Click the image to read the latest edition of the East Asia Update
Jun 292008
Jun 272008
China demolishes mosque for not supporting Olympics
Mon Jun 23, 3:56 AM ET
Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August’s Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday.(click HERE to go to full story)
I picked this up from a mailing list at Yahoo called “Steve’s China News.” Here are his comments:
[Comment from Steve: As an American, I understand that there is a war against terrorism. But can you imagine the uproar if a North American or European nation destroyed a mosque for not supporting a sports event (remember, the Olympics are *not* political according to Beijing)? People died because Denmark simply published a cartoon of Muhammad. What would have happened if the mosque in Xinjiang would have been in Vienna or Chicago or Melbourne? I can see the imaginary headlines now: "Mosque demolished for lack of support for Kobe and the Lakers" or "England destroys mosque for refusing to promote Wimbledon". Some of these Olympic birds may eventually come home to roost in 2009 and later.]
Jun 242008
Tuesday, the 24th, at 9pm on PBS (at least in the DFW market) there will be a PBS Frontline one hour program called Jesus in China. I can’t endorse it because I haven’t seen it, but at least we should be able to get one view of what is going on in China. I discovered it in a news feed. Here are three links to a series done by the co-sponsor of the program, The Chicago Tribune. Let’s see . . . Public TV & Chicago Tribune . . . . yea, not too sure how accurate a picture will be drawn but I’m gonna try to record it on my Slingbox and give it a look.
Here are the links to the printed series (I’ll read them when I get a chance)
Church and state in China: A primer By Evan Osnos | Tribune correspondent June 21, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-jesus_day_1_sidejun22,0,926043.story
Church on the rise June 22, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-jesus_day1-2jun22,0,3837826.story
Jesus in China By Evan Osnos | Tribune correspondent June 22, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-jesus-1-1-webjun22,0,2458211.story
Let me know what you think!
Jun 232008
A friend of ours shared a nifty link with us. I think it deserves to be shared others 
Instead of just mentioning it in a blog post where it will eventually be buried by newer posts, I’ve placed it in the sidebar, that strip on the left that contains things that are always there. It is the 2nd link under the heading Offsite. It is a website called God’s Yellow Pages. Go there to find links to verses in the Bible that speak to specific situations that are listed in the Yellow Pages. Very handy! Enjoy!
Jun 082008
As I was sitting at a Pizza Hut having dinner last night it struck me again how different our lives are today. While raising our children neither of us would have imagined that we could possibly be living where we live, doing the work we do now. It is truly mind-boggling!
We left our apartment (hadn’t lived in one of those since 1973) and hopped on a bus (only time I rode one of those in Texas was to jury duty) walked (gasp!) from the bus stop to the subway (what’s that?, all the Texans said) and rode it for a short while. We then came up from underground to the Pizza Hut that is in the shadow of the world’s tallest building (I know – not for long).
At the pizza buffet ($11.50 US per person) I had a salad with blueberry yogurt dressing and a small portion of (orange) sweet potato salad. Some of the pizza flavors to choose from were Seafood, Shrimp Delight, Kim Chi BBQ, Korean Seaweed Layered, (most of which had generous portions of corn and green peas) well you get the idea.
After dinner we went shopping at a couple of stores known to occasionally have some western products. We scored a bottle of Hunt’s Ketchup and a box of Honey Bunches of Oats! Happy Campers.
From Texas to Taiwan – what a great adventure God has us on!
