  We have also been blessed with many new ideas of how we can help improve our Choice experience in Trinidad & Tobago.  

We sampled all the local food and drinks.  I even learned to eat with chopsticks and I did not starve because of it!  

It’s amazing what God can do!  I will always be grateful for this experience.  Who knows, maybe three years from now I might be able to attend the next conference in Taiwan!

Lystra Long, OP
St. Joseph, Trinidad

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