‘As we prepare our hearts and minds to welcome Christ in this season of Advent, we are called, in turn, to “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you.” The deep truth of Welcome is seeing the other, and Jesus modeled this way of seeing for us. He paid attention to what was going on around him, especially those people he encountered daily. Jesus saw the other with a heart of love, compassion, and forgiveness, and he invites us to do the same. Deep holy hospitality requires intentionality, and we bear witness to God’s grace when we seek to welcome the stranger, the “other” among us, with the eyes and heart of Jesus.’ (Mary Foster Parmer)
Adulis Eritrean Restaurant, Brixton Road, London is a great place to visit. ‘Injera with Tsebhi (Stew) is one of the main traditional foods in Eritrean cuisine. Injera, also called Taita, is leavened pancake made with sourdough of Taff flour, hence the tangy flavour. Tsebhi is mainly prepared with beef, chicken, mutton or vegetables. As well as Tsebhi, Eritrean cuisine comprises of a variety of vegetarian dishes. Eating involves tearing off pieces of injera and wrapping it around portions of tsebhi to form a helping – each helping is handled with the hand without the use of any cutlery.’
With so many asylum seekers and refugees from Eritrea arriving in the UK, we pray that they may find here a warm welcome, loving communities and kind-hearted people.
This past week, August 8-14, has been National Afternoon Tea Week, held in the second week of August each year ~ and yesterday I was delighted to be invited to a very special Afternoon Tea Party. It was amazing!
And all very delicious! We had sausage rolls and plenty of homemade sandwiches, homemade scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, homemade strawberry cream cakes, and of course lots of cups of tea.
Actually I only found out about the existence of ‘National Afternoon Tea Week’ a few days ago, through a Facebook post by the UK Government’s ‘British Office’ in Taiwan which explained it all in Chinese to encourage Taiwan people to take part – saying that hotels and restaurants give special offers to attract customers this week to afternoon tea parties.
While the afternoon tea is important, the setting is too. This was ours…
Sundial or not, whatever time it is, it’s always suitable for afternoon tea. So if you’ve missed Afternoon Tea Week 2022, then don’t despair. It’s always time for afternoon tea!
Today, Friday, June 3, is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it’s Dragon Boat Festival! And we have a day off to celebrate, yippee! The dragon boats were racing today in Taipei – what I like better is the large dragon made from rice plants growing along the river in Guandu, Taipei ~ it’s quite amazing….
It’s also the Queen’s Jubilee in the UK ~ but here in Taiwan we’re celebrating Dragon Boat Festival, mostly by eating and giving zongzi in large quantities. Zongzi are sticky rice dumplings made in a triangular shape, with a variety of fillings, meat, eggs, peanuts, etc and steamed or boiled, depending on where the zongzi are from. They’re wrapped in bamboo leaves, and tied up in string, served warm…
Our church and chaplaincy here at St. John’s University and Advent Church have been giving out 3 zongzi to each of our students who receive meal coupons. Here’s our team busy packing them up a few days ago…
Because the rice is sticky and glutinous, people say not to eat too many at once! One is enough, and they’re really delish!
The other activities today are temple parades and bai-bai offerings at family shrines, and balancing eggs at 12 noon. Check out the traditions in this article here. Lots of activities are of course canceled due to the pandemic. We’re in the middle of a big surge of Omicron that took off just after Easter. This time, the government has decided not to lock down but instead to open up, and to use this as a way of moving from a policy of Zero-Covid, which we’ve been following until now, to Living with Covid. For about the last 2 weeks, we’ve had about 80,000 – 90,000 new cases every day (though with lower numbers recorded every weekend), with 90-145 deaths each day. The numbers are expected to peak soon – actually they’re already going down in Taipei, but still going up in the south. Life is still going along, work continues for most people as normal, but schools have been closed for a week or more, set to reopen in the next week. Restaurants have been badly hit, with far fewer people eating out, and the Metro is on a reduced service. Good job summer is coming, and we can get out and about more. The plum rainy season is still with us, once it’s over, then temperatures are set to rise, and summer will officially be here. It’s gonna be hot in those facemasks! Get ready everyone, things are heating up!
