Easter and Baking Powder

Originally posted April 1, 2017 So how do you buy baking powder in a country that does not have ovens in homes? We only have two very hot burners for woks. (We happen to have a toaster oven as well, which I think is a small concession to foreigners' needs.) We looked up how to say "baking powder" then went to the store. Nope, no way that our pronunciation was going to result in anything. The lady behind the counter called over a man she evidently knew and thought could speak English. We looked at the English and the Chinese pronunciation ( I did not have it in characters.) We talked back and forth between the man, his wife, and me.Finally he said, "To make cake?" "Yes!" Well the store also had a bakery as part of it, so we went to the bakery counter and the baker went to his kitchen and brought out a sandwich bag with about 30 cents worth of baking powder. Mission accomplished. Update: Only of course it never is even that simple. I took

2,000 Views! Thank you

We have had 2,000 views in the first 3 weeks. Thank you so much ! Would you do one more thing for me? I think it is important to get "followers" for the sake of attracting a book agent. The "follower" button is on the right of the blog and says: "followers". I only have 15 people who have signed up.  I think it just means that you will get an alert in your email when I post. I need to go on accruing views, and certainly I want to continue to share our current experiences as well as book excerpts with you. Thank you for your faithfulness.

You Are Neded in China

2 OPENINGS Location:  Tai’an (at the foot of Taishan a famous tourist spot in China) Grade:  High school level students (ages 16-20) (at a Nursing Vocational School) Start Date:  September 2018 Subjects:   Oral English & Western Culture Qualifications: • Bachelor Degree • Female • TESL certificate • Humanities Major • under 50 years old • has a sending team Salary:  7000Y (approx. 1k USD) a month, with free housing and round trip reimbursement (sufficient to have saving to pay student loan) Benefit:  2 years contract, qualified to enroll in the masters degree program in Azusa Pacific or Biola University with discount tuition. Deadline:  April. 8, 2018 Unsubscribe ERRC - Educational Resources and Referrals - China 3824 Buell Street, suite B Oakland, California 94619 United States (510) 486-8170

Dealing with Sickness (Caused by the Environment) Part 2

The air pollution currently in much of China is listed as “severe”, ‘dangerous”, etc. This means you can almost taste the air right now, and it is much less in Beijing, than in the town we lived in a year ago, but they are all listed as 900+ on the air quality scale. ( I have been told that if Las Angeles reaches 100, people are told to stay inside. Does that put it in perspective?) You can see the air like a fog over everything. It is gritty in your mouth.   You need to clean off every surface repeatedly. It is almost like the sandstorms in Senegal, and as Rick says Beijing is almost as close to the Gobi as Dakar is to the Sahara, so probably that is a factor. We should be wearing facemasks, but we sent our facemasks with the new friends leaving on the airplane in hopes that they will not be infected on the airplane. Mostly I just ignore it. Most of our time overseas has been in places where environmental factors might affect our health.   Water bourne pathogens are usually a fa

Is This Our Last Visit to the Embassy?

Today we delivered the application for renewal of our passport to the embassy. This involves filling out and printing a form, finding a place to take passport pictures (easy in China), bringing enough money, and getting an interview appointment. In Beijing it also involves starting out 2 ½ hours before our appointment time. Although we could have taken a taxi we were told that in the morning rush hour a taxi would be stalled and the metro would keep moving. So we opted to take the metro for 45 minutes. Of course when we got off the metro, we had no way to figure out how to find the embassy from the metro stop and ended up using DiDi, Chinese equivalent of Uber, to get a taxi to take us the half mile to the embassy, just so we would not get lost. When you arrive at the embassy you are struck at how LONG   the line is. It stretches for a few blocks. However, as a citizen of said embassy, one can go in another door and wait in a 10–minute-line. (Although I know it was misplaced guil

Dealing with Sickness (While Traveling) Part 1

(I just composed a long post about sickness and decided I would divide it into shorter parts, rather than one long, long one, so expect additional pieces in the coming days.) Any of us who have traveled extensively know that it is an exhausting experience, even if we enjoy it. However, you can not live as expatriates without travel. Duh. Do you pray for travels? How often do any of us start out sick? How often do we arrive or return sick because of tiredness or foreign entities endemic to the new country? Things like water or food or bathroom habits can be a real killer. Prayers. I am reflecting on sickness because I just carried suitcases out to a van to take friends to the airport. This is the pastoral couple with our organization (ERRC) who were in Beijing to cover someone else’s classes in December and then took over for me when I was called home suddenly due to the serious illness of my sister. About 4 years ago they taught at Peking University for a time, and have mainta

Do BEGGARS fulfill a need?

