It’s been about three months now since Benjamin was born… and our lives have changed quite a bit.  Physically, he has gained about five pounds (now 12.8 lbs) and now stretches a bit over 2 feet long.  Temperament-wise, he has improved too.  He’s feeding better, sleeping better, and shares a smile or giggle when he’s in a good mood.

Many people ask me how it feels like to be a father.  But, to be honest, I don’t think it compares to being a mother.  No matter how much I may want to (or not want to) care for him, Betty by far takes the brunt of the load.  From nursing to waking every three to four hours for a feed, to changing diapers (or “nappies” in British English) and playing with him for an extraordinary amount of time… I have really seen how she has flourished in her role as a mother.

Tomorrow, I will be hopping on a plane to Madrid for a week to work with my colleagues for the first time in a while.  Undoubtedly, I will have some good nights of sleep!  :)  It is, however, the first time I will be separated from Betty and Benjamin for more than 24 hours since the day he was born.  I know I will miss them a lot… and am already feeling some anxiety about that.  I suppose it is here that I am most a father – desiring to love, and to provide, and to experience life together.

Thank you, Lord, for Betty and Benjamin.  Bless them and watch over them as I travel.  Moreover, shower your love and presence upon them and remind them that you indeed are Father – Who desires to love, to provide, and to experience life together.  Amen.

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If you are interested in seeing videos of Benjamin as he grows, you can check out his Vimeo page.  We try to upload a new video once a week.

My wife Betty is near the end of her 37th week of pregnancy now.  In expectation of our first child, we have been preparing, waiting, taking classes, reading books and sewing (well, the last two are more her).  The more I reflect on this time, the more I realise how much the pregnancy process points to the work of another – that is, God.

I think it was just before this time last year… Betty and I were thinking that it was about time we were more proactive about having a child.  One month passes.  Then two… and she wasn’t pregnant.  We knew it sometimes takes months or years for a couple to conceive.  But it was hard not to think it was never to happen.  Shortly after we found out she was pregnant, we randomly watched a documentary showing actually how complex and how many things had to come together at the same time for a conception to happen.  While it is not a man being raised from the dead, indeed there is something truly miraculous about the start of a new life.

It actually really hit me when we were in our parent education class.  The instructor was saying how when a child is born, the ideal scenario is when the head pops out first.  THEN, there are these muscles in the mother’s body that actually turn the baby something like a quarter turn.  Why?  So the shoulders can fit through more easily.  Did you get that?  The muscles actually turns the baby after the head pops out so that the shoulders can more easily fit through.  Then the instructor in this public hospital says, “It’s just so amazing how our bodies are designed.” (Not meaning to get into an Evolution vs. ID debate here… just saying there is just something very beautiful in how our bodies were made.)

Then, the other day, we were visited by the community midwife to brief us on any final details we needed to know about the childbirth.  She was talking about how Betty needs to deliver the placenta after delivering the baby (yes, it is a weird idea) and asking her if she wanted to have an injection to accelerate the delivering of the placenta.  At this point, I asked the midwife how long the umbilical cord was… that is, if the placenta was still in Betty, if the baby could be brought up to her still.  The midwife responds and says, “Actually, yes.  And if the baby breast-feeds immediately, Betty’s body will produce a hormone to make her uterus contract and help her deliver the placenta quicker.”  She went on to say how there are all these medical benefits of breast-feeding (e.g., lower change of ovarian and breast cancer, transferring of antibodies to the child, etc.).

While I appreciate all the achievements in medical technology and love technology myself (after all, I do work for a multi-national technology innovator… plug, plug), I am reminded that without all of these things, women have been giving birth for a very long time now all by themselves.  We have chosen not to know the gender of the child beforehand and are now waiting anxiously and nervously for the child to come any day… week… minute now.  But I am grateful that this child and our lives are all in the hands of the Almighty, the Creator of the cosmos.  Thank you God.

