Rice Bowls and Lotus Blossoms

Dear Friends and Mission Partners,

Asia … is where we live and serve.

Asia … is the world’s largest continent with over 17 million square miles.

Asia … is home to 6 in every 10 inhabitants (4.4 billion) on planet Earth.

Asia … is populated with thousands of ethnic people groups whose unique languages

and social traditions offer a beautiful tapestry of cultural diversity.

Asia … is a vast land where billions of its inhabitants seek spiritual expressions and faith identification with the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Judaism, and Christianity.

How can we possibly get even a glimpse of what God is doing in Asia?

How can we begin to comprehend the monumental challenges, significant opportunities, and the myriad joys that are part of the experiences of the Church of Jesus Christ in Asia?

Christian Conference of Asia: Our Ecumenical Partner

In an age when the global Christian Church is often bombarded with both internal and external divisive forces that attempt to fracture the unity of the Body of Christ, we point with gratitude and joy to the unifying and collaborative efforts of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), now celebrating 60 years of bringing together diverse Christian communions throughout the Asian continent. The CCA is comprised of member church denominations and church councils from 21 nations in Asia, from Korea to Bangladesh, from East Timor to Sri Lanka, as well as ecumenical partner churches and organizations from an additional nine nations, stretching from Finland to Canada. Since the Presbyterian Church (USA) embodies an ecumenical spirit that both values and works cooperatively with numerous Christian denominational expressions of the one, global Christian Church, we rejoice and give thanks for our ecumenical partnership with the CCA. Throughout the past six decades, the CCA has been a beacon of God’s light, illuminating the panoramic beauty of the diversity of the Global Church and the people it seeks to serve.

Inspiration in Yangon, Myanmar

In early October, we were among the nearly 600 delegates and participants in the CCA-sponsored Asia Mission Conference held in Yangon, Myanmar. The five-day ecumenical gathering assembled a rich diversity of the Christian Church—from the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church in India to the Hong Kong Christian Council—to worship, pray, listen, study God’s Word, and be challenged to deeper devotion and stronger commitment by the conference theme, “Journeying Together: Prophetic Witness to the Truth and Light in Asia.” We were spiritually fed by the worship services that included drums, cymbals, liturgical dancers, a choir from the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar, and songs originating from Malaysia to Taiwan. Throughout the week, we were constantly reminded that, beyond the limited focus and reach of our mission work, there is far greater breadth and depth to the Church’s prophetic witness to God’s truth and light throughout Asia than we can imagine or dream.

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Issues that Challenge the Church in Asia: A Call to Prayer and Action

Within the liturgy of the conference’s opening worship service, as well as on the pages of an articulate AMC Statement, we and all delegates from across the continent of Asia were called to be laser-focused and action-oriented toward the following issues that daily confront the people of Asia, and, thus, are the challenges that the Church is called to address and ameliorate with the justice and love of Jesus Christ.

• The Groaning of Creation Calls the Church to Demonstrate Holistic Stewardship

• People on the Move in Asia Call the Church to Embrace the Stranger

• The Excluded and Marginalized Call the Church to a Ministry of Accompaniment

• Economic Injustice and Poverty Call the Church to Prophetic Witnessing

• Religious Intolerance Calls the Church to Nurture Interfaith Harmony

• Geopolitical Turmoil Calls the Church to Build Bridges of Peace

Your Call to Prayer and Call to Action: We ask you to reflect on the monumental challenges facing the people of Asia, as well as the herculean tasks that are set before the Church in Asia as it seeks to participate in the work of God’s kingdom one person at a time, one day at a time. We ask you, your church, or presbytery to prayerfully discern where God’s Spirit may be calling you to meaningfully engage—through a new mission partnership or a project that addresses one of the heart-breaking challenges in our region—and then contact us, so that we may help you to work with greater intentionality and impact for Christ’s sake among the people of Southeast Asia.

Rice Bowls and Lotus Blossoms

In life and ministry, among the key questions that surface in the aftermath of watershed events and mountaintop experiences are, “So what?” and “Now what?” They are the piercing questions that strike at the heart of the search for meaning and the call to action. We and each of the 600 delegates at the Asia Mission Conference (AMC) in Myanmar are now called to embrace its palpable ecumenical spirit and collective will to impact the world for Christ by returning to our respective fields of ministry—from the burgeoning cities of India to the isolated islands of Indonesia—to do the slow, hard, on-the-ground work of fighting injustices, healing wounds, welcoming strangers, and building bridges of peace. The Yangon gathering again reminded us that the Church in Asia is not called to shining victories or glorious ovations. Rather, we and our sisters and brothers in Christ are summoned to use the same calloused hands that daily lift rice bowls to perform little acts of reconciliation and mundane tasks of love.

“By the charter of compassion, by the Way that Jesus showed,

We are called to claim the vision, live the Gospel, walk the road.

Not from postures of perfection, but from common human clay,

Like the hands that hold our rice bowls, through the work of every day.” (1)

Like lotus blossoms that rise out of muddy waters, we are called to see the beauty in our humble servant roles as we journey together with sisters and brothers across the vast continent of Asia, witnessing to the truth and light of Christ.

“As the lotus blossom opens secret petals from its pod,

rising out of muddied water, reaching to the light of God,

so may we respond in growing, find the beauty of our role,

raise the shoot of green abundance through the life force of the soul.” (2)

An Invitation to Share in Our Mission

Autumn in North America is a time for offering gratitude to God for the bounty of the harvest and countless blessings received throughout the year. In this season of thanksgiving we want to express our deep appreciation to all of you who continue to support us and our mission work in Southeast Asia with your prayers, your messages of encouragement, and your financial gifts. Your many expressions of solidarity and partnership are sources of hope and strength for us each day.

In Christ’s Service,

Barry and Shelly

(1) “Out of Strange Unlikely Places.” Verse 2. Lyrics, Shirley Erena Murray. New Zealand. 2009. Music, Lim Swee Hong, Singapore. 2009.

(2) Ibid., Verse 3.