Mandopop worship: The Path of Grace

恩典之路 / ēndiǎn zhī lù / The Path of Grace

I first heard this song in 2010 at the church in Jincheng, Jinmen Island, Taiwan. It has stuck with me ever since, with the line "one step, again one step / this is the path of grace". It's still true today.

Lyrics and Music by 曾祥怡 Grace Tseng

© 2009 Stream of Praise Music/BMI. CCLI: 5482364

Note: the first two lines of each stanza are the Chinese characters, followed by Pinyin romanization, then a semi-literal English translation modified from Google Translate in italics, and then the official poetic English translation in bold. I find that the official translation is smoother, but the semi-literal translation is often more meaningful.

祢是我的主  / 引我走正義路

高山或低谷  / 都是祢在保護

nǐ shì wǒ de zhǔ / yǐn wǒ zǒu zhèngyì lù 

gāoshān huò dīgǔ / dōu shì nǐ zài bǎohù 

you are my Lord / (you) lead me on the path of justice

high mountain or deep valley / in all you are protecting

Lord, You are my guide / the shepherd of my life

Through the hills and valleys / You're always by my side

萬人中唯獨 / 祢愛我認識我

永遠不變的應許 / 這一生都是祝福

wàn rén zhōng wéi dú / nǐ ài wǒ rènshí wǒ 

yǒngyuǎn bù biàn de yīngxǔ / zhè yīshēng dōu shì zhùfú 

the only one among ten thousand people / you love me, know me

forever unchanging promise / this life is all blessing

Calling me by name / You've chosen me with love

Blessing me abundantly / Your promise will never change

一步又一步 / 這是恩典之路

祢愛 祢手 / 將我緊緊抓住

yībù yòu yībù / zhè shì ēndiǎn zhī lù 

nǐ ài, nǐ shǒu / jiāng wǒ jǐn jǐn zhuā zhù 

one step, again one step / this is the path of grace

your love, your hand / hold me tight

Every step we take / You lead us with Your grace

Your love, Your hand / will hold us close to You

一步又一步 / 這是盼望之路

祢愛 祢手 / 牽引我走這人生路

yībù yòu yībù / zhè shì pànwàng zhī lù 

nǐ ài, nǐ shǒu / qiānyǐn wǒ zǒu zhè rénshēng lù

one step, again one step / this is the path of hope

your love, your hand / lead me down this life path

Every step we take / You lead us with Your grace

Your love, Your hand / will guide us through the path of grace

Rvwang festival

On July 2-4, 2023, I got the opportunity to join the 4th Rvwang American Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Below are several videos where I was featured. Thank you to everyone for your generous hospitality, especially Kangtø Nawdin and Chan Omsar for driving me back and forth, Svra Nvnghø Sønrvm and Svra Yungtvng Shinyø for your leadership, Svra Lahtaw Naw Lawn (Dr. Steve Morse) for your encouragement, and Svra Gvsun Abey, Svrame Svre Mary, and Svrame Tønkang Zvmishar for your interest and patience in interviewing me and helping me practice your language. Keep in mind that these are just informal talks with a Rvwang audience in mind. Please forgive anything where I misspoke. :)

• Encouragement for Rvwang youth on how to value your heritage language
• Interview with Gvsun Abey
• Interview with Tønkang Zvmishar

Memories on Mom's birthday

 Today is my mom's birthday, July 9th. She would have been 64. Unfortunately, she passed away from breast cancer on November 22, 2020. Our relationship was complicated, but this morning I started remembering one of the best things she did for me and my siblings -- when we were growing up, she would write out long passages of Scripture on big sheets of paper and hang them up on the wall by the dining room table, and she would lead us in reciting them together before meals. 

I started thinking through Romans 6, one of the passages we memorized, to see how much I could remember, and I could make it through almost to verse 12 before I got the sentences mixed up. So I got out my journal and copied out the whole chapter -- it took me from 6:49 to 7:16am, time well spent in recovering those precious memories -- both of her and of the message from God or "form of teaching" that she "entrusted" us to (Romans 6:17). When I think through those verses, I still hear them in her voice.

Happy birthday, Mom. I don't know why, but a lot of our early pictures together involve books in the background. Thanks for teaching me and loving me. See you again soon.

Notes on Gideon (Judges 6-8)

Midian

Moses's father-in-law was called a priest of Midian in the Pentateuch, but in Judges he is called a Kenite. The Midianites in Judges 6 are raiders allied with Amalekites and other "eastern peoples". They live in tents, invade the land, and camp there, raiding crops (Judges 6:3-5). These raiders wear gold earrings and are called Ishmaelites (8:23). The Midianite leaders are named Oreb and Zeeb (7:25). Their two kings are named Zebah and Zalmunnah (8:5,12). They are also known as nomads (8:11). Their warriors fought with swords (8:10). There were originally 135,000 in their "armies of the eastern peoples", but 120,000 were killed (8:10) and the remaining 15,000 were routed by Gideon's forces (10:12). They spoke a language which Gideon could understand (7:13-14).

The angel of Yahweh

Yahweh had promised to send his angel ahead of Israel "to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared" (Exodus 23:20). The Israelites were to "[p]ay attention to him and listen" in order that the angel would drive out the Canaanites. The angel came to the Israelites at Bokim in the first part of Judges, and berated them for not obeying and for letting the Canaanites remain and for worshiping other gods. The Israelites mourned and wept, but didn't really do anything. Later on, the angel appeared to Gideon, and told him to be courageous because God was with him, and to fight and defeat the Midianites. Yahweh, I guess through the angel, later told him to tear down Baal and Asherah's altar in his hometown and to erect a proper altar to Yahweh. And he did so.

