31/10/2009 by paul.

Well these two days have been quite quiet, filled with the usual church activities. Thursday I spent time preparing for the sermon I’ll be giving in a couple of weeks, having some discussions with Hsinte about Nehemiah, and even getting round to more of my translation of Ephesians. In the evening we led Bible Study. Friday was much the same with planning for the English Class on Saturday, praying with Mr. Chen (on of the elders) in the flat he is about to let ‘downtown’, visiting some Christians in a tea house and more Ephesians.

Breakfast is turning into the discussion time again, and these last couple of days I have been learning more about politics in Taiwan. It has been very interesting and a little history is necessary to give background. Basically Taiwan has never really been itself, but has constantly been passed from other ruling nations. The Spanish came first, then the Dutch in 1642. Twenty years later in 1662 the Ming Dynasty from China defeated the Dutch and took control of Taiwan. They were defeated by another Chinese Dynasty, this time the Qing’s. Their influence in Taiwan continued right up until 1895. This was the first war between Japan and China, and Japan won. This meant they took control of Taiwan. This continued right up until the second war between China and Japan, which was still in full flow when the second world war broke out in Europe. Taiwan was used as a military base for Japanese troops, and many Taiwanese people were enlisted to fight for Japan. When Japan lost out the allied forces, the treaties released Taiwan, gave it some nominal protection, but handed it over to Chinese rule once again. In 1949 the KMT (the ruling party in China) lost control of mainland China and so came to Taiwan and declared martial law. Chinese forces came over to Taiwan, and were oppressive to the Taiwanese. Important, controversial, popular or successful people just disappeared. There were massacres and at one point the Chinese forces stormed one of the PCT theological colleges and staff disappeared. After 40 years of martial law under the single-party KMT reforms came about and in 1996 the first presidential election was held and the non-KMT party were elected (DPP). Recently (last year) power shifted again back to the KMT. It is very complicated, but in general the KMT work for unification with China and the DPP for indepence. At the moment, whilst the government is independent and elected democratically, China still holds many of the puppet strings. Because China is a member of the UN, Taiwan isn’t - apparently China are able to ‘look after’ Taiwan. Recently a film was shown in Taiwan about the plight of a Tibetan Nun. China didn’t approve of the film and so threatened that they would damage Taiwan’s tourism industries. Flights to Taiwan only began a few years ago, controlled by China. And so the subtle list continues. But a word of caution is needed here - I am hearing but one voice. It is an important voice to hear, but it is only one.

And so I’ve been told several times now in Taiwan that ‘politics’ is only politics if you oppose the current government. If, as a group or organisation, you support the current government then you are simply existing and can do good work. However if you oppose the government, you are being ‘political’ and are often told to stay out of ‘politics’.

The stories that Hsinte tells me from the news continue to baffle me. It is a democratic society, yet on the day before elections there are means and ways of recieveing payments to cast a vote in a particular way, through the Mah Jong or through, suprisingly, weddings. I didn’t realise this when I went to the wedding last week, but each guest prepares a ‘red envelope’. This, I presumed was like a wedding present. Which it is, except it goes to pay for the banquet. However its up to you how much money you give - so if you want to pass a large some of money to someone you attend their daughters wedding, and put as much as you like in the red envelope. hmmm.. Another nice element of political corruption is the financial markets and banking. When a member of the government retires they get a lump sum payment, a considerable lump sum payment. They can put this in a bank account, and because of they were in governemnt they can recieve an 18% fixed interest rate while everyone else struggles by with the flexible 1% at the moment. Another little snippet… opposition parties (I think this was during the last opposition campaign by the KMT, who are now in power) get their very rich members (and their old members who have the lump sums stored in 18% bank account) to get the money into the stock market. Before they do so the politicians work to disable the economy thus lowering share prices, they buy, then magically the stock market recovers and grows, and they sell. All of sudden they have the money they need for a political campaign. Nice. It makes me ashamed of the UK getting so angry at the politicians for fiddling housing benefits and who pays for the moat to be cleaned.

