June Reading List

John Lockley’s After the Fire

I’ve enjoyed this novel — one I picked up out of a bin of discounted books some years back. I’ve written about it on my other blogs, about how it got me to thinking about law and order / crime and punishment, a crisis of faith, survival, and even SARS. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read (not even in the top 100), but it was still thought-provoking enough. I understand it is the first in a series (it ends with an obvious invitation for a continuation). I don’t have the next book, or even its title, but I would read it if I came across it.

The Three Penny Review

The Three Penny Review is one of the more thoughtful periodicals that I read. I usually go through the poetry first. But what I really like is the great variety of articles. Its always full of good writing, and can really make you think, if you let it.

Poetry Magazine

There was not one memorable poem in this issue of Poetry, but it was the all-poetry edition. This one, along with the translation issue, is one of my favorites each year. I like it when the whole thing is full of poetry and leaves out the section of prose that usually ends the journal.

Aaron Maniam’s Morning at Memories Border

This is a collection of poetry by a Singaporean poet. It is his first collection. So far, I am not as impressed with it as I thought I would be (I haven’t finished yet). It received a lot of high praise, but it just hasn’t done it for me yet.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

The semester is looming up on me again, and I am getting started on my reading for school. Twelfth Night will be one of the first plays I do for my Shakespeare class this term.

 

Recent Shanghai trip, Present campaign happenings

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.

 

May Reading List

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.

 

Some personal business

In the past couple of months, we’ve done some renovations. I have made a little video of the new look of the house, and thought you might like to see it. It will give you a little look at the confines in which we live here.

[you tube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCGCPd4w4mc]

 

A Long Overdue Update

It is hard to believe how long it’s been since my last update, but the date is right there in front of me, so I guess I can’t deny it.

And yes, things have been that busy. We’ve had a lot going on around here, and it is nice, right now, to have a moment to sit and catch my breath and reflect on it all.

My overall feeling is one of satisfaction. I am thinking back over the past 6 weeks, and I am noticing that there have been a lot of little signs of growth, especially amongst some of the newer members. I can’t think of any one mind-blowing event or anything like that, but there has been a general air of things going well, and small signs of real growth in individuals. I’ve seen our younger Christians seeking guidance from some who are more experienced, and really listening and evaluating the advice they’ve received. I’ve seen members own up to things that they need to be working on, and then really get down to the business of making things right. I’ve seen mature Christians making the time to be involved with the nurturing of those who are less mature. And I’ve seen some small steps here and there in the right direction — lots of small steps that are amounting to real progress.

One of the most exciting things that has happened recently is the questions that members and friends alike have been asking. Some tough issues have come up in recent weeks as we wrapped up our study of Romans and began studying Colossians. I’ve loved seeing how the group has tackled those issues together, seeking greater understanding.

And one of our visitors has been a real encouragement to me. She’s a part of the group of girls I’ve been studying with each week for the past couple of years. It seems some things are finally clicking together in her mind, and she’s beginning to have a real grasp of the idea of the gospel story. She has said she has some things she needs to weigh before she can make a commitment to follow Christ, so I ask that you will pray for her.

It is good to see all of these things. There have been times in recent years when I wondered how we would ever get the whole congregation moving in the right direction all at the same time again. And, frankly, I don’t know how it’s been done, but it seems that we are somehow there, and are making some progress. The sort of progress we have been praying for.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be finalizing all of our plans for the upcoming campaign. We are really excited about the crew who is coming over to help, including two interns who will meet me in Shanghai before making their way here. We are anticipating good trip.

Do be praying for those who will be coming. Besides the two interns, we will have two ladies teaching a VBS, the family who comes to spend each summer with us, and my two nephews. It will be a busy and exciting summer, and we are looking forward to it! Your prayers for their health and safe travels will be much appreciated.

I will do my best not to lag behind so much in updating this blog, for those who like to stop in and read it. Thanks for your continued support of the work here.

 

A Whirlwind

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.

