Tall tales and long houses

We had fun with the people at the seminary in Malaysia, but we also had some rare educational opportunities when the president of the Methodist conference of the region decided that we must visit the native long houses and local Taoist temple.

Driving up from a distance the long-houses of the Iban people looked a little boring. I was expecting thatched roofs and bamboo walls etc, but these looked like fairly western barn-like constructions. With a closer look, I was impressed at the length of these buildings (duh) and the number of people who live in one. They have a very long porch/deck along the front, and then you enter through one of many doors into a long covered room that is like a cross between a covered porch and a 'front sitting-room,' that is shared by everyone and extends the length of the building (over 100 yrds). The long house is split in half down the middle, so that one half is this entry room, and the other half is divided into individual families sleeping quarters, each with their own door. Our guide estimated that the largest long-house we saw could hold 500 people, although most of the young people are gone during the week, working in the city/factories. The long-houses are also up on silts because of frequent flooding and swampy conditions.When tourists come to see the long-house complex we went to, they usually just get to see the big front house, but we were fortunate enough to have the right connections to see the adjacent, older long-house. Here we saw the last remnants of the Iban's head-hunting past (100 yr old skulls hanging from the ceiling), and were invited into the back of the head-man's living area, where we got to sample their special rice-wine (reminds me of sherry) and talk about their children who are studying medicine in the UK. Good times.

Next, at the Taoist temple in town (Sibu), we got a personal tour from one of the temple attendants who was very proud to show us how he had been written up in travel books for his expertise in the meaning of all the symbols of the temple. Basically he related everything back to the symbolism of the ying-yang and went through all sorts of gimmicks and tall-tales to try to impress us. I'm still surprised that we sat through his presentation b/c he just kept going on and on with crazy symbolic connections (if you take the little taoist booklet of paintings he was showing us, plus circles and symbols from the ying-yang, plus some fuzzy math about unlucky Chinese numbers, then you can explain the origin of anything and could have predicted WWII, Mao's regime, Korean conflict etc, all the way up to the Bejing Olympics in 2008). But it was very interesting to learn some reliable information about Taoist beliefs from him too.

on time or LATE!

We have come to really enjoy the community meals at the seminary cafeteria. As well, the seminary finds community in ping-pong tournaments, basketball games, soccer games, community fasting, chapel, and they all have the goal of witnessing to 10 people every semester.

We learned quickly after we were scolded on the first day, if the meal is at 6:45 AM, that means you need to be there at 6:35-6:40 AM at the latest. Because food is served before 6:45, prayer happens at 6:45 and we have seen students finished in as little as 3 minutes. They may hang around to talk, but they eat and wash their dishes quickly. Michael is ALWAYS the last one done and he has even eaten quickly (20 minutes!).

When I went to the exercise class, we started class 10 minutes early. This is all so different from any other place that I have visited in the world!

And the gift goes on...

As Michael said, we are astounded daily by the giving, inclusive, outgoing, friendly, warm personality of the Malaysian people in Sarawalk. They have given over and over again, asking for nothing in return. Their giving is so childlike and admirable.

Last night I was invited to a small group meeting for the 40 days of Purpose Rick Warren. It was their first meeting. All the women in the group were young, except for the current Methodist Bishop's wife, who was hosting the group. It was very refreshing to be around these women. No matter that we couldn't communicate well.

Today we went to visit all their workplaces bakery, doctors offices, nursing homes, and the Bishop's wife also took me to Agape school for special needs children as well as to the market to sample local food. I came home with bags of food and gifts, as well as a full stomach. So quickly and graciously the people here give to one another!

We also visited a physical therapists and I was reminded why I never went into the medical field. As the PT stretched the patient he was growning in pain. I fought it off as long as I could, but I blacked out.

Yesterday I was invited to be a part of a praise song exercise group. We don't feel at all like outsiders. It makes me think of an Amy Grant song that I sang in high school, "And the Gift Goes On"... as these people never stop giving!