And let’s celebrate the traditional American way, which includes turkey ~ so these are our Thanksgiving Turkeys, made last Friday at Xingren Elementary School, each child writing what they are thankful for – photos supplied by the school. Just in time for Thanksgiving on Thursday November 25.
This may be the first time I’ve ever really taught anything about Thanksgiving, but it’s on the curriculum for English classes in Taiwan’s elementary schools, and I am helping out with some classes once a month, so here we go! This is possibly my favourite…
Actually, Halloween is also on the curriculum, but I am distinctly less keen on celebrating that – so for October’s class on Halloween we focused on ‘What are you afraid of?’ which included everything from cockroaches to ghosts, from earthquakes to Covid-19, followed by ‘What do you do when you’re afraid?’, which included hiding under the table in an earthquake – holding onto a table leg, running away from fierce dogs, asking for help, being brave, and even maybe praying ~ as appropriate. It all fits very nicely with the well-practiced earthquake drills and pandemic precautions that are now part of daily life. And we finished with a traditional but pandemic-friendly Halloween game of stacking cups…
As you will see from the photos above, facemasks are compulsory all day and every day, though we are allowed to take them off for photos. Apart from a few old Covid-19 cases that have resurfaced when the person went to be tested for travel overseas or a hospital stay, Taiwan has actually not had any domestic Covid-19 cases now for about 2 months, so that is good news. Most days, the figures are about 8-10 imported cases, no domestic cases, no deaths. Border controls continue to be very strict, with 2 weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival in separate rooms (even if you’re a couple), followed by a week of self-health management at home. Some modifications are being made to cope with the thousands expected home to celebrate Chinese New Year, they’ll be allowed to do their second week of quarantine at home, but with huge fines promised to any who break the rules. Meanwhile vaccinations continue apace, and our students are now in the middle of receiving their second dose.
Local seaside at St. John’s University
Earlier this month, we made our first visit since May to the international students at Chung-Chou University in central Taiwan for a service. They’re from Uganda and Eswatini, and during the Level 3 Restrictions in the summer, they were grounded for several months in the factories where they work part-time earning their school fees. While all the girls still look the same, the boys are definitely fatter than I remember them ~ no exercise for months! After the service we usually have pizza, and they said they’re really enjoying eating something different – and how much they appreciate their classes now that they’re in-person once again.
You can see from the photo that the students are all wrapped up, even though for me, coming from north Taiwan, it actually felt very warm that day. It’s autumn, and the weather fluctuates almost daily from hot to cold, wet to dry. On Saturday, and in fact every Saturday for the past month, it’s been rainy, foggy and windy. These were the autumn leaves up in the mountains this past Saturday, wet but very beautiful….
Today, Monday, it is again driving rain and wind, with temperatures dropping by the minute, forecast to be 13°C by tomorrow. But yesterday was a day of hot, sunny weather, 30°C! I was doing the sermon at the English service at St. John’s Cathedral, Taipei followed by doughnuts and Bible Study, then decided to cycle home by You Bike – 35km along a very meandering river path, past some new street art and all the way to Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf…
I also stopped off at the Guandu Flower Fields en route. These are normally rice fields but the government pays the farmers to grow flowers during the autumn instead of a second crop of rice, and then they open the area to the public. There were thousands of people at the flower fields, on the bicycle paths, at the beach, everywhere.
We’ve also had some beautiful sunsets, this one taken a few weeks ago in Tamsui of the statue of Rev. George L. MacKay (1844-1901), Taiwan’s most famous missionary, at the place where he landed in Taiwan in 1871, with his Bible and doctor’s bag…
Also the Shezi Bridge, Taipei…
And 2 more local sunsets, taken down at our beach….
And in-between times, we’ve had all sorts of celebration meals! In Taichung, my good friend Miao-Shia and her sister, Shu-Miao have moved to a new home, and invited me there to celebrate. The food was so amazing, all home-cooked! Interestingly, Shu-Miao was working in Uganda these past 2 years with Sudanese refugees, and the lady in Uganda who helped process their visas etc is the aunt of one of the students at Chung-Chou University who always comes to our services ~ so when Shu-Miao came home earlier in the year, she brought him back a gift from his aunt. Small world!
Then, Bishop Chang hosted our October Birthday Lunch at the diocesan office, at which we celebrated Ethan’s 2nd birthday and Jian-Jia’s 60th….