 

February Reading List

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. :-/

 

January Reading List

Volpone by Ben Jonson

I was reading through this one for a class I’d been helping my friend prepare for her masters students in Shanghai. I was there for her final session with the students, and it was fun to see how the course had gone so nicely for her. Volpone is a fun play to read, with lots of clever twists and turns in it, and tons of verbal humour to keep the play moving along nicely.

The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne

I was recently telling a friend about my favourite poets, and Donne sits right on the top of that list. After talking about him with my friend, I just couldn’t help it. I had to go back and read his work again. This particular collection is in ebook form, which I downloaded after this discussion. I’m enjoying revisiting Donne’s work, and the ebook format seems to work very nicely for poetry. I have been surprised, though, in reading it that I don’t mind reading the prose on my PDA screen as much as I feared I would. The ebook format seems to have developed during all this time I was busy scorning it, and it actually caters well to the avid reader. I love being able to carry Donne’s poetry, a monster-sized dictionary, and many other books all in my PDA. It makes me wonder why I’ve avoided it for so long.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This was the first play I covered in my Shakespeare course for this semester. (Just started this past week.) I suppose there will be several of Shakespeare’s plays making an appearance on my reading lists throughout the year. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of my favourites, probably my favourite of all the comedies. We had a lot of fun discussing it in class this week, and it helped to get the semester off to a good start.

Poetry Magazine

I managed to get caught up on a couple of issues of Poetry while I was in Shanghai and leave them with my friend there for her to read. There weren’t many poems that jumped out at me from either the November or December issues. Only “Natural Selection” by Clive James has really stuck in my memory. It’s not mostly memorable to me because it is excellent poetry (though it is very good), but because it led to a good discussion with my friend about what is “didactic” in poetry. We enjoyed puzzling through the whole issue, especially as regards this poem.

The Three Penny Review

I have had a couple of issues sitting around waiting to be read for some time now. I finally got around to reading one while I was traveling, and I found it a really fun read. There were lots of stories and essays, and some good poetry. I like the breadth of the review. It covers not only literature, but also theatre, places, movies, music… everything fun! I think I will enjoy finishing up the other issue that I have here, still waiting to be read. If I ever find the time!

GUD Magazine

I’d come across the website for this new magazine some time back and was very interested in submitting some of my own poetry for it. I like the way they’ve arranged their payment structure for writers. It’s lined up so that each order of the magazine will earn a small bit for each contributor. But, readers can also order individual pieces, and the revenues from those orders will be split between the individual writer and the magazine. And that holds for as long as the work is sold from the site.

It’s a good concept, and one that I think is very smart for any new literary magazine that gets started today. It is a way of generating a paying market without having to be out one’s own money before the orders start to come in.

I’ve submitted a few pieces at GUD, and all were rejected. Having finally gotten and read the first issue, I can easily see why the work I had sent in doesn’t fit.

The Travels of Marco Polo

I’ve been promising myself for years that I would read this book, and I am glad I finally got to do so. I really enjoyed the read, and would recommend it to anyone. It was fun trying to figure out how the unfamiliar names of familiar places fit into what I know of it all. Some of it was more easily put together than others, and it is fun to try to piece it all together.

Juvenal’s Sixteen Satires

I’ve started this one, but not gotten very far into it yet. It’s competing, at the moment, with The Mists of Avalon for my time. I’ll probably end up setting aside the Satires to read the other book, which we’re going to be covering in a book discussion at another blog site next month.

The Book of God by Walter Wangerin

I’m listening to this audio book while I commute, and I am really enjoying it. It is a lot of fun listening to the story and how it is told, but also to the narrator. He’s pretty good.

I’ve not read a lot of Wangerin, though I have several of his books on my shelf, including The Book of the Dun Cow, and his fictionalized version of the story of the apostle Paul. I have, however, heard a dramatic rendition of his story “The Ragman.” I’ve seen my brother-in-law stage a telling of Wangerin’s story. It is very powerful, and he does it very well. I have to credit my brother-in-law with pointing me towards Wangerin’s work. I am enjoying the novel I am working on while commuting, and am looking forward to the others sitting on my shelf.

