04/10/2009 by paul.

Well this morning began in the usual way with prayers at 6 and breakfast at 8. Over breakfast we talked about the Mid-Autumn Festival (moon festival) to be celebrated today. Usually the church would hold a barbeque and fireworks, but the national denomination, the PCT, were encouraging churches to alter this years celebrations. Instead of celebrating with food and fireworks, churches have been asked to hold services of prayer for those who have and are still suffering after the recent typhoon and flooding in Taiwan. At the service Rev. Chuang asked if I would play and sing a couple of songs speaking of God’s mercy and compassion on people. So in the morning I trawled through my online Mission Praise (its harder looking online than using a paper index!) and chose a couple of songs which I then transferred to powerpoint. Using an online translator I even got the Taiwanese/Mandarin words.

At 11:30 I was interupted in my work by a family, who had come, somewhat unexpectedly to take me out for the day. The minister told me that we were going Lugang, that we’d be leaving in five minutes and that I would be back in time for the evening service!

View Lugang in a larger map

After about ten minutes in the car we arrived at our first stop, a very popular and scrummy restaurant in the centre of Erlin. I’m lovin’ it.
We then drove to the coast, via a PCT church. he coast had no beach, and had fast flowing muddy currents, but their were wooden piers built into the sea so that you could walk down and birdwatch. There were few birds but the view was quite impressive…

Afterwards we moved to Lugang, which is a historic town by the coast. We wandered through the little tiny streets, and I even managed to pick up some postcards. On the way back to the car, we passed a parade of things from the Buddhist temple. It wa a strange mixture of tapestries, dragons and kettle(-like) drums.

We then called in at another PCT (I think this one was Lugang) and it also ran a primary school. The playground kept the kids entertained!

After EVERYONE had exerted some energy we headed back into the car and travelled to the mountains. Just a little way up is High Speed Rail line and travelling a little further gives you a great view of the trains whizzing passed at 300km/hr. The line has only been open for two years so this is still quite a novelty. We then came back through the country, called in at another church and stopped to look at more trains. Here is a steam one, not sure how old, where it came from, or what it was doing in the countryside

We stopped off for some beef noodles before arriving back at church at 7:15. After a quick change and a quick check of the music, worship began. It was a moving service, for two reasons. Firstly the opening part was all about thanking God for the country of Taiwan, its beauty and its people. Having spent all day looking at beautiful Taiwan in the company of some great people, it was kind of fitting. Secondly, one of the conversations I had had with Rev. Chuang during the week focussed on international work, and he had told me that some people in Taiwan think that China steals the limelight, and so the rest of the world hears little of Taiwan (the BBC website is a good example of this!), and feel isolated. The recent typhoon is a great example. The president of Taiwan, in an effort to keep friendly with China, had refused help from the international community. This, however, simply meant that there was a delay in resources being made available. It was therefore good for me as a Westerner to be present at this service, praying for those who had been effected by the Typhoon. I also sang ‘Everyone needs compassion’. When I have used this song in the West I have often been thinking about the touch of Jesus in our hearts as a spiritual acceptance of Christ. However here it seemed to speak of God touching the lives of people after the Typhoon (editted to be third person rather than first person i.e. I -> we; me -> us)…

Everyone needs compassion,
Love that’s never failing;
Let mercy fall on us.

Shine your light and let the whole world see,
We’re singing for the glory of the risen King…Jesus

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04/10/2009 by paul.

I spend my breakfasts here in Tek-Tung with the minister in his front room. Because we’re all nice and awake by then having finished morning prayers an hour earlier, we often talk about church, mission and theology. It’s fascinating listening and sharing with Rev. Chuang about his experience and his vision for the future. I think our theology is quite similar, and he has helped me put into perspective some of the meanderings I have been having about liberation theology (if you’re still wondering when I’ll get round to sharing my thoughts, I have an outline of what I think will be useful, but as of yet have had no time to expand it for general consumption!). We have also had conversations about baptism, music in worship, Bosch’s idea of missiological paradigms, politics, suffering. Even Calvin and Luther have made an appearance. As the classes today were make-up and then drama, I was excused, and so we had more time to share over breakfast. For the rest of the morning I prepared some music and powerpoint slides for worship over the weekend and contemplate doing some more preparation for the Bible study.