Beggars : Excerpt from Chapter 1  Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes I don’t know if you have lived in countries with beggars. I have. I have seen mothers with almost lifeless babies strapped to their backs. I have seen individuals that are so physically malformed one cannot comprehend how they survive. (I remember one man in a wheelchair who had nothing below the waist.) I have seen people pulling themselves along by their arms reinforced with pieces of old tires on their elbows to protect themselves at least a little from the ground and concrete.   Often clothes are minimal to nonexistent. How one handles seeing this is difficult to explain. To our utter shame, most of us usually become slightly immune. We reason that we can’t help everyone. We rationalize that they are probably “professional beggars” and not as “bad off” as they present themselves to be. We try to figure out if we should give this beggar 5 cents

Why?

Why has the heat been turned off in my apartment? Why are there a microphone and cameras in my classroom? And what does this have to do with Easter. As Westerners we are very used to our independent decisions. We consider many of these as almost inalienable rights. Well, not so in much of the rest of the world. Here, where I live, the powers-that-be decide things like whether the heater in my apartment is going to have heat or not. Even when it is turned on, from sometime in November to sometime in March, I can turn it on or off, but cannot adjust the thermostat. ….Just if it gets too hot inside, we turn it off, and vice versa. The same with the A/C.   One can either fret about this, or just get on with life. The heat is to be turned off today. It is 40 and 50 degrees outside which is glorious after the snow of last weekend, but could be really cold if it translates to inside my apartment. Remember us. In my university classroom there is also a microphone and 2 camera

A Good Friday Night Study

There were 5 people at our study on John 8 tonight: the woman caught in adultery.   Most were students we currently have or taught last semester. One student was a sculptor who took Rick’s class last semester and is now auditing the class. One was a middle school student that was the son of a friend of the sculptor. Another was a lady who audited my class last semester and I helped her write an article which has helped her gain an interview for the PKU Ph.D. program. She is very, very thankful. One sat and absently fingered his Buddhist prayer beads while we studied. Excellent discussion about the forgiveness offered to us and the mercy available. That it is a relationship, not following a set of rules.   Because of a discussion with a former student from far, far away who fb chatted with us today, I brought up that believers feel strongly about marrying other believers. Most of them found this astounding and pretty much incomprehensible. I think the discussion brought forward the

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Who wants to be poor? Not me, and yet this is what the first Beatitude requires. Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes Chapter 1 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 “Poor” Who wants to be “poor”….in anything? Much less “poor in spirit”. That sounds like the end of the road. That sounds like about as low as one can go. That sounds like there are no other options. Yup, that is exactly what this verse means. Two Greek words for poor There are two Greek words for “poor”. One means that you don’t have much, but you are trying your best to make it through life . The other Greek word means: you are drowning. You are a beggar. You cannot lift your head up enough even to ask for help…much less to feed yourself. You are at the end. ……The second meaning is what the verse implies. Why would God ever call this “fortunate”? Because then and only then are we in a posi

Is “Black Panther” one of the best movies of the year?

We recently biked through dark cold streets late at night in Beijing to see “Black Panther”.  I want to reflect a bit on what I understand this movie to be saying. The worst violence and criminality of the movie is Black on Black. There are two White antagonists. One of them is a completely crazy psychopath who knows about the power residing in Wakanda, is afraid of it on a subconscious level, and will do whatever is needed to obtain even a small piece of it. He dies a violent death at the hands of the Black antagonist. The other White actor views himself as a Great White Father, who can save the world. In reality he could be compared more to an inconsequential teenager, who has a place at the table, but is basically sidelined by his elders. He is a CIA agent. (haha) He definitely is a sympathetic and good character who does his part, but he is not at all an important actor in the story line. Although certainly there are other White governments and organizations represented

Pearl Market: Buying Glasses, Kimonos, Necklaces, Maps, Head Scratchers, DVD’s, Etc.

