Peace on the Sacred Way - and Disappointment

When Scott and I started planning this trip we were only going to Taiwan, and realizing we most likely would never be in this part of the world again, we looked into the one other thing that we really wanted to see - The Great Wall of China. We aren't much for joining tours so when we started looking into it we were doubtful we would find one we were interested in. Then we stumbled across a website that talked about hiking and sleeping on the Great Wall. Now, I know that wouldn't be a draw for alot of people, hiking for hours and rolling out a mat and sleeping on an old wall, but that was what we were looking for! To be at a place on the wall where most tourists wouldn't be, to be there for sunrise an sunset, to be with a very small group. It was perfect. The website said they had English guides and there was even a write-up/review from the Toronto Star. We had to go!
So we were ready bright and early for our guide Tommy to pick us up. It was a rainy morning, but we were hopeful it would clear up as the day went on, and as we left the smog of Beijing maybe the sun would shine. Part of the tour was also the Sacred Way, Ming Tombs and a visit to the Olympic site.






We started out with the Olympic site, which was only of mild interest to Scott and I. We took a few pictures in the rain and headed out of town for the Sacred Way.












The Sacred Way is the path that leads to the Ming Tombs, where the Emporer would start their journey to the tombs when they died. Constructed in 1540, during the Ming Dynasty, the Sacred way is a road lined with lifesize stone statues. These statues are 12 human figures (including the general, civil officials and meritorious officials) and 24 animals which are lion, camel, elephant, xiezhi (a mythological unicorn), qilin (one of the four "divine animals, the other three are dragon, phoenix and tortoise), and horse. There are 4 of each of these animals: two standing and two squatting with different meanings. Lion symbolizes awesome solemnity because of their ferocity. Camel and elephant are meant to suggest the vastness of the territory controlled by the court, because they are dependable transport in desert and tropics. Xiezhi was put there to keep evil spirits away, because it was believed to possess the sixth sense to tell right and wrong. If two men fight, a xiezhi would gore the wicked one. Qilin, an auspicious symbol, was placed on two sides. Horse, as the emperor's mount, is absolutely indispensable. It is said that these animals are supposed to change guard at midnight.
After being in Beijing, a city of 17 million people, chaos on the roads, noise, the Sacred Way was tranquil.
And that is where my journey to the Great Wall began and ended. During the morning I could feel the start of a bladder infection brewing, and I spent a few hours telling myself I would be ok because we are only gone overnight and I could get medicine the next day. By lunch I knew that wasn't possible. It was agony trying to make the decision of what to do next, but I think we made the right decision. Scott decided to go on, and the tour company was wonderful, they called another drive to come and get me and drive me back to the hotel. We knew the English speaking staff at the hotel would be able to help me. They sent me to the English speaking hospital in Beijing, another terrifying cab ride to the other side of the city. I met with a Canadian doctor and $150 later had the antibiotics I needed. Thankful I had a safe, warm place to recover while Scott was away I headed back to the hotel. Such a disappointment, things don't always turn out the way you planned when you travel.
Anne

The Great Wall of China

Now I can say that I have walked on The Great Wall of China. Not nearly so extensive and extreme a walk like El Camino de Santiago de Compestela - but a very significant experience just the same. China was a mixed experience. I have to say it is one of the great tragedies of humanity that they decided to put The Great Wall of China in China. Anywhere else and it would be a really neat experience but it is hard to say that the wall is worth the hassle of putting up with Beijing - a city that just does not work. I won't go into a lot of detail about Beijing, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven except in my journal. They were pleasant sites but the agony of getting to them detracted a lot from our enjoyment of them.

But the wall.

We stopped off at the Beijing Olympic site and the Ming Tombs on the way to Jinshanling - about 2 hours driving from Beijing. Jinshanling is relatively lesser known than the more popular Badaling site for walking the wall - it's more remote but you can get even more remote still if you want. Our wall group included me, a couple from San Diego and Tommy the bi-lingual guide. In Jinshanling we shared tea with a family that was introduced to us simply as "local farmer." Following tea "local farmer" took us up a path and then some steps that brought us up onto the Great Wall. From here we hiked for about 2 or 3 kilometers to a watchtower and we waited here until sunset taking pictures and marveling at the mountains and the stretches of the wall disappearing and reappearing to the horizon both east and west.

