April 6, 2009

China Notes #24

Greetings Friends and Family,

This month Wei Hong participated in a theological librarian conference in Singapore and shared a little about her work with seminary libraries in China. The following version of her talk introduces you to two of the people she works with and their ministries.

As a seminary librarian, I often ask myself: What is the relationship between my faith and my work? I often visit seminary libraries in China, and in the lives of the different librarians I work with I can find some answers to my question.

One person who comes to mind is the librarian at a seminary in eastern China. When I first met him, he seemed more like an athlete than a librarian or a pastor. In fact, the first time I visited his seminary he ran over from the seminary basketball court all covered with sweat to pick up my bags and lead me to the guest room. My second impression was that he is incredibly busy. He is a seminary teacher, class advisor, and also pastor at a local church; on top of all this, he is also the seminary librarian.

I first visited his seminary because he was reorganizing his seminary’s library and wanted some assistance. In the library, the lighting was a little dark, the stacks were closed, the door was covered with mosquitoes, and there was a smelly bathroom between the stacks and the reading room. We went over a plan to reorganize the library and computerize the card catalogue, and I stayed a few weeks to help him learn basic cataloging skills.

The second time I went to assist, everything was completely different. The lighting was much better, the stacks were open to users, and the ex-bathrooms had been turned into nicely arranged little offices. The main library room had been neatly reorganized into areas: stacks, a reading area, and a photocopy area. Finally, 90 percent of the books had been put into the new computer catalogue system. I could hardly believe it. For the whole summer vacation he had not gone back to his home, which is in another province about seven hours away by bus. Instead, he and four student volunteers had stayed at the seminary and reorganized the whole library.

That summer there had been a flood in his home city, where his wife and daughter live. His wife was caught on the top floor of their home for several days, and could only make it to school to pick up their daughter after the flood ended. I asked: “Did she complain about this?” He said, “Yes. But before accepting this library job, I thought about it for a long time. At that time my wife’s brothers hoped that I would take a job at a church in my home town. They said pastoring a church is more important than library work, and it is easier to make a name for yourself; they also said anybody can do library work, so let somebody else do it. I agonized a long time between these two choices. Finally, I understood that modernizing the library is really important to the development of theological education. The seminary library is the treasure house of God’s knowledge and an important resource for helping people understand God’s truth. It really needs a loyal servant to take care of it, develop it, and promote it.

 “I thought to myself: God chose me for this important task, not somebody else. The question is whether I will give up my plans and accept God’s invitation. Every time I turned to the Lord Jesus and considered what He gave up for all of us, I asked myself why I should be bargaining with Him. It is precisely because not everyone understands why a seminary library is important—and because not everyone is willing to work there—that somebody needs to accept this duty. If God invited me to be the caretaker of His storehouse of knowledge, I should cheerfully accept. So, after talking this over with my wife, I accepted. Of course, while I am actually carrying out this task, I often forget the promise I made to God. But through hardships like the flood God reminds us of our promises. My wife was upset with me when she was trapped and alone. But afterward we thought back about the choice we made before God, and our tears turned to smiles as we moved forward. The changes in the library so far are just the beginning, and there is still a long way for us to go.”

I work with another librarian in seminary in western China that trains pastors for ethnic minority churches. The seminary has experienced a lot of difficulties, and conditions are not so good. The librarian is about 30; she was born into a family of pastors and is especially fervent about evangelism. She didn’t have much education, but she is diligent and loves to keep things tidy. Originally she was in charge of the seminary cafeteria, but the seminary couldn’t find anyone to work in the library, so they transferred her there. Faced with this new and very different challenge—a room filled with books—what was she to do?  Every day, she came to the library, mopped the floor, and dusted the book cases. Even though clouds of dust came every day from the road next to the seminary, she kept the library clean and tidy. She also neatly arranged all of the books on the shelves, more or less according to the words in the titles. This rough and ready method of arranging the books was sometimes a bit confusing, so she was constantly moving them around and trying to find a better method.

The library itself is just one room—stacks, a reading area, and an office area. When I first visited, there were just a few old cracked bookshelves that had been repaired by a student who had once worked as a carpenter. The holdings consisted of about one or two thousand books and a few newspapers. The librarian was diligently studying to learn a Chinese word input method so that she could list the books on the old library computer. I helped her work out a new method for arranging books on similar topics together, and then helped her reorganize the books according to the new method. Since then she has looked forward to my visits and hoped I would come more often to help her with arranging and shelving books.

When I arrive at the library, it is usually afternoon, and students are borrowing books. She sits diligently behind her desk on her little stool, waiting for the students to check out or return books, and she also makes sure to tell students what newspapers have arrived that day. Even though she has never had any training in library work, she really seems like a professional librarian, carrying out her professional principles. One day I asked her: “Do you like this work?” She smiled and said, “I really can’t say. I’m really more interested in sharing the gospel. But the Lord gave this work to me, so I can’t refuse it. My skills are inadequate, so I can only do my best to take care of these books and help students make good use of them.” No lofty words or high ambitions—just a clear simple purpose.

What do we learn from these two portraits? As librarians, we need to take responsibility for the tasks given to us, just as Jesus took responsibility for us. And we need to submit to the duties given to us, just as Jesus submitted his will to that of the Father. We cultivate the fields God has given us and take care of the resources He has given us. Isn’t such service also a joy?

God’s peace,

Wei Hong and Don

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 117