And in November, we celebrated Hsiao-Yen’s 60th birthday, also at the diocesan office….
And to bring it full circle, our good friends Sheerah, Yu-Wei, Ethan and Eva invited me last week ~ along with newly-married Yu-Lin and San-Yuan ~ to their home for a Malaysian meal in honour of Thanksgiving. Wow, it was so special!
Sheerah is from West Malaysia, so she cooked her hometown food while we entertained the kids. There was Uncle Wah chicken curry, stir-fried marinated pork strips, braised pork ribs with white radish, stir-fried vegetables and miso soup. Everything was oh so delicious!
Sheerah had ordered this amazing cake for dessert, ‘Sea salt cheese lava pandan cake 爆漿海鹽芝士奶蓋斑斕蛋糕’. The green pandan cake is Malaysia’s national cake, and with the sea salt cheese lava added, it was a delightful mix of sweet and savoury. Loved it!
What a great Thanksgiving Celebration, and we even had a turkey – but I’m holding it cos it kept falling off the wall!
Even if we’re not American, even if we don’t normally celebrate Thanksgiving, even if we’re adamant that turkeys are only for Christmas, hey really, what’s not to like? We can give thanks to God for family, friends, food, health and strength, and for Taiwan being relatively safe in this pandemic so that life can resume and go on. So much to give thanks for ~ not least for these bright yellow turkeys!
Chinese New Year (CNY) Celebrations for the Lunar New Year / Spring Festival have been going on non-stop all week here in Taiwan! There are mice and rat characters everywhere 🐭 🐀 and Mickey Mouse and his friends have never been more popular. Plus red lanterns galore 🏮🏮🏮….
However, the Taiwan News is dominated by wall-to-wall reporting of the Wuhan Coronavirus situation, which has created a lot of fear, particularly among those who have stayed at home over CNY and watched a lot of TV. We all remember the SARS outbreak in 2003, which the Taiwan government handled really well, but still, many have cancelled their travel plans and are avoiding large gatherings and public transport, and we’re all hoping that the situation does not get worse. There are quite a few suspected – and some confirmed – cases in Taiwan, but so far all remain contained. Kindergartens are back in action as from yesterday, state schools start on February 11. I’m here at St. James’ Kindergarten, Taichung, where all children and staff have their temps checked on entering the school, and everyone is wearing a face-mask and being extra-careful. Face-masks will be worn by all in our churches on Sunday too, and church activities limited for the next few weeks, just to be on the safe side.
But Taiwan people know the importance of celebrating the new year, and despite the concerns, we all had great CNY celebrations! On Chinese New Year’s Eve, I was invited by the Wang family from St. James’ Church, Taichung for their traditional family reunion dinner. Very honoured to sit next to Grandma Wang, aged 87, who kept us all entertained with stories of her early life and 20 years of living in Paraguay. And delicious food, as always – thank you!
Saturday January 25 was officially the first day of CNY, and my good friend A-Guan had invited me to join her on a 6-day road trip to southern and eastern Taiwan. None of her children wanted to go with us, so the two of us set off, in sunny weather heading south for Tainan, en route visiting all sorts of interesting sightseeing spots. First to Gukeng to the Pink Castle 古坑珍粉紅城堡, then to Rosahill, followed by some famous Gukeng coffee, and lastly to Wushantou Reservoir 烏山頭水庫 where it was overcast, but hey, it didn’t rain!
The Temple of Heaven at Wushantou Reservoir is being repaired, but it is modeled on the one in Beijing…. impressive eh?!
In Tainan, we were warmly welcomed by Rev. Philip J. L. Ho, his wife, their second son and his family, plus their daughter, all of whom had gathered for the CNY celebrations – actually his second son and family live very near me in Tamsui, ha ha! On Sunday we worshiped with the congregation at Grace Church, Tainan, and I was delighted to meet Rev. Samuel Liao and his family. We were all given red envelopes – as is the tradition, but instead of a token one dollar coin or chocolate money inside, we each received a new NT$ 100 note, plus a Bible verse. Mine was Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer 在盼望中要喜樂，在患難中要忍耐，禱告要恆切”. Thank you Grace Church!
