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