Singing Competition

Yesterday the community sponsored a Folk Custum Cultural Festival on the plaza in front of the local temple. In addition to drums, “country technique”, and many other performances put on by children and adults, there was a lottery in the evening in which lots of prizes were given away, including a half dozen or so bicycles and a large flat screen HD TV (I noticed the crowd was 10 times larger when they had the drawing than it was earlier in the afternoon!).

However, I went over there in the afternoon and once again in the evening not for these, but to watch parts of two rounds of the singing competition in which two acquaintances of mine participated. “Benz”, who I’ve written about before and is one of my earliest acquaintances here, came in 2nd place for the 2nd year in a row. Congratulations again this year, Benz!

The New Children of Taiwan

Earlier today I saw this link about families of foreign wives here in Taiwan as posted by OMF Field Director Phil Nicholson on his facebook page. As our bookkeeper/secretary said this past Sunday in small group, it is no longer appropriate to call them, in either English or Chinese, "foreign brides" since so many of them have lived here so long already.

Many places I have been recently (field directors' meeting from earlier in the month, mission prayer meeting, various other conversations) I'm hearing people talk about this-- even more than before. The 60+ children who participate in ShuiLin Presbyterian Church's tutoring and outreach programs 15 minutes down the road are almost exclusively from foreign bride Taiwanese families. How might God be wanting to love the so-called "new children of Taiwan" (xin taiwan zhizi) and mixed marriage families, and use them to subversively transform Taiwan's worldview to a Christian worldview from the inside-out (Paul Hiebert, Transforming Worldviews)? How might we move in line with Him in our church planting projects to accomplish this very purpose?

Moon Festival Truck

Mid-Autumn Festival Truck Campaign

 

After having prayerfully planned for quite sometime, last month I decided that the timing was not right for another truck campaign so closely on the heels of our last one. Anyway, according to three Taiwanese Christian friends, my desire to connect the Moon Festival with psalm 8 from the bible didn’t connect  well with the traditional Taiwanese understanding of the Moon (aka Mid-Autumn) Festival. This includes the goddess in the moon and a rabbit making medicine in the moon, along with the idea of family reunions. So I dropped the idea without regret.

However, three weeks ago an elderly lady who lived next door to the office suddenly passed away peacefully in her sleep one night. We had just seen her taking her typical strolls up and down the street the previous couple of days. She and her grandson,a frequent participant in our Saturday afternoon English Club, had posed with Santa when we offered photos last Christmas and delivered them in January:

Also, our intern had prayed with her about a physical infirmity last year, and finally, as I reviewed a recording of our Easter truck broadcast from this past spring, I  noticed that she appears across the street from the truck at the end:

Could it be that somehow the little snippet she overheard that day led her to a hope in Jesus, who overcame the grave? One can hope.

Anyway, last week was an extremely slow week in the office with apparently nothing big about to materialize on the horizon administratively to occupy my time. At that time I believe God spoke to me that, within the limited range of things I am able to do at the present time, He wants me to stay on target. It was after all well within the purpose for Him bringing me here in the first place to go ahead with another truck ad! What was that purpose which I believe he had for my life here before I got here? “To move out, minister, and multiply the grace of God.” Anyway, what better way to do that with an upbeat, mobile truck campaign?

I got back to the drawing board, and in spite of what turned out to be an unexpectedly busy week on several other fronts, was able by God’s grace (and a little help from friends and from the advertising company) to quickly churn out in a matter of hours the poster above as well as the following poster and recording clip:

The lyrics for the portion of the song by Heavenly Melody singers, for which we obtained copyright permission today, goes something like this:

“Moon! Please tell me what my life is all about. Sometimes it feels complete, and other times scanty. Spring and fall come and go, sometimes feeling complete, and other times scanty… “

Then there’s a greeting from our church wishing everyone a Happy Moon Festival. And finally, our own translation of psalm 8 in colloquial Taiwanese, since there is none presently published we can use (the bible society here is in the process of doing a modern translation of the Old Testament, but it is not yet available):

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Weather permitting, this will go out into two townships next Tuesday and Wednesday. May God use this feeble imperfect effort.

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!