After the sun went down "local farmer" took us back to his place for one of those meals of semi-identifiable edibles - and much more than we needed. A few others of the local people joined in. There was an introduction to "Chinese Wine" - throat burner - 46% alcohol. The laughing, talking, drinking and singing crossed the languages. "Local Farmer Wife" showed up after dinner to offer us some souvenirs and books to purchase. I bought a coffee-table book of local pictures of the wall because I felt she deserved more than whatever the tour company was offering for her hospitality and food.

After dark "local farmer" took us back up the wall by another path to another watchtower where the six of us spent the night. The stars were out but I could see a cloud bank coming in from the west so I opted to sleep inside the tower with the guide and "local farmer" while the Americans slept out on the wall. Surprisingly, from this tower you still here traffic from the freeway about 10 km away and there was some sort of party going on at a hotel back in Jinshanling about 3 km away but all these noises were gone by 10:00 PM and I had a great night's sleep. I SLEPT ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA - WOW.

In the morning we were up at about 5:45 - much to the guide's and "local farmer's" dismay. They said they were used to groups that sleep til about 8 or 9 in the morning but we seemed too "gung-ho." The cloud bank and mist had settled in so there was no sunrise but jeese-louise I was waking up on The Great Wall of China. And that's not all - the American woman manages a Starbucks in San Diego and she had brought along a package of their new "Via" instant coffee product. I walked on The Great Wall of China - I slept on the Great Wall of China - I had Starbucks coffee on The Great Wall of China.

Everyone else were faster hikers than me. This happened in Spain also. What I get from my slow way of walking is that everybody is on ahead and I get to enjoy the walk by myself. For much of our morning walk I was all alone on The Great Wall of China. Often I would realize that I was the only human visible to myself and this was on one of the greatest human accomplishments of history. I had The Great Wall of China all to myself. The wall went up and down over the mountains and I went up and down over the wall - sometimes a very well restored and maintained structure and sometimes a crumbling pile of bricks and sandy mortar or even just remaining packed clay. It is fitting that some parts of the wall are lost to time because, after all, the thing is really, really old. Nothing lasts forever.

We hiked from 7:00 - 11:00 and covered about 10 km to the village of Simitai. We shared another over-supplied lunch of semi-identifiable edibles and then a van ride back to Beijing. There is a bit of story about why Anne was not on this walk but I'll let her tell that.

Scott

Back on line

Just a quick note to let you know why we haven't been posting this past week. Our blog was blocked by China's firewall, I guess anything about Taiwan can't get through, so we couldn't access the blog.
We are now in Korea, waiting for our last flight...Toronto!
We had alot of adventures in China...things don't always turn out the way you planned. We will tell more stories on the blog soon!
Anne

More Canada in Taiwan

Today we made the trip out to Tamsui to visit Louise Gamble at the Tam Kang High School. Loiuse is a member of my church doing work at the high school here. As we walked up the hillside from the metro station we passed by a huge head monument to Dr. George Mackay and then along a narrow passage to the church he established and the clinic he operated out of. This whole part of Tamsui is very reverent of Rev. Dr. Mackay and his story with them. Dr. Mackay was a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada sent to Taiwan in the late 1800's. Once we entered the Tam Kang school grounds we had a very pleasant day of visiting. As we are Canadian, they seem to treat us with extraordinary respect - I think they think we are more important than we really are.

Louise met us at the gate and started to give us a tour but we were soon met by the principal, Albert Yao, who insisted we join him and about seven other international teachers for lunch at a near-by restaurant. These were all teachers of English from places like Australia, South Africa, and USA. We went to a spot that served Italian style spaghetti. Back at the school Albert and Louise gave us a royal tour of the grounds and of their museum. Their collection includes many original articles of G.L. Mackay and of his son, George William Mackay, who is actually the founder of the school. I was impressed that despite the turbulant times for the school during Japanese occupation and KMT oppression they are willing to include the leaders of the school in those times in their museum and records. Many institutions attempt to deny those embarassing times of their history.