 

Chinese New Year is On the Way

It’s a busy time here, with Chinese New Year coming up next week. It’s the year’s biggest holiday for most of the members of the congregation and their families.

The girls I’ve been studying with every Saturday morning came together last night to help make gift hampers to give to our elderly members and visitors. The girls did a great job making them, and we now have 5 gifts to deliver before the weekend.

During the New Year holiday, we will have lots of good time to fellowship together. One of our members has invited several of us over to his place, and some old friends of ours who have fallen away now, hoping to help them reestablish connections with the body here. The holiday season is always a good time to reconnect, and I am pleased that the members are trying to make the best of the opportunity the season provides.

One of our old friends who is now living in the US is back for a visit with her family members now. Some of us were able to get together with her, her 2 boys, and her mother last week, and it was a very warm reunion. It is such a pleasant thing to be part of a body that can share such bonds together. (It was the first time I had seen her boys, and I was very impressed by how well-behaved they were!)

On a personal note, I was very pleased recently to recieve news that a poem I had written was accepted for e-publication at Utmost Christian Writers’ website. They are collecting poems for The Genesis Project, with each poem being focused on a specific passage from the Book of Genesis. If you’d like to see my poem, entitled Cursed, you can click here. (And if you write poetry and have something that might be suitable for the collection, the writers’ guidelines are here.)

Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

新年快乐　•　万事如意

 

Routine

It has been good being settled in back at home, getting back into the swing of things. I’ve really enjoyed getting back to teaching the children’s class on Sundays. The kids here are really an uplift to me, and I think they are a vibrant part of the life of the body in Woodlands. This past Sunday, we had a small class, with several of our regulars being absent for one reason or another. The students who were there had some really good questions for me, and we spent time exploring how they might find answers to those questions. The best question was, “How do we decide whether a thing is right to do if God didn’t mention it anywhere in the Bible?” We spent a good deal of time talking about 1 Cor. 6:12 and the principles expressed there. I was amazed at the depth of the questioning these kids were doing — they range in age from 7 to 10. I think it really reflects well on their parents, that the kids were thinking beyond just rule-keeping, and how they might have to discern sometimes between things that don’t seem so clear cut. It was just another of those times when the kids proved themselves to be the ones who really seem to know what it is all about.

Our regular small groups are also continuing to go well. I’ve enjoyed the time spent with each of the groups, and am pleased by the study each is doing. I’ve also started meeting once every two weeks with some of the people who are involved in leading the various groups and the Bible classes on Sunday. It gives us all a chance to discuss the various issues that come up, and to pick up ideas and insights from each other. The leaders of the groups were the ones who initiated the regular meetings, and I think that is a good sign of the commitment they have to their task of leading well.

One of our men was recently able to participate in a mission effort to Sarawak and Sabah, the two states that make up East Malaysia. The work was very encouraging, and there are signs of some real growth there. Those involved in the effort have put together some reports in PDF format. If you are interested in knowing more about that work, do feel free to contact me and I will forward the reports along to you. The brother from our congregation who has been involved in the work over the past year will make 3-4 trips there this year, and we are excited about that.

The work in China is moving along nicely since I’ve been back too. The weekend after I left, during the study, they had a question from the passage they were reading. They did as they always do, wrote it down to ask me when we next spoke on the phone, and then continued their discussion. As they continued reading, they found the answer to their question, and worked it out for themselves. They were very pleased to find that they are able to explore and find answers on their own. This is something they (and I) have been hoping to see happen in their studies, and I think they felt they’d really achieved something. It was nice to hear the sense of accomplishment and a higher level of confidence as they told me about it.

The youth ministers from some of the churches that help in my support have started a new website, and I think it is a fantastic tool. I’ve already sent it out to the youth here, hoping they will want to get involved in the interaction on that site, which would hopefully help them feel more connected with a larger group of Christian teens than they really get to mix with here. I’ve linked the site in my blogroll (on the right of my main blog page) so that it will always be right there when people visit my site. Alternatively, you can click this link:
Striving to Be Real