Help Children in China!

Good morning from Amoy!

Several have asked us how to help Chinese children, especially orphans or disabled, in Xiamen and Fujian. There are many ways to do it, but we suggest the following groups or people because of their integrity and heart for serving: Bethesda Ministry, and CP Sapling. Of course, there is also World Vision International, which my wife Susan Marie worked for when we married; the founding of WVI was inspired by the White Jade incident in Xiamen in the 1940s!

Joni Eareckson Tada

Bethesda Rehabilitation Ministry of  Anshan, China. My wife loves Joni, the Christian quadraplegic famous for her artwork, books and motivational talks, and treasures the devotional that Jonie signed and sent her because of Sue's support of "China's Joni", Dr. Xu Zhang (Joni's books are popular in China too, and sold at Xiamen's Nissi Christian bookstore  ).

Dr Zhang, Bethesda Ministry Anshan

Dr. Xu Zhang, also became a quadraplegic after a diving accident and was abandoned by his family. He now helps the disabled and  poor in N.E. China, and cooperates with Joni. We urge you to support Dr. Zhang, who undertakes this great ministry in a relatively remote area, lacking the resources of larger, more publicized ministries.  To learn more, visit Bethesda Ministry's website or email Dr. Zhang at zhangxu1963@gmail.com

CP [Children of Promise] Sapling is a Xiamen ministry helping children who have cerebral palsy. They also teach the children's families how to care for these special children. Visit their website!

Thanks for helping these wonderful people and organizations.  And read more about Xiamen, and Fujian Province, in my eBooks available on Amazon!

Blessings,

Dr. Bill

Amazon eBooks

"Discover Xiamen" $2.99

"Fujian Adventure" $2.99

Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com

The Mother of Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day from Xiamen (former Amoy), China!

   This is dedicated to my mom back in the U.S., who has so patiently put up with having her son 12,000 miles away in China for half of his adult life.

 When Anna May Jarvis's mother died on the 2nd Sunday of May 1906, Anna May wished she had heeded the warning to, “Lavish your flowers on the living, not the dead.” Driven by remorse, the gentle, easy going Anna May became obsessed with the desire to see her mother and motherhood honored throughout the world.
      After a year’s planning, the first Mother's Day was celebrated on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. A year later, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother’s Day. Three years later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Public Resolution 25, establishing the second Sunday of each May as Mother's Day. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Anna May retired and spent the remaining 34 years of her life, and her fortune of over 100,000 dollars, fighting against Mother’s Day!
         The problem was that from day one, Mother’s Day had become a great commercial extravaganza to boost the incomes of card and candy makers, and a salve to soothe the consciences of those who each May made mother a “queen for the day” but neglected her the other 364 days.
       Anna May complained, “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother’s Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...You ought to give her something useful, something permanent...Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing...”
        For 30 years, Anna May fought for the integrity of Mother’s Day. She finally died in a sanitarium — old, tired, deaf, blind, penniless, and having never married nor been a mother herself!
        Sixty years later, mothers may be more neglected than ever. Statistics show one half of Americans, which of course includes one half of our mothers, live in poverty. Where are the children? More than ever, mothers deserve more than cards and candy one day a year and anonymity the other 364.

          My appreciation of motherhood only began as I watched my wife, in both sickness and health, unselfishly spend herself on her two sons--and her husband as well! (read how we met in "China--our Matchmaker!"). I also slowly came to better appreciate my own mother, and though she’s 12,000 miles away, I am now careful to not only send her the obligatory Mother’s Day card and flowers but also to regularly write and phone her.
           Fortunately, most Off the Wall Blog readers are not 12,000 miles away from home!  So as Mother's Day catches on both here in China and elsewhere on this little planet we so briefly call home, let us make sure that Mother’s Day is not a card-and-candy substitute for well-deserved love but the crown and pinnacle of a full year’s expression of love and appreciation for the one who gave us life: our mother. But while you're at it--send a card, and some flowers too--and pick up the phone and call her.
           Below, by the way, is our new family cartoon, including Matt's wife Jessica (married in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, on June 30th, 2012, and Shannon's wife Miki, married in Xiamen on January 1st, 2009).

Now all that Sue and I need is a very good excuse (strong hint!) to start promoting Grandparents Day!
Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com
 

Amazon E-books --Instant Library for China!

 Ahoy from Amoy!

One of the things I really missed in the early years in China was having good English books.  We brought literally thousands from the U.S., and now probably have the largest library of its kind in our area (many borrow from it).  Still, even buying only used books, it gets expensive--but now our library is almost limitless!

I never thought I'd get used to eBooks, but now I love them because whenever I travel, I can carry a library of 100s of books on my phone.   I don't have a Kindle, but I did download the Kindle software to my Android phone (works with iPhone too), and now I can read Kindle books and they are kept synchronized with Amazon's Whispersync technology, so I can always pick up where I left off, whether on computer, my Samsung phone, or a pad.

It is absolutely amazing what one can buy on Amazon Kindle Store site--everything from modern books on special for free, or 99 cents, to great classics.  I've downloaded over 100 free books, including G. K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinis, (Summa Theologica) etc. I love Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries--think Sherlock Holmes, but instead of Holmes, its a dowdy priest with a shabby umbrella who bumbles around--solving the hardest of crimes. Quite a character. And I have James Hudson Taylor's long biography-- the two volume one -- which I bought for one dollar each (I have the originals, which my wife's father gave me, but they're a bit bulky to carry around).

Blessings,

Bill
P.S. The Everlasting Man is brilliant! Unfortunately, it is poorly formatted (typos, etc.), but I've found no better e-version of it, so still worth the 99 cents.And one of my favorite devotionals is the original 1980s version of Ogilvie's God's Best for my life."  Sadly, the eBook, like newer versions, is abridged, but still excellent. It is not, as the title sounds, a shallow "Prosperity preaching give me everything God, but you, book"  but solid teaching--a mini sermon each day." Still--if you can, get a used copy (as low as 63 cents on Amazon!) of the old version (I use both the old version and the Kindle version when I travel).

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com