Enjoying the Adventure

Foreigner - Going Off the Grid

2012-01-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

God the father knew you and chose you long ago . . . now we live with great expectation. The Apostle Peter

For seven days I was alone in the city of Nanyang -- population 10.5 million. For seven days I never saw another light-skinned person, or any people group other than Chinese. For seven days I had access to one Chinese who could speak in my native tongue. For seven days I never saw English print.

Out of the bubble . . .

Though the first of many more to come my first exposure to total immersion into Asian culture was a quantum leap from the soft environment of living in Peter Hall! At SIAS foreign teachers are not required to learn to speak Chinese. We have our own compound. To a great extent we can maintain our Western lifestyle. Once instructing for the day is finished we can retreat to faculty housing. In PH you will see no more Chinese than you would if you were roaming the halls of an American university.

Peter reminds us . . .

When it’s time to go off the grid, God says, live with great expectation, and not just in the hope of the good ole' days or the sweet by-and-by, but in the present anonymity of the sketchy now-and-now! God will show up!

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill

Foreigner - Chapter 2

2012-01-16T22:35:00.003-08:00

God the father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter

God’s picks and chooses. A truth that has been cussed and discussed since God chose to accept Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. Since He chose to, “love Jacob and hate Esau.” Theological systems have been developed to explain the “why’s and wherefores” of election/selection. However, it’s a train of thought that is above our ability to comprehend. The baffling examples of Divine prerogative can’t be harmonized with human logic. God’s choices are unexplainable, but from my view of the deck His unbreakable commitment to stick with His choices may be the most profound!

Peter writes to people living far from home, and says (I paraphrase), “Your heavenly Father knew you and chose you for His own before you were a twinkle in your earthly daddy’s eye.”

During 2011 Dad’s health began to deteriorate rapidly. By March a series of medical complications piled up and like an avalanche swept him into the valley of the shadow of death. My sister Barb called to tell me that Dad's Dr. believed his passing was imminent. I got on a plane in Charlotte, NC and to his bedside as soon as I could.

With just God and me present Dad told me of some of his fears – confessions I have heard at least a hundred times by the faithful in their final moments. Dad was as “saved” as saved can be. He was redeemed. But he was about to enter eternity and in his mind there were “logical” reasons to doubt that God’s grace and love could cover all his sin. It was a surreal moment as we sat and talked and wept and found peace in the illogical love of God.

Perhaps you’ve heard the, “St. Peter met so and so at the pearly gates” jokes.

I smile -- when in my imagination – my father passes through the veil and is met by rough and tumble Peter! Redeemed, but still gloriously wild, he pokes my father in the shoulder and says . . .

“Burleigh! Your heavenly Father knew you and chose you for His own before you were a twinkle in your earthly daddy’s eye. Welcome home!”

Foreigners

2012-01-15T21:01:00.002-08:00

This letter is from peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners pontus, Galatia, cappadocia, asia, and Bithynia.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ

Screw-ups, like myself, are grateful that God chose to preserve many of the unflattering details of his Peter’s spiritual journey, yet kept him close, transformed him, and kept him on the frontline. The bodacious fisherman was presumptuous and impetuous, and his first response to nearly everything was to meet it head-on with misguided zeal and uncensored responses. God was constantly at work in Peter’s life turning up the heat so as to burn away the dross. The endgame? Peter would reflect Christ, not Simon.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners. Says Peter.

As I write Sandy is my muse. How is that? God brought her to the apostle’s words in the early morning hours, and as she shared with me how He was meeting her there, my own thirst sent me to the same well.

Sandy and I have stayed on the forward edge of the Kingdom’s advance as trailblazers, but I can say that the day-to-day of living abroad has caused us to look more closely into Peter’s brief letter. This is different. At the present we belong to the unique fraternity to whom Peter’s speaks in his first letter; we are foreigners.

If Chinese internet technology will cooperate I will leave a few posts for anyone interested to read.

Winter Solstice

2011-12-22T20:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we passed the tipping point—the Winter Solstice was December 22! What does this mean? It means that from now until the Summer Solstice light will send the darkness into a slow but definite retreat! And that means that by the time we return to Maine—at the end of June—mornings will dawn before 5 a.m. and say their goodnights around 930 p.m.!

At the cabin our alarm clock will be nature’s choir rousting us out of the sack and into a new day! Our cabin will be 14 years old in July, and it needs some TLC. The list of projects continues to grow, but we can’t wait to attack the checklist!

Here in China we have made a lot of new friends and some of them will be our guests on the Penobscot River! We look forward to sitting around a campfire and them meeting our friends, family, and annual group of anglers that journey north.It won’t be long before I will be goading our neighbor, Carol, regarding her confused political leanings! This year’s reunion and wrangling should be even better. Carol and Richard got engaged, so I will have another friendly foe!

Peace On Earth

2011-12-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

Strands of glowing twinkling Christmas lights descend from our living room ceiling to form a tree. Their colorful hues drench everything in peace and relaxation. Early this morning I curled up on the couch and appreciated their every slow pulse. From time-to-time I read in the soft ambiance that surrounded me. Mostly, I just let the mottled collage and quietness speak.

Early Christmas Gift

2011-12-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

Early this morning I went for a short walk. Brisk air and blue skies diluted by a veil of wispy smoke greeted me. On the horizon a hazy orange sun climbed out of bed and set about another days work. A pair of songbirds cooed like lovebirds. Mourning doves whistled and scattered dry leaves as they winged their way upward to perch on barren limbs. In the distance the raspy chatter of a magpie did its best to grate on Mother Nature’s nerves.

Here in China, a few moments of solitude can’t be wrapped or bought or found in abundance. It is a gift, and I am thankful for the Giver.

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill

Realignment

2011-12-07T00:53:00.003-08:00

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

His Glory was that He laid aside His glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcasts. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I have been trying to reestablish the habit I had for nearly all my adult years . . . getting up very early so that I could have unhurried time to align my physical and spiritual worlds. It is a necessity for me, because if I don’t I tend to forget that in truest reality they are parallel universes, and must live my life in them.

A couple of days ago the two quotes captured my attention simultaneously. The first message came through the medium of music as the refrains of the familiar Christmas song filled the atmosphere around me. The second came through the medium of the written page as I held a book in my hands and read.

In that moment the song and the quote aligned the two worlds I speak of – my physical world and my spiritual world. It hit me profoundly.

I don’t think it is necessary for me to provide a lot more commentary . . .

Realignment

2011-12-07T00:53:00.002-08:00

In that moment the song and the quote aligned the two worlds I speak of – my physical world and my spiritual world. It hit me profoundly.

I don’t think it is necessary for me to provide a lot more commentary . . .

Realignment

2011-12-07T00:53:00.000-08:00

In that moment the song and the quote aligned the two worlds I speak of – my physical world and my spiritual world. It hit me profoundly.

I don’t think it is necessary for me to provide a lot more commentary . . .

Thankful for Homesickness

2011-11-26T06:03:00.000-08:00

Nearly everything we do abroad in China is a first: first anniversary abroad—number 34, first Thanksgiving abroad, first birthday abroad—number 56, first Christmas abroad, and the most palpable case of homesickness we have ever felt. O, and for the first time in our life we regularly walk three miles to buy coffee beans!

Today, as we walked three miles to buy coffee beans we talked about our homesickness! No, we didn’t commiserate—that can be absolutely demoralizing—especially abroad. Instead, we concluded that our homesickness is a good thing. Actually it is a blessing. “Our homesickness is good. We are homesick because the holidays are filled with so many precious memories. You remember and the miss good things—not bad things. I am thankful for that.” Sandy said. Also, in China there are few reminders that, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Such a setting helps us focus on the true meaning of Christmas, not the commercialism that has displaced it.

Earlier in the day we ventured off campus and found a little hole-in-the-wall store that sold twinkling Christmas lights. We bought seven strings. Now in the corner of our living area there is a twinkling tree. Our tree of red, yellow, green, and blue blinking strands hangs from the ceiling. The frame of a broken umbrella spreads them into the conical shape of a Christmas tree.

O.k., I know what you’re thinking, “You might be a Redneck if you make a Christmas tree from a broken umbrella and twinkly lights.” It was a lot of fun

As I write, Christmas music is playing in the background. Amy Grant and many different artists are singing their rendition of the classics. Amy is our favorite. To us, there is a spiritual quality to her music. Maybe it’s because she has experienced so much brokenness, and the grace of redemption and restoration the Savior came to give. Let’s never forget that’s the reason for the season.

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill

Chasing The Wind

2011-11-17T02:38:00.000-08:00

Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless--just chasing the wind. Ecclesiastes 6:9

Outside the walls surrounding SIAS is the the citizenry of Xinzheng, China. By U.S. standards the aging population has little by way of the material. Most have a roof over their head, and food enough to keep them alive, but not enough to make them fat. I can't see into the interior of their being, but their persona projects a happy, contented, friendly, and peaceful demeanor.

Over the last several years Sandy and I have been moving toward a lifesyle some would consider more Chinese than chasing the wind of the "American Dream." My six figure income is gone. The beautiful house is gone. Our combined salaries are yet to reach a five figure income. When we return to the States we will live in our cabin with no running water. No electricity. Our "bathroom" is a little outbuilding that sits in the shade of a dense hemlock.

Here in China, as we did in the States, we are up weekday mornings by 530 a.m. We drink too much coffee, and we talk. To be candid, some sunrises are blackened by dark spiritual thunderheads, and we feel socked in by an emotional fog as thick as pea soup.

In this post I have included two pictures. They are visuals that remind me of at least two choices such moments present. First, metaphorically speaking, like my kayak I could stay on the beach and live with the fear of being capsized and losing one of my few but highly valued possessions.

Another option is presented -- I can choose not to worry about rough waters ahead, and enjoy the glory and magnificience of every swirl and current of the River of Life.

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill

Living Life Backwards

2011-11-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

“At some point in life we all stop measuring time from the beginning and start measuring time from the end. It shifts from thinking about, How far have I come? To, How much time and opportunity do I have left?” ~ Anonymous

In preparing for a special presentation tonight for SIAS students a broad outline was given me to guide the lecture. In the content I read the quote at the top of this post. It resonated.

How far have I come? Well, if the mile is the standard of measurement, then I’ve come a long, long ways! From our home on the east coast of the United States to China is halfway around the world! Of course that is not the intent of the question. How about this instead? How far have you come spiritually? Has your soul grown? Have you left lesser things behind to pursue greater things ahead?

How much time and opportunity do I have left? I have never articulated in such a concise way how to pace our sojourn, yet for some time that question has been the catalyst for a massive overhaul in my thinking. The results: High points and epic personal struggles. “A man’s thoughts will become the way a man lives.” Said an ancient sage.

Unquestionably so.

In less than two months I will be on the backside of fifty. Call this a midlife crises or whatever you want, but an unmistakable mental and spiritual switch was flipped in 2005. Standing on the soil of Laos along the east bank of the Mekong River I knew the time had come to live my life backwards.

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill

Immortality

2011-10-26T01:32:00.001-07:00

There is no white picket fence with a swinging gate and no arched trellis that serves as a kind welcome and open invitation to wander through the rose garden. Now, even though they were once as patterned and colorful as a kaleidoscope, they are quickly becoming beige in color and bland to look at.

A virtual maze of hedges surrounds the few bushes that stubbornly stave off the onslaught of winter. Their thorny stems grow darker and sicklier. Waxy leaves, once vivid and healthy, are blotched and spotted and curled. Each day dull orange rose hips displace the brilliance and blushes of the petals that once crowned them. The flowerbed will soon be their deathbed. Deep winter is only weeks away.

But this morning, before the droplets of dew that covered them disappeared, I captured their fading glory in the lens of my camera and gave them immortality.

PICTURESQUE

2011-10-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

No classes today, so I used the free time to put together the midterm test for International Trade. Forty questions. Laundry was starting to pile up (two loads is a pile here), so I got them into a washing machine just outside our apartment. At the present, clothes are hanging on a drying rack and on hangers in our doorways. A small blue fan oscillates beneath them to speed up the drying.

It’s been another beautiful day here in Xinzheng. On the campus of SIAS there is a lake with a stone covered path that hugs the shape of its shore. It is almost always quiet, peaceful, and people-less there. I often go there to sit in the shade of the humble willows and read. Fall has gained full strength, and earth’s orbit continues to push the sun over the horizon a few minutes earlier each day. Deciduous trees are shedding their summer clothing, and at the will of gentle breezes, thousands of leaves set sail across the water.

Picturesque.

Yuntai Mountain

2011-10-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning Sandy and I, along with another 88 other foreign faculty teachers, boarded two SIAS University buses. Three hours later we checked into our hotel and then headed for Yuntai Mountain.

With my head tilted back, my eyes squinted at the vivid blue sky above me. What a contrast, I thought, to the black and grey colors that surrounded me. Beneath my feet water, crystal clear, bubbling and gurgling, submitted to gravity’s pull, wound around boulders and gigantic slabs of mountainside, and ran like blood through this deep gash in the earth’s dermis.

I have been privileged to gaze on more than my share of stunning landscapes around the world. Yuntai has some of the most dramatic scenery I have ever witnessed. It is also the most difficult place to photograph I have ever been. Craggy, rugged, jagged and shadowy walls of stone soaring hundreds of feet toward heaven surround you. Everything is immense, much larger than any camera lens could possibly contain.

Enjoying the Adventure

2011-10-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

Now that we are settled into some semblance of a routine I am going to post more frequently. My FB profile states, I write about my adventures, because I believe everybody has a story worth telling. Similar to a breadcrumb trail, my desire is to leave a written trail, so that in the reader's imagination they can enjoy the adventure with me.

First, let me tell you what I am doing here at SIAS University. Primarily, I am a teacher with three-hundred students. My subjects are Corporate Finance and International Trade. The range of the students English proficiency covers a broad span, so these already difficult courses are exceptionally challenging. I am stretched!

Also, I am tutored in Mandarin Chinese by a Chinese faculty member for two hours once a week. I bolster the tutoring by studying with Rosetta Stone seven days a week. Surprisingly, reading and interpreting the Pinyin (Chinese Phonetics) has come to me easier and quicker than expected. However, speaking -- without the written pinyin to lean on -- is a much more difficult task.