After coffee time and a delicious Korean lunch, kindly hosted by Hsiu-Chin and her husband, we set off for Fengshan, Kaohsiung, where we were to be staying 2 nights with Ichen, our good friend from St. James – and her family. Once there though, it was such a beautiful day, that we couldn’t stay inside for long, and so we went by MRT along 3 stops to Weiwuying, Kaohsiung (still in Fengshan District), famous for it’s street art and wall murals, and the new state-of-the-art performing arts centre. I love Weiwuying – and there’s always new murals to look at – and this time a new multi-coloured seat to take photos on 🙃🙃 and hey, I met one of our church families from Advent Church, Tamsui visiting their family home in Fengshan for CNY!
On Monday, the weather forecast was good, but rain and cold were promised from Monday night onwards, so we needed to make the most of the sunny weather! A-Guan took us first to see the old iron-bridge 舊鐵橋 that used to link Kaohsiung to Pingtung across the Kaoping River 高屏溪, originally built to transport sugar. It was once the longest bridge in East Asia – built in 1914 in the Japanese Era. I loved it! The middle section was washed away in a typhoon some years ago, but much survives and is open to the public. The main train line crosses the river on a bridge close by. We also visited the nearby kiln and tile workshops, and in the afternoon we went to Pingtung to Liudui Hakka Park, plus other places – but there was a lot of traffic, everyone making the most of the fine weather!
On Monday evening, Rev. Lily Chang joined us, ready to leave bright and early on Tuesday morning. By 9:00 am, we were saying goodbye to Ichen and her family – they were so good to us, with delicious breakfasts and dinners, lively conversation and lots of laughs! We drove down the coast and over the mountains to Taitung – by the newly-opened road that goes through the tunnel – it’s great and saves a huge amount of time! We were heading for Bunun Village Farm 布農部落, our favourite place to stay in Taitung. This village project was started by Rev. K. S. Pai over 25 years ago, and is supported by many churches in Taiwan, with the aim of encouraging the local Bunun Indigenous people to remain in the area, rather than leaving for the cities in search of work. The village is a self-sustaining business with guest houses, restaurants, traditional dance performances, weaving, an organic farm and bamboo factory. We love it! We met Rev. Pai, who knows Bishop Lai and our former dean, Rev. Samuel Y. C. Lin from Tainan Theological College days – see the first photo below. I was very surprised to meet 4 Tanzanian students and one from Burundi, most on 4-month internships from Chang-Jung Christian University, Tainan studying Sustainable Development, sponsored by the Jane Goodall Institute 國際珍古德協會. Ah, it was nice to rekindle my Kiswahili!
The photo below left shows the very special traditional Bunun dinner we had on arrival – with millet wine in the bamboo holder ~ and A-Guan won a large glass of the same at the evening show!
On Wednesday, A-Guan took us all over Taitung, a huge circular tour – she really planned everything so well! We went to the local Farmer’s Association – famous for it’s rice products, to the Bunun Village in Haiduan 海端鄉 with its painted walls, to the Hakka Cultural Park and Dapo Lake, and then up to Fuli, Hualien County and over the long and very winding mountain road that led us down to the coast at Dulan 都蘭, famous for its Amis indigenous culture, elementary school bags (one recently spotted at the Paris Fashion Week), surf, old sugar factory turned into art space, and the new RC church. Phew, there was so much to see! And hey, it didn’t rain!
In Chishang 池上 we called in on Yihua and her husband to buy some of their delicious rice-cakes at their shop ‘池上樂米燒’ on the main street opposite the local government offices – they are church members originally from St. Paul’s, Kaohsiung and Grace Church, Tainan – and we also called there 2 years ago when they had just opened their business (see my blog post for that visit at CNY 2018 here). Yihua has a great testimony to share, as well as really yummy goodies to eat!
Our return to Taichung was Thursday, which was actually the return-to-work day for most people in Taiwan after the CNY holidays. We had an extra day, so we avoided the worst of the traffic. On the way, we stopped on the roadside to buy some of Taitung’s famous sugar / custard apples 釋迦 ….
