I have been blessed to be a missioner serving Taiwan and the Church of the Good Shepherd for the 2006/2007 church year. There are as many missionaries as there are imaginable ways to serve. Some literally help build the Church for decades as missionaries embedded in the local culture and society, some work on a specific project for a few years, some are sent for one year and some for just one week. I have been with the Church in Taiwan for one amazing year with the sense that my ministry has been one of coming along side and walking with the Church here. In doing so, I have been blessed to be a visible and tangible sign that the Church of Taiwan is an essential part of the worldwide body of Christ. As Saint Paul said, we just can’t say to one part of the body, “you’re not so important”. And while most of you are saying (or should be saying), “well, duh!” it is important that we affirm this idea in word and deed. However we do this we can be sure that we will be blessed in the process because we will be caught up in the mysterious activity and action of the Holy Spirit as She completes the prayer of Jesus that we all may be one.
During my ministry in Taiwan I’ve had the privilege of getting “caught up” in a little bit of everything. I taught English to kindergarten kids, coordinated ministries for the English congregation, team-led a student outreach program, led the “English Camp” class on Saturday mornings, served as English coordinator at the diocesan office, helped lead summer camps and many, many other things. In looking back I see how God led me, through opportunity after opportunity, to see how and what the Church is doing. I learned not only how the Church works, but how I work as well. In this process I have felt a strong sense of being a part of God’s work in the Church in the world.
In other places I’ve talked about the experience of trying to learn Chinese. I would not now say that I can speak the language, but the process has been very interesting and a lot of fun. It’s been interesting because I see now more than ever that language is absolutely all about people. Absent people, language is dead – merely meaningless sounds. In spite of the fact that my Taiwanese friends’ English in not like mine and my Chinese is elementary at best, we’re still able to communicate with a depth and richness. Somehow a new language, all our own, develops. This new language is guided and formed by the relationship itself, a mutual love and commitment to the other. I think living the life of Faith and being in relationship with the family of God is also like this. As we learn to speak the “language of God” our relationships with each other and with God grow in depth and richness. As I prepare for my return to the US I am left with this reflection repeating and replaying in my head and in my heart. I return home with the significant sense that I have been changed by this holy conversation.
5/3/07 -
What can I say that sums up my experience of the last month or so? How has God been present to me and how have I struggled to see where he is working? Now my experience serving here is half over and the next phase of life is coming into full view and I find this brings with it a joy and a sadness. These first six months have been about experimenting, making mistakes, finding successes and settling in. And now that I’m settled in, my eyes are pulled by some mysterious force toward Virginia. Yet I find myself not less present, but more present in everything I do. I find that God is calling me into a kind of spiritual poverty defined by a complete dependence on him. This sounds very churchy, but I think it means that the broken pieces of our selves, our fractured lives, our pain and our weaknesses become the basis and the foundation for a real and pure joy from God. In American culture there is a belief system that says if you don’t respect yourself nobody else will, there’s no free lunch, God helps those who help themselves and so on. These sayings, in and of themselves are not untrue, they have helped to create self-reliant, successful people. But Jesus seems to be saying that the poor are blessed. I think this is because the poor are less confused about from where their help comes. I find that when I admit the reality of my weaknesses I can move more quickly into the strength of God’s love. It is precisely in this movement that I think the Christian faith becomes relevant. From this point of view I don’t ask God how I can change the world for him, but how he can change me so I truly become his hands and feet, at his disposal for whatever and wherever he calls me. This always begins in the knowing of my value being rooted in God himself.
How do these reflections fit in with my experience in Taiwan? I think the culture here has helped me to see that I’m not that important. Humility is one of the central virtues of the Chinese. Self promotion is not necessary, nor is self-hatred. If you do something stupid, remember you are not that important, your real value is not determined by that mistake, it is rooted in God. If you do something worthy of praise, remember you are not that important, you have a greater value rooted in God. Discovering and rediscovering this kind of spiritual poverty, I believe, is at the center of the life of faith. It is our anchor and the wellspring of true joy.
I pray that being rooted in the love of God we may all experience the joy and freedom he has designed for us from the beginning, and that we will seek to proclaim this freedom to all as we are led by Christ in the world. Amen.
12/19/06 –
It's been an exciting past 30 days or so. I launched an "English camp", visited a tea farm, introduced a new bible study approach, started Chinese lessons, flew to Hong Kong, drank tea with police officers, hiked the mountains at Oo-li, honed my lesson plans, scripted & directed a telling of Jesus' calling the first disciples and welcomed the new English Chaplin to Good Shepherd (though not exactly in that order).
Last week's English camp was not actually a camp in the traditional sense; there were no sleeping bags, no campfires and no cabins. We put together a series of fun English language lessons, songs, games and activities for youth and young adults in the Shilin neighborhood. For a couple hours a night over four days we had our "camp". This was/is a great evangelism tool because it brings together English language learning, youth group-like fun and the gospel message. I prepared a series of bible studies focused around our theme "Hello-Win" (a play on Halloween). The central question was "how can we be our best". The central answer was "by knowing who loves us (Jesus) we can be our best". Our bible studies centered on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This dovetailed nicely with our church being The Church of the Good Shepherd!
The English camp was a success, but it wasn't well attended. I believe this had something to do with my unexpected trip to Hong Kong the week the camp was originally scheduled. Normally you can extend your visitor visa "in country" before you are required to leave Taiwan. This is what I planned to do until I learned that I had been stuck with a "P" on my visa. This means that the intention of your visit to Taiwan is to "visit family". This was never my intention, but this was the status I got stuck with. The long and the short of it is that I was denied an extention while in the country. So, we pushed back the English camp one week and I flew to Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong I attempted to change the "P" status of my visa but again was denied. Rather that apply for a resident visa we decided to stick with what I have. I returned to Taiwan in 2 days and entered the country with no problems.
Hong Kong is a beautiful city. I took the time to have a look around and even went on a tour. I am hoping in future visits to connect with the Episcopal Church of Hong Kong and possibly do some part time ministry there.
You may be wondering where and how it was that i was drinking tea with police officers. I assure you, I wasn't in any trouble! Last Saturday after the English camp wrapped up I went with a missionary friend to Oo-li. Oo-li is a local mountain town about an hour outside of Taipei. Its mostly know for its natural hot springs, but we were there to hike in the beautiful sub-tropical mountains. Many aboriginal Taiwanese live in this town and my friend, a long term Presbyterian missionary who for many years worked with the aboriginal Taiwanese, occasionally preaches at the Presbyterian church there. Over the years he's developed quite a relationship with the police, so, while we were in Oo-li it was quite natural to drop in on them. John speaks perfect Mandarin and I speak survival Mandarin. Needless to say, he did most of the talking, though I was able to eek out phases like "I speak a little Chinese" and "my name is Drew". We made small talk for about 20 minutes, or 3-4 cups of tea, and then headed for the trailhead of our hike. We got a police escort.
Every Thursday we have our youth group/youth outreach night. Last Thursday I created a little drama from Luke chapter 5:1-11. It was my first time "directing" anything. I enjoyed getting the youth involved and having them act out the story rather than just read it and talk about it. It also gave me ideas about what I can do differently to make it better.
