Spiritual Warfare: Today, Here, Now

Do you know what spiritual warfare is? I don’t have a succinct definition of it, but it has to do with “wrestling not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesian 6:12).   I can tell some pretty harrowing stories about demonic presences that we have seen in our life. Any church worker is fully aware of what this means, whether they are overseas or in their own country of origin, but sometimes it is just more evident in some places and times. This is one of those times. First, we want to joyfully announce that as a few hours ago we now have visas to return to Beijing next school year! However, it has been quite an ordeal. Between the process of getting new passports, paperwork /pictures/signatures for our new contract and visa applications, being fined for not reporting the new passport, walking miles three times to Beijing Public Security and US em...

Holes in Our Heart: Friends Left Behind

May 21, 2017 "I am sitting in our spare bedroom which is our "study". Rick is in the living room talking to a man who came to visit. We would meet him on the university bus on Saturday mornings. He always ecstatically seated himself so he could speak English with Rick. Tone of voice, social ineptitude, pressured speech all pointed definitely to Aspergers. We saw him one other time and he almost "stalked " us. Well our hearts kind of sank when he showed up on our doorstep tonight. However, (God is good) Rick and he spent an hour or more talking and Rick was able to explain Aspergers and his own struggles. The man immediately recognized that he also had these difficulties. Rick was able to start him on the road to getting some help. He and Rick are having supper Tuesday night. One never knows does one. God is good." The above appeared on our FB memories recently. It took place in Taian where we were stationed a year ago this time and  reminds us of t...

Philosophy or Relationship? : Friday Night Study of John

I have not written much lately about our Friday night group, but oh what a blessing it has become. One of the highlights of the week. We meet in a hotel office room just off campus. We cannot hold meetings like that in our apartment. A person who arranges things like this found the meeting room for us. We average 3 or 4 participants every week, most of whom are interested in just exploring something new and/or practicing their English. They are usually students or former students of ours. One gentleman who faithfully comes was totally shocked when he went to his very very rural hometown a few weeks ago and found believers there. He could not comprehend how any lived in such an out of the way place. How was it spread there? His statement that perhaps it was a philosophy that he should look into more, hurt my heart. I assured him that if all he wanted was a philosophy he might just as well stick to Confucianism. As a philosophical system it was pretty good and it has served we...

Mourning: God's Call (excerpt continued)

Did you want the next section from the chapter on "Mourning"? The next sections deal with shame, hollowness within. I am posting. Book excerpt: BLESSED Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes Chapter 2 Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4 Shame Guilt is “I have done wrong”. Shame is “I AM wrong”. Guilt is “I have done dysfunctional acts”. Shame is “I am dysfunctional”; there is something wrong with me as a person. Now, there is actually good shame and not just bad shame. Good shame makes us realize we are not God; we are only human. There is only so much I can do. I must depend on something beyond my humanness to be complete, to be whole. Bad shame is feeling hopeless, worthless, an out-cast. There is something wrong and it’s not going to get any better. What I “am” cannot be remedied, cannot be cured. Shame is commonly shared in families. This is what is ca...

Mourning: God's Call

Book excerpt:   BLESSED   Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness:  The Healing Power of the Beatitudes Chapter 2 Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4 So “poor” is bad, but now we are to “mourn”. This sounds even more excruciatingly painful. Mourning involves the most devastating feelings of sadness, abandonment, irreparability. To the ancients it meant covering themselves with “dust and ashes”, ripping their clothes “asunder”, tearing out their hair. A complete collapse of the ability to function in the daily life.   And, yup, that’s it. It means facing, embracing, and dealing with the pain, shame, and hollowness within. It means looking at one’s frustration, resentment, and anger. At all times and within all circumstances it is our natural tendency to fall apart or to flee these feelings. These are the big, bad guys of our emotional repertoire. For most of our life we have been involved ...

Much Better!

Exponentially better this morning! How does my knee go from absolutely no weight bearing, to being able to move enough to put curry in the crockpot without a cane? We were able to get a wheelchair from the lobby of our housing for a deposit, but at this point, we will probably take it back. The doctor when she was texting me about my knee yesterday said, “Well, you know he is old, “ meaning my knee. I guess that might be the best explanation as to why it started to hurt. Why it got better I guess is God. However, we can still always use your prayers for any number of reasons.