And we also stopped at Dawu, south Taitung to see the painted walls and houses. Nearby is a relocated Paiwan Village built in cooperation with World Vision – the village was originally up in the mountains, but the destruction caused by Typhoon Morakot in 2009 meant they had to relocate to safer lands…
And so back to St. James’ Church, Taichung by 5:00 pm on Thursday evening, after a mega-trip. Grateful thanks to A-Guan, Lily, Ichen and her family, Rev. Philip Ho and family, and all who we met on the way! And thanks be to Almighty God for His many blessings, safety, good weather, friendly people, lots of laughs and tons of beautiful scenery!
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year of the 🐭🐀!
Yes, 3 more busy days out in the last 2 weeks visiting some wonderful places around northern Taiwan with our 18 lovely friends from Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who are here at St. John’s University as part of the “2019 Latin American and Caribbean Countries Vocational Training Project: Electrical and Electronic Engineering 拉丁美洲及加勒比海地區友邦技職訓練計畫-電機工程實務技術英語班”, in association with ‘TaiwanICDF‘.
Last Saturday off we went through the Xueshan Tunnel, Taiwan’s longest at 12.9 km ~ it runs through the mountains from Taipei to the east coast at Yilan. Since opening in 2006, it’s really changed Taiwan’s east coast, with lots of development, tourism and business opportunities opening up. There’s lots of traffic too, especially on a Saturday when everyone is in that tunnel trying to get out of the big city, escaping for the day or weekend to breathe in some fresh sea air and relax….
And so we joined them, but it took us 3 hours (yes, 3 whole hours!) from St. John’s University to get to our first main stop at Lanyang Museum 蘭陽博物館. The museum has really good displays about the local area, and gave us distant views through the haze over towards Guishan Island. Guishan Island (Turtle Island) is actually the protruding top of Taiwan’s only active volcano. Our friends from Latin America and Caribbean have plenty of active volcanoes in their own countries, so it’s good that Taiwan has one to show to visitors too! This is us at the museum…
Lanyang Museum building was “designed by a team led by Kris Yao those design was inspired by the ‘cuestas’ commonly seen along Beiguan Coast. The museum adopts the geometric shapes of the cuestas where the roof protrudes from the ground at an angle of 20 degrees meeting a wall which rises from the ground at an angle of 70 degrees.” Really impressive. I liked it. Not sure about that big apartment building right behind it, but hey, at least the residents must have a good view!
We spent the day driving around Yilan, enjoying local foods and restaurants and seeing the countryside. At lunchtime, the rain started – and poured down for the next 3 hours, so we spent the afternoon visiting the famous Kavalan Whisky Distillery ~ which also houses Mr. Brown coffee. A little secret ~ the Kavalan Sweet Coffee Liqueur is really delicious, and there was plenty of it to sample ~ but shhh, don’t tell anyone. Ah, but it was a fun day!
Then last Monday, we went to the National Palace Museum, Taipei – it is Taipei’s ‘must-go, must-see’ museum on every visitor’s itinerary, but it’s impossible to see it all on one trip. We had 2 hours and saw but a fraction of the displays, though we did have a detailed tour in English about the bronzes in the museum…
In the afternoon we paid a quick visit to Xiaoyoukeng in Yangmingshan National Park to see the smoking – and very smelly – fumaroles in the mist. Not, apparently, as magnificent or as smelly (thank goodness!) as the ones in St. Lucia, but hey, these ones are smelly enough!
And today (part of the 3-day Mid-Autumn Moon Festival), we spent the day south-west of Taipei. Our first stop was the Yingge Ceramics Museum – which may look kind of grim and brutalist on the outside, but inside the museum, the displays are really creatively presented, reflecting its past as Taiwan’s ceramic town – due to its special clay.
We had a short guided tour in English and then I rushed around taking some photos. Even the luggage lockers are ceramic…
We also visited Sanxia Old Street, built in the Japanese era in baroque style and restored a few years ago. We tried all the local delicacies, including pig’s blood cake and stinky tofu – some of which, well, let’s put it this way, didn’t go down too well with some of us! The croissants and ice-cream though were delicious!
And then to Cihu Mausoleum 慈湖陵寢 , “the temporary resting place of President Chiang Kai-shek. When Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975, he was not buried in the traditional Chinese fashion but entombed in a black marble sarcophagus since he expressed the wish to be eventually buried in his native Fenghua in Zhejiang province once the Kuomintang (KMT) recovered mainland China from the Communists.” We went to see the changing of the guard ceremony that takes place every hour on the hour ~ we were there for the one at 3:00 pm. Wow, it was so hot, bees were buzzing around and we were directly facing into the afternoon sun. But then the honor guard must have been even hotter, after standing for an hour in their heavy uniforms without moving….