Betty and I have been married for THREE years now and it has really gone by fast!  Yet at the same time, it does feel like three long years.  Why do I say that?  Well, because I feel like we have matured in our marriage.  For instance, we don’t fight as much.  :) I know, I know… we seem like the ideal couple who never fight – but indeed we have.  Three years later, its not quite as much (still a little, of course!).  We have grown to understand each other better and grown more in love with one another.  One of the things I love about being married to her is that, despite my busy schedule, she is always there to remind me to stop and appreciate the beautiful things of life.

For example, above is a picture of the famous World Heritage site, Segovia, just north of Madrid, Spain.  I was in Madrid working with my colleagues, doing 10-12 hour workdays and not really seeing much of Spain outside of the office, the supermarket (where I got dinner foods) and my hotel room.  Yet, at the end of the week, she flew in for the weekend so that we, together, could enjoy more than the few blocks I walked everyday.

What I find is the longer we’re married, the harder it is for me when we have to be apart.  Today, May 10th, is our anniversary… but tomorrow, May 11th, I fly without her to China for two long weeks.  And, while I look forward to the work I will be doing in China, I don’t look forward to the time I am away.  I am reminded more and more of my mortality.  I am not saying I am necessarily afraid of dying.  Rather, to be honest, I am afraid of leaving Betty alone.

Above all things, Betty has been a great spiritual partner to me.  She’s a sounding board to me when I teach in the church and she challenges me with the love and prayers she extends to others.  More importantly, she continues to grow in knowing and loving God more each day.

Thank you for your love for God and me.  I love you Betty.

Perhaps one of the most difficult questions posed to Christianity is how a good and all-powerful God can allow great natural disasters to occur.  This, I would say, is a mystery that most Christians (including myself) have a really hard time dealing with.  However, on the flip side, the way people have responded to recent crises has, for me, given a hefty argument for the existence of God.

A report (link and pdf) just came out a few days ago that surveyed Americans about their willingness to donate to disaster relief.  The numbers, to me, were quite astonishing:

Now, if you figure that the economy has not been doing too well for the last few years, these stats are quite significant.  Nearly 45% of those surveyed have or are planning to donate to Japan.  Granted, when something happens in the US like Katrina, up to 84% of Americans surveyed were willing to put money to the relief efforts.  But even in international cases, you still have around 50% of the American population reaching for the strapped funds.  Why?

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant once posited something known as the moral argument for the existence of God.  The basic idea is that there seems to be a basic sense of morality in all of us that we can rationally ascertain; this morality points to a Giver of morality that is outside of our natural realm.

Now, if you take a strongly evolutionary stance on life that assumes the “survival of the fittest” (which, I would say, exists in many workplaces), then it makes no sense to help somebody else –unless, of course, you are to get something in return.  It’s the I scratch your back, you scratch mine mentality.  But what I found significant in this survey is it seems to defy the dog-eat-dog mentality.

Even if we are stretched financially and at risk of losing our jobs, we still want to help in any little way possible those whom we deem to be in great need.  It suggests that life is not full of pure randomness and that there is a sense of interconnectedness in the world.  Our moral compasses must come from something outside of ourselves.  It comes from a transcendent moral reference point.  It comes from God.

Now, throughout that session, several delegates discussed this question and repeatedly there was the critique against “conservative Christians” or “evangelicals” who have not cared about society.  On the one hand, as an evangelical myself, I was a bit offended by the attacks levied by those in attendance.  On the other hand, I must confess that conservative Christianity has not been on the forefront of the social problems this world faces.  Historically speaking, conservatives have shunned away from social reconstruction and emphasised an individualised, spiritual reconstruction.  This world is fleeting and not of our concern — we must simply save souls.  What I find additionally interesting is that, while I cannot agree with Hick’s thinking, I have to say that his theology has given him the philosophical impetus to engage the society and work towards remedying the groans of the cosmos (Romans 8:22).

Then yesterday at church, the preacher Barry spoke about the problem where Christians can be too “academic.”  In saying that, he was not attacking education or theology, by any means.  What he was saying was that we often are too interested in aimless discussions and heresy wars.  We therefore forget that we are Christians who are to be a city on a hill — shining God’s light upon this world and society.  Again, rightly so, the same critique is levied against conservative Christians.  Yet I would say (and I think Barry agrees with me here) that the “academic” aspect of Christianity in and of itself is not bad as long as that is not the entire preoccupation of the faith.

Such academia is meant to spill out in practice (much like with Hick).  We know that God is a loving God hence we too must be a loving people, loving those who are unloved.  We know that God is a just God hence we too must be advocates of justice when our local communities are not interested in justice.  We know that God offers hope in the midst of desperation and dire situations and hence we too are to bring that hope to those who have no hope at all.  If anything, conservative Christians should be even more on the forefront of leading the charge for concern in this world.

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While money is never the end solution for the world’s problems, Christians are called to use whatever we have to participate in God’s work, as a means of worship.  On the morning of the last day of the conference, just before we academically discussed the question of social advocacy, an 8.9 earthquake hit Japan followed by waves of devastation and despair upon that island.  One organisation to consider supporting is Asian Access who, through their network of workers in Japan (a friend of mine included), are trying to help in the relief efforts at this crucial time. If you are able, put some moneys to the work in Japan, whether it be Asian Access or another.

Update 15 March 2011 @ 19:25 GMT: Just got word that my employer will match dollar-for-dollar up to $10K for Japan relief, through World Vision.

For the most part, there are two major components that should be prepared separately: the soup and the chicken.  You have it with egg noodles and hard boiled eggs as well, but these two are a bit more involved.

Chicken

1. Debone one whole chicken. Cut up meat and use bones for soup (see below).
2. Marinade overnight chicken with salt and juice from one lemon.
3. Put 1 onion (roughly chopped), 2 inches of ginger, one or two whole chillies and several garlic cloves into blender. Grind down to a pulp.
4. Heat up wok with oil.
5. Add 1 tablespoon of shrimp paste and blended mixture to wok.
6. Add marinaded chicken, 1 tablespoon turmeric, 1 tablespoon paprika and 1 tablespoon curry powder. Cook chicken through.
7. Add 1 can of coconut milk and bring to a boil. Turn down the temperature and allow to simmer.

Soup

1. Put 1 cup yellow split peas in blender and grind to a powder. Put this in the toaster oven or in a shallow pan on low heat to toast until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.
2. Heat oil in deep soup pan.
3. Add 1 tablespoon turmeric, 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 tablespoon fish sauce and 1 chopped onion. Cook onions through.
4. Add 1 litre chicken stock (could be prepared ahead of time from the chicken bones).
5. In a separate mixing bowl, dissolve toasted, split pea powder with water to form a thin paste and pour into the soup.
6. Add 1 can of coconut milk and bring to a boil. Turn down the temperature and allow to simmer.

Enjoy with egg noodles and sliced hard boiled eggs. Garnish with lime, coriander and crushed chilli.  Also, for some reason, the soup is much better the next day!

Earlier this week, I took a 3hr+ train from Birmingham to Durham to attend a conference at the University (put on by CODEC) that explored the “theological refraction” of the internet.  One of the major questions discussed in the conference was should theology play a role in the internet, and vice versa.

The morning the conference was to begin, I decided to go down the road to the magnificent Durham Cathedral for morning prayer service.  I am not an Anglican, but wanted to pray and figured what better place to do that at the time then to go to this beautiful cathedral (below is a shot I took the evening before).

So I went… and was saddened.  In this grandiose building, there were but a handful of attendees to morning prayer.  But what was even more sad was that I had no clue what was happening the whole time I was there.

