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