And so my meanderings on the liberation view continue. I have a lot of respect for the PCT, despite feeling uncomfortable about its involvement in ‘politics’ (the taiwanese definition, ie in opposition). Before I theologise and theorise it has been important for me to learn of the history. In a way the PCT was thrust into the political sphere when the KMT troops stormed their theological college and their staff and students disappeared in the 40’s and when they arrested the General Secretary and his secretary in the 70’s.

As for Taiwan itself, it has the label of being democratic and so perhaps the world is blind to the political situation here, and perhaps internationally more needs to be said about the freedom of the Taiwanese people. But there is a whole new phrase ‘Taiwanese people’ - Who are they? The indigenous populations, those whose families originate in China, those whose families originate in Japan? And at this point its beginning to sound too much like a dissertation for a geography essay on identity, and so I hand over to Jo…..

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29/10/2009 by paul.

Today was a fantstic day - Bible studies and food galore!

It began with a nice early breakfast, before a trip across town to the Easter Gate PCT church in West Taipei. I had been told that the Bible studies they hold were really good and attracted a lot of people. After fighting for a carparking space (not literally, just spiritually!) we made it to the church for 9.30 (remember this Wednesday morning!). The church was packed, about 220-250 people, the only spot I could find was up in the gallery. I was handed six pages of notes on Isaiah 5 and a song book. Both were in Mandarin, and suprisingly, due to the vast number of Biblical references I had more luck with the Bible notes than the songs. The minsiter of the church gave a two hour lecture on Isaiah 5 which I vaguely folloewd without too much translation. Everyone was engrossed and he certainly spoke, lecture, preahced with passion about the Word of God. It was both amazingly inspiring and wonderful experience, although I probably looked quite nervous when I was introduced by the minsiter halfway through! He repeats the whole thing for another 220 people on Friday night to give a chance for those at work to hear. He does this every week, along with another two studies for young adults and then a ladies fellowship. It is wonderful mission work, as his sunday congregation is only 70 - so 350 other people are hearing God’s Word! It is obvious to me that just picking this program and ministry up and plonking it in Stockport may not be overly succesful, but if at some point in my ministry I can grow a church so that through it so many people are touched, excited and enthused by the Word of God then I will be fulfilling something of what I Think God might be calling me to do.

Afterwards we headed for lunch with the ministers from a sub-region Presbytery - perhaps the size of one of the old URC districts. It was what I had been anxious about since my arrival here- Japanese food. Thankfully I managed to keep the saki down to just a thumb-nail full, but the raw fish just kept coming. I think there were about 8 courses of shellfish, salmon and crab. It was all tasty to some extent - but the nicest were the cooked ones!

In the afternoon we headed back to the flat and I finished my notes for the English Bible Study I was taking in the evening. We reached the dizzy heights of 1 Peter 2!

 ¹ Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, ² as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.   
⁴ Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, ⁵ you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,


      “ Behold, I lay in Zion
      A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
      And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,


      “ The stone which the builders rejected
      Has become the chief cornerstone,”

 ⁸ and


      “ A stone of stumbling
      And a rock of offense.”

   They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.   
¹¹ Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, ¹² having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:1-12, New King James Version)

We talked about what makes it difficult to be church in Taiwan. Suprisingly the things that came up were similar to what might be said in response to this question in the UK. Time, family, friends, other religions, traditions, culture, can all at times make being church difficult. Tonights study was all about how to be church when it gets tough. We had already looked at how the churches Peter wrote were being persecuted, and so this is really the passage in which Peter gives advice as to how to carry on.

Firstly he says that the Christians were to grow in faith (v.1-3). That despite the persecutions they were facing, they were to actively engage in growing in faith. Peter introduces this by saying that they should get rid of wrong attitudes that they feel toward each other: malice, deceit, envy, hypocrisy and slander. No half measures will do - he says that they must get rid of all, all and then of every kind!