About an hour later, I attended this conference where one of the major themes discussed was whether or not we should engage theologically with the internet.  The answer seemed too obvious to me – but of course!  Maybe I am biased because I grew up using computers.  But technologies like the internet seems so much like an extension of the greater culture we live in and, therefore, an extension of what we must engage in what some theologians call a “theology of culture.”  Churches and cathedrals will remain relics of the past unless they are able to engage the advancements of this age.

I appreciated many of the discussions at this conference.  I think there was only one other technical person there (I was so jazzed up when he brought up the Turing test in his presentation!).  But that’s okay.  I appreciate the fact that many thoughtful people are asking questions about the internet’s impact on one’s understanding of the church, identity, society, etc.  (Among the many presentations, I found Tim Hutchings’ paper on Online Churches thoroughly fascinating.)  As Abraham Kuyper is often quoted as saying (and was echoed at the conference), “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

Why is this a historic moment?  Well, my parents moved from Burma to Los Angeles in 1969/1970 and met and married in the US.  For over forty years, they have never traveled alone on a plane — until now.  (Well, my mom did once pre-9/11).  The only other time they have traveled out of the country was for Betty and my wedding in 2008 — to Canada!  Mind you, both of them had to get new passports for our wedding.  That time, I had specifically flown to LA to escort them across the North American border.  This time, was on their own.

As parents, they have always been providers of basic necessities.  So after opening their bags at our home in Birmingham, my mom calls me upstairs to take random gifts they brought filling over HALF their checkin weight.  Chocolates, nuts, toothpaste, toilet paper (??) – simple, but deeply thoughtful gifts.  Here’s a shot of the unloaded things on my dining table, which I affectionately call the “Last Supper” table for its length (but, of course, is stunted by the amount of things on it right now):

First time in Europe, the next two weeks will include local Birmingham attractions, a trip to London to spend time with my dad’s cousin and Paris (yes, Paris).  My parents wanted to take a day trip to Rome too – but I vetoed that.  Next time, dad.  :)

It may look like China (and, indeed, Betty and I took pictures like this in Suzhou earlier this year), but this was in fact taken in San Marino, California at the new Chinese garden exhibit at the Huntington Library.

I recently came across two very interesting news articles that highlight the question of national pride for ethnic Chinese in countries outside of China:

• LA Times article about the celebration of the founding of communist China in Southern California.
• CBC article about the Chinese government funding a Chinese language course in the Greater Vancouver area of BC, Canada.

The question that I want to pose is: is it unpatriotic to the US (which I am a citizen) if I were to be proud of China (which is where my ethnic origins are) and its latest accomplishments?  This is something that seems to come up quite a bit (esp. if you read the seemingly racist comments by some readers of the CBC article).

In discussions about postmodernity, some people have talked about how we should recognise the fact that many of us have a “hyphenated identity.”  Meaning, not only am I an American, but I am a “Chinese-American.”  Or, perhaps, since my parents were born and raised in Burma, I am a “Chinese-Burmese-American.”  There seems to be some warrant to celebrating this “fragmentation” since there are multiple stories that inform who I am (and, sometimes, also confuses who I am).

Then in religious studies, there has been an ongoing discussion about the possibility of dual or multiple religious affiliation.  Some would say that I should not consider myself as a “Christian” but as having a multiple allegiance to Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism since all of these are part of who I am, whether I agree with it or not.

To be clear, I disagree with this second idea.  John Stackhouse has an interesting discussion on this in defining terms like “inclusivism,” but basically I believe the Bible is quite clear that God wants to have our full allegiance and does not like us mixing and matching to our liking.

So I return to the original question.  Can I be faithful to multiple nations at the same time?  I mean, China has done some pretty great things in the recent past (hey, let’s see London top the open ceremonies of the 2008 olympics!).  But there are also plenty of rotten things they have done too.  The same, of course, can be said of any nation like the US or the UK — no nation is perfect.  There’s the classic question: if the US and China were to go to war with one another, which side would you support?  Sure, there’s something to be said about a case-by-case scenario.  But blindly taking that question, I really don’t know how I would respond.