Sibu

This week we're staying at a Methodist seminary in Sibu, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. I've learned a lot on this trip, but I'd say that I probably knew the least about the context here in Malaysia than any other place I've been so far, so I might have increased my knowledge the most here.

One aspect that I didn't expect is that there are a lot of Methodists here in Sarawak (the name of the state/province). Apparently around 1900 a lot of Chinese Foochow people migrated to this part of Borneo at the urging of an important Chinese Methodist, to cultivate rice for the area and escape political/religious persecution. So there is a huge Chinese population here, along with the native peoples like the 'Iban' (many of whom also became Methodist through Taiwanese missionaries who are ethnically related...). While this is probably more than you wanted to know about Sarawak, it has proven to be a very different situation than what I expected from knowing just a little about the conservative Muslim atmosphere of Western Malaysia.

The last thing I'll say is that we have been amazed at the friendliness and hospitality of the people here. Rachel and I have traveled to many places that have standards of hospitality much higher than the U.S., but this place is off the charts. Everyone at the seminary has been genuinely interested in helping us and inviting us to participate in whatever they are doing. Not to mention going out of their way to buy us things and give us oodles of exotic fruits/dishes. We are trying to figure out if these people are just naturally extroverts, or if their community just cultivates such selfless outreach. They also just had other visitors from the U.S. last week, and so it's not like we are some sort of freak-show that temporarily peaks their interest... I don't know, but I'm sure there's a lesson or two to be learned from these people:)

Singapore Zoo

The zoo has a lot of 'free roaming' exhibits where the animals arefree to roam within a specific area and you can walk through the pathright next to them (which has its drawbacks when they are swinging above you and need to use the restroom!). For example, a bat area, butterfly, reptile,bat, flying squirrel, monkeys, chimpanzees, and all those other monkeycousins... Obviously this doesn't work for lions and some otheranimals. This is true for other parts of the zoo too, for example aswe were walking away from the hippo feeding, a very long skinny snakedropped out of the tree and landed right in front of us. It was soclose that I could feel the air that it moved on my body. It thentook what looked like a striking pose. He had orange on his back(like a stripe because he was so skinny), but after a little staredown he went on his way. They actually have a number you can call ifyou have any trouble with their reptiles, but in order to use it oneneeds a cell phone!

The other exciting event was the cheetah. While we were walking up tothe cheetah exhibit next to a father and a son (about 3 years) whenthe cheetah ran full speed at the little boy. Guess he thought theboy was the right size? Of course the glass stopped him, but he wasvery aggressive and snarling. The poor little boy was very shaken andwas crying for quite a while. I must say it was even a little scaryfor me and I wasn't even the food he was interested in!

At the zoo we also saw two shows. One was an elephant show that waspretty impressive. I have never seen anything like it. The other wasa penguin, otter, sea lion, etc. like Sea World.

Singarich or Singapore?

Yes, I do have a special talent with words, don't I? Still, I couldn't resist such an atrocity of language to start my post about the advanced city of Singapore (a place so rife with the latest "trends" that mustaches are almost as common as PSPs...). Anyway, spending a week in Singapore felt a lot like going to NYC, with so many schools to visit, but also cultural things to do in a big city with great public transport etc. (Slightly different from our recent stay in Dakar, Senegal).

This meant that I had a lot of different types of discussions at the various seminaries I visited. Here, some of the hot topics were how to relate theological education to such a technologically based society, or how to provide skills for lay leaders in the performing arts and such. There was also a lot of discussion about "Asian" learning styles and the need to stimulate independent thinkers, which got into educational theory a lot more than any of the other places I've visited.

But the roots of Singapore society are still based in the traditional "asian" ways of thinking, so there is still a lot of relevance to attempting to relate asian thought styles to Christian ideas. I hope to see more of this at our final stop: Malaysia's Sarawak region on the island of Borneo...

TV relief

I have never been one to watch much TV. About a year and a half ago Michael challenged me to name 5 current TV shows. I started naming Friends, Senfield, so he cut me off and said no reruns. I think in the end I made it to 6 shows because I included Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and The Price is Right. A couple of days later I realized that I could have just named CSI and any large city in the US and name 10 more shows.