There’s also the Cihu Lake and the surrounding sculpture park where all the ‘removed’ statues of Chiang Kai-Shek are on display….
Our Latin America and Caribbean group of students are so lively and fun, and we’re making the most of their time in Taiwan to take them out and about, showing them the sights and introducing them to Taiwan’s rich culture and history. We enjoy all the delicious (and let’s face it, some not so delicious!) foods on offer at each place, and of course we take a few photos too ~ and I’m grateful that they all think really creatively when I request a pose!
Thanks to St. John’s University for planning all these great trips. Already looking forward to the next one ~ coming soon!
A bumper weekend here in Taiwan ~ with an extra day off on Friday for the Dragon Boat Festival. YES!
Today is Pentecost ~ the day we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem, 40 days after His resurrection and 10 days after His ascension. The colour associated with Pentecost is always red, and it so happens I just love red! Today at Advent Church @ St. John’s University, the 2 flame trees are still in flower (see the 2 photos above, taken on May 30) ~ and nearly everyone was wearing something red. And it looked beautiful! So beautiful in fact, that we had a group photo of us all, that’s the one at the top. We also had the Gospel reading in lots of different languages, which was a blessing, helped considerably by our Malaysian students who are very multilingual. And one of our Taiwan students, Zhong-Yu was baptized – he lives locally, so he also went to our local junior-high school next door, and he’s well-known to us all. Thanks be to God!
Meanwhile, out on the streets, the local townships of Tamsui and Sanzhi are celebrating Dragon Boat Festival this weekend with 3 days of parades of deities and gods. For followers of traditional folk religion, this weekend is a busy time of cooking and making offerings to the ancestors. It’s also a time for family reunions. Here at St. John’s University, 2 of our delightful church members, Ming-Chuan and Meng-Zhen spent all of Friday cooking a delicious dinner, and in the evening they invited our Malaysian students plus some of our chaplaincy staff to a wonderful gathering, & me too….😊😊😊!
The traditional food for Dragon Boat Festival is zhong- zi 粽子, made with sticky rice, filled with meat, eggs (or even red beans for a dessert) and wrapped in bamboo leaves or other large flat leaves, and boiled or steamed. But there was also plenty more – all yummy!
Taiwan is in the middle of the Plum Rainy Season, so the weather is always unpredictable, and for this weekend, it was mostly forecast to rain every afternoon in the mountains. On Friday it was 32°C, but ‘feels like 41°C’ said my phone. It was indeed very hot. Phew! I went up Guanyinshan 觀音山 (616m – but felt like triple that 😫😫😫!!) This is what the mountain looks like from Tamsui MRT Station, just a small pimple of a hill. But on a hot June day, feeling like 41 °C, it is massive! The trail starts just across the river, just above sea level.
The trail to the main peak is called the Ying Han Ling trail (硬漢嶺步道) or the “Tough Guy Peak” – because it’s where the police used to do their training. But that’s not all. Coming along the ridge to the left are another 6-7 smaller humps, all very steep, and all either with steps or ropes going up and down. It’s hard on the legs and hands (take gloves!) but it’s great fun. Difficult to photograph, cos it’s really steep ~ and a little hot, but it’s worth it all…
The whole trail took 5½ long, hot hours, and the highlight was seeing the view at the top…
And the hydrangeas, in full bloom all over….
And this is Taipei down below…
On Saturday, I decided the best way to beat the aching limbs was to go up another hill – and this time off I went to Xiangshan, Elephant Mountain, over on the other side of Taipei, up behind Taipei 101 ~ plus the range of hills behind it, which lead up to Jiuwu / 9-5 Peak 九五峰 (402m) and Muzhi mountain 拇指山, on the same trail. The weather was mostly cloudy, so it was a bit cooler, and after Guanyinshan, this walk was really a piece of cake. Only 3½ hours to complete the whole trail – normally it’s hard work in the heat with all the steps, but hey, compared with the day before, it was easy!