Anxiety

God reassured Gideon's anxiety and gave him courage in several ways, including words from the angel, the test of tearing down Baal's altar and not being punished for it by the townspeople after his dad defended him, the two episodes with the fleece, and the Midianite's prophetic dream. God lessened Gideon's confidence, however, by making him send most his army away -- this was so that his confidence would not be in the size of his army, but in the Lord. And by the end, much of northern Israel was joining his army anyway, although Ephraim was pissed at him for not inviting them sooner, and the men of Succoth and Peniel didn't want to give him provisions because he hadn't completely defeated the Midianites yet. In sum, God provided words, signs, and small tests to increase his confidence in God, and yet through those tests, he temporarily diminished his confidence in people.

Mountains, valleys, and rivers

In Gideon's story, like in many other episodes in Judges, Israel's enemies camped en masse in a valley or on a plain, while the Israelites assembled on a mountain and then came down to fight. The Israelites chased their enemies (or the enemies chased them) to a river, and then more Israelites guarded the fords of the river and killed their enemies as they tried to cross. This may relate to how the Israelites took possession of much of the hill country but the local non-Israelites retained control of the plains. 

The enemy's animals

The non-Israelites often had military equipment and swift animals, such as camels (in the case of Midian) and horses and chariots (in the case of other nations), but these didn't determine the outcome of the battle when God was on the side of Israel.

Confusion in the enemy's camp

In the story of Gideon, and later on in 1 Samuel with the story of Jonathan, the enemies of Israel are taken by surprise and are so confused that they start fighting each other and running away, even before a very small number of Israelites. This is also meant to show that God put them in a panic and the battle was not determined by the number of Israelite fighters.

Potatoes, yams, and tomatoes around the world

The following data tend to show that many foreign-introduced fruits and vegetables are called something to the effect of 'foreign [type of produce]'. See below for all the fun details!

Lisu 

In Lisu, Hꓶ; Bꓲ; [xɯ̂ˀ bîˀ] 'potato' in Lisu comes from Hꓶ: [xɯ̂] 'Chinese' and Bꓲ; [bîˀ] 'taro/yam', so literally 'Chinese taro/yam'.

Chinese

In Chinese, 土豆 tǔdòu (lit. 'earth bean') refers to 'potato' in mainland China, and 'peanut' in Taiwan. 

Other Chinese words for 'potato' or 'yam' include: 

马铃薯 mǎlíngshǔ (lit. 'horse bell potato/yam') 'potato'

薯 shǔ 'yam/tuber/potato'

地瓜 dìguā (lit. earth melon) 'sweet potato'

红薯 hóngshǔ (lit. red yam/tuber/potato) 'sweet potato'

番薯 fānshǔ (lit. foreign yam/tuber/potato) '(dialect) sweet potato / yam'

洋芋 yángyù (lit. ocean/foreign/western taro) '(dialect) potato'.

As a bonus, here are Chinese words for 'tomato':

西红柿 xīhóngshì (lit. western red persimmon) 'tomato'

番茄 fānqié (lit. foreign eggplant) 'tomato'

Thai

Thai words for foreign fruits and vegetables:

มะเขือเทศ má-khʉ̌a thêet (lit. eggplant foreign = foreign eggplant) 'tomato'

มันเทศ man thêet (lit. yam/tuber foreign = foreign yam/tuber) 'sweet potato'

มันฝรั่ง man faràŋ (lit. yam/tuber foreign = foreign yam/tuber) '[general] Irish potato; potato'

French

In French, pomme de terre (lit. apple of [the] earth) means 'potato'. (In Old French, pomme originally meant 'fruit'.)

Bread around the world

 In teaching an ESL lesson about groceries yesterday, I learned the following about bread: several decades ago in Russia or Ukraine, bread was not already sliced when you bought it at the store. If you wanted a piece, you bit it off of the loaf. In Vietnamese, bánh mì [ʔɓan˦˥ mɪj˨˩] (literally snack-wheat = wheat snack) refers to long French-style baguettes, whereas our typical sliced loaves are called xăng-(đ)uých [saŋ˧˧ (ɗ)wɨt˧˥] (from 'sandwich'). (The IPA forms are Saigon pronunciation.) This reminds me of Mandarin Chinese, where 面包 miànbāo (literally flour-package) is for bread in general, whereas 土司 tǔsī (from 'toast') is for sliced bread, especially thick-sliced bread. It shows that different cultures have their own concepts of a food based on size, shape, ingredients, and use, and when a new foreign version is introduced, they are likely to borrow the foreign word for the foreign version.

Puzzle

Which looks more realistic? The top picture or the bottom one? 

I put this puzzle together over three evenings and a Saturday morning, with a little help from a housemate. It helps to calm racing thoughts. Sometimes I can see a piece and know where it goes, and other times I have to collect a group of white sky pieces or patchy tree-leaf pieces and try each one in succession on a particular spot until one of them fits. When it does, it's the best feeling in the world.

The question of realism is a question of focus. If we focus on the frame, that is, the tabletop, the top photo is more realistic because it shows the setting in which I put the puzzle together. But if we focus on the image in the puzzle, the lower photo is more realistic because it shows the truck and tree and flower scene more clearly. The top is a realistic image of an unrealistic scene. The bottom is an unrealistic image of a realistic scene. A picture within a picture. 

And what of the flowers painted on the truck? Are they realistic? I guess the question would be, "Realistic as flowers? Or as a painting on the side of a truck?"