I have also spent a decent amount of my life without TV. For a year in Guatemala and 2/3 of the year in Slovakia I didn't watch any TV. So in VN we had a TV in our hotel room. Not any TV, but all the cinemax movie type channels, as well as Australian news and reruns of old soccer games. With so many channels to choose from there was always something that was interesting on TV. Partially due to jet lag, Michael and I found ourselves up at midnight watching Crocodile Hunter pull snakes out of rivers in Malaysia (we thought it was somewhat important to see because we will be there next week :).

Well, I find all this interesting because I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that our hotel room in Singapore does not have a TV. So I don't have to turn it on upon entering the room and I don't need noise to fill the room while I hand wash our clothes. I noticed that while Michael was gone that I constantly had TV on in our apartment to make noise while I was doing my tasks.

Good work

I enjoyed my time teaching this summer and felt that it was a very good experience to continue to confirm my interests and good fit with teaching. Fortunately pastors get to do a lot of teaching type things, so I might make a half-way decent one. I already mentioned the biggest difference in the seminary as "nap time," but it was also very different from my seminary in other ways. First, the students all came from more rural settings where their work is mainly to help their families farm, and they were only in the big city for class for several weeks at a time. Also, we met in a church building, the size of a long, thin single-car garage, for about 8 hours of the day, but with several breaks for lunch, nap, etc. Also, there was only one grade for the class, which came in the form of a multiple choice test read to them (talk about difficult)...The students asked less questions that I expected, but when they did, they were mostly good for reflecting on how they could apply this material back in their own setting.

I may have mentioned earlier that I really enjoyed lecturing through an intepreter as I had my points planned out in short phrases, but then I had time after saying each one to think about what I had just said and decide what needed to be added to it to make it even clearer. The students all wanted to spend break time practicing their English with Rachel, so she was quite a popular person:) You can read her account of some of the fun mishaps that went along with practicing English...

In the evenings we were able to hang out with some friends from Pittsburgh (Rebecca and Tara), and they showed us around the "backpackers" section of the city and some eateries where people can go to practice their English conversation and possibly have some deep and meaningful conversations that they wouldn't have elsewhere.

Motoring around

Rachel and I are still enjoying our time here. It is nice to be in a big city and see the life here. The traffic is absolutely crazy, even more than I expected. Rachel has pointed out that at least people don't drive very fast, like they would in Naples Italy. But there are so many little motor bikes on the road and no one seems to really look around them when they turn, they just expect that everyone else will adjust to them. So we have had the exhilarating experience of riding on the back of these motor bikes with friends driving us places. It has been surprisingly safe, but I always think we are going to wipe out around corners... I guess I just had too many bad experiences on my bicycle as a kid:)

Tomorrow we have a free day before we fly out, so we are going to do some touristy things like visit a war museum and palace, and the market.

Fun language stories

Fun stories often come out of communication between different languages and we have a handful of those...

A student was trying to practice his English, so he put this question together for me. It sounded like, "Do you think that people from my country are in terroism?" I quickly and with emphasis shook my head and said No. But then I found out he was trying to ask, "Do you think that people from my country are intelligent?" Opps! I quickly turned my answer to Yes!

I have often thought of how difficult it is to say all the tones found in many Asian languages, but I am realizing that English is really just as difficult for them to pronounce too.

Yesterday before community nap time Michael was writing down an address, so I decided to sit on our reclining chairs. I sat on the bottom of it and of course it collapsed on me! So very ungracefully I was sitting between a folded chair. So they were all concerned and helped me out. But before I could sit in it again, they had to check it out because they thought it was going to happen again. I tried to tell them that it was because of where I sat, but oh well.

We are enjoying our new friends we have made. Michael is doing an excellent job teaching his class. He is so organized that we are going to get done a day early with all the material on OT prophets. It helps that we have an excellent translator.

