Last Friday I rode 6 hours from Nebraska to visit friends here in Charles City and Nashua, Iowa. Last year and on several other previous occasions, they visited us in Taiwan.
Last year back in Taiwan my neighbor and friend Mr. Ding had drawn and presented this picture of a dragon to Sheila. She and her husband since purchased a box for it and put it on the shelf in their house in Iowa.
Also last night, we passed by the famous country church below.
Tomorrow, westward to Lincoln, Nebraska!
Yesterday afternoon my new friend Steve took me around with his brother and son while they moved cattle from one field to another.
On the third trip, they moved two bulls.
Back at the farm, these calves had just been weaned from their mothers a few days previously.
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In the evening I had another chance to share at the church again. People asked lots of good questions.
The friendly folks here in Brunswick, Nebraska (population 129) have put me up for my 4 day visit in a lovely cabin by a pond on remote private property…
It’s a little too chilly fo sliding down the sliding board, using the diving board, or for swimming, but I’ve enjoyed walking around.
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I woke up Sunday to a dozen or so wild turkeys. There are also deer and blue heron to be admired from the comfort of the front porch, dozens of easily-spotted trout in the creek just behind the cabin, as well as the beautiful starry nighttime sky far clearer than any I’ve observed for several years.
To top it all off, earlier Monday evening before rushing off for an appointment I enjoyed pulling in three good-size largemouth bass-- 2 of which pulled on the reel’s drag--- all within a half hour!
Early Tuesday morning I caught 4 more nice ones—in just a 20 minute span!
Sunday I had the privilege of sharing three times about Taiwan. Though there were no meetings Monday, I enjoyed getting together with two couples for good meals and conversations. Meetings are on for both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. A great start to tour so far!
A few days ago I finished listening/reading to The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. While overall just an average, common sense read, the chapter about Habits of Societies: How Movements Happen stuck out to me. This chapter first shares the story of Rick Warren planting Saddleback Church. It then traces the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement by telling the story of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the recruitment and involvement of Martin Luther King, Jr in all this.
As the bus boycott expanded from a few days to two months, the commitment and enthusiasm of the local black community surrounding the young Dr. King began to fade. But one evening a bomb explosion in front of the Kings’ house galvanized the community and its extended web of relationships, transforming it almost overnight into a self-organizing movement learning and implementing new habits. They began to take greater ownership of their movement.
According to the author, movements don’t emerge because everyone suddenly decides to face the same direction at once. They rely on social patterns that begin as the habits of friendship, grow through the habits of communities, and are sustained by new habits that change participants’ sense of self. (p. 244)
As I reflect on this statement in relation to my work the last five years as a church planter amongst the traditionally conservative working class peoples living along Taiwan’s western coastal plain in south-central Taiwan I can make the following observations:
1. We have correctly been prioritizing relationships and relation-building. We’ve gotten to know a number of people and while perhaps not all that many are true friends, we do have many acquaintances.
2. We have seen limited success thus far in empowering our small church community take ownership of the work. Like Dr. King who wrote in the days leading up to the pivotal bomb blast: “Complaints began to rise. From early morning to late at night my telephone rang and my doorbell was seldom silent. I began to have doubts about the ability of the Negro community to continue the struggle.” Likewise, we've been seeing people renege on commitments we thought they had already made to Christ. We have yet to see phenomenal success in helping our friends to establish new habits of faith.
In his book Career-Defining Crises in Mission, Paul Keidel writes of the believers who endured persecution in the early church: “Their faith belonged to them and no one could take it away. Their believe was so real that it fit in the culture through their habits. (italics added). May God’s Spirit continue to lead and to guide along the western coastal plain of south-central Taiwan.
This afternoon I drove with my mom and dad and nephew over to Fort Ritchie, Maryland, where my dad served as garrison commander from 1988-1990. The army military installation was decommissioned in 1998 and very little has been done since in terms of redevelopment.
Although I lived in North Carolina and New York the 5 or 6 years my folks were associated with Fort Ritchie, I always enjoyed visiting. The scenery was and still is gorgeous!
Weeds and vines have overtaken the house, which hasn’t been lived in for at least a decade. The once closely-cut grass is now several feet high, providing cover for neighborhood deer, such as the three we surprised today:
“The Castle” which served as my dad’s office is still around:
Late 80’s:
Today:
Late 80’s:
Today:
