China Fall 2013 Photo Essay

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The following pictures were taken between China and Malaysia during the months of August and September 2013. I invite you to meet my students, friends and get a taste for my teaching travels.

The three pictures below were taken on August 23rd in a seminary located in the top of a non government church located in a village not far from the South China Sea. It is a new endeavor started by a “Brother Chen” who recently used his well developed organizational enterprise skills to launch this little college/seminary endeavor. The teachers come and go like myself from a list circulated by the underground church leaders and educators.

These pictures were taken August 22/13 in a seminary located in the top of a non government church located in a village not far from the South China Sea

The first day we convened I wore a tie as is my habit but no other student came wearing a tie. The next day 12 guys had a tie on. No word was ever mentioned about class attire.

Master Students

Not all but many of these masters level students traveled long distances to do their degree.

Master Class - Beijing

Zhang’s Beijing Truth Masters Class in Beijing. September 25, 2013.

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During break time students administering recovery therapy to the Galatian’s teacher doing like the Galatians did for Paul when he sought sanctuary with them the first time. “Revive comrade we’ve only 2 chapters and three verses to go.” Union Seminary September 25, 2013.

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Student dish washing clean up crew at Union… Near the South China Sea, September 26, 2013.

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My Union Seminary Galatians class. China September 27, 2013.

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After sitting front and center three feet from my table all day everyday transcribing my Galatians lectures she required a picture shoot before presenting me with her gift a full size home made paper rabbit in spite of care warning got squashed in my suitcase. September 27, 2013, Union Seminary China.

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My Union Seminary Galatians class. China September 27, 2013.

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Fixing dinner the old fashion way. China September 2013.

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More traditional dinner prep. China September 2013.

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Dr. John Ong president of MBTS with his wife at dinner. Thanks to Dr. Ong’s leadership this school runs well. It is a place where mission and education come together. Carved into a ridge overlooking Penang Bay MBTS is like a precious pearl in the grip of the sea. Truly God has blessed this school and gifted it with a visionary mission minded leader of no small talent.

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“Red sky in the morning sailor take warning, red sky at night sailor’s delight”. My guest room a few miles from MBTS overlooking the Penang Bay in Malaysia at around 6 AM just before the call to prayer heard from the mosque a few blocks away. Malaysia, September 5, 2013.

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This is a great nation on route to become considerably more powerful no question about it. But could have the Chairman envisaged his people out ‘capitalizing’ the West’s greatest capitalist. Capitalism’s energy here, especially Shanghai and South staggers the mind! Yes some of it is tied to the public purse but now Jeanne’s out of the bottle independent business tycoons are multiplying like the frogs of Egypt.

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I have made a number of trips to China now and not with my head in the sand. They love American culture forget politics that for the professionals to worry about. Here in Beijing out for stroll one evening I came upon the Happiness Mart. Somewhere they picked up the idea that a business must mix a feeling experience with their product service. Dropping all subtly this business opted for a one line ringer that would fulfill the new advertising ethos. It was just a simple Seven Eleven type market.

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Charles my assigned interpreter for one seminary told me he was exceptionally gifted. Time will tell but for now one thing I can safely say is that he is plagued with angst and guilt so much so that he was twisting with existential conflict whilst translating my words into Mandarin. Early on he confessed he was not only translating my words to his comrades but arguing with their logic and claim for how he was living his life. He could not look at the class directly without translating their learning faces into faces scorning and shaming him.Projections of the soul I assured him. I found it humorous and never withdrew from his obsession to try to talk his way free. Charles my friend its hard to kick against the pricks.

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Mr Chen a quite humble man actually is the wheel that turns ever other wheel in his neck of the Christian woods. It was this man who moved a small mountain and launched a seminary where I taught my 2 Corinthians 5:7 ethics course this August.I found him disappear then appear. At one moment he was doing my washing and chasing down food for me, the next moment tending to his fledgling seminary project all the while never letting anything slip at his enterprise running a small factory in town. Every time he talks you think he is ready to break into a full laugh but to conclude that he is not reading and judging everything with a very careful discerning eye would be to make a gross mistake

Swimming right into hungry bellies

Waiting for the five minute transition from live happy swimming fishy to a Chinamen’s warm belly. The setting here is a century old restaurant where fish pace up and down a ditch directly behind the cooks kitchen. A night out with the Union President for an old fashioned meal.  China September 2013.

Student

During my Galatian lectures in southern China [“Union”] Stephen sat on the back row smiling all the time. It wasn’t until 20 hours into the course when he passed me a question written in perfect English that I realized he could speak and write English well and was getting everything I said two times at every blow. In time we chatted and I learned more about his work. Married with a child he is plotting his mission project. Almost all of the students are cooking up a mission outreach project of some kind rather than graduating to an established church based ministry. Students rarely come to seminary here to matriculate directly to a church ministry. Stephen has his eye on Japan and knows Japanese. I have connected him to my old Japanese friends from bygone days studying in St Andrews and they are chatting. I am thinking this mission model would serve seminary and ministry in the West well. Ministry is too soft and cushy in the West where a kind of post missionary ministry that lacks verve and nerve has thrown its shroud over the church and the land. Ministry purified by mission clarifies what is transmissible in one’s faith if anything. China at Union September 27, 2013.

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