Still in Pain

I still don’t seem to be able to bear weight on my knee.  It was quite a circus to get to school. Rick rolled my rolling chair from the house to the elevator, through the parking lot, and to my bike. I could mount my bike from the wrong side because I only can bear weight on one foot and I seem able to pedal, since it does not require weight bearing. We strapped the homemade cane sticking out the back of the bike, kind of like the Wicked Witch of the West carrying her broom on her bicycle. Oh, did I mention that it was raining? So I had a rain poncho on. Rick met me the half mile away at the college and pushed me on the bike up the ramp to the building door. I painfully limped to the elevator, using my homemade cane. The cane was ingeniously put together by our team leaders. It is a dust mop with a rotating head, and a tennis ball on the end for my hand. The dustmop is covered by a teatowel to keep the mop part clean. It has a broad base, stability, and is the right height. I hobb...

Prayer Request

Today I sat leisurely observing the people pass beside a beautiful lake. We were on a field trip to a Wetland Park about an hour from our home.  I went with the thought, that I was mainly going to sit through the experience while Rick and friends hiked around the beautiful flowers and trees on this field trip organized by the university.  I saw 2 sets of dance troupes practicing beside the lake. Parents teaching their itty-bitties to use roller blades, scooters, etc. A father and preteen son being escorted past with 5 bodyguards. A 4 year old pulling down her panties and peeing. A man trying to fly a kite. Two big birds perching on the light fixtures in the lake for what I assume is a light show at night. Touristing boats.  What a pleasant way to spend time. However, it was cold and rainy. I was dry with my umbrella sitting on a stone wall, but somehow it seems to have affected my knee. When I stood up I could not put weight on it. It is on the other side from my bad hi...

Chinese Medicine This Afternoon

This afternoon the university took all the foreign experts to Beijing Chinese Medicine College. We saw a museum with the history of Chinese medicine, and then they had various “stations” where we could experience some of the processes. What an interesting experience! Chinese medicine has certainly gained more acceptance in Western culture in my lifetime, but many pieces of it still are a little suspect. But they have a much longer history of practicing everything…..including medicine than any Western society does, and have been successful enough to keep a very, very large country alive and healthy. Of course they use Western medicine extensively, but traditional medicine is still an integral part of living here. I was quite happy to be there today. Yesterday I was in a minor bicycle accident. Hit a motorbike and wiped out. Last night it hurt to move my arm/elbow, but by this morning I could move it without pain. No swelling or heat today, but I can’t put pressure with my fingers y...

Are We Needed Here? Regulations and Reflections on Spreading the Word.

I have in front of me a current article detailing the updating of the religious regulations for expatriates living here.   Any grouping over 50 is to have a national observer and the members are to be registered with the government. At no point are nationals to worship with expatriates.   I am not going to make direct comments on these regs, but it does definitely curtail sharing. However, on my FB account a memory from a year ago popped up today. I am going to reprint two postings that illustrate that although we are thankful for the work given us here, Our Father can work without our being present. A quote from the The Aboriginal Activists Group, Australia perhaps explains best: “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” It is not us. It is Him and each of us knowing Him better....that is the point. May 11, 2017 (I am going to be a bit obscure in this pos...

Confusing "V" and "W" and "L" and "R"???? (repost from last year)

Chinese have trouble with "v" and "w". I don't remember struggling with this issue in Taiwan, but maybe I was speaking mostly in Chinese, and here I am using mostly English. When the students were introducing themselves at the beginning of the semester, many said they liked "mooies". I thought and thought about that one, and finally realized it was "movies". Another difficulty was the student who asked me about Easter "wiggles". Dances for Easter, like the "Bunny Hop"? Telling kids to sit still in church? I had her repeat it a few times, and even had trouble when she spelled it, because it was an unexpected word. It was "vigil". You can see how things can get so confusing. However, there are always these kinds of difficulties for overseas workers. Do I have stories? In Zambia "r" and "l" are completely interchangeable. The house worker told me Paul had cut his foot on the grass. How do y...

I Think We Are Legal Now

Well, we are legal, but poorer. It was a long day yesterday visiting the local police station and then the US embassy.   We were caught in a new law dated December, 2017, which the US embassy nor our university knew about. The embassy said they had not heard of anyone else being fined for not reregistering a new passport. A very nice young man at the embassy named Kevin, made the day a little brighter with his empathy and condolences. Sometimes that is not real evident. Nothing was wrong at the local police department, but it was a long hour of them asking questions and typing up reports. The supportive young student from our university who accompanied us translated the 6+ page report before we signed it. One of the statements was that there was no need for us to contact our families! (That was a little odd and slightly scary.) We then had to go to the closest bank and deposit our fine, which was transferred to the police station. Our translator took a picture of the receip...