Take a good look at the orchids behind us in this photo.

The school teaches about 2,500 students. It has pool larger than the YMCA Owen Sound. In one corner of the school grounds is the cemetery for Mackay, his wife and few other members of his family. All the students seem to like showing off to us visitors so I would occasionally pop my head in a classroom to take a picture - probably causing mayhem for the teacher but hey - it's fun for the kids. This school also takes its rugby team very seriously.

Louise described her work to us and showed us her living quarters in the new building. As well as teaching at the school she is working at transcribing the writings and letters of G.L. Mackey into an electronic format to have them compiled in one place. The originals are held by the United Church of Canada but they have made photocopies available to her. Some of the pages are incredibly challenging in their smudges and missing words. I do not envy this work.

It was a wonderful visit with an Owen Sounder on the other side of the world. We ended with tea and waffles in the campus coffee shop joined again by Albert just before he had to conduct an interview with another prospective teacher for their English program. Louise brought out a bottle of maple syrup from the Gamble Maple Syrup producers of Chatsworth, Ontario - a little bit more of Canada in Taiwan. We parted again at the front gate and went back to the metro station by way of the harbour. Then on to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial - but that's another story.

The CKS Memorial is an overblown egotistical testament. Anne thinks he's compensating for something - whatever that means.

Supper was "third-world." For $80 NT (about $3.75 CDN) we both got fed at a storefront buffet of semi-identifiable edibles and ate at a roadside table surounded by the traffic of trucks, buses, scooters, bikes and humanity and chaos. Yum

Scott

Another church - another story

After a day of sight-seeing (The National Palace Museum)(Mostly stuff that Chiang Kai-shek stole from the Forbidden City as he ran out in 1947) we went out for dinner with Sidney and Sherry to wish Sidney a happy birthday. After dinner Sherry took us to another church a short bus ride away. You know that scene in Harry Potter when the Night Bus changes dimensions to squeeze between two other London double-decker buses? I actually saw that happen from my viewpoint in the front seat of this bus. There is no possible way it could have made that squeeze between the two opposing taxis without somehow transporting into another dimension.

Anyway, we got to Gi-kong Presbyterian Church on a back street somewhere in Taipei. On Dec. 13th, 1979, Yi-hsiung Lin, a lawyer in Taipei was arrested and charged with sedition for speaking out against the government. During his incarceration his house was under constant survelance by the government securty forces but that did not prevent someone from entering the home and murdering his mother and two daughters and severly injuring another daughter. This tragedy took place on Feb. 28th, an historic date for the Taiwanese people.

At Easter, 1982 the house was consecrated as Gi-kong Presbyterian Church. The living room is now a sanctuary. The basement, where the bodies were found is now the Sunday School room. The piano the girls practiced on sits beside the chancel. Out of this tragedy the word of God has found a way to reach out in forgiveness and proclaim the love of God.

We met with the pastor, Rev. Daniel Yin-Er Cheng who speaks excellent English and is seen in this photo with Sherry, Anne and me.

To be humbled

The best word I can think of for yesterday is humbling. We started out with a nice visit with the Yu Shan Seminary staff and then headed out south of Hualien to a village called Honglin. We visited the home of Yu-chhan Chang. Her family story is a big legend among the Taiwanese and let me tell a bit of it here.

In 1947 the Chiang Kai-shek powers had occupied Taiwan filling a vacuum left by the retreating Japanese at the end of WW2. Although the western powers supported Chaing, it was a brutal time for the Taiwanese. In this village of Honglin was a doctor and his family. His two eldest sons also served as doctors and were well respected. They hosted the Chinese brass for a dinner at their home - I guess hoping to dispell some of the anxiety between the locals and the occupiers. After the dinner, some Chinese army people returned and dragged off the docter (Chhi-lang Chang) and the two eldest sons (Ko-jen and Chang-jen). They were tortured and murdered.