Sleeping in SE Asia

Rachel and I made it safely to a South East Asian country (where America had an infamous 'confict') after a crazy 2 day set of flights from Africa. We both felt sick during that time, so it wasn't very fun. But now we are really enjoying our time in the big city.

Michael is teaching a class on the OT prophets, and things have gone very smoothly. My favorite thing that I have learned from seminaries in this country is the importance of nap time. They have an organized community nap time right after lunch for an hour. They get out mats to sleep on, and the lecturer get's a reclining lawn chair to sleep in. It also seems compulsory for the girls to giggle and chat for the first few minutes of "lights out," until they have been shushed enough by each other to settle down.

I plan on taking this concept back to my seminary to see how far I get with it...

We'll let you know more later!

Senegal and other pictures...

We've been taking pictures of our travels of course, and you can see some more at my album on facebook. You should be able to go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24617&l=c84d4&id=502914542

Hope you enjoy!

World Cup qualifiers

I had a great chance to go to an international football game last night. Senegal was playing Liberia just a mile or so away from where we are staying. Plus, there are many Liberian born students at this seminary, so they got a bunch of tickets through the "Liberians in Senegal Fan Club." It was my first experience around serious football hooligans, but they weren't nearly as crazy as the British and others. The things that stood out from the 3-1 Liberian loss were the groups of African drummers congregated at the four corners of the stands, and how they kept up continuous beats throughout the whole game. Also, the Senegalise fans had a funny dance they did when they scored. Something sort of like the Macarana, but with a jump and spin at the end... I wouldn't mind seeing Senegal beat France again in the next world cup, but I'm not holding my breath.

They also showed parts of Russia beating Holland on the Jumbotron, so I got twice the show.

Senegal, religion, etc.

Now we are in Senegal and are being taken care of very well by Bishop and Doris Ba. We met them a few years ago at the New Wilmington Mission Conference and have had the chance to spend time with them several times because of their connections with the Dawsons. As a result, they have put us up in their bedroom, which is quite nice relatively speaking, and part of their apartment in the 4 story building that belongs to their ministry. Despite the fact that we are sweating a lot and there is no running water, we are having a good experience here because the people are open, friendly, and have lots of show us. The Ba's head DONE ministries, which is based here in Dakar, Senegal, but sends pastors all over West Africa to plant churches. Senegal is 95% Muslim, but the Islam practiced here is fairly different from the Middle Eastern type. Here their is a lot of syncretism with traditional African practices, and the leaders of some of the Islamic sects are worshiped by their followers- some of whom devote their lives to begging on the street for money for these Marabout's (some of whom are women that inherited the position). This makes Senegal a little hostile to church planting, but not as much as some Middle Eastern countries, because most people are open to learning about Jesus and how his life is interpreted differently by Christians than the Islamic tradition.

DONE (Discipling Our Nations Effectively) is going through a transition right now, because they are running out of foreign funding for their seminary. So we just attended their graduation ceremony where they gave all their students a certificate for what work they've completed (whether they are graduation or not), since they will not have classes next year. The Graduation ceremony was interesting because they made a huge deal of all the graduates, and most of them danced up and down the aisle when they're name was called with members of their family following behind them. Next year, DONE will be bring lecturers around to each country for short courses that will allow the pastors to stay in their local contexts and apply what they're learning to their ministries immediately. This is partly in response to research they learned of recently that shows that the more theological training a pastor has, the less likely they are to go and plant a church. Like many things, once you educate someone and expose them to large cities and other countries, it is easier for that person to loose their focus and their connection to their roots. I think this is an interesting example of how the traditional western structures of theological training are being scraped for things that are more practical for the context.

