Asian Mission Report

I spend most of May in Shanghai, and had a very, very good stay. I had a friend from my school come and join me over one weekend, and then one of our members from Woodlands and 2 members from League City with me for the final week. Having them all there was amazingly beneficial. When the 3 were with me during the last week of my stay, I especially noticed a difference for F., the youngest of the group members in Shanghai. She hasn’t spent much time with Christians around her own age, but is mostly with those of us in the group, all of whom are about 15 years older than her. I can see that the time with the younger Christians especially did her a lot of good. I am excited to see what fruit will be borne down the road.

I am hoping to spend more time in Shanghai in the upcoming months, and not let such a long lapse happen between trips again (it was almost 4 months between these 2 trips). The group is doing well, and I was pleased to see their faithfulness while I was away. But at the same time, it is obviously a struggle for them, and the added encouragement of my, or other Christians’, presence is helpful to them. I am giving serious thought to how I might manage to spend more of my time there next year, either through traveling even more frequently than I do now, or through staying for an extended period — perhaps several months during which I take up some language courses. I will appreciate your prayers as I continue to consider the options available to me.

When I returned to Singapore, the 3 who spent the last week in Shanghai returned with me. We had nearly a week to get things ready for the arrival of the rest of the campaign group, who came in yesterday. With them, my two nephews also traveled over, and they will be spending the whole summer with me.

I am excited about this group. They are hard working, they are flexible, and they have a real heart for the members here. Today, we managed to get some doorknocking done in the neighbourhood. At night, despite weary bodies, all of the group members were actively engaging with various members from Woodlands for more than an hour after our Bible class ended. It was good to see the warmth and enthusiasm with this group.

We will have our VBS next week. Do keep us in your prayers.

I enjoyed the reading I did in May, though I didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked. At least, for the first time in a while, most of my reading time was just leisure reading.

Poetry Magazine

I managed to read the latest issue of Poetry while I was traveling. It was a good read, as it usually is. There were a few poems that stood out as being especially enjoyable.

Walter Wangerin’s The Book of God and After the Fire by John Lockley

I am still reading these two, having started them both in April. I am enjoying both very much. I am actually listening to The Book of God as I commute, and I have really enjoyed the narrator’s treatment of the stories Wangerin has put together.

The Lesson of the Master by Henry James

I had a small volume that contained just this single short story. I really enjoyed reading it. It had been a while since I’d read any of James’s prose, so it was especially fun.

Four Essays, Michel Montaigne

Montaigne’s essays were more fun to read than I first expected. I finished them up while I was in the scenic water village of Xitang, outside of Shanghai. It was the perfect setting to have an early morning stroll and finish up some good reading while the village began to come to life. Montaigne was a good companion to watch the sunrise with.

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching is one of China’s ancient classics. I had been thinking about it a lot recently, and enjoyed sitting down to read through it. I had a good, reliable translation, one of the better English versions, and I really found it a good reading experience. I’ve written about it on another blog site, especially in connection with some problematic issues related to translating the Bible into Chinese.