Then we talked about how the Christians were to be living stones (4-8). To do this they would need to go through a transformation, like that of Israel and like that of Jesus. In this section we get three quotes from the old testament, two from Isaiah and one from the Psalms. When Isaiah wrote the words, or spoke the words he had he was speaking to Israel. We foten jump quickly to assume he is talking about Jesus, but if we wait for a moment we may get a more detailed pictured. Israel is in exile, and Isaiah says that he will build a stone a Zion - they will return to Zion, Israel will one day be built in Zion again, but they will need to transform themselves into that stone, that foundation. This they do when they return from the exile. Secondly because of verse 4 we can apply the passage to Jesus. He too is a foundation stone, a cornerstone of our faith and of our lives. He is living with us, but supports us in all that we do. But to become the living stone he too had to be transformed. To be the living stone he, on the cross, was also transformed: from being rejected to being glorified, from death to life, from submission to Lord over all, from sin to perfection. And so the metaphor switches to us too - we are to be living stones too, to be like Christ, and we too have to be transformed by Jesus on the cross for us, from our sinful nature to holiness, from what we were into what we are in God’s eyes. And here comes the problem - because of what Jesus has done we have to decide. The fact you are reading this means you have to decide. You can ignore the claims of Jesus on the cross, or you can accept what he did for you. There aer no other options. That is why we read that Jesus is described as a stumbling block. Some people (the builders!) will reject Jesus, to them he is a stumbling block, because he challenges them and the way they live their lives. You are either built on top of the foundation stone, or you’re not - you can’t just balance yourself half on or half off. It’s all or nothing.

If you accept the claims of Jesus, the Peter says that as church you become God’s chosen people (v9-10). The transformation continues - because of Jesus we are no longer in the darkness but in the light - we can see where we are going. We weren’t a people, but now we are the people of God, We weren’t recieving mercy, and now we are. But you also get a really interesting snippet in the middle of those verses - it is not for our glory that God has done this - it is for his. So before you go pointing the finger at those who are not God’s people, or not the royal priesthood, remember God did it so that his name would be exalted not ours, and after all the passage began by saying we are to get rid of hypocrisy - when I’m perfect I might start to think about judging others, but until then I’ll be mighty careful!

Finally Peter says that even when the church is going through tough times, they are to battle against sin and do mission (v.11-13). Even when it is tough to be church its not use just stopping, you have to grow faith, you have to do mission. If you stop doing these things then the church really is in trouble. Interestingly Peter says when you do mission, get a picture of your sin first. Repent yourself, make sure you have a firm foundation otherwise you might fall too. Then live such good lives that even though people accuse you of doing wrong, you show God’s way. We need to make sure we don’t slip into blandness - sometimes we are supposed to say things and do things that mean that other people will accuse us of doing wrong. Perhaps its wearing a cross when you are a nurse, perhaps it is preaching in a shopping centre, perhaps it is upholding Christian teaching in schools. We need to be bold and sure and certain enough to stand up and let people accuse us of doing wrong because through this God will be glorified. And this is Peter’s final word to the churches in this section - glorify God.

So Lord, here I am.
I want to grow in my faith. I want to have more faith in you. I want to leave behind my sin and trust in you as a living stone. Help me to build my life upon you and not fall or stumble. I accept you as THE living stone, the foundation of my life. Transform me from living in darkness to living in light, from being a nobody, to being one of your people. Strengthen me with boldness and courage to do your work. Use me for your glory Lord and the glory of your kingdom.
Amen

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28/10/2009 by paul.

Well that’s the six week mark, not that I’m counting or anything. T42, that’s Monday began in my old room in Tek-Tung. I got up nice and early, and just like old times made it to the 6am prayer meeting to play and pray. Breakfast was muchos goodos with Rev. Chuang, Hsinte and Margaret. I even got to meet all the pupils again and spend morning devotions with them before heading into the car for a trip to Changua. In Changua we visited an aboriginal community church.

