Orientation in Chicago

My Sunday School teacher for grades 2-7: I met her at a service which included our commissioning, after 22 years away from the church where she taught me

Our orientation class: Sam was rapidly adopted and received lots of attention from the other kids

Sam played ball with the other kids--he's developed a pretty strong throw for not yet 16 months

I love watching the energy he puts into his throws

Here you see a close up of his Scooby Ball as he lets loose--it was a gift from his teachers in the orientation program for the kids

We’re just beginning our second week of orientation. The first week was in Louisville and focused on a range of logistical, programmatic, and institutional concerns. The number of details can be a little overwhelming. We are arranging child care and language study, housing and work descriptions, visas and partner relationships. We worked a lot with our area director, who overseas PCUSA workers throughout Asia (formerly several discrete regions, it’s now a single region). Our director is David Hudson, who has experience in Korea, Pakistan, and India. He’s been a useful guide on getting started and thinking through possibilities and conundrums.

I’ve liked our group quite a bit. As befits PCUSA, we are a bit of an eclectic bunch. We are in evangelism and social justice, education and administration, relief and medicine, and all manner of emphases. Emily and I are the only new appointees to Asia, although we were lucky to have the presence of a veteran couple during this first week. (They are medical doctors in Bangladesh, who are returning after the loss of a son.) I was often touched by their insight into challenges for new mission workers, and found them to be very helpful in thinking through what a Christian presence looks like as a small minority of the population.

We also talked through major themes in our missiology (the idea of “partnership”) and looked at topics with which we all deal, including development and evangelism. We had some time on financing and funding. I liked our new funds director, who talked about the importance of sharing the story. I've often heard that our fundraising model was not working, and it's great to see a new emphasis on expanding development.

When Emily and I think about how much it costs to get and keep us in another country, the numbers look a little daunting. At the same time, we feel strongly that the work we will be doing is important work. We're both committed to what our partner church is doing and I am continuously impressed by my students. I also know that we’ll be a bridge between a variety of people (generations within the PCUSA, the PCUSA and PCT, Taiwanese-Americans, trans-Pacific graduate theological education, etc.). In that sense, our work seems very valuable. Sometimes the need also constitutes the call. There are a handful of we foreigners on the island, and yet we represents 135 years of shared history and hundreds and hundreds of people who have gone before us. I know that often we can be friends and present a voice that no one else can offer. This is challenging and also deeply encouraging.

Orientation also looked at possible threats and dangers. (We spent more than an hour on pandemic flu.) I honestly tend to think that we overrepresent these threats. US culture has sometimes been toxic for me, and I expect that living in Taiwan may lengthen our lives. I imagine for most of us, the deeper challenges will be the more regular challenges of transition (staying healthy, balancing work and study, getting family members settled).

Our geographic diversity means that each of us will face different obstacles. Some will be starting from ground zero in language, but in languages that can be learned to a high degree of fluency in a few years. Others will be in areas for few modern amenities are available. Some will be close—literally across the border—while others live far away (we will be geographically the farthest away). The cost of living varies by location. The nature of our work is quite different, and I’m fascinated by the work people will be doing.

An interesting thing about our group was the presence of several mission workers who are being reassigned (here, here, and here) as well as the inclusion of the Madison Avenue fellows and a trio from the Haiti Fund (two going abroad, and their director). I’m very glad that PCUSA is working on including others in things like orientation, although I wish we had heard who is welcome in our orientation and on what basis. (When I asked about "affiliate mission" status in 2005--something which existed many years ago--I was told that it is not possible; it makes me glad that PCUSA is finding a way to include others in this process.)

Another interesting topic was our social witness policy. Essentially it says that we must be careful to differentiate when we speak for the denomination and when we speak for ourselves, and to be careful about misrepresenting the PCUSA’s position. For me, this will entail the need for clarity in several areas. We are a denomination that has often said “Christ alone is Lord of the conscience.” One of the first martyrs from my seminary was a printer who died for freedom of the press (Elijah Lovejoy, commemorated on a plaque at PTS's student center). Academics usually advocate for intellectual freedom (this is sometimes confined in certain ways by those in the theological academy). I do not foresee any problems, but it is probably worth reminding any readers at this point that I speak only for myself. I will often offer my individual opinion on questions historical, theological, moral, or cultural, and they by no means represent a single party line or denominational pronouncement. This, after all, is basically what a blog is, right? It’s the ramblings of someone sitting in front of a computer with an axe to grind, a cause to promote, or a prayer to offer.

What else? This was our first time having Sam in extended child care with other people (not family), and he was a true champ. He’s been getting a lot of attention from the older kids, who keep him in a jumping, walking, giggling frenzy until he collapses into a nap. Emily was still able to go feed him on lunch breaks. He's become adept at throwing balls and climbing stairs. The teachers who looked after him (almost all experienced missionaries) were incredible. What a gift to us! As we head towards something that is partly known and partly unknown it helps to know that Sam is so adapative and that people go out of their way to look after him.