28/09/2009 by paul.

Well this morning was church. Slightly different to last week, in that instead of the main choir singing, the ladies fellowship choir sang - it seems each week a different choir sing.

I had a good conversation with Hsinte afterwards about his sermon. He preached, for the standard 40 mins on family values, and in particular parenting. Education (and subsequently, life) for children in Taipei can be really tough and competitive. A child’s day usually begins at 7 with the trip to state school (which the family pays a nominal fee for). School finishes around 4, and then its a quick trek across town, grabbing something to eat before heading to a private school for more classes. Children (and this counts for kids as young as five) get home sometimes at 11. The road next to the church has about 20 evening schools for kids aged 5 and upwards. And all of this is driven by parents wanting their children to be the best in the class and move through the states-style ‘grades’. Hsinte’s sermon then used several passages from Proverbs to indicate a more balanced life for kids and family, finding time for God, and achieving well at school. We had an interesting debate about how situations talk to scripture and scripture talks to situations; particularly, because during Hsonte’s 40 mins he didn’t refer to scripture much. He told me that ‘biblical authority’ was a Western ideology and theology, but I’m not sure, some of the other denominations in Taiwan may think otherwise.

After another choir practice, lunch and an elders meeting, there was a little time to get my things together and head for the station for my trip to Taichung. The High Speed Rail makes the journey in 49 minutes, and the nice, multi-lingual display at the front of the carriage told me were travelling at one point at 300 km/hr. Nice.

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Another minister, Rev. Chuang met me at the station in Taichung, and we drove into the countryside toward the sea for about 40 mins, before we arrived at the Agape church. The church premises include a school, a guest house, a chapel and the manse. I was shown to my room, was told prayers were at 6am, but I could miss them the first morning. phew.

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28/09/2009 by paul.

Well today was a funny day - full of suprises, but yet funnily things that reminded me of church back in the UK.

I woke as usual around 7.30 for a quiet day of pottering before I headed on the train to Taichung on Sunday. In my half-eyed state I was sat waiting for prayers before breakfast in the living room, when Hsinte came in through the door to tell me that the Ladies Fellowship were going on a trip and that two ladies hadn’t turned up so there was space for me and him, but, we had to leave in 2 minutes. I was also told to take my swimming shorts. hmmm….

It turned out that we were going to health spa up in the mountains, about an hours drive away. Thankfully someone gave me a sandwich in the car, which I needed to complete the two hour trek we did in the morning up a mountain in temperatures 30+ (if you’re counting, thats three mountains in the space of a week!). The mountain path was well marked in steps with a rope to help you up the really steep bits. The jungle we were climbing through was just beautiful….

After the trek we had some fellowship time in a wooden hut, and I played a strange blow up piano, definately an Asian invention, methinks. It was funny spending time with the ladies fellowship, because it was really very similar to the ladies fellowship groups that I have known in England - all the women liking a good natter, a laugh and joke, and a good cup of tea (well the latter was Chinese tea, not good old Yorkshire tea, nevermind…) After fruit for lunch we headed to the hot springs. You’ll be pleased to here that I didn’t photograph the swimming attire, complete with compulsory hat. But it was very relaxing. After an hour or so, we headed back to the church. After an hour of packing and ironing, we headed to the young people’s Bible study/fellowship group. The discussion, centred around a book that I didn’t quite pick up, but it was all about finding space and time for God in a busy city life - again this is exactly the same things that we discuss in churches back in England. I had some really good conversations with some of guys afterwards, and here, in this group praticularly, it seems I can share with them and we can grow together, rather than me just being on the end of a translation. Here’s for the big moving day tomorrow…

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28/09/2009 by paul.

Yesterday I moved from Taipei to Taichung, and am staying on a church complex for 10 days. Its taken a bit of time to get an internet connection organised, but soon I hope to put posts up on a wonderful weekend. Saturday included a suprise trip to some hot springs, yesterday I travelled through the countryside at 300km/hr and today I’ve visited several church run homes for disabled children and adults. This afternoon I’m going to give a two hour lesson to teenagers on playing the piano!

Later tonight I hope to write about the weekend and share some of what’s being going on.

Apologies for lack of posts in the last few days!

Paul
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