Last week we went to the Pearl Market. It takes over an hour on the Beijing metro from our home. There is an official Pearl Market, which is a huge many storied building and is pretty overwhelming.   The minute that you enter, marketeers harangue you with sales pitches.   I have been in more aggressive markets in other parts of the world, where, at times, I have been physically detained by sellers, but it still is unpleasant and off-putting. However, there is also a large building behind the official Pearl Market. I am not sure what it is called, maybe the “unofficial Pearl Market”, but what a delightful place. It is five floors of beautiful jade, pearl, gold jewelry, brand name clothes, shoes, souvenir items, glasses, and on and on. During the hour we spent there, we saw about 10 other people buying items!.... I am not underestimating. Rick walked in and ordered a pair of bifocal glasses. They would scan your current pair if you wanted and duplicate. He picked out frames and was

Building Relationships through the Beatitudes (Book excerpt: C)

4 Basic Relationships In looking at the Beatitudes, we must explore it in conjunction with the four basic human relationships: God, others, nature/technology, oneself. We have no choice about whether we address these relationships or not. They are endemic to life. These basic relationships are entwined no matter what we may want.   It is difficult to state which is the primary relationship. Of course, we would tend to say “God”. The Westminster Catechism states that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” This is not just for today, but for all eternity. Obviously, without God, we are nothing. But if our relationship to self is deeply flawed, it is almost impossible for us to even begin to view God. And we are not just spiritual entities. We have bodies which live in the world of nature and technology….and within a social context. The Beatitudes teach man how to be successful in ALL relationships. Even those who do not espouse Christianity, mus

Finding cheap movie tickets online in China

Biking to a movie theater….after dark…in the city….after a snow fall. I am able to find cheap movie tickets on my phone! This impresses both expats and Chinese. Chinese of course can get tickets online but you need to figure out enough Chinese and also directions and also be linked to a Chinese bank account on your phone. Not necessarily skills most of us as expats have. But right from a month or so after our arrival in China, I wanted to find cheap movie tickets. If you get tickets at the theater, they are about the same as getting them in the US: about $10. But online you can reserve some tickets for about $4. (We have 2, yes 2, tv’s provided with our apartment, but the programming is in Chinese, and not of much use to us, so I really enjoy English movies. Rick comes along, because he wants to be with me, not because he wants to go to a movie.) Yesterday, we had a new expat friend over at our apartment for the afternoon. He knew how to use the online navigation system for b

Is It Safe to Bike in the Snow?

Have you ever ridden your bicycle…..in the snow? Today, Beijing. Expatriates maybe don’t talk much about transportation in their new locations, and yet it is a problem that we must address.   After almost 30 years overseas, we have never personally owned a car at our locations. At times our organization has provided us with a vehicle: a diesel Izusu pickup in Zambia, a pool of cars in Ecuador and Senegal, a 2 motor scooter in Taiwan. Beijing has an excellent metro and bus system, but you need to walk miles just to access the stops and between metro stops. For us, our bicycles are a life saver. Even with my hip being so painful, I can bike. Well, this morning when we were ready to head out for a meeting, it was SNOWING.   It has certainly been cold enough to snow within the past few months, but Beijing is almost Gobi desert dry. The only rain we have truly seen was our second day when we arrived in August, and we walked the 2 miles to church and back in a downpour. So today do we

Toilet Seats in China

A  reposting of our FB timeline last spring while we lived in Taian, China. I just thought it would be interesting to reflect on our struggles a year ago. Haha March 14, 2017 I have a confession to make and one that needs prayer. I keep forgetting and put the toilet paper into the toilet rather than into the waste can beside the toilet. How many toilets have I already stopped up? Of course it does not help that the tp in our town is half the size of paper towels and rather sturdy. In fact there is some in my kitchen to use as paper towels Ap. 4 So should we discuss toilets? I have looked at toilets in lots of cultures, because, after all, everyone needs one. The Chinese solution is a mixture of many ideas. For one thing our toilet in our apartment is more like a British W.C. (Water closet). It is the size of a small hallway, with a toilet sitting at the end of it. And a door at the other end. You leave the toilet to go to an adjacent room to wash your hands. In our case

