Chasing The Sun East
Intro to Asia
When you travel east you chase the sun which at 40,000ft never seems to set. I landed in Manila last night after an 18 hour flight. The flight was long and I rediscovered why I don’t like the window seat. As a boy I struggled a bit with Closter phobia and as I got older built habits that helped me avoid tight spaces. When I checked in on-line I chose my seats, forgetting how uncomfortable tights places are I chose window seats. Sarah said “I like window seats because you can lean on something when you want to sleep.” Then I thought maybe I had been missing out on something all along and chose all window seats. Eighteen hours later I emerge from the jumbo jet pathetically redeyed and sore. I made my way through a sea of humanity, that is the Philippines immigration line, got picked up, and was quickly whisked away to YWAM Antipolo. It’s like being in a dream of sorts with that weird surreal feeling and characters that look oddly familiar. Anyway, I slept when I would usually be awake and now am awake when I would usually have been asleep. Good thing I love traveling it makes the discomfort and oddness endearing and not frustrating.
Through this great piece of software called SKYPE I spoke with Sarah today for an hour, long distance for free. It quelled my homesickness for a bit. We are confident that she will be able to come on August 15th. It really is up to the INS agent to approve Sarah’s green card or ask for more evidence, which she said she had enough of. What should happen now is that she will receive an acceptance letter within a week or two than her green card shortly after that. If the works out Sarah will receive both before the 15th but even if she receives the letter that will be enough for her to go get her passport stamped. If all goes well she will be here in just two weeks.
Tomorrow I begin teaching on Worldviews. There are 9 Filipinos, 4 Koreans, and 1 Japanese in this school. I am excited to speak to an all Asian school as I have been studying and plan to get my degree in East Asian Cultures and Languages. The worldviews teaching for the week will be shaped by much of what we discuss the first day. I am trying a new strategy for teaching prep this time. I have plenty of material to fill the week with but I am more interested in tailoring the week’s content with the needs of the students. Of course there are some essential things I want to cover, like ideas have consequences and the character of God, but there are things deeply rooted in their reality construct (worldview) that will need to be dealt with spontaneously. So, I’m looking forward to what comes out on the first day, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers for this will be a critical time.I hope you are all doing well. I know many of you are preparing for the fall with work, traveling, and school and can’t believe the summer is more than half over. Enjoy the time you have and make sure you spend some of it with your families. May God bless you and keep you.
David
e-mail: davidw@ywammadison.org
web: www.ywammadison.org/davidw