Kenya experiences 2

I really enjoyed the visits I made the past two days to schools, despite the fact that they involved several hours in cramped mini-buses and directions that left me wandering around a while before finding everything. Moffat Bible College was way out in a little village at the top of one side of the rift valley, so not only did I get a great view, but I also got to talk to profs. and students who were doing theological training at more of a grass-roots level. St. Paul's was a much more formal level University, but it seemed like the school doing the most structured contextualizing of theological education that I have visited. They had two specific practicum classes that look at the issues of HIV/AIDS and Poverty by having the classes meet in a slum or AIDS counseling center. The school also has several classes where the students have to immediately apply what they are learning to their ministry setting, by organizing a 'base group' of people from the community they work with, to share what they are learning with this group and mobilize to put things in to practice. Finally, the normal Bible and Theology classes at this seminary were obviously taught with the concept of translating everything into a way that it can be understood from the perspective of people a more traditional African worldview.

Discovering this last point was one of my most interesting conversations of the trip thus far. I was interviewing one of the Old Testament professors, and he was mentioning a lot of ways that he reflects on a traditional African worldview in his teaching. One is by teaching a course on African Traditional Religions (which is common at all the schools I visited), and others are by relating many of the Old Testament stories/concepts to traditional stories/rituals from different African tribes. This all makes sense to communicate truth by drawing on similarities and differences of concepts that are already familiar. But later in the conversation I was sketched out a little bit when I asked the prof. what denomination he was affiliated with (most of the students are Anglicans or Presbyterians), and he told me he was a practitioner of African Traditional Religion. Then he proceeded to give me a big grin and wave a "brush/wand" thing at me. I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that, because everything else in the conversation pointed to him being a Christian, but it raises some interesting questions. The crux of the matter being where you draw the line between an African Traditional Religion that uses Christianity as one thing among others to add to its spirituality, and Christianity that is practiced by people who have the sensibilities of an African Traditional Religion world-view and redeems the parts of traditional culture that have miss the mark.

I could say much more, but will end by saying that I have enjoyed bonding with the staff at the guest house as we have been able to watch some of the Euro 2008 football matches, not something they usually do with U.S. guests.

Comment on Kenya's unrest

I want to share just one story about the violent social unrest ealier this year in Kenya. Before coming to Kenya, I had read some disappointing articles about how the churches in Kenya had not spoken out or acted out against the atrocities of the political parties or been catalysts to stop the conflicts surrounding the elections. Apparently this is quite unlike what the church's role had been in the early 2000s, when it was a very vocal leader for justice and peace amid troubling times. So it seemed that the church was loosing it's credibility on social issues. Thus, it was interesting to hear some follow up on that point from one missionary here.

She shared some about what the western media will probably never pick up on, because it is in the spiritual realm to which Africans are often more attuned than most westerns. A few months ago it came out that some of the political parties had called in witch doctors from other countries to cast spells on specific places in the country to claim them for their party in the coming election. So, it was no wonder to some that these specific areas were where the major violence broke out after the elections. When this became well-known, a coalition of churches spanning all denominations, ethnicities, and regions of the country decided to have marches to each of these places and re-claim them for Christ, casting out the powers of darkness that had been invited into their midst. They also committed to only using each other's first names and only speaking in Kiswahili or English so that their tribal identities wouldn't be an issue for this coalition. This was quite a symbol of unity for a divided country, and hopefully it is a sign of renewed focus for the church on maintaining a strong witness to God's peace and justice.

"Jambo" from Kenya

Now I am in Kenya, another land with very friendly people, and not nearly as hot as I expected. It's almost boarder-line cold in the morning! While I have been wary of the reportedly high crime rate in Nairobi, I have been struck by the friendliness of the people at the seminaries I've visited. I spent some time in a waiting room, and every person that came in, even if they were working there and in the middle of some errand, went around to each person in the room and shook their hand and greeted them. I've also been suprised at how many students there are in Kenya from other African countries. I guess I knew that the higher education in Kenya is better than most of the rest of Africa, but I'm impressed by the diversity at these seminaries.

The guesthouse that I'm staying at is very appropriately nice. It has been interesting to meet other missionary families and hear what they are up to. Many are from the Sudan, and talk of the heat and difficulty of working among some tribes or muslim areas. I've also met an old scotish presbyterian from Australia, who has all the advice anyone could ever take about any subject...