Blessed--from the Intro to our book: Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes

Blessed – to be envied, - wealthy – fortunate – happy. Yes! This is what we seek in our life. But after 40 years of preaching about the most famous “Blessed” passage in the Bible, the Beatitudes, I feel strongly that what the Lord says leads to “blessings” and what the World means by “blessings” are almost diametrically opposed. We have lived a rich and full life: Four years at a children’s home in SC Four years at a school for missionary children in Quito, Ecuador Three years at a Christian teacher training college in rural Zambia Four years setting up a psychiatric day treatment center for adolescents in Hazard, KY Seven years at a school for moderately mentally handicapped, and then a school           for missionary children in Taiwan. Two years setting up a psychiatric day treatment center for adolescents in Salisibury,   MD Six years at a school for severely emotionally disturbed boys in Hagerstown, MD Seven years at a school for missionary children in Da

Hutong: A Taste of Ancient China

How would you respond if the government said you could only drive your personal car on certain days? Yesterday, Dr. Yao apologized for not driving us between hospitals. However, the license plate on her car was designated “1”, which was not allowed to drive on March 13. I didn’t ask how often cars can be driven, but in a town of 20 million and the level of pollution that is present, I guess I understand. Truly the driving and traffic in Beijing is nothing compared to some places we have lived. I don’t know that we have seen a single major accident in the year that we have spent in China! The second hospital that we were at was in an historical hutong. These are the ancient neighborhoods with narrow streets and traditional Chinese rooflines and architecture and colors. Oh, I just loved it. I felt like I was back in Taiwan 30 years ago. There were street vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes, older people just sitting outside their houses, people and vehicles jockeying on the

Navigating Hospitals Overseas

Have you ever been in crowds that were packed so tightly your feet did not even need to touch the ground and you still would be upright? That was the situation for one of the hospital lines that I was in today.   Dr. Yao has helped many expatriates in Beijing. Almost two weeks ago she came to my apartment personally when I contacted her about my hip which has been very painful for 3 months. Today she took time out of her busy schedule and accompanied me to two (yes 2) different hospitals to try to take care of all of my health needs. A lovely young friend from the university went with us to translate. There are very few things that I would consider an utter impossibility for me to tackle. The intricacies of signing in at these hospitals would definitely be one of them. The first hospital had no way to type in English letters for my name and I had to make up a Chinese one in order to register. There are innumerable lines, no directions that are decipherable by a non-Chinese spea

Assigning Grades in a University

What do you do if your university administration says you can only give 20% of your students an “A”? I find this administrative dictate difficult to deal with. A student deserves the grade that they have earned, not what is dictated by a quota. I think universities all over the world at times require a certain level of “fails” to “cull the herd”, but knowing that it is done, does not make it any easier to comply with. I am not being asked to fail students, but I am being asked to adjust my grading scale. I realize that this probably is a result of grade inflation which has been an issue since the 70’s or before: everyone who shows up for class gets an A. However, anyone who has ever had me for classes (come on you HS students confirm this) knows that the grades I give are earned, but I do not begrudge a good grade for good work. Anyway, I am now in the throes of grading my 80+ essays for the week. (Fall term it was 120+ essays every week, but the work load is always less in the

Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes

This is the beginning of the intro to our book: Blessed – to be envied, - wealthy – fortunate – happy. Yes! This is what we seek in our life. But after 40 years of preaching about the most famous “Blessed” passage in the Bible, the Beatitudes, I feel strongly that what the Lord says leads to “blessings” and what the World means by “blessings” are almost diametrically opposed. Cultural Sidebar Janie came walking across my dusty, empty backyard. Dusty and empty was how my heart felt as it stopped when I saw her, because in her hand was a beautiful carved wooden bowl. It was made of a multi-colored wood that shone like polished stone and smelled like fresh wood shavings. We were leaving Zambia, Africa, soon, and my heart stopped because I knew she was bringing me this bowl as a farewell present. Now Janie had 9 children, all whimsically named after a letter of the alphabet: Angel, Beatrice, Cyril, Derrick, down to Ignatius. The price of that bowl may have provided a pa