Today is my sister Sharla’s birthday! Happy Birthday Sharla! I called and sang happy birthday to her…but no one was home….just as well with my singing!
It wasn’t as hard to get up at 4am as I feared. And Brother Shen was very prompt…rolling in at 4:59 to the Grand Hotel where I stood alone in the dark balmy breeze of 75 degrees. Since Brother Shen doesn’t speak English we drove in silence for 30 minutes to Taipei airport….thank you for your kindness to me brother!
It wasn’t as hard to get up at 4am as I feared. And Brother Shen was very prompt…rolling in at 4:59 to the Grand Hotel where I stood alone in the dark balmy breeze of 75 degrees. Since Brother Shen doesn’t speak English we drove in silence for 30 minutes to Taipei airport….thank you for your kindness to me brother!
I did not need to leave so early. Nothing was open except Starbucks….so I drank a steamer and ate a blueberry bagel…..it’s really hard to cut back on food when the only kind available that you recognize is fattening!
This trip with three solid meals a day and no exercise has NOT been kind to my waistline! Can you believe there REALLY is a flight insurance company called "Far Glory Life Insurance?" Did a little browsing but prices are high. Chatted on SKYPE and boarded early. I had to have my Advantage number put in again….this is frustrating when the whole point of this circuitous routes has been to stay on One World.
The flight of 2 ½ hours was pleasant with bright sunshine in the window.
As I stared down at the blue Pacific, I couldn't help remember the American pilots who flew these airspaces during WWII. It would have been a frightening place I suppose.
The flight of 2 ½ hours was pleasant with bright sunshine in the window.
As I stared down at the blue Pacific, I couldn't help remember the American pilots who flew these airspaces during WWII. It would have been a frightening place I suppose. I read the paper….disgusted with Joyce Mujuru VP of Zimbabwe who has been trying to sell $15m in diamonds and gold nuggets stolen from the people of Zimbabwe and Congo. She’s a crook…and may she pay for her crimes! She and “Botox Bob” as the paper described this youthful looking 85 year old senile dictator who has ruined the country in Africa I love. Move over Bernie Madoff….today it’s Stanford….embezzling $8b by a Ponzi scheme. Will it never end? DJIA at 7000? That’s 50% loss since the heydays last spring of 14,000. I guess it’s consulting for THIS retiree for some time to come in order to avoid dumpster diving!
Randall Short met me at Narita
….an American Th.D. from Harvard Div. Great guy…from Alabama, married a Japanese lady, did mission work out here, did seminary here at Tokyo Christian and now teaches here. Did Japanese in college in the US so he’s real asset and his dean and president appreciate him. Stopped at a shopping center
for a quick look and a quick bite….seems just like Norfolk, LA, or any other major US city. Again the homogeneity of culture is astounding to me this trip. Although the plastic displays of each menu item 
at each restaurant....no matter how helpful, was VERY different....reminded me of the food service sample plates at the college cafeteria...except THESE were works of ART! 
The Sushi bar with a conveyor belt was a pretty efficient way to eat...and spend beaucoup bucks eating I BET!
Very impressed with TCU campus…
it is absolutely gorgeous. 
Spacious, inviting, beautiful attention to aesthetics…..most impressed with the chapel and the cultural center. 
I was lucky to visit the chapel when someone was practicing their pipe organ....wished I could stay for a service! And the stained glass and high ceiling with stylized circles was wonderful.
it is absolutely gorgeous. 
Spacious, inviting, beautiful attention to aesthetics…..most impressed with the chapel and the cultural center. 
I was lucky to visit the chapel when someone was practicing their pipe organ....wished I could stay for a service! And the stained glass and high ceiling with stylized circles was wonderful.
How can a school with 100 students (college and seminary combined) manage such facilities?
They are registered with the government and receive considerable financial help from them. 
(Ironic isn’t it that a government of a nation with 1% Christians would support a Christian university, when the US government bends over backwards NOT to support religious higher education!) But mostly, the sale of their downtown Tokyo campus 15 years ago at the height of the bubble, must have generated huge profits. 
Randall, and then President Masanori (Kurasawa) and Dean Takanori (“Nori”) Kobayashi explained that their current challenge is in some ways like that of Christ’s College…namely the relationship with the government.
Tho TCU is registered and accredited…that’s how they receive subsidy….and are the only evangelical university among the 5 private schools that ARE registered and accredited….they had a recent accreditation review and were told they must separate their seminary and college more. These two are considered different TYPES of schools (one academic and the other a training institution) so they fall under different guiding rules. Eg. Seminary and college students should not be in the same classes. Apparently the solution will be to reconstitute their seminary as a graduate school of theology. But of course that may raise questions among church leaders who really want practical workers….eg. pastors.
They are registered with the government and receive considerable financial help from them. 
(Ironic isn’t it that a government of a nation with 1% Christians would support a Christian university, when the US government bends over backwards NOT to support religious higher education!) But mostly, the sale of their downtown Tokyo campus 15 years ago at the height of the bubble, must have generated huge profits. 
Randall, and then President Masanori (Kurasawa) and Dean Takanori (“Nori”) Kobayashi explained that their current challenge is in some ways like that of Christ’s College…namely the relationship with the government.
Tho TCU is registered and accredited…that’s how they receive subsidy….and are the only evangelical university among the 5 private schools that ARE registered and accredited….they had a recent accreditation review and were told they must separate their seminary and college more. These two are considered different TYPES of schools (one academic and the other a training institution) so they fall under different guiding rules. Eg. Seminary and college students should not be in the same classes. Apparently the solution will be to reconstitute their seminary as a graduate school of theology. But of course that may raise questions among church leaders who really want practical workers….eg. pastors. There is also need for credentialed Christian faculty….especially if they are going to need to launch a “Graduate School.” But they will need some at least who are also competent in Japanese….that’s a tall order…credentialed, graduate faculty, Christians who speak Japanese!
Another need is then to help pastors and other constituents to understand Christian liberal arts enough to see that it’s really NOT a sell out either to academe OR to liberalism. Training workshops in F/L integration would be helpful.
Nori confirmed that web based information about faculty, about other school programs that might lead to sister school relationships would be helpful. He also mentioned the value of the 10 day leadership “tour” Erma Williams led to RSA…said more like that would be helpful for senior leadership. It’s a good idea…and one I had not heard.
We enjoyed a very special meal of Japanese sushi/sashimi….I ate sea creatures I’d probably not want to meet if they were alive.
The toughest was the raw sea urchin….hmmmmm. 
The golden caviar, the crunchy roe, the raw salmon, the unknown fish in the soup….all tasty and filling.Randall had joined Nori and Masanori and I for the dinner so we enjoyed telling tales of food, then talking about liberating arts. I felt warmly received, and felt I have now have 3 new brothers in the Kingdom. Thank you Lord for the privilege of meeting these great people.
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