In the afternoon we visited one branch of the Changua Christian Hospital in the nearby town of Erhlin. Whilst there is a state health insurance provision in Taiwan (i.e. you don’t have to pay for your medical treatment) the hospitals are owned either by private companies or the church. The PCT own a few hospitals in Taiwan. I think the biggest is the central hospital in Taipei, called ‘Mackay’, after one of the first missionaries. The Changua Christian Hospital has six general branches all around Changua County. All six are what we would call in the UK, general hospitals, with some also having A&E departments. The one in Erhlin has around 1000 beds (I think) and an A&E department. As Christian hospitals they also have a fully functioning PCT chaplaincy team, with one fulltime chaplain per branch. I met the chaplain at Erhlin and we discussed the hospital, her ministry and the similarities and differences between this and my understanding of hospital chaplaincy in the UK. It was interesting to see that a major part of her work is evangelism, both in word and action. She will often hold small services in the wards which will challenge people to accept the gospel. She explained that she works alongside the local churches, so if someone comes to Christ whilst in hospital and wants to be baptised, she will arrange for their local PCT minister to get in touch and they will be baptised into that local church community, and so on leaving hospital have already become apart of a church family. I thought this was amazing work and in quite sharp contrast to the political correctness of the UK hospitals. Because the hospital is a Christian institution, Buddhist or Taoist (the local folk-religion, which is inter-mingled with buddhism) religious leaders are asked to be subtle and quiet in the pastoral care they offer to their members in the hospital. This is in contrast to the rest of Taiwan in which Buddhism/Taoism are the generally accepted mainstream religions. This is so different from the position of Christian Chaplaincy in the UK. When I shared with the chaplain, how the state runs the hospitals in the UK (albeit through trusts etc), she struggled to see how the church could have a mission within chaplaincy. During our breakfast time theological conversations, Rev. Chuang and I have often discussed the nature of the British Church’s mission in a relatively democratic, first world, and, social welfare state. Indeed we both recognised how it is likely to be different to identify a mission need in the UK. It is not so obvious when proportions of the population in the UK are suffering, and the church may even struggle to suggest that they are suffering, whereas in Taiwan it hits you straight away when you see kids wandering the streets on a Tuesday afternoon, or the number of people in the community suffering with the after effects of polio. I’m sure the conversations will continue into next week, as will my meanderings and thoughts.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed to a home service. Every Friday around 20 of the church members gather at the church and then travel to one of their homes to hold a service. We travelled to a house surrounded by farm land (rice fields) and the minister led a service of about an hour, during which we prayed for the home and family who lived there. It was wonderful and I’m sure uplifting and encouraging for the family, and something maybes take back to the UK? Next week the service will be in a different home. Each home holds about two services a year.

So today was about People and Theology, but more importantly about People and God: the way he speaks to people and the way he cares for people.

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02/10/2009 by paul.

Well this morning I quite embarrsingly turned up for morning prayers after the singing of the first two hymns, but let everyone know I’d made it by fluffying my way through the third! I blame the alarm clock or something.

After a hearty discussion over breakfast, I headed back to my room to begin preparations for the Bible study I will take on my return to Taipei next Thursday. Because notesheets and powerpoints need to be translated, I have to buck my usual last minute trend and get something done early! At 10:15 I was told to meet in the kitchen for making mooncakes. This coming weeked is the moon festival (just to avoid any pagan ideas, the less catchy title is the Mid-Autumn festival). Every Taiwanese person I know has gone made for mooncakes. They are sweet small pastry balls filled with anything, ranging from Pork, hard-boiled egg, red beans, ice cream etc. It is traditional to give and recieve boxes of the things which can range from a few pence to about £10 each. The process of making 50 or so took me and four students about an hour and a half - its complicated!

After lunch I continued with my study until four o’clock, at which point we had ‘afternoon tea’ with the mooncakes, fruit and green tea. Before we could eat we had to sing happy birthday to Jo (I’m not quite sure she heard, but I sent a pciture!).

These are our wonderful creations. Despite being intricately involved in their construction, I’m quite suprised at how they turned out. They have a sweet flaky pastry outing, with a few random brown things on top, a sweet red bean puree inside, with half a hard boiled egg yolk in the centre, just to give that strange Taiwanese salty-sour-sweet taste!

In the evening we headed to the Joyce home I visited earlier in the week to visit the dumpling restaurant that is run by those with mental disabilities. We had a fantastically tasty meal, and after some negotiation I was allowed to treat the Pastor and his family (5 of us in total) to the three course dinner. It came in it at 1000NT (£20, including a 60% tip!).

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01/10/2009 by paul.

Well today started the same as yesterday: me fluffying my way through some hymns on the piano for morning prayers at 6am! After breakfast I joined the kids for their morning devotions and then headed up to my room to prepare for the afternoon class I was giving. I had been asked to share something of who I was, what England is like and what I was doing in Taiwan. The class was from 2.30 till 4.00. I’ve never had to plan a lesson before, but at least there was no ofsted to contend with! I put together some powerpoint slides to show people where I lived, where I went to school, university and work and simply explained that I think God wants me to be become a minister. After an hour or so of an English lesson mixed with English cultury-type things we discussed a verse of the Bible together - Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

It was great seeing the kids all chipping in, as they do during morning devotions, to discuss the passage and what it means for them. I haven’t a clue what they were saying, but it was encouraging nonetheless! After the discussion I couldn’t help but introduce the song, ‘Our God is a great big God’, with the focus on the last line, ‘…how wonderful to be a part of God’s amazing plan!’ They even enjoyed the actions!

Because the girls thought that they had fluffed the dance that they performed on teacher’s day, they had arranged to do it once more that afternoon. American cheerleading seems to get everywhere…..

After half an hour the guys from the high school arrived for crazy table tennis (it’s amazing how energetic table tennis is when its 30+, and the air con is off to stop blowing the ball around!) and tea.

In the evening I was invited to the church prayer meeting. The hour-long meeting in the church was perhaps the most enriching spiritual experience I have had in Taiwan to date. Using powerpoint, the minister led the people in singing and praying through scripture passages. Seeing these peoples devotion to prayer and to God was incredibly encouraging, challenging and lifting. Earlier in the week I had been told that the original congregation of this church was around 20 elderly people from this rural part of Taiwan. They had stepped out in faith when the new minister came and were able to raise enough funds (without any external help) to build the four-storey school and guest house within six years. I therefore had a lump in my throat when the minister showed up on the screen Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.

At the end I told them what a privelege it was to be with them, not just to give the odd lesson to some kids, but to stand side by side with Christian brothers and sisters such as these. It doesn’t matter what language you speak you can still be encouraged, challenged and lifted by an spiritual experience. May there be many more!

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