Scooter Helmet Regulation Enforcement

Some years before I arrived on the scene in Taiwan in 1997, helmet regulations were already in effect for scooter drivers in urban centers. However, when I moved to the countryside a little over 2 years ago, a different world awaited me. Probably less than 1 in 10 of the local population bother wearing helmets. The local police force turn a blind eye. The epitome and funniest example for me of law infringement these past two years has been a friendly local village head, who drives around the community every day waving and saying hello to everyone wearing only his baseball cap for cranial protection.

The last two days pressure finally came down from county or national government officials to enforce the helmet regulations. Today in the daytime I saw several people driving around as usual without their helmets, but this time police cars were out in number on the streets to take the pictures of those not wearing helmets as their scooters passed by. Many of the scooter riders had no idea they were being photographed. One of my neighbors was busted. Tonight they had roadblocks set up on the road between townships to catch people unawares as they drove by.

Whether this will end within a day or two  (as these kind of law enforcement campaigns often seem to do in Taiwan), or if this is finally the end for not wearing a helmet in this countryside corner, only time will tell. Stay tuned!

Update on Yesterday’s Quakes

True to my experience, the newspaper says yesterday evening’s earthquake was the biggest in that region in 10 years.

Sandstorms and Earthquakes

It's been an interesting week of experiencing Mother Nature in south-central Taiwan.

First, on Monday morning we experienced a sandstorm with typhoon-force winds (I should mention that all the sand and dust were just local -- not from mainland China-- due to the lack of rain here in months). It lasted from around 5:00 am or earlier to late in the night, and spread thick layers of dust inside all homes, schools, and businesses. The old timers I consulted all say it was the first time in their lives here they've experienced anything like it.

Secondly, just now as I was driving back from Taichung I felt two sizable earthquakes centered in Nantou County, exactly where I happened to be driving at the time! As I was heading south on the freeway, I had just adjusted my seat when the car lurched to the left and right. I was lucky I didn't lose control. At the time I wondered if something was wrong with my steering wheel or if the chair adjustment had sent me lurching unknowingly. Only when I got home did I learn from a neighbor it was an earthquake. According to the National Weather Bureau website, it was a 6 in magnitude located off the closest exit to my position.

About an hour later I was stopped at a drive-in window of a fastfood restaurant when an aftershock hit. Again, it was a sizaeable earthquake, a 5.7--- definitely the biggest I've felt here personally since 921 back in '99. According to the website, there have already been 6 aftershocks since the initial quake in just 3 hours.

Abba Father Speaks

Last week a teacher at a local junior high school asked me how I know it when God is speaking to me. I proceeded to share two stories when I felt God had specifically spoken through somewhat amazing (to me, anyway) circumstances.

Far more often, however, I find God speaks when I stumble across the same biblical truth – whether arcane or obvious -- “coincidentally” placed in two or three seemingly unrelated environments. For example, once a few years back a pastor friend first heard me and then two other people who don’t even know each other all share from the same rarely heard passage in the book of Ezekiel, all within a couple weeks of each other. Do you think God might have been trying to communicate something through that passage?

Being dull-witted, I have to be lovingly batted over the head like this sometimes in order for God to get my attention as well. Anyway, earlier this week He did. This past Sunday I visited a local church in which the pastor’s wife spoke about the glory of God. When the bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” what is meant by the glory of God? As God’s children progress down the road of sanctification, dealing with the root sin issues in our lives, we give more and more glory to Him. We reflect the character and glory of the Father as we grow in intimacy with Him.

How do we succeed in this journey? The key, according to the speaker that day, is remaining in the love of the Father, going back always and repeatedly every day throughout the day to the love which the Father has for us. One practical way the speaker said we should do this is by addressing our prayers not to “God” (general term 神), but always and only to “Abba Father”.

I mentioned this last point about praying exclusively to “Abba Father” the next day to a coworker, who without knowing the context strongly objected. 

Amazing! Later that same day as I was passing time on the train, I tuned in randomly to one of many downloaded sermon podcasts stored in my mp3 player. Ten minutes into his message, the speaker said the only time he recalled Jesus praying to “God” was in the moment of His greatest separation from Abba Father as He hung dying for us on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34, see also Psalm 22:1). You can listen to that powerful segment below or the entire message here.

How did Jesus instruct us to pray in the first line of the Lord’s prayer? Anyway, that’s one way Abba Father has spoken to me so far this week.

Hanging Clothes out at Night

In an earlier post I shared about the local belief of how to dispose of dead dogs and cats.

Recently a coworker here in the Taiwanese countryside heard about a superstition forbidding whistling at night. I tried to confirm it the other night when a young boy was visiting, but he didn’t seem to have anything against whistling, even suddenly doing so himself. However, earlier the same evening when he started to tell me a story which involved the Chinese word for “death” or “die”, he interrupted himself in mid-sentence saying it was best not to use that word after dark.

This kind of fear doesn’t end with children scared about ghosts. This week I learned from others that here locally there’s a tradition which speaks against leaving your clothes hanging at out night: they will attract the ghosts roaming aimlessly outside who are looking for clothes to wear! And then there’s the one about not ringing a bell outside at night or playing a flute. They will attract ghosts in the same manner as the Pied Piper attracted rats. These are real concerns here in the Taiwanese countryside.