Asian Mission Report

It seems like things have been whirling about at high speeds lately. We had a busy but enjoyable Chinese New Year together, with lots of time for warm fellowship with the members of the congregation and other friends. The Chinese New Year is actually a 15-day festival, and today is the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday. The house just across from me had a lion dance this afternoon, in celebration of the holiday, and it was fun to stand outside my door and watch them performing.

The congregation has continued to do well. I have been pleased with the growth of the members in many small ways. In addition, we’ve recently enjoyed especially warm fellowship, with members who live overseas being home for the holidays. It’s been a good time for us.

We have been having a little problem with a leaky roof at our building over the past few months, during the heavy rains of the monsoon season. We’ve managed to get a good quotation from a contractor this past week. In a meeting today, the congregation decided it would be wiser for us to reroof the whole building rather than just patching up the problem areas. We don’t know how well the building was maintained before we bought it, and so felt like doing a thorough job of it now would save us more problems down the road. The members are each planning to pledge some extra funds to defray the cost. I was encouraged to see the enthusiasm of the group for practicing good stewardship of our resources. It was all handled maturely and efficiently, and I think we’ll have the job done quickly.

One of our members has been working over the past year or so to get a counseling service started, operating out of the building. Things have begun to come together nicely for that, and we currently have 4 regulars who are coming to the building for counseling. My sister and her family helped head up a “massive advertising campaign” in the neighborhood in December — consisting of their family, the children from church, and a few of us adults going and placing leaflets on each door in the buildings around the church building. It is nice to see the results from that coming together, and it is nice that the children’s enthusiasm has helped to bring this about. The two ladies who are running the counseling service are doing a very good job, and we hope to see it expand as time goes on. It is a good service to the community.

I would appreciate your prayers for comfort for my family. My maternal grandfather passed away last week. I am sad, and will miss him very much. I am, at the same time, so grateful for the life he lived, and for the shining example of faith that he was to me. He became a Christian 5 years ago, at the age of 75, and the humility with which he came to that decision moves me in a way that I cannot express in words. I have written a short tribute to him at my regular blog site, if you’d like to look at that.

Here’s what I’ve been reading lately:

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon

I was reading this one in preparation for the book discussion that will take place at merryone’s at my other blog site sometime soon. I’m saving most of my comments till that time. I will say, though, that I’m not generally a fan of modern retellings of Arthurian legend, and this one was not one to convert me into a fan either.

Juvenal’s Sixteen Satires

I’ve tried to pick up on Juvenal’s satires since I set them aside for The Mists of Avalon, but I haven’t gotten very far along in this one still. I’m hoping things will slow down soon and I can get into it at last.

They Went edited by Willliam Zinsser

This is a book about travel writing. I am enjoying the style of the book, and find the articles very helpful. The book grew out of a series of lectures some ten years or so ago. I have another in the series called Spiritual Quests that I hope to start when I finish this one. It is easy reading, and very enjoyable.

Kafla International

This is a literary magazine put out by India Inter-Continental Cultural Association. I’ve enjoyed browsing through the poetry there, for the most part. Not all of it is great, but none of it is all bad either. If you are interested in the magazine, they will send a free copy upon request. Allow some time for delivery. Mine took a while.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Richard II

I was reading both of these in preparation for class. I am not usually a big fan of the histories, but I ended up really enjoying Richard II this time around, though it’s always been my least favorite of the texts I teach for this class in the past. I think some parts of it began to fit together better for me than before — not just within the text of the play, but within the context of contemporary life and politics. It makes me wonder how I missed it before.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is my favorite of the comedies, and it is always hugely fun in class. The students acted out a scene from the play, and we managed to have really good interaction in our discussion of the text. It’s the first play we cover in this course, and it is an excellent ice-breaker. It never fails to suck the students in.

Norton Anthology of Shakespeare

I’ve been using this book in preparation for my Shakespeare class. I’m not actually a big fan of New Historicism, and that’s the paradigm this text is writing from. That said, it’s a fantastic resource. The tools available in this anthology are really amazing. I love all the introductory material and the excellent notes. I like having all of Shakespeare’s writings available in one volume. That does make for a very heavy book, one which I hate carrying to class. But still, it’s a good enough resource to overcome that inconvenience. If you are at all a student of Shakespeare, and even more a teacher, then this is a top-notch resource to have at hand.

Besides that, I’ve just been reading various textbooks for supplementary materials for lectures and classes. Oh yeah… and a whole stack of students’ papers. :-/