Saturday, May 24, 2008
18:01

As I squeeze my long legs into the ridiculously small space and look outside, I see a man sitting in the shade of the wing of the Boeing 747. He crouches as people have crouched for millennia. My knees don't bend like that. Used to sitting on chairs at tables instead of on the ground, my body does not stretch and bend like his. The man was pushed into the 21st century so quickly that he can still sit comfortably without a chair, on the tarmac under the wing of a plane.

Friday, May 23, 2008
07:56

221 BCE the construction of the Great Wall began. It was not finished until the 16th century. 3500 miles long, it can be recognized from outer space. After little more than an hour on the bus from our hotel in Beijing we reached the Great Wall. But our energy quickly faded as we climbed the steep and uneven steps. Some were happy to admire from below, others turned around after one hundred steps, and others continued to charge the mountain. I was part of the third group. Admiring the stamina and energy of board members in their sixties and seventies, I found encouragement, and after a well deserved and badly needed rest I followed them to the first tower. Finding nobody there, I continued to the second tower. Sweat was dropping from the rim of my cap, the lungs were burning, and my heart was pounding hard. But even when I reached the rim of the mountain, I had not caught up with anyone from our group. I sat down in the shade and rested. A little shop sold bricks from the Great Wall. They had few takers. Who was going to carry a brick all the way down? Finally Jim E, a fellow trustee from Florida, showed up and sat down next to me, panting. He assured me that there was no one ahead of us. We continued together and realizing that after every tower there was another one for the next 3500 miles, we turned around and climbed down again, knees and ankles hurting. What is the morale of the story? Only the fool follows others on a path they did not take.

Sunday, May 18, 2008
11:11

One million Bibles a month are going to be printed in the largest Bible producing facility in the world. Amity Press in Nanjing. And today was the opening celebration. Together with hundreds of delegates from all over the world I sat and listened to bishops and directors and government officials, each time in Chinese and then in English, until after three hours my bottom hurt. Then fireworks, then the planting of a tree, then a tour through the manufacturing halls, then to the restaurant, where we for the third evening in a row were served the same countless delicious little dishes (and it always ends when they bring the noodles and the watermelon). Even the German Bible Society prints here, but it seems only Bibles in French. I received a Greek-English Bible with four different Chinese translations. And a plaque, documenting that I was present on day one of the press. When an Australian film team pointed the camera at me, asking about the significance of the event, I said what I thought: After so many industries had already relocated manufacturing of products to China it seems responsible stewardship of funds to move Bible production to this country as well. The interviewer said, "Magnificent!" and I felt smart. But really, it is rather obvious.

Saturday, May 17, 2008
09:04

Today we visited the seminary in Nanjing. I talked to the Professor of New Testament. He told me that he is using one of my books as a textbook for his class.

Thursday, May 15, 2008
02:25

What gave me away? That I am three heads taller than anyone else? The color of my hair? The beard? Whatever it is, young men approach me as I leave the hotel and young women ask, How do you do? It seems I share Nanjing Road, the shopping street that leads through the center of modern Shanghai with each and everyone of the twenty million citizens and their brother today. What the stores have to offer, electronics and perfume and clothes, sure beats Main Street, Bangor. But the cameras are not any cheaper, I don't use a lot of perfume, and when it comes to clothes, at 80 degrees and hazy humidity and because I am still recovering from the long and cold Maine winter, the objective today is to put on as few clothes as possible and not buy some more. I discover a church. Squeezed in between the highrises, the square brick bell tower with the distinct steel cross on it feels displaced, a faint reminder of pre-modern, pre-industialized times. The massive iron fence closes off the only access to the compound, a sign on the gate in Chinese is translated as 'Moore Monument'. I step back and the unending stream of people swallows me up and spits me out again minutes later in front of my hotel. 'How are you?' a young woman in hotel uniform asks me as she holds the door open. 'Xie xie,' I answer, practicing the little Chinese my travel companion taught me on our transcontinental flight.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
05:18

I feel lucky. 297 passengers on the flight and I have an empty seat next to me. A young Chinese woman shares the three seat row. She asks whether I am traveling on business or pleasure. Business, I reply. And when I tell her that I am on the board of directors of the American Bible Society, she pulls out a calculator sized gadget and asks me to spell the word Bible. Oh, she sighs, then you do not eat meat on Friday? For a moment I contemplate explaining that as a Lutheran I may eat meat on any day of the week, but I sense that she is not interested in details. It strikes me that everything I do as a Biblical scholar may mean nothing to her. And why should it? We talk about the earthquake. We both feel strongly for the many people who have lost their families and friends and will have to live with serious injuries for the rest of their lives. Ten thousand died, she says.

Monday, May 12, 2008
22:51

I HAVE NOT BEEN TO CHINA BEFORE. I have heard stories of overcrowded streets and polluted air. I remember reading Mao's Red Book as a student in Heidelberg, my mother would sometimes talk with great respect of the missionaries to China, some of which had been close friends of my grandfather. I read Pearl S. Buck when I was a teen-ager, and I was impressed by Archibald Cronin's stories of the Catholic mission in China. And I was fascinated by the 19th century Christian Kingdom under the leadership of the Chinese "Little Brother of Jesus", that ended in terrible blood shed. China is in the news today. A terrible earthquake. Traveling is an experience that deepens with repetition.

Trip to China with the American Bible Society. May 12-22, 2008.