This church was established when the current minister was given a post straight from college. It was his compulsory placement, a bit like Rev. Chuang’s in Tek-Tung, and, like Rev. Chuang he has stayed there for a consderable length of time - up to about 20 years now. The church was established by a community of aboriginal tribes people who moved to the city to find work. Compared to the other residents in Changua the education, experience and knowledge of these people is lower. So the minister of the church started first by helping the members to find jobs that were suitable in the local paper and by word of mouth. In Changua there is also a PCT run Christian Hospital (I visited a branch while I was in Tek-Tung). This hospital is like the general hospital serving the city of Changua. A few people from the church got cleaning jobs at the hospital, and slowly the church began to evolve. Whilst also being focussed on worship, the church setup a cleaning company that now helps trains people, and provides people with jobs in the city. It now employs over 400 people and gives them a step on a career ladder that would never of happened otherwise. It seems like great mission work, and want to support it fully, and the Sunday Morning congregation is growing because of the work, but it is still only at 70. The question is, like with virtually all mission projects, how much should a church be involved in providing services to give a better standard of living today, and how much should it promote a gospel message that calls people to repentence and to the gospel of grace. Whilst in an ideal world I think we can read in the Bible God would want both, they are not overly cohesive messages for one church community to uphold.

After a yummy lunch at a tea house, we headed back in the car to Taipei for a restful evening.

T43 was very quiet after the excitement of the weekend. Most of the day was spent in front of my laptop preparing for tomorrow night’s Bible Study on 1 Peter 2:1-12.

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27/10/2009 by paul.

Well today was a mamoth day that, after the business of yesterday required my full taying-awake capacities at all times! The day began with church in Taipei. The service was good, despite my continued groaning and longing for a good old Wesley hymn in English, or a Spirit-led worship song. The sermon was on Ephesians 2 and Hsinte spoke with passion even if I didn’t understand what he was saying. Afterwards was choir practice and lunch. Despite my misgivings over the amount of time spent rehearsing for worship, there is a great atmosphere here on a Sunday, with no-one seemingly in a rush to get off at the end. The people here are so welcoming that there was a little discussion as to who got to sit next to me today! After choir there was a short men’s choir practice because the piece I do a solo in is going to be used next week in worship. A quickly gobbled lunch (well as quickly as you gobble using chopsticks to eat a chicken leg!) followed by a quick trip to flat to get my case saw us into the car for the journey to Taichung. It seemed a little bizzare if not fully understandable that we listened to arrangements of Christmas Carols for the two hour journey. Hsinte’s wife is the musical director in the church and she is trying to prepare the choir pieces for over Christmas and was trying to get inspiration. I have to keep reminding myself that it actually nearly November, its just bizarre listening to Carols when the temperature is up at 28 and your bathed in glorious sunshine!

Anyway feeling all festive we arrived at the church in Taichung for 3.30 wedding. Hsinte and Margaret had been involved in this church for some time before Hsinte took up the role of minister in Taipei, and Margaret had conducted the choir here for 8 years. Everything seemed quite like a British wedding during the service, except there is parade at the start of parents and groom and then finally the bride to rousing rendition of ‘Here comes t’Bride’ from the Grand Bechstein in the corner. The service proceeded with three different choirs giving pieces of music - one accompanied by a little toy trumpet playing jazz which was pretty good. The bride and groom stood for the whole service, except for when the bride fainted, which made cause for the preaching to stop for 10 minutes while she came round. Thankfully they found a seat for her. After the sermon there were some quickly mumbled promises (later I found out that all legal requirements are done prior to the service in the chruch at a registry office). Married people here don’t wear rings so there was none of that, but there was the exchange of candles. When the parents walked in at the start they both presented candles to the minister who put them in a display, they were then used to light one candle by the bride and groom. Pretty and symbolic. After another choir sung it was time for the exit to Midsummer Night’s Dream. The photos were all taken in the church before everyone piled in cars to go to the restaurant.

