Whoever is a truly devout believer earns my admiration and respect, no matter he or she is a Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. The key words are “truly devout”, because in that way there must be a lofty goal for the believer to search for, or a sacred idea to devote to in a mundane world, in which most of us are but ordinary people.

In his youth, Conrad, my kid brother, did not show the slightest
inclination that he would be a clergyman someday, somehow. In fact, he was the youngest of the family and was only four when my mother died; so he had been kind of coddled throughout his growing-up. During his adolescence, he somewhat sowed his wild oats, and barely graduated from a not-so-prestigious college. He never had been an assiduous student, and scarecely a promising young man either.

After having finished his military service, he joined Ta Tung Co, Hong Kong branch( thanks to his HK birth certificate, and that’s why his last name is a Cantonese Kwok, different from mine), and later on he got married in Hong Kong but led an unhappy life there due to the pressure from his work and his wife’s family. Reluctantly, he decided to make a change: immigrate to Canada.

To Canada did he and his wife go. But how could he survive there with poor English proficiency, and without any skilled talent? Luckily he had a chance joining an all-Caucasian refrigeration company. Up from entry level, with his hell-bent working attitude, he became the CEO of the company and a who’s who of the business not before too long. His boss even offered him a partnership status, trying to keep him in the company
when something else in his mind was calling him.

God summons him. Although he was baptized as an Catholic when he was born( All of the family were baptized in HK, the asylum for us then, not because we were pious, but we needed doles from the church.), he had never been a believer until he married to his religious wife, a Protestant though. Conrad decided to relinquish all he already had: lucrative income, shares, perquisites, social status, almost everything, and entered to a theological college. You may be aware of that theology, the ultimate philosophy, is one of the most difficult learnings in the world, like a Greek to everyone. With help from his wife, friends, he filled the void of a paucity of vocaburies and other shortages, and went through the
ordeal. Finally he was conferred a Master degree, and later at 50 he was ordained an official minister by the church. Now he can preach sermons with Mandarin, Cantonese and English to the congregations in Toronto area and other parts of Chinese communities, including to the refugees in
northern Thailand. 

That is the story of Conrad Kwok. How about me, his elder brother? I am still an infidel so far, but I always adhere to the Confucism and Taoism, ethically and spiritually.