Thursday, November 02, 2006
Determination nation
There is one image from my time in China that has stuck in my mind that puzzles me. Why should it keep nagging away, not least because it isn’t strongly personal and nor does it relate to the reason I was there? Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’ll share it with you.
As we sat rushing down breakfast in the 26th floor restaurant of our hotel we could survey the surrounding area which had mostly been demolished for rebuilding. Almost all had been flattened except for a building of about sixteen stories and there on its flat roof something remarkable was happening. Two men were attacking it with sledgehammers.
By the time I had worked my way though some coffee and a few odds and ends – and recovered from the shock that the ‘milk’ put on my cornflakes was a kind of yoghurt – they had made two modest holes. As I went off to face the day I left wondering what they had in mind. They couldn’t possibly be intending to demolish this huge building by hand, could they? It would be much like trying to melt an iceberg with a blowtorch.
I thought no more about the image until a few days later when we were driving along a road that, we learned, had been designated for widening. All along the left hand side were buildings in various stages of being demolished and with not a piece of machinery in site. No ball and chain. No nothing. Just masses of people doing much what the two men on the roof had done.
Of all the unexpected experiences in China this seems one of the most unexpected. Yet it seems to speak volumes about the heart of the nation. They are prepared to stick doggedly at the task in hand until it is done. Come to that, it was equally true of the Christians we had met.
And for an inspiring example of what that cam mean let me take you back to the two young women working on HIV/Aids education and care. They had started their presentation by telling us how they and their co-workers had just completed a seventy two and a half-hour marathon read through of the Bible in one go. Seventy-two hours - round a table reading, eating and sleeping - with only loo breaks allowed to interrupt.
They were as determined to get the big picture of the Bible as a background to all they were doing as were the men on that roof to achieve their goal.
Then we learned the two others who were also sharing their story with us – former addicts now involved in an impressive initiative among addicts – had much the same approach as part of their induction programme. Getting the Bible’s big picture was a foundation – and they were prepared to ‘go for it’ to get it.
They have something here that we could do with putting jump leads on.
As we sat rushing down breakfast in the 26th floor restaurant of our hotel we could survey the surrounding area which had mostly been demolished for rebuilding. Almost all had been flattened except for a building of about sixteen stories and there on its flat roof something remarkable was happening. Two men were attacking it with sledgehammers.
By the time I had worked my way though some coffee and a few odds and ends – and recovered from the shock that the ‘milk’ put on my cornflakes was a kind of yoghurt – they had made two modest holes. As I went off to face the day I left wondering what they had in mind. They couldn’t possibly be intending to demolish this huge building by hand, could they? It would be much like trying to melt an iceberg with a blowtorch.
I thought no more about the image until a few days later when we were driving along a road that, we learned, had been designated for widening. All along the left hand side were buildings in various stages of being demolished and with not a piece of machinery in site. No ball and chain. No nothing. Just masses of people doing much what the two men on the roof had done.
Of all the unexpected experiences in China this seems one of the most unexpected. Yet it seems to speak volumes about the heart of the nation. They are prepared to stick doggedly at the task in hand until it is done. Come to that, it was equally true of the Christians we had met.
And for an inspiring example of what that cam mean let me take you back to the two young women working on HIV/Aids education and care. They had started their presentation by telling us how they and their co-workers had just completed a seventy two and a half-hour marathon read through of the Bible in one go. Seventy-two hours - round a table reading, eating and sleeping - with only loo breaks allowed to interrupt.
They were as determined to get the big picture of the Bible as a background to all they were doing as were the men on that roof to achieve their goal.
Then we learned the two others who were also sharing their story with us – former addicts now involved in an impressive initiative among addicts – had much the same approach as part of their induction programme. Getting the Bible’s big picture was a foundation – and they were prepared to ‘go for it’ to get it.
They have something here that we could do with putting jump leads on.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Paving paradise
Oh the joy of getting my hands on an English newspaper after eleven days in deprivation. It hasn’t just been the Su Duko I’ve been pining for but a sense of what is going on in ‘my world’. It was with that taste in my mouth I attacked the weekend papers.
