And Let Us Consider How To Stir Up One Another To Love And Good Works, Not Neglecting To Meet Together,

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

H.B. Charles Jr.

I'm so tired of murder. I'm so tired of seeing lives shattered by evil. But what's the cause of it all? It's not the gun; it's the human heart. If you take away the gun, it will be a knife. If you take away the knife, it will be a car. If you take away the car, it will be a rock. Humanity has been murdering since Cain slaughtered Abel (with a rock). Murder is the fruit of a bad root - and the human heart is rooted in sin. Like a disease, we're born with it. In fact, it's why Jesus said we must be born again. If we want to end murder, we don't need people to be made better; we need people to be made new. And new people are made one way - through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because when a person repents and comes to Christ, God doesn't just change what they do; He changes what they want to do. He changes their affections and desires - and He does this by changing the heart. So again, it's not the gun; it's the heart. Until we fix the heart, the history of murder will continue as it always has. So yes, pray for justice. Yes, pray for righteounsness in the land. Yes, pray for wise laws and wise leaders in our government. But most of all, pray for the preaching of the Gospel. It is the only thing that can truly stop the bloodshed. - Dale Partridge

Forgotten By History

Female firefighters at Pearl Harbor (1941).

Donna Tobias - the first woman to graduate from the US Navy’s Deep Sea Diving School in 1975.

Brave women of the Red Cross hitting the beach at Normandy.

Dottie Kamenshek was called the best player in women’s baseball and was once recruited to play for a men’s professional team.

Kate Warne - Private Detective. Born in New York City, almost nothing is known of her prior to 1856 when, as a young widow, she answered an employment advertisement placed by Alan Pinkerton. She was one of four new agents the Pinkerton Detective Agency hired that year and proved to be a natural, taking to undercover work easily. She had taken part in embezzlement and railroad security cases when in 1861 the Pinkertons developed the first lead about an anti-Lincoln conspiracy.

Catherine Leroy, female photographer in Vietnam.

The three women pictured in this incredible photograph from 1885 – Anandibai Joshi of India, Keiko Okami of Japan, and Sabat Islambouli of Syria – each became the first licensed female doctors in their respective countries. The three were students at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania; one of the only places in the world at the time where women could study medicine.

Female Samurai Warrior - Onno-Bugeisha - Female warrior belonging to the Japanese upper class. Many women engaged in battle, commonly alongside samurai men. They were members of the bushi (samurai) class in feudal Japan and were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honour in times of war.

One of the most feared of all London street gangs from the late 1880’s was a group of female toughs known as the Clockwork Oranges. They woulde later inspire Anthony burgess’ most notorious novel. Their main Rivals were the All-female “the Forty Elephants” gang.

Maureen Dunlop de Popp, Pioneering female pilot who flew Spitfires during Second World War. She joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1942 and became one of a small group of female pilots who were trained to fly 38 types of aircraft.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29.

Names mean a lot in Asian culture. Chinese culture is no different.

As such, I feel that it is important to get the most important names in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” right.

Our main guy Shaun.

His name is 徐尚氣, romanized as Xu Shang-qi. (Where Xu pronounced a little like “she” but less open, and qi is pronounced as chi.)

徐 is a word that is used for Shang-qi’s surname. It means “slowly, quietly, calmly, composed, dignified”.

尚 is the middle word in Shaun’s three-character Chinese name. It means “still, yet; even; fairly, rather”. Please don’t call him Shang. Shang is not a full name. Call him Shang-qi, or Shang-Chi, if you must. If you can pronounce Dostoevsky or even Benedict Cumberbatch, there’s no way you can butcher Shang-qi.

氣 is the last word in Shaun’s three-character Chinese name. It has a number of definitions: “gas; smell; air; weather; to make/get angry; to annoy; vital energy; breath; spirit; moral force; tone; atmosphere; manner; type; steam; vapor; spirit; situation; electricity”.

Those of you who have seen the film can probably combine some of these definitions to form a better picture of who Shang-qi is as a person and who he chooses to become as a result of the circumstances that surrounded him.

Shaun’s dad.

His name is 徐文武, romanized as Xu Wenwu.

徐 is his surname. See Shang-qi’s name bio above.

文 is the middle word in Xu Wenwu’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined mostly as “literature, culture, writing”. Sometimes even “formal, refined, gentle”.

武 is the last word in Xu Wenwu’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “military; martial, warlike”. Even “autocratic, powerful, soldier, successor, dance”.

For those who have watched the film, you can see why this is relevant.

Shaun’s sister.

Her name is 徐夏靈, romanized as Xu Xialing. (Xia can be pronounced “shia”, like, y’know, Shia LeBeouf.)

徐 is her surname. Check Wenwu’s and Shaun’s name bios above.

夏 is the middle word in Xialing’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “summer”, and also, “great, grand, big”. It is an archaic term for China. It is also the name of the Xia Dynasty, circa 2000BC.

靈 is the last word in Xialing’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “quick; alert; efficacious; effective; to come true”, sometimes even “departed soul, spiritual world/power, spiritual”. It can also be defined as “agile, clever, intelligent”.

If you’ve seen the film, these are pretty good descriptors for Xialing. You’ll know what I mean.

Shaun’s mother.

Her name was 映麗, romanized as Ying Li. (She was the guardian of Ta Lo.)

(I don’t actually know if Ying is her surname, but usually in marriage, the woman ‘inherits’ her husband’s surname, and as such, if her surname is not Ying, she would be known as Xu Ying Li. In which case the definition of Xu as a surname would still apply to her. But let’s just assume that Ying is her surname, the one she inherited at birth, as that is most likely the case, and stick with that.)

映 is the first word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “project; reflect light; to shine; to show; mirror”.

麗 is the second word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “beautiful; magnificent; elegant”.

If you’ve watched the movie, these descriptors are certainly applicable to Ying Li.

Shaun’s maternal aunt.

Her name is 映南, romanized as Ying Nan. (She is Ying Li’s only surviving younger sister, and assumed Ta Lo’s guardianship duties in her sibling’s absence.)

映 is the first word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. See Ying Li’s name bio above.

南 is the second word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “south; southern part; southward”. Perhaps it could mean that her assumed role was passed south, downward, to her by her older sister Ying Li.

Shaun’s best friend.

Her name is 陳瑞雯, romanized as Chen Ruiwen. Her English name is Katy.

陳 is the first word in Katy’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “to lay out, to exhibit, to display, to narrate, to state, to explain, to tell”. Which is hilarious, because she kind of takes on a pseudo-narrator role in the movie (“A guy with a freaking machete for an arm just chopped our bus in half!”). The surname Chen is also a very, very common surname.

瑞 is the second word in Katy’s three-character Chinese name. It’s original definition is “token made of jade”, which is really, really interesting since that is the film’s MacGuffin, the very thing two of which Wenwu was after. It is also defined as “lucky; auspicious; propitious”.

雯 is the last word in Katy’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “multicolored/patterned clouds”.