Today I rode the bus an hour out of town to a seminary with a nice rural campus. I felt much safer traveling than I expected, and I even got the chance to ride for a while with one of the students from the sem. named Rotich, who gave me some good advice about who to talk to. One of the professors I spoke to highlighted that some of the biggest theological issues he sees in Africa right now involve the treatment of women. Wife beating is very rampant and some say it is related to the common practice of paying an elaborate 'bride price' for a wife. This professor then spoke a lot about how the church needs to confront the culture more on these issues. The dean at the school, Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, was also trying to convince me to come and do a PhD here, because it is one of the few theological PhD programs in Africa and would prepare me to teach here... I'm not sure I'm ready for all that, but it seemed like an institution that has a lot going for it. You can see a picture of the library above.

Sri Lanka 2

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I've had two trips to other parts of Sri Lanka, both were hot and long (4 and 10 hrs), but rewarding. In Kandy, I got a chance to stay two nights on a campus in a tropical setting, where they have students from both Tamil and Sinhalise langauges, so their chapel services are a series of prayers alternating languages and then singing in English, with a sermon traslated into one or the other. I also got to eat Sri Lankan style, scooping rice mixed with curry in your hands after you've mashed it up a bit... One of the most interesting dishes was a stack of crepe like things that were formed into a bread bowl with an egg fried in the base. Then curry and fish soup is poured in and the whole thing is eaten. They also have noodle patties that go well with the different types of curry dishes (pretty spicey).

Also in Kandy, I went to the Temple of the Tooth, where the Buddha's left tooth relic is kept. It was interesting, but was under heavy security as the country has a lot of ethnic tensions these days...

Next I took an overnight train to Trincomalee on the East coast of the island. There I saw some of the devestating effects of the Tsunami and civil strife. Things are more safe in this area now, but there is a lot of work to be done still. There are many Tsunami vicitim village developments around, but some are left empty because they never got power and water, and are too far from the coast. The seminary that I visited was quite passionate and committed to training pastors to serve this needy part of the country and I was welcomed very warmly and given lots of useful insight into contextualization of theological education. A big theme from this seminary was to send the pastors out to their villages with sound theological training, but also other skills to be a multi-resource for the community.

The overnight train ride back to Colombo turned out to be all the adventure I could hope for. There was a problem with the tracks because of heavy rain, so I had to get off the train in the middle of the night, get on a packed train with standing room only for several hours, get back off the train and take a 3 hour ride in a covered mo-ped cab in the pouring rain, but I got back to a Colombo after 12 hours of travel... Things that suprised me on the trip were so many monkeys, rice fields, and some peacocks...

Sri Lanka 1

Well, here in Sri Lanka things are all warm and sunny. I've been staying at a seminary in the capital of Colombo. The people have been very nice and welcoming. The campus is fairly new and well kept, but they only have commuter students, so there haven't been a lot of people around to talk to. I have seen monkeys jumping through the trees though and am getting used to cars coming at me on the left side of the road.

On Sunday I met a guy who is working with immigrants from Maldives, another nation of small islands to the West of the Indian subcontinent. Unfortunately, the country is in self-denial about a huge heroine problem the young people are having. It's estimated that 80% of the young adult males are heroine addicts. So this guy is working with young men in a rehab program for Maldivian immigrants. But he is discouraged right now as there aren't many making progress.

Yesterday I had lunch with a lecturer who was quite interested in my project, and he introduced me to another US student who is doing a similar project about seeing how the traditional Sri Lankan drum can be re-integrated into worship services. It is played quite lively, but is associated with budhist rituals and so hasn't been embraced by the church previously. Very interesting...

This is a picture of a man named Dyonis, who is the care taker of the school and basically looks after me. He is quite sweet although only speaks in single word sentences in English. We've had some fun though still.

This afternoon (tuesday) I leave the heat of the coast and go up to the higher inland section of Sri Lanka, to Kandy. There are some famous temples up there and a Bible School I will stay at over night.