As I read a constant theme kept shaking its stick at me; that it’s time to get religion out of public and even private life. The subject matter was very ‘the veil or not the veil’ and ‘faith schools good or bad’. But these were too often the excuse for some religion bashing.
The Sundays were particularly clear, and one readers’ letters page shouted the loudest with more than a few contributions more or less saying the same thing, ‘We don’t want faith anywhere near life as it has nothing valuable to offer.’
Yet, as I read, some words from the Beijing Review I’d picked up only a day or so earlier leapt to mind. ‘Recently, the Chinese Government has been promoting the establishment of a harmonious society and has been specially stressing the positive role that religion can play’. And those words came from someone who should know, Rev Cao Shengjie the President of China Christian Council.
The same feature in the Beijing Review showed that some money is being put where that mouth is. Last year, for example, the Chinese Government gave one theological seminary the equivalent of $85,000 to support its students, some of the future leaders of the Church in China.
And this stacks up in the light of the many conversations we had with senior Government officials from China’s Religious Affairs Bureau. All had consistently told the same story; that their role was to help the church. To protect it and, where appropriate, help resource it.
One Religious Affairs Bureau official was quite specific, telling us, ‘We are the servants of God. Our role is to ensure religious freedom in China. The Government gives lots of help with translation, printing and publishing the Bible’. Perhaps he had in mind the fact that some of the first Bibles to be printed after the end of the Cultural Revolution had been on the Government owned presses of the People’s Liberation Army – some three thousand copies.
Another such official, who had seen what church could be like during a visit to Australia, told us of his concern that the church in his city is ‘so traditional it will not attract the young’. And that he has not been shy at making the point.
So there you are. It’s amazing when you think of it. At a time when a nation – ours – is busy working hard to bury its Christian heritage, another nation – China – is busy burying its previous vehement opposition to Christianity and now even helping it to grow. There are those who know what they are missing and are doing something about it. Meanwhile, to quote a song I never much liked, ‘You never know what you’ve lost ‘till it’s gone’.
And today it was Cuppa Soup – for the second day running.
As I read a constant theme kept shaking its stick at me; that it’s time to get religion out of public and even private life. The subject matter was very ‘the veil or not the veil’ and ‘faith schools good or bad’. But these were too often the excuse for some religion bashing.
The Sundays were particularly clear, and one readers’ letters page shouted the loudest with more than a few contributions more or less saying the same thing, ‘We don’t want faith anywhere near life as it has nothing valuable to offer.’
Yet, as I read, some words from the Beijing Review I’d picked up only a day or so earlier leapt to mind. ‘Recently, the Chinese Government has been promoting the establishment of a harmonious society and has been specially stressing the positive role that religion can play’. And those words came from someone who should know, Rev Cao Shengjie the President of China Christian Council.
The same feature in the Beijing Review showed that some money is being put where that mouth is. Last year, for example, the Chinese Government gave one theological seminary the equivalent of $85,000 to support its students, some of the future leaders of the Church in China.
And this stacks up in the light of the many conversations we had with senior Government officials from China’s Religious Affairs Bureau. All had consistently told the same story; that their role was to help the church. To protect it and, where appropriate, help resource it.
One Religious Affairs Bureau official was quite specific, telling us, ‘We are the servants of God. Our role is to ensure religious freedom in China. The Government gives lots of help with translation, printing and publishing the Bible’. Perhaps he had in mind the fact that some of the first Bibles to be printed after the end of the Cultural Revolution had been on the Government owned presses of the People’s Liberation Army – some three thousand copies.
Another such official, who had seen what church could be like during a visit to Australia, told us of his concern that the church in his city is ‘so traditional it will not attract the young’. And that he has not been shy at making the point.
So there you are. It’s amazing when you think of it. At a time when a nation – ours – is busy working hard to bury its Christian heritage, another nation – China – is busy burying its previous vehement opposition to Christianity and now even helping it to grow. There are those who know what they are missing and are doing something about it. Meanwhile, to quote a song I never much liked, ‘You never know what you’ve lost ‘till it’s gone’.
And today it was Cuppa Soup – for the second day running.