In the morning the doctor's wife (Chin-tsu Chan) looked for the bodies but the Chinese authorities would not help. Some sympathetic soldiers did give her clues, though, and she found her family, cleaned the bodies and buried them in a grave behind her house. The two sons were married, one widow was pregnant and there were five other children in the family. Chin-tsu raised a memorial over the grave and it is seen in this picture. At the time, the wording she used on the memorial were very provocative and dangerous, but she was obviously a strong and brave woman.

Around the grave she planted a grove of beetlenut trees and with the income from this crop she supported her remaining family. She died in 1982 and was buried beside the others. The woman who met us, Yu-Chhan is the widow of one of the sons and she continues on in the house alone to this day. She maintains the grave and the grove and the gardens around it. She had us into the house where she showed us pictures of the family and some art work that Chhi-lang Chang had done before his death.

The site has become a shrine - a testament to the spirit of an oppressed people. We could only feel humbled as we stood at the grave with Yu-Chhan. The meaning of faith, nationhood, identity, family, loyalty, community is shaped in dramatic ways for many people of the world. The faith of these Taiwanese is so strong and foundational compared to the easy religion and faith of Canada. I can only express humility in the presence of such history.

The widows were very careful not to talk about this experience to the younger children for many, many years. There was great fear about what may happen to them if they talked about it in front of the wrong people. The children do remember, however, waking up some nights and hearing the women singing, praying, and crying. It was not until they were adults that they could understand their family story.

Upon Chin-tsu's death her second youngest son wrote an elegy, the first verse is:

Oh, backed by stately mountains green,

Where stand the wooden houses old.

By night sing bugs the music keen;

Sweet stories are sung, but not told.

Yu-Chhan is seen in this picture closest to the stone on the left side. From left to right you see Anne, Scott, Sidney, Yu-Chhan, Carys Humphries, Doreen Thomas & Haydn Thomas (Wales).

The other visits that day were nice, but they don't have lasting memory to me after the time with Yu-Chhan.

Scott

Sure hope there aren't any snakes out there!

We took a train ride on Tuesday to the east, with Sidney, another PCT church staff, Carys, and the couple from Wales we met at General Assembly. They take such good care of us, everything is arranged, train ticket bought, we have a driver waiting for us at the other end. [I get the feeling we are not the important people these people seem to think we are. They are treating us too nicely - Scott]

We had lunch at this mountain restaurant serving aboriginal food. We had a sample plate called "The Hyper Romantic Meal". We love the English names they give to things here, we take alot of pictures of signs!

We spent the afternoon at Taroko Gorge, an amazing place. I don't think pictures will do it justice, it is so massive and wonderful to look at. [If you have seen Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne Park NL try to imagine that only about twice at long, twice as high, and half as narrow - Scott]There are swallows nesting in the caves and circling around. Very beautiful. While we were walking along, reading all the warning signs, telling you rocks can fall, walk quickly, we hear a crack, like a loud gunshot and across the gorge a rock falls - about the size of a human head. Amazing, but scary to see. It took a long, long, long time to fall to the bottom. We walked a little faster after that! They had an accident a few years ago, a monkey climbing on the rocks caused some to fall, hitting a Chinese woman. Now you have to wear hard hats. There is no way a hard hat would help you in that situation, but maybe it covers them from lawsuits. We looked for monkeys, but didn't see any.

We made some interesting stops in the afternoon. We visited a church that has a cave behind it. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan the Christian's were not allowed to meet, but there was a woman who would hold services in this small cave, which was a safe place to meet because the Japanese would not go into the cave because of snakes.

We spent the night at the Theological Seminary, where we talked to Canadian missionaries (Murray Garvin) and a few other staff who had studied in Canada, knew Knox College and alot of the same people we did. The seminary treated us to a local specialty for dinner, clams!

On the way back to the Seminary Sidney had a little talk with us. He said it would be best if you did not leave the dormatory tonight and go outside. The van will drop us off at the door and pick us up in the morning. There are poisonous snakes around here and they thought they should let us know. We were glad we were on the second floor! We didn't see any snakes but went to sleep listening to an exotic bird, and woke up to roosters crowing. That is something that doesn't happen every day!

Anne

Food Adventures

Scott and I had an adventure yesterday. Sidney went off to work so Scott and I went sight seeing on our own, navigating the subway systems of Taipei. I think Scott has a compass built into his head, he never seems to get lost, even in a country where we can't read any signs. I on the other hand get lost in Owen Sound. I think I will stick with him!
Sidney gave us directions to Church offices so we could meet him for lunch. We knew how to get to the subway, Sidney said take the train with two Chinese symbols, not three, told us which exit to leave from, how far to walk and then turn at the 7 Eleven. That made us laugh, there is a 7 Eleven on every corner here. We had more trouble getting the apartment door to unlock than we did getting to his office.
After a lunch with the church staff, more tea and some chocolates from Owen Sound, we headed out sight seeing. We went to 101, the highest building in Taipie. 89 floors up, what a view! It took about 30 seconds to get up in the high speed elevator, our ears popped about 3 times.
Then we headed for the famous night market for dinner and the evening. Markets in foreign countries are amazing - thousands of people, thousands of places to eat.
We entered the food area and looked for something we could recognize - we could smell the stinky tofu, we could recognize squid on a stick - we avoided both. They are very agressive trying to get you to sit down and order their food. They have a piece of paper, laminated, with about 20 blurry pictures of food we don't recognize. Scott pointed to something that looked like an omlette, and a couple of crabs. We are now the proud owners of our own chop sticks (with the burning bush symbol on them!) We can get the food in our mouths, but we also get alot on our clothes. We keep trying. So...the food arrived. It was egg, but also some clear, gooey jelly mixed with it, red sauce and some little grey things - we had no idea what it was. The sauce was a plum sauce, the jelly was tasteless, but weird. The little grey things were some kind of seafood, but I had no idea what. When we described it all to Sidney later he told us it was oysters and the jelly a cornstarch mixture.
Then we went for a fruit drink, even the fruit here we have never seen before. We wanted to ask for a mango drink but the lady just started mixing something up and handed us green drinks. Green is a scary colour when you don't know what it is! To our relief it was kiwi! Very good.
The market was overwhelming, loud, thousands of people. We managed to make a few purchases, no English anywhere but we knew numbers and that is what mattered.
Today we head to the east coast for two days with the church staff and a few other international delegates, some of us are still hanging around after General Assembly.
We will have more stories then!
Anne

All the tea in Taiwan

Don't you just hate that tea pots always drip or dribble from the spout? No matter how you pour it or how you design the pot there's always a drop or two landing on the table. Perhaps the "NevaDrip" tea pot is an exception put I don't have one of those. Don't you just hate those drops? Well, the Sideq aboriginal tribe in the mountains of Taiwan have the answer. No solution is necessary if there is no problem. They just accept that the tea dribbles and they capitalize on it. Over the past weekend we drank a bathtub or two of Oolong tea with the various church groups we met with and here is how they do it.

A small tea pot, about 250 ml is used and about 2 tablespoons of dried tea leaves are put in, water is poured into the pot till it overflows. You put the lid on which makes even more liquid to dribble down the side. Let it stand for less than a minute and then pour the liquid into four or five tiny tea cups being careful to make sure that most of the tea misses the cups. Then take each of the cups and pour the tea out over the top of the tea pot, with the lid still on the tea pot - be sure that none of this tea gets back into the pot but pours out on the table. This is to warm up the pot and the cups and to swell the oolong leaves.

Now, fill the pot once again, making sure that some tea spills out over the top, replace the lid making sure that some tea squeezes out through the lid and spout. Let this sit for a bit and maybe pick up the pot to swish it around and spill some tea out. Pour this tea into another similar sized pot through a strainer and refill the first pot. While the next batch is steeping, distribute the finished tea into the individual tea cups and be careful to ensure that two or three drops miss the cups. Raise your cup to each other and enjoy three or four sips of delicious oolong tea until the next batch is ready and distributed and repeat this for about an hour, or until someone suggests that the tea leaves need replacing or the hot water runs out or it's simply time to go to bed, or the bathroom, or church or something. By the way, the water is kept hot in a pot on a hotplate within reach of the person doing all the pouring.

This, of course, is accompanied by endless conversation, snacking, story telling, laughing and singing.

Now this all works because the whole process is carried out on a specially designed tea table that allows the drips and drabbles to collect below the operating area. The common table is a perforated stainless steel grid over a collecting tray with a drain spout at one end. Some others are more elaboate affairs, made out of stone or clay.

Like I say - no solution is necessary if there is no problem.

Scott

Blessings on the mountain...and dum dum dadda!

We have just returned to Taipei after an amazing three days in the mountains, visiting aboriginal churches. So many stories - the hair raising ride up the mountain (and down again), the food (always an adventure), the children, the hospitality, the blessings, the music. I will choose a few.

First, the children. We arrived at Snuwil Presbyterian Church, the congregation that hosted us and the adults gathered at the church to talk and share tea (Scott will tell you more about that). While we were listening to the laughter and conversation in a foreign language we noticed a few girls peeking around the corner at us. They started with peeking, then laughing, then sitting at the end of the couch Scott was on. It didn't take long for Scott to start playing with them. Through sign language they let us know they thought Scott's big blue eyes were very funny. They ran back out and each time they came in again there were more children, first 4, then 6, and by the time we were outside again we were swarmed by about 20 kids. Scott and I know three words of Chinese right now - How are you?, thank you and goodbye (Scott is working on "Where is the bathroom?" (there is a lot of tea)) The children knew about the same number of words in English - hello, my name is, goodbye. They each had to try out their English on us and laugh when we talked. Scott had soon taught them the song and actions for dum dum dadda. We had so much fun trying to communicate.


The next day we were away sight seeing and when we got back Sidney and Sheri started laughing because they could hear some of the kids calling for the other kids to come "The Americans are back!" We soon corrected them - we are Canadians!

When we were getting ready to leave today we were walking up a large hill to the place we were staying and there was a gang of kids at the top who yelled out, "Hello" - and started singing dum dum dadda as loud as they could. We have left our mark!

The other person I wanted to write about is a young lady I met on Saturday night, again visiting with the adults at the church. She came in and sat at the other side of the room and after about 15 minutes she made her way over to me and said "I am so nervous, I am a university student majoring in English and I never get the chance to talk to foreigners. Can we talk?" She was nervous about making mistakes but her English was very good. She is around Laura's age, so I told her I had a daughter her age, graduating from University as well. I heard about her studies, her struggles, her hopes of becoming a teacher. She would like to go to an English speaking country, but that is far too expensive for her. She also told me that last spring she donated a kidney to her sister, and how difficult that was and her reasons for doing it. Her sister has a young son and she wanted to do all she could so her sister would be healthy to raise her son. That was an amazing connection for me and I was so thankful that she was brave enough to talk to me, even though she was so nervous.

The aboriginal congregations embraced us and welcomed us. They wanted to share their faith, their history, the stories of their congregations. We visited 4 churches and were lucky enough to be honoured guests at an induction service 2 hours from where we were staying, where many churches came together for the service, all offering their wonderful music. Even though all the talking was in a different language, we enjoyed all of it. Scott participated in the induction service as much as he could as it is pretty much the same as an induction in Canada. He understood the questions, the timing, and, of course, the Right Hand of Fellowship. And of course there was a feast after the service...they are all so generous.


My impression of the aboriginal congregations...they are rich - spiritually and culturally. I know they have alot of struggles financially and I am sure there are alot of health issues they are dealing with, but they are vibrant and happy.

To end, they wanted Scotto (their name for him) to bless them in English, so many times Scott gathered with the elders and deacons and said a prayer and blessing for them. Sometimes Sidney translated, sometimes he didn't, it didn't matter. In some ways we all spoke the same language.
Anne

Wednesday, April 7.
Here's a thought. The local Sin-Lau Hospital (Run by the PCT) offered everyone free medical checkups this morning. It seems to encourage attendance at General Assembly. I wonder if we could improve attendance at Synod if we threw in a free auto tune-up and oil change. Or maybe would offer to spay and neuter delegates' pets for free. Anything to get people to make the trip to Synod.

This morning was an exposure to the business end of General Assembly of the PCT and I don't think it differs much from the PCC. From what I could gather from Sidney's translations the two most contentious issues were the terms of service on the Christian school boards and concern over a letter written to the government calling for a ban on capital punishment. A recent poll showed that 80% of Taiwanese are in favour of capital punishment. In both cases the agony was over procedure more than content.

We heard from an expert speaker concerning the implications of a proposed free trade agreement between Taiwan and China and it sounded so much like the NAFTA headache that I wanted to get up and speak to the issue. Never trust an elephant when you get into bed with it.

The afternoon exposure tours were to the Taiwan Church Press (Founded by the Presbyterians in the 1880's) and right beside it the Tainan Theological Seminary (Founded by the Presbyterians in the 1880's) and then later over to the Sin-Lau Hospital around the corner from both and founded by the Presbyterians in the 1880's. Lastly we ended up at the Chang Jung High School which houses the Presbyterian Museum and about 5,000 students. It has many pictures of the early days of the press, the seminary and the hospital and guess what? It was founded by the Presbyterians in the 1880's. Busy little missionaries, eh?

Then a huge gala dinner with all the delegates at a fancy downtown restaurent. Anne and I are learning to pace ourselves during the 3 hour dinners.


Scott

A little bit of heaven on earth...

Thursday we travelled to a place that I thought was a little bit of heaven on earth. After a morning of attending General Assembly meetings, the international delegates and international Theological Students studying in Tainan all boarded a bus and headed to the south of the island.
Since we have been in Taiwan we have only seen built up areas. We have travelled from Taipei to Tainan and the whole way every bit of land seems to be used up with a city. There is a lot of farming going on but it is micro farming squeezed between the built up areas.

Today we travelled to the south of the island and visited two aboriginal churches from the Paiwan tribe. The trip down was amazing, this is where all the agriculture is! We saw beautiful mountains and fields of pineapple, coconut, bananas and many things we could not identify.
The aboriginal churches are full of symbols and the pastors gave us a warm welcome and tour, explaining the meaning to us.

This first picture is the cross at the first church we visited, Yu-Chan Presbyterian Church. It is a newer church, just built 4 years ago. This cross is made from the rebar from the old church. They have taken 3 pieces of rebar for each section of the cross, symbolizing the Trinity, using the strongest piece of the old church and putting it in a place of honour in the new church. The curls at the ends of the cross symbolize a butterfly. For the aboriginal people, the butterfly represents wisdom. For us it represents rebirth and putting it on the cross puts crucifixion and resurrection in the same space. The bends in the cross show the shape of Christ. The Pastor said they did this so people of the Roman Catholic faith with feel comfortable and at home with the symbol, as they usually have the body of Christ on the cross.


The next church is Sandimen. Built out of the local stones piled one on another. The aisle has an inlay of the story of the church right back to the creation. There were many more symbolic and interesting things about this church.


This little town we visited was magical. Everywhere you looked there was something beautiful and interesting. Orchids everywhere, a peaceful, inviting place to visit. It goes on my list of my favorite place in the world.

Tomorrow General Assembly ends, and we have to say goodbye to our international friends - Rev. Johannes Wittch from Austria, Rev. Haydn Thomas and his wife Doreen from Wales, Rev. Sandy Well Phawa from India and Rev. Jonathan Seitz and his wife Emily and son Sam from USA. We have enjoyed spending the last week getting to know these wonderful people from around the world, sharing meals, sharing laughs. Our adventures don't end here. We will be renting a car and travelling to the mountains with Sidney and Sheri for the next few days. I don't think we will be near a computer, so it will be a few days before we update again.
Anne

Opening of General Assembly

Tuesday morning we had a chance to do some touring around the area. A few of the international delegates met with Rev. Paul and he took us to see a seniors facility. It just so happens it is run by the YMCA, and Rev. Paul was the CEO of the YMCA until he recently retired. It looks like between the Presbyterian Church and the YMCA they run all the social programs in Taiwan - hospitals, schools, daycares, nursing homes. We toured the seniors home and met a delightful fellow who was 91 years old, deaf, but wanted so much to communicate with us. He wrote Chinese characters and Rev. Paul translated for us.

Rev. Paul also took us to the first Presbyterian church in Taiwan, Daoist Temple and Fort Zeelandia, a Dutch fortess from the 1600's.

The afternoon was the Opening of General Assembly, with a worship service, music, speeches and more food. Our friend Sidney translated for us so we were able to join in and understand the service.

Until later,

Anne

There is a lot of food here

It seems food is its own event in Taiwan. Every meal we have enjoyed has been a big affair - multiple course (or perhaps one 3 hour course with multiple dishes served along the way.







Last night we ended up at a Japenese Restaurent with all the top brass of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. We were at a round table for 20 people around a huge lazy-susan and for about 3 hours the round-about went round about with different exotics flashing by while we endeavoured to snag some morsels to our plate using only chopsticks - we should have been warned that this was a chopstickes only trip. The things we could identify were lobster, beef, ginger, 7 different species of fish, crab, abalone, prawns the size of a telephone handset. Much more that we don't really want to know what it was.







Anne and I sat with the General Secretary of the PCT so we had to be on our best behaviour and try everything. Beside him was the moderator and next to the moderator was the Chief Administrator of the Tainan hospital. He was the host for this event so he kept going around the ring keeping everybody's beer glass full. The advantage of a small juice glass of beer is lost when it is refilled six times. As well as our table of 20 there were four other tables of about 15 people each consisting of various church officials and hospital officials.

We have met and gotten to like the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, a young minister from Vienna Austria, the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of NE India and various other church folks. At the opening ceremonies today we sat with Rev. Dr. Ted Siverns and his wife from the PCC. He is teaching at the seminary in Tainan.

Posted by Scott

It's Fun To Stay at the YMCA....

I promised my friends at the Y a picture of our hotel. It has been wonderful so far, very simple and clean. We are on the 5th floor and below us is one of the busiest sections of Taipei, all the night eating places, are in this area. I don't think that will keep us awake tonight, we are dead tired. We did a little walk around this area with Sidney and it is amazing, true culture shock. Thousands of scooters, people, eating places. Oh yes, and I must tell you about the stinky tofu. They brew the stuff right across the road and if there was a way we could capture the scent and send it to you we would. We asked Sidney what it is really called and he said smelly tofu. It really does stink.


Tomorrow we head to the south of Taiwan on a bullet train (300 kph) with 7 other people attending the same conference. Sidney should have told us it was bring your own chopsticks, and forks aren't provided. We practiced tonight with beef noodle soup.

As I am writing this we are listening to a huge choir of youth from the US practice here in the hotel, it has been lovely.

Anne

Pilgrimage again

I guess this is pilgrimage. I looked it up in the Oxford Dictionary before I left my office but I won't give their definition here. It tells what the word is. It doesn't tell what the pilgrim feels. (Of course, that's what a dictionary is supposed to do.) PIlgrimage is, to me, a journey to something holy. Holy is subjective, I'm sure and the dictionary has a entry for that word too so let me just offer that holy is something touched by God.

To me, notwhithstanding planned visits to religous sites and spiritual places there is a God touch in this journey because of the focus on meeting with a good friend. If it were not for Sidney Chang being in Taiwan we would not be on this journey. To see him and spend time with him is a God-touched thing for us to do.

Thirteen hours on a plane to travel 10,000 kms from Toronto to Seoul and then another two and a half hours to Taipei and travel time with friend Bryan Barbour and Mum and Dad and visit with Dan and Petra - well, lots of stuff to make this a pilgrimage.

And then a nine hour wait in the Seoul airport for connecting - Oh the places we'll go and oh the waiting we'll do to get there. But tonight has wrapped itself up with a successful destination of Taipei, a friendly afternoon with Sidney and a minister from India and what has to be an authentic Taiwanese greasy spoon dinner around the corner from our hotel.

Pilgrimage again.

Scott