almost home
Monday July 11th 2005, 2:35 pm
Filed under: church, personal

i’m in the san fran airport (yes, i looked for the TSA guy when i came through security; thought i might be ready to report him if i could spot him — no luck). flew from singapore to tokyo, had an extremely short layover, and flew on to SFO. my plane to san diego from here just got delayed 90 minutes. ugh. i’m ready to be home, hug the kids and jeannie, go swimming to get the plane off me. and tonite, lilly lewin (and a couple others, i think) are staying at my house, and i volunteered to grill dinner. lilly is in town to work on prayer stations for the general sessions at the national youth workers conventions this fall (a new addition), as part of a team my wife is working on also. it will be fun to see lilly — though i may be a bit loopy from lag.

the singapore trip was good on many levels. but i think this fourth time really needs to be my last trip there for a few years. i found myself quite a bit more cynical this time around (maybe the presence of tony!). the people are wonderful and good-hearted, generous and earnest. but all three of us grew frustrated with the quantity of american, british and australian influence on the church culture there. as i hinted in earlier posts, the worship bits might as well have been hillsong videos. every tilt of the head, finger-point to heaven and cliche prayer phrase were straight out of hillsong, willow or saddleback (or, for the one more rockin’ band: delirious). we talked about this with our hosts at one point. part of the problem is that singapore is unique in asia, in that it doesn’t really have it’s own culture. they are so proud of their cultural mix (which is good), they haven’t given space to anything indigenous.

tony commented that it felt like “new colonialism”, which was accurate enough to make me wince.

the youth ministry event itself went well. next year they want to do a focus on junior high ministry, which is ALMOST enough to tempt me back one more year. but i promised my wife i would take a break — there are enough other opportunities.

there are a few people in singapore i truly consider friends; so spending a bit of time with them was certainly a highlight. and getting to know sivin was worth the trip in itself. what an amazing guy. our final night tradition of eating at morton’s of chicago, in the oriental hotel, was a good memory-maker for all three of us — freakin’ huge perfect steaks with the best bernaise sauce on the planet, amazing service, grand marnier souffle and godiva molten-chocolate cake.

i’ll be in the office at ys tomorrow and part of wednesday. then liesl (my 11 year-old) and i head to guatemala wednesday evening for our spanish youth workers convention there this weekend. i’m supposed to do a general session, two seminars, and a 3-hour critical concerns course — none of which i’ve prepared a speck for yet.


6 Comments so far
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wish we could have connected while you sepnt 2 hours here

Comment by bob 07.11.05 @ 2:47 pm

yeah, wasn’t supposed to be here that long!

Comment by marko 07.11.05 @ 2:49 pm

I think “tempting” you to come to Malaysia would be easier now :-)

as one who is living here - with for better or worse “new colonialism” especially in church cultures, it can be frustrating to consider how we could move forward. On one hand, we don’t want to be “cheesy” and just be “indigenious” for the sake of it and yet on the other there’s a need for a fresh appreciation of what is “authentically” ours … I think it’s a greater challenge for English-speaking Christians compared to let’s say a more Chinese speaking Christian or Tamil speaking Christian … the extra nuance is for many of us who came as immigrants in the past we are often constantly living in “transition” or more accurately trying to “discover/re-discover” our identity in the midst of globalization and the different currents of thought east and west affecting us.

I guess … when all is said and done .. we do need your prayer support and encouragement :-)

Comment by Sivin 07.12.05 @ 12:33 am

as a second generation taiwanese american who’s visited the home island a few times– recognize that this phenomenon is not limited to the church. every part of asian culture, at least developed asian culture, is infected by western ideals. the obsession to use english in adverts, western fashions, western pop music. the only arenas that continue to hold some integrity (at least in taiwan) are the temples, some movies, and annual festivals.

Comment by danny 07.12.05 @ 10:11 am

It’s a shame you couldn’t hook up with your TSA friend….maybe next time! ha ha

Seriously - praying for your soul - and it’s all about out of the overflow, man…you’ll be fine!!

Comment by Grant 07.12.05 @ 12:04 pm

[…] d. when people bring tamborines to our concerts, it certainly ups the anticipation for… Grant: It’s a shame you couldn’t hook up with your TSA friend….mayb […]

Pingback by ysmarko 07.12.05 @ 1:32 pm

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