Asian Mission Report

I got home earlier in the week after a very good trip to Shanghai. The group meeting there has progressed very well, in my estimation, since I was last there in September. They’ve finished studying Acts (they’ve been at it for about a year), and have moved on to Galatians now. They seemed pleased that they were able to understand Galatians better in its larger context, after having gone through Acts so carefully.

One of the ladies told me something that made me feel very pleased. She said that someone recently asked her if she is a Christian, and she was stumped for a second, not sure how to answer. She said that she knows she’s not a Christian “yet” (her word), but that she didn’t want to say no either, when asked. I ask that you continue your prayers for her, as this is real progress for her. She says she is not ready to become a Christian yet, but she is certainly moving the right direction. Do pray that God will keep her from distractions and things that will draw her away.

I tried to contact my former Chinese teacher while in Shanghai. She moved back to Shanghai in October, and I was hoping to get her to worship with us. She was very busy while I was there, and though we talked several times, she didn’t get to worship with us. Pray that we can see some change there before my next trip to Shanghai.

I got the opportunity to meet up with several students while I was there too. One of the Christians is a lecturer at a university, and I had a good time with a group of her students while there. I attended class with her one day, and led a short discussion at the end of the time together. Later that evening, we had dinner with a group of students she works closely with. There were some former students there, and some current students. It was a good, relaxed atmosphere to get to know them and build some connections. I’ve seen some of them around campus off and on over the past few years, so this was a good way of furthering those connections.

I am hoping to be back in Shanghai in March. I think we’ve got a really good foundation laid for the work there. It is a long way to go, still, but a very good start. I am pleased with what I see there.

Things in Singapore have continued to progress nicely while I was away. The group here did a good job working on plans for events for this summer, keeping me informed via email while I was gone. I am excited about the plans that have been made, and am especially pleased by the initiative of some of the members to keep things moving ahead smoothly.

I received word last night that we’ll have a visitor with us this morning. I think it is a brother from the Philippines. It will be nice to have a guest with us for our assembly this morning.

Many thanks to all of you for your prayers while I was away. Your support for the work is very much appreciated.

Poetry Magazine

The most memorable thing in the December issue of Poetry was probably the prose. I liked the essay that reflected on Robert Frost, and also the essay that pondered the question of why prose plays such a prominent part in a journal bearing the title Poetry. (Sorry, I don’t have the issue at hand now, and can’t credit either author of said articles.)

Antioch Review

I started reading this some time back, and put it aside when I had company from overseas in November. I didn’t manage to finish it before making my way to Shanghai, and I didn’t bring it with me either. It looks like it might take me a while longer to finish it. I am enjoying the prose there, and look forward to having a bit of time with it when I get back to Singapore. I like its exploration of the relationship between truth and narrative. The memoirs and stories dealing with this tension have all been fun reading.

Books & Culture

I was catching up on a back issue of this one, and so read the September/October edition. I still have November/December’s to read this month. Anyway… the articles in the September/October issue were very interesting to me. I particularly enjoyed some of the essays exploring Protestant America’s representations of Islam in literature and political rhetoric. Having just engaged in a rather lively discussion where I had mentioned this point over at another blog site recently, it kind of made me smile to find this article. I enjoyed Thomas Kidd’s handling of the issue in Books and Culture, and would recommend the article to anyone who is interested.

This issue also had a very interesting article entitled “Confucian Hermeneutics” that I enjoyed discussing with my friends in Shanghai.

Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems

I listened to an audio version of this poetry collection, and enjoyed it very much. It made my wait in the airport in the middle of the night seem to pass very quickly. I always like listening to poetry, as it highlights the importance of the aural aspect of the medium. The only complaint I had with this recording was that the reader needed to leave a longer pause between poems. It seemed that one ran on top of another in his reading. But it was a free audiobook, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain!

Searoad by Ursula Le Guin

This book is different than many of Le Guin’s in that it isn’t fantasy. I enjoyed it, though there were some rough spots for me. I think it was collected quite long after some of the stories were originally written, and that sort of showed up. It is not a linear narrative, but rather an overview of a location, viewed from the various perspectives of its inhabitants. I enjoyed that part of the book. It was a very feminine writing form, something I think Helene Cixous would term ecriture feminine. It would deserve a look in any class that wanted to discuss women’s writing, I think. It would be fun to examine in connection with works like Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon or something like that.

The Sun magazine

I received a free issue of The Sun as a trial to see if it was something I would like to subscribe to. I doubt I will subscribe to it, but I did enjoy reading this issue well enough. Some of the letters showcased a bit too much of a sort of in-house squabble, and I would’ve probably liked this magazine a little better if less ink were given to that. At any rate, they will send the free issue to anyone anywhere, I think. So if you’re interested, you can visit their website and request at least the one issue.

Off the Edge magazine

This is a Malaysian magazine, trying to give bring arts and culture to the businessperson. It proved an interesting enough read for me, but I don’t know how interesting it would be for people from outside the region. For one thing, it uses a large amount of colloquialisms. While I am a big fan of Singlish, and don’t even mind seeing it used in TV programs or local writing, I do think it needs to flow naturally when it is thus used. In many places in the magazine, it seemed affected, which detracted from the magazine as a whole, for me. But I did enjoy the read nonetheless. It had several articles that have dovetailed nicely with my reflections on the article in Books and Culture about the representations of Islam in American Protestant thought. I had to smile at some of the representations coming from the opposite side. Smile, but also shake my head with a sigh. Why must all things become so polarized? It certainly doesn’t seem to help with reasonable discussion.