At the beginning of my classes I proudly practice my second language phrases on my students. A familiar pattern has developed. First, they look very puzzled. Then, once they decipher my pathetic use of the four tones, they begin to giggle and laugh. Sometimes, if it's really bad, they laugh hysterically! I respond, "Sank you bery much!" It's my touche (The Chinese find it difficult to articulate "th" and "v" sounds of the English language).

Outside the classroom I engage with many students. At there request, I have taken pictures of hundreds of them. Being generous with my time, and listening as they practice English on me, opens opportunities to build relationships. They love it. I love them.

On Wednesday nights I meet with a group of twenty (and growing) male students for two hours. They treat me like a rock star and hang on my every word. They want to learn how to be leaders. Our tech guys in the mix have already designed a website (that you will soon be able to access)It's humbling. At our first meeting the guys wanted to come up with a name for our group. Here are a few they suggested: Iron men, Spider men, Karate Men, Natural Men, Super Men, X Men, and more! After a bit of discussion and explanation they understood that those names probably would not work.

We decided on SIAS Servant Leaders Group.

Back in the Flow

2011-08-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

If only the fulfillment of our greater purpose in life flowed along as ceaselessly as the river I am overlooking. Its liquid depth and breadth are ever changing as the water level rises and falls, but nonetheless it is replenished with fresh energy and an undeterred flow toward its destiny. Conversely, for many months hardly a word has trickled from my thoughts onto the written page. How strange, because during those same days and weeks and months I have never experienced such powerful currents swirling around my life.

Less than 48 hours from now Sandy and I will be two people among 1.3 billion in the country of China. We will be just two people on a University campus of 28 thousand students. We will be just two people of a staff of more than 120 foreign teachers. The question, “What kind of influence can two middle-aged adults have among so many?” has been making waves and whitecaps in my soul.

I have never found a reason not to believe in a personal "Destiny" for every person. Just as gravity pulls the river from north to south, I continue to believe Forces are at work to bring us into adventurous opportunities much grander than we ever imagined. Recognizing and then responding to them is our responsibility and makes the difference between a mundane or wildly meaningful life.

“Why are you going to China?” We are asked this over and over again. Though I have never responded with this answer, my truest heart would reply, “To get back in the Flow.” Such a compelling, though sometimes diluted and distracted, or simply missed, has never gone away, and at last the inner Compass has reoriented me and has led me back to the edges of the flow.

Non-Stop to China

2011-07-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

In a matter of weeks Sandy and I will board a plane at JFK Airport in New York. From there we will say good-bye to our friends and family and to our native soil. Seventeen to twenty hours later we will say hello to new friends--that will become our family--and our feet will stand on foreign soil. We will be Expats in China.

In the meantime we have been neck deep in the immense undertaking of whittling down our household goods and personal belongings, donating liberally to the Salvation Army, taking care of financial and medical issues, physicals, shots, changing our residency, procuring renewed passports and working visas, filling out enough Chinese documentation to fill a portfolio, and working through all the emotions that separating from our children, our friends, and our family invokes. All the afore mentioned is just a drop from the giant bucket of details we have to empty before we leave. Have you ever tried to reduce your possessions to two suitcases each? As contradictory as it might sound, we have gone about it non-stop and with energy and eagerness.

The back story. . .

Our journey to vocational residency in China actually began in 2005 after I returned from a backpacking trip through China. Upon returning to the States we had the good fortune of spending hundreds of hours with Chinese students pursuing advanced degrees here in the U.S. Then in 2009 Sandy and I spent a month in China lecturing at two different universities. For reasons I could never fully explain--from day one--our connection and bond with Asians has been almost supernatural.

The sudden news that the Shorey's were moving halfway around the world came as a great surprise (shock) to many of our friends (not so much with our kids). Not that our friends had no idea of our interest in China, but the fact that we are leaving NOW! Until recently our plans were to stay in the U.S. for another five years (until I was 60 years old). However, China no longer allows foreign workers to stay beyond their sixtieth birthday. So all of a sudden the time IS NOW. If all goes well we will spend the greater part of the next five years abroad. What a gift!

Offers from two different Chinese Universities were ours to chose between, but because of our longstanding relationship with SIAS University--where we have built relationships with students and foreign faculty--we chose to invest our lives there (google SIAS). As is the case with nearly every first year foreign teacher we will be teaching oral English. This educational environment allows us to spend a lot of time in dialogue with our students and to build trusting relationships. From all we have been able to gather, Oral English is one of the students favorite courses.

The intention of this blog is to chronicle our adventures in China for posterities sake. Hopefully, it will also provide another link for us to remain in contact with our friends and family. Who knows, Maybe some of you will chose to join us!

Why not?

Enjoying the Adventure,

Bill