The Early Arrival of Dreams

Meet Chandra and BJ. They are two amazing people I met in our church and then had the privilege of marrying them this spring. They then (two months later) headed off to China for two years of teaching English as part of the Peace Corps!

I recently read a book by Rosemary Mahoney entitled The Early Arrival of Dreams. Ms. Mahoney taught English for a year in China -- in an exchange program with her college. The title of the book comes from a conversation between the author and a very bright friend of hers, a student that she meets by the name of Ming Yu. She asks Ming about Ming’s wish to study abroad and what her parents say to her about that. Ming responds:

“To do my present job properly and wait with patience for my turn to come is their advice for me. My father would like to see his children go abroad to study, but he also knows the system well enough to understand that it is foolish to hope for the early arrival of dreams.”

What I want to say to Chandra and BJ is that this movement into this new form of mission is a step into your dreams – and you will be living and working among people in a completely different situation. As my friend Tracy Jones who lived in China for over 20 years made clear to me – it is only in living in such places that you truly begin to understand what it is to be poor. Poverty in this country is startlingly different than it is in such places. When our family went to India and Bangladesh that was one of the really difficult things I faced within myself. Hearing about it, reading about it, is an entirely different thing. And living in the midst of it as you will be – is an opening into a whole new world.

To try to speak a little more clearly about this – it is not the poverty and the dramatic intensity of its presence that got to me. It was what followed in the wake of it – two dramatically different realities. The first reality was the genuine and true joy that I saw in the midst of the poverty. That’s a difficult thing to come to grips with. And the second thing was the sense of despair and resignation that often hung in the air that things would not get better (and I don’t think I was bringing that to the situation). That both of these things could be true seems impossible, I know – but it is that paradox that I grappled with constantly there.

Patience in ancient culture can be a real virtue -- and we in a society that is more looking for the quick fix can really learn from that. I appreciate the notions that dreams have a timing all their own. At the same time I feel a need for a sense of holy impatience...a yearning to see things set right, right now. So...I struggle with balance between these things.

So...to Chandra and BJ -- blessings as you grapple with the issues that will arise for you. Blessings as your eyes and hearts are opened to a whole new world. We can't wait to hear what you have learned and what you have to teach us.