The restaurant was very grand and they were catering for at least 5 weddings at the same time, with each having 200+ guests. We found the right wedding for the right couple and hopefully the right seat. There was then great fireworks and the waiters did a little dance before the bride and groom walked in. This was followed by more theatrics and fireworks when the head chef presented the first dish to the top table. We had a stunning 12 course banquet. All the time we were eating there was something going on at the front. Speeches, music, theatrics. Every so often the bride would disappear and come back wearing a different dress and having had her hair done, I think three times in all. At the end of the banquet the bride and groom greet everyone on the way out, and they are the last to leave. So after a handshake, a ‘Congratulations’ and ‘You look great’ we headed into the car and drove down to Tek-Tung for sleep. Anyone who has a vague inclining to ever being romantic should avoid going to weddings when your other half is on the other side of the world, it doesn’t make for an easy night’s sleep regardless of how tired you are! But I pray for the lovely couple and hope that God blesses them in all they do together.

Some nice musicians…

The menu - yes that’s right, each line is a course!

The lovely couple - this is the third, and least ellaborate dress of the day!

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26/10/2009 by paul.

Well I can’t quite believe I’ve made it to day forty of my stay here - I make that 5 weeks 5 days!

Today was really busy, but quite boring to write about! This morning I finished all the preparation for tonight’s work. This afternoon I clocked in another 30 scones in Paul#s English Bakery Emporium, which were consequently devoured with much jam and cream during the women’s fellowship, the English class and then the young adults group. And so full steam into this evening, which was quite literally jam-packed. At 6.30 I began the English lesson, which is growing each week, and made it to 8 this week. We read a big chunk of The Wind in the Willows. The kids are pretty good at being able to pronounce words - they may not know what they mean, but they can sure blag their way through understanding. This highlighted for me the difference between mandarin/taiwanese languages and English. In Mandarin or Taiwanese, each character is a syllable, and each is said in a constant rythym. I was trying to talk about how, in English we vary the speed and pitch when we talk to add emphasis and meaning. The difficult thing for me trying to learn mandarin (the written language) is that there are literally hundreds of characters each with its own syllable sound and tone. The tone is really important when you pronounce words, as the same ‘word’ means something completely different if it has a rising tone, a u-shaped tone etc. Just to make things even more complicated, most people in Taiwan speak Mandarin, or at least they do in Taipei. The traditional tribal languages still exist in some parts of the countryside too. But church people, in services and pastoral visits, general conversation, they speak Taiwanese. Taiwanese uses the same Mandarin characters but is pronounced differently. For example, ‘thank-you’ in written Mandarin is 感謝信 and is pronounced in Mandarin as ‘Xie-Xien’. But in Taiwanese, the same characters are pronounced ‘Dosha’… oh well - with my limited understanding of the language here I shouldn’t grumble too much when teenagers can’t understand Wallace and Gromit’s Tellyscope!

Well after the hour long English class, I had a five minute break before heading to the young adult group, which I was leading for tonight. The group usually sit round reading a Christian book and the Bible and talk about what they have read, share and pray together. It is a wonderful group, and they often just chat into the evening without much care for what time it is - it’s great! So this evening, instead of reading, I gave a bit of a presentation that was translated. I talked a bit about where I grew up and what that was all like - they were impressed with RGS’ and Durham’s buildings! I also gave my testimony, talking about how and when God worked in my life so I became a Christian. After that I talked about my calling to ministry, life at theological college and today’s church. I even managed to share the work of Crossfire with them all. It was a really good time and we had lots of conversation, questions and fun, and it also filled the two hour time slot!

After the talk I then headed back to my room to pack my bag. Tomorrow we’re travelling back to Taichung to go to a wedding, that bizzarely I have been invited to along with my hosts. We’ll be leaving straight after the service and staying Sunday night in Tek-Tung - at the church guest house school where I stay about three weeks ago. So exciting day tomorrow…

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