Are We Illegal Aliens?

We’ve just been told that we are here illegally, and we will need to pay a $300 fine, apiece! What a shock. Yesterday we were dutifully walking the miles necessary to go metro, walk, etc. to get to the Public Security building to apply for our entry/exit visa permits. We were excited at having received back from the university our approved paperwork for   work permission for next year, and were making the next necessary step. Well, when we got to the head of the line, (after having our picture taken to be digitally sent to the officer and filling our applications with the specific pen that they provide), the officer asked us for the yellow envelop that we were given at the time we received our new US passports about a month ago. We didn’t have them, nor even knew we were to keep them. On checking in the system, she said that we had never registered our new passports with the Chinese government and we had to do that, right now. We were with a helper from the university (thank ...

Book excerpt:  BLESSED Eight Steps to Emotional, Relational, Spiritual Wholeness: The Healing Power of the Beatitudes Completion of "Poor in Spirit"  Matthew 5:3 For Discussion: (Look through these quotes from the chapter. Choose some to discuss more fully as a group or even individually. What “blessings” does God have for you as you reflect?) We are hobbled right from the beginning by our basic nature. We as human beings are born with that clenched fist that says “mine”. We assume that we are a compassionate people. And at times, to some extent, we are. But when pushed into a corner? Not usually. Research has repeatedly shown that no matter where one is on the social scale [lower, middle, upper class], each level believes they deserve more. The poorest of the poor believe they deserve more, but the top 1% also believe they deserve more (Krause). Wealth, power, or prestige, three of the biggest addictions on the face of this earth. ...

Repost: What Does the Wall Hanging Say?

Last year at this time we were living in Taian and I was teaching at Taishan Medical College. We went on a day trip to Cu Fu which is Confucius birthplace. It was a good visit, and I bought a wall hanging with calligraphy on it. As we were on our way home on the bullet train, I was horrified to realize that I had no idea what the writing on my wall hanging said. How mortifying! How touristy! How utterly American! It looks Chinese so who cares what it says. Well I have read enough bad English translations to know that it could even be cursing people or saying something totally embarrassing. I decided to wait until our English Club meeting in a few days to ask people's help. On memories on my FB feed this morning the resolution was posted. May 6, 2017: Soooo, what does my new Chinese wall hanging say? To begin with, I may have put it the right side up, but I was reading it left to right when I should have been trying to read it right to left. (Many choices in Chinese writing...

Sightseeing Trip to Longqing, and Seeing the Great Wall

Today we did something we rarely, rarely do: went on a sight seeing tour! I know that many people like to go visiting new places, and seeing the sights. We are not real big on this (Forgive us. I know this is incomprehensible to many of you)…but we do so love to go live in new places and hunker down and get to know people and cultures. So we have a week off school because it is May First/Labor Day vacation and then it is the 120 th anniversary of Peking University. Our ERRC team members wanted to go on a day trip together, and we gladly agreed. They are great people and time together is always enjoyable, and if that means going on a trip, well, OK. We went to Longqing, which we are told is a bit off the beaten track for most expats. It is a gorgeous gorge with a boat ride a little over an hour from our apartment.   It looks just like the pictures one sees of Chinese landscapes with huge cliffs, and teeny tiny people standing beside them.   It had the full gamut with a...

Aggravating Things about Living in Beijing

Recently I blogged “Beautiful Things about Living Here”, and the positives far far outweigh the negatives. I want that to be very clear. And regardless of how we feel, we are also here because of our confidence that this is where God wants us. But I have tried to be honest about the “sublime” and the “slime” about living here.   I want a balanced account in what I interpret as part of our job in life: to communicate “here” to “there”. You have seen our stories and know about our enjoyments…and also the difficulties. So I am making a list of our frustrations. Aggravating things about living here: Air pollution (although it is not nearly as bad as what we expected) Language difficulties (forever and ever, every day, and we even speak some Mandarin) Centralized control of things like our heating and air conditioning (It is 80 degrees somedays and the A/C will be turned on middle of May at the earliest) Consistent feelings that we need to be careful in what we are say...