A Giant Bowl of Ice Cold Soup

We were invited out for dinner the other night by some of our students from Korea. There are hundreds of Korean restaurants in Manila, but this couple loves us dearly and wanted to treat us to the best. So we went to an outstanding restaurant specializing in grilled beef. It was wonderful . . . although I found myself laughing inside at the whole issue of "cultural adjustment" which has followed us daily for the last 28 years. The beef was cooked at the table on a grill. Then you pick up a few slices with your chopsticks, dip them in sauce, wrap them in a big lettuce leaf and pop it all in your mouth. The first time around, I put half of the beef in my mouth. Our friends admonished me that the proper thing to do was not to bite it in half, but to put ALL of it in my mouth. So the next time around, I did it correctly, and as I struggled to find a way to chew it, they smiled approvingly. The thought went through my mind, "My mother would be horrified if she saw me eating like this!" I guess that is what culture shock is all about -- doing things your mother taught you that you should never do. After all, the real storehouse of culture is not found in museums . . . it's taught by moms and dads (mostly moms) who tell their kids, "This is the way to do it, this is how it should be, stop doing that, what were you thinking?!"

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After we were totally stuffed with the beef, the waitress brought giant bowls of ice cold noodle soup. And the only way to really get those noodles into your mouth was to slurp them. Sorry, Mom. I had to.

And after that we went to Starbucks for coffee. Our unique lives at IGSL are a blend of many cultures, so it seemed perfectly normal to follow the ice cold noodles with a steaming hot cappucino. We sat and talked for a long time, and had a very precious time of fellowship. We felt so loved . . . and perfectly cared for.

A New Name

Chris, along with his wife and two small children, stands before an immigration officer in his home country. They are returning home for ministry after three years of leadership training at ISOT-Asia. His books are not travelling back with them. He has shipped them separately so as not to openly identify himself as a Christian worker. In fact, he has had several of his books recovered so that their Christian content will be less obvious. Chris and countless others have been praying for weeks for this encounter with the immigration officer. We have been praying that the officer will not ask details of what Chris has been studying and what Chris will be doing. Chris is one of our many graduates ministering to the persecuted church.

How can we help people like Chris? Celebrate with us some unusual but significant steps in moving forward to assist people like this and to impact the world. Does a name change make any real difference? Is it important at all? And why should I care?

We believe that a name change can be important. Recently our school has begun the process of changing both our name and our structure. For the last 26 years, we have been proudly known as the International School of Theology – Asia. Over that time, we have trained over 600 Christian workers for Asia and the world with over 95% of our graduates continue to minister full-time in Asia, providing servant-steward leadership to the cause of Jesus Christ.

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But the name has caused significant problems because the word “theology” is associated with Christianity. Most of our students coming for graduate level training in Christian ministry are coming from and returning to countries where having a degree in “theology” causes major problems. Christians are persecuted in these countries due to the political system or the predominant religion or both. Showing up with a Master’s degree in theology is a great way to get your name on the list of the secret police or to be restricted in where you can travel. It can also land you in jail immediately. In the words of the Monopoly game, “Go directly to jail. Do not pass ‘Go.’”

So the new name is International Graduate School of Leadership or IGSL. And how do you pronounce it? We pronounce it as one word, sounding like "IG-sell." In many countries, people with Master’s level training in leadership are seen as an asset to nation-building. So now, our graduates will be able to show their diplomas and find that not only will it not hinder their ministry but it may even open doors for effective ministry for them.

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In a future post, we will tell you about some exciting new developments with the school which will enable us to train a greater number of people.

Third New Year

Yes, we celebrated the New Year for the third time while we were in Myanmar! Our first celebration was on January 1 in the Philippines, which means NOISE. Then the second time was in February when we celebrated Chinese New Year -- eating tikoy cakes given by kindhearted Chinese friends. And THEN, when we arrived in Myanmar, we found we would be celebrating New Year's Day one more time. Burmese New Year was April 17. It was preceded by four days of Water Festival.

Water Festival means that wherever you go, people throw water on you. Even on the short two-block walk between our guest house and the CCC office in Yangon, we got totally soaked every day by the neighborhood children. "Watering one another" was a new concept for us! But the children did it very sweetly, smiling all the while, so we couldn't get upset with them. We went downtown on the third day to see where teenagers water and get watered with much more intensity -- there they used water hoses!

During our time in Myanmar we grew used to seeing monks every morning as we walked to the office, three or four at a time collecting their daily food from Buddhist households. We were surprised on New Year's Day to see a long procession of monks near our guest house. We waited for them to pass, thinking it was a larger group this time, maybe 10 to 15 monks. But as we watched, more and more monks came down the street. We counted about 200 of them, from older monks in the front to small boys at the end of the line. The elderly monks were serious, but the little boys were giggling like boys anywhere would do.

During our time in Myanmar, James taught two weeks of classes to the CCC staff. He taught "Gospel of John" in the morning and "Servant Leadership" in the afternoon. The staff were so appreciative and we enjoyed the opportunity to serve them and get to know them better.

We also met with 18 of our 27 Myanmar alumni. This was a great encouragement to us, and to them as well. Some we met individually, in their homes or eating together, and twice we met as a large group. It was so much fun for us to see where they are now and how God is using them. I am so proud of their faithfulness, ministering in a context that is not easy at all.

A precious part of the trip was the opportunity to join the wedding of ISOT alumni Ye Htut Myo, whom we dearly love. It was so much fun to be part of the ceremony and to see God's goodness in providing Thein Thein, an excellent wife for Ye. I thought about Proverbs 31:10, which says, "An excellent wife, who can find? Her worth is far above rubies." Myanmar is famous for its rubies, so it seemed very appropriate to celebrate this gift of an excellent wife in the land of rubies.

We are very grateful to God for the privilege of going to visit our friends in Myanmar. It had been seven years since our last trip, and we vowed that we would not wait so long to return again. Mingalaba!