Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China).
A few days ago, I wrote about the discovery of 2000-year-old Chinese skeletons in ancient Londonium (Roman London). And now they've discovered ancient Roman coins at an old Japanese castle! Ancient Japanese coin collector?
History just gets more exciting as we discover more about our past (thanks in part to new technology that has allowed us to read even ancient scrolls that have completely unburned; absolutely incredible to me).
I've collected coins since I was a child, and my favorite is a Roman "Widow's mite"--a Roman lepton, which was minted long before Christ lived but because it was the lowest denomination coin, was likely the two coins the poor widow gave at the temple. Her offering may have been a joke to the wealthy Jews who ostentatiously gave small fortunes, but Jesus said she gave more than all the others because she gave all she had.
Each time I hold the Widow's mite in my hand, I am reminded that life is short, and that we all need to give all we have--perhaps not money (if we don't have it!), but at leave give all of our self to whatever we are called to do in this brief life.
When my wife and I gave up a six-figure income to teach at Xiamen University for $90 a month (almost exactly 100 times less than we made in business), we felt like we'd given up everything, but we ended up with a much richer and fulfilling life than we could have imagined as we have witnessed firsthand (and even helped in miniscule ways) China's development. Of course, what excites me about China's development is not the changes in the country but the changes in the people--individual Chinese whom we have seen rise from abject poverty to, at the least, fairly comfortable lives, and some have become multimillionaires, even billionaires, but it's the farmers' stories that I love, perhaps because farming was my passion as a child. (I was in Future Farmer's of America--FFA--for 4 years, including positions as Chaplain and President, and captained Florida's state-winning forestry team in high school--so it was fun to lecture at Fujian's School of Agriculture and Forestry in Fuzhou!)
But though I love agriculture, in my next life I want to be an archaeologist: Indiana Bill!
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com
A few days ago, I wrote about the discovery of 2000-year-old Chinese skeletons in ancient Londonium (Roman London). And now they've discovered ancient Roman coins at an old Japanese castle! Ancient Japanese coin collector?
History just gets more exciting as we discover more about our past (thanks in part to new technology that has allowed us to read even ancient scrolls that have completely unburned; absolutely incredible to me).
I've collected coins since I was a child, and my favorite is a Roman "Widow's mite"--a Roman lepton, which was minted long before Christ lived but because it was the lowest denomination coin, was likely the two coins the poor widow gave at the temple. Her offering may have been a joke to the wealthy Jews who ostentatiously gave small fortunes, but Jesus said she gave more than all the others because she gave all she had.
Each time I hold the Widow's mite in my hand, I am reminded that life is short, and that we all need to give all we have--perhaps not money (if we don't have it!), but at leave give all of our self to whatever we are called to do in this brief life.
When my wife and I gave up a six-figure income to teach at Xiamen University for $90 a month (almost exactly 100 times less than we made in business), we felt like we'd given up everything, but we ended up with a much richer and fulfilling life than we could have imagined as we have witnessed firsthand (and even helped in miniscule ways) China's development. Of course, what excites me about China's development is not the changes in the country but the changes in the people--individual Chinese whom we have seen rise from abject poverty to, at the least, fairly comfortable lives, and some have become multimillionaires, even billionaires, but it's the farmers' stories that I love, perhaps because farming was my passion as a child. (I was in Future Farmer's of America--FFA--for 4 years, including positions as Chaplain and President, and captained Florida's state-winning forestry team in high school--so it was fun to lecture at Fujian's School of Agriculture and Forestry in Fuzhou!)
But though I love agriculture, in my next life I want to be an archaeologist: Indiana Bill!
Enjoy Amoy!
Dr. Bill
School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
www.amoymagic.comAmazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com
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