And now back to sea-level, recovering from all those exertions, and the weekend would not be complete without sharing with you a few photos of what’s going on locally, well, in Sanzhi. The fields are full of water bamboo, seaweed is drying in the sun, the waterwheels are busy, and the sun is shining!
And the lotus flowers are out all over Sanzhi too. I took these on Thursday early morning last week….
And then there’s lots of the Singapore Daisies (Sphagneticola trilobata) or wedelia, which unfortunately are on the “List of the world’s 100 worst invasive species” – which is a great shame, cos they are stunningly beautiful, and look great covering up old walls!
A great big thank you to all who made our Dragon Boat Festival so special, and thanks be to God for good weather, welcoming friends, delicious food, beautiful countryside, spectacular mountains, and lots to see and do. May God’s Holy Spirit continue to fill us each day. Wishing you all a happy and blessed Pentecost 2019!
Yes, we all gathered on Saturday May 11, 2019 to celebrate – and to give thanks to God for his many blessings to Grace Church, Tainan over the last 60 years!
(taken by Mr. Chuang Hsiao-Wu)
Tainan 台南 is Taiwan’s ancient capital and oldest city, located on Taiwan’s SW coast, and “initially established by the Dutch East India Company as a ruling and trading base called Fort Zeelandia during the period of Dutch rule on the island. After Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga in 1661, Tainan remained as the capital of the Tungning Kingdom until 1683 and afterwards the capital of Taiwan Prefecture under Qing Dynasty rule until 1887, when the new provincial capital was moved to Taipei”. The city is famous for having a huge number of temples (incl. the Confucius Temple, built in 1665), forts, museums, churches and Tainan Theological College, plus its food – it’s THE place to go for delicious everything!
Not surprisingly it’s also where quite a few of our retired clergy have settled, and when our current Bishop of Taiwan, David J. H. Lai, retires early next year, then they will also move back to Tainan. Bishop Lai studied at Tainan Theological College, his wife, Lily is from Tainan, her sister and family are there, and Bishop Lai was vicar of Grace Church, Tainan from 1986-2001, from where he was elected as bishop. So they know the city well, their friends are all there and they look forward to returning home!
Grace Church 天恩堂 was established in Tainan in 1959, initially in rented buildings, then in 1981, under the then-vicar, Rev. Michael T. H. Liu, a piece of land was bought, and they moved to the present site on the east side of the city. Much of the land in the area was owned and run by the Taiwan Sugar Corporation as sugar-cane plantations and with a processing plant. These days, Taiwan’s sugar is nearly all imported, and the land is now mostly used for housing, schools and parks.
At the beginning of the 1980’s, there was no mains water supply at Grace Church, and life was very basic. Grace Kindergarten was built on the site, with the plan being to build a church building on the same site at a later date. So far, that hasn’t happened, and the church congregation continues to worship in one of the kindergarten rooms. The plot of land for the church building is currently part of the kindergarten playground area, covered in grass. There is some money in a diocesan fund for building the church, but much more will be needed; and the promise from the diocesan standing committee is that the process can start once the church is full each Sunday for worship. A great challenge for everyone! Nothing daunted, the current vicar, Rev. Philip J. L. Ho has increased the congregation considerably in the almost-3 years he has been there, with large numbers of youth coming along. Average Sunday attendance in 2018 was 40 people ~ so the congregation are becoming hopeful that a new church building is on the horizon! This is Philip, and one of the young people…
On Saturday, we celebrated the 60th anniversary with a service at 10:00 am ~ I counted about 120 people in the main group photo and they came from all corners of the country, though of course mainly the centre and south. It’s quite a way from Taipei to Tainan, even by high-speed rail, and most had traveled there the night before to be ready on time. I traveled there with folks from St. James’ Church, Taichung in their minibus, and as it was we left at 7:30 am from Taichung. We arrived at Grace Church just in time for me to rush along the street, buy some coffee and get back again in time for the service to start! At the main gate on ‘welcome duty’ was Clark, son-in-law of retired priest, Rev. Samuel Liao….
Clark’s wife, Ms. Liao Sung-Jen was inside, playing the organ to a packed church…
And Clark’s mother-in-law (Ms. San Su, Rev. Samuel Liao’s wife), was in the choir, and they all sang so well and so joyfully, in their beautiful blue choir robes, and wonderfