Neighborhood Theft

Usually I lower my steel door around 9:00 pm and sometimes well before, just like most of my other neighbors in this agricultural village. Last night, because I got home later, I didn’t lower it until well afer 12.

Unknown to me,  directly across the street at approximately 11:00 pm, a crime took place. My neighbor’s truck, filled with stereo and electronics equipment which he uses for his job every week, was hot-wired and vanished. Another neighbor noticed the truck was gone around 2:00 am when he got up to go to the bathroom. Although my door was still up, I wasn’t on the first floor to have noticed the crook, as I’m sure he or they were careful to check out ahead of time.

A little over two years ago during the noon siesta I saw a stranger across the street just sort of standing there. I found out 2 hours later that a neighbor behind me had been robbed. The guy I saw must have been the watchman.

I didn’t find out about today’s heist until this evening, when I had a chance to listen and console my saddened neighbor, who spent the whole night driving around western Yunlin county hoping he might come across his truck. Sure hope he finds his stuff, as I’m sure this is a huge unexpected loss he cannot afford. I’ve gotten lax the last few months in not locking the cars I’m watching over with their steering wheel locks in addition to the regular alarms… they’re back on and secured tonight!

“Them”

This past week while reading Paul Hiebert’s  discussion of peasant worldviews in his book Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change, I was reminded of a numbing truth I feel from time to time in our village here: “Although individuals and groups of people who come from outside and pass through the village may participate in its life, they remain “others” or “them.” (p. 126).

While traditional society here has and continues to be affected by modernity, postmodernity, and “glocalization”, I still often feel very much like a “them” here. For example, I am often welcomed “to go drink tea” according to the culture’s code of hospitality. And when the Mid-Autumn or Chinese New Year comes, invitations to join others often come as well. Sadly though, due to cultural, lingusitic, and faith differences, at other times the feeling of distance and disconnection from the community feels so palpable you could cut it with a knife. For example, the other day I was riding my scooter around town to visit folks and felt a little discouraged as to how few folks I could really call friends here, although I have many acquaintances.  After three years!

God encouraged me when I parked by the phone company to change my service. Just as I was getting off my scooter, a mother and her two children also parked to go in to pay their bill. Just this past Sunday, that same mother and two children had walked unexpectedly in the front door of our office to attend our small group. The previous day, the two children had attended the Children's English Club for the first time. In the small group, the mother shared her open-mindedness to the Christian faith, and asked us to pray for her husband, who is suffering from cirrhosis and some other serious health issues. So I was reminded once again that even though we don’t have that many close friends here, the Great Physician indeed is still subtly at work behind the scenes introducing spiritual, emotional, and physical healing to those of us who are sick and in need of a doctor.

Introducing the Formosan Golden Bat

A mere four kilometers from my front door down a less-travelled country road which passes briefly through Water Forest Township on the way to Northport lies a tiny hamlet named Sucin village.

The village had a few murals painted in the last few years:

 

But today the reason for my stopping briefly on my way to conduct business at the bank in Northpoint was to see the village’s Formosan golden bats (金黃鼠耳蝠), which I only heard about yesterday despite the fact that I’ve lived here 3 years.  That’s because I don’t always pay good attention to my surroundings when I’m driving through (preferring to listen to my audiobooks!), and I’ve missed the story each time it’s been broadcast on the TV news.

The Formosan golden bats live within the walls of an elementary school I often pass by. The word pun in the directional mural above associates  幸福 with  幸蝠. In Western society, bats are often associated with evil. But in Chinese society, the character for blessing  福 sounds just like the character  for bat 蝠, so bats might be taken by some (especially enterprising businesspeople) as a sign of blessing. I still wouldn’t want one living in my house!

Even with the help of the staff there, I was only able to detect a few of the small golden bats (they appeared from a distance to be smaller than the palm of my hand). This time of the year most of them have already scattered (plus, today the weather, influenced by  tropical storm Lion Rock, has caused them to hide).

Finally, I should  add that at the end of last year a small but very colorful and respectable museum opened inside the side door of the school property. My hosts were very hospitable!

I am told the ideal time for viewing the most bats together inside the schoolyard is around Mother’s Day. What an ideal date for the mothers among our international workers who live in the area to go out on with their husbands!

Around that time, the bats should look something like this, all clumped together like fruit on a tree (mmmm, delicious!):

Check it out if you happen to be in the Northpoint (BeiGang) area of Yunlin County around that time.

Early Christian Influence on Asian Buddhism

This past weekend an acquaintance in the community I was visiting with our intern equated the Christian faith with the West in at least two negative statements he made. The implication was that it isn't an Asian faith. I corrected him by stating that Christianity in fact originated in the East, but I don't think that fact sunk in.

In "The Lost History of Christianity", Philip Jenkins highlights the forgotten history of the early Asian church. He also shares the following anecdote. In 782 the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in the Chinese imperial capital of Chang'an, but was unable to translate the Sanskrit sutras he brought along with him due to having limited Chinese. No problem... just ask the local indigenous Christians for help!

The Christian bishop Adam, himself an Asian and whose name heads the list on the Nestorian monoment, had already translated parts of the Bible into Chinese. Either out of intellectual curiosity or from ecumenical goodwill, he helped this Buddhist missionary with his translation. Japanese monks in Chang'an at this time took these very translations back with them to Japan, where they became the founding texts of the two great Buddhist schools Shingon and Tendai which influenced all the famous Buddhist movements of later Japanese history. Scholars still speculate whether Adam either subconsciously or consciously worked Christian concepts into the translated sutras. (Jenkins, p. 16)

First Day of Ghost Month

The seventh month of the lunar calendar, also known as “Ghost Month,” began today.

People immersed in  local Taiwanese folk religion believe that on the first day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the gates of hell are opened for one month, allowing spirits imprisoned in the ten halls of hell (18 levels sort of like purgatory) out for a vacation as they wander to and fro in the physical world.

Our “Peace Truck” hit the street about 9:45 am. It also offers a prayer hotline for situations both related and not related to ghost month. May God in His wisdom use the music and spoken words to set up divine appointments which lead to peace, wholeness, healing, and deliverance.  

We had some outside help from interested acquaintances in the community this time around. First, a friend from the community with whom we maintain a cordial relationship lent her voice for part of the recording. Second, the man from the advertising company felt our poster did not have an acceptably-high pixel density. So he took the initiative of having his junior higher put another one together for us. While I  prefer our original design better (the picture of Jesus with the lambs is too traditional for my taste), the text, telephone number, etc. are much more visible on his. In the end, for the sake of cordial relationships and not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, I mixed them up, with his on the left and front, and ours on the back and right. May God use both of them!

For the other poster, and text published previously, etc. click here. Also, here’s a video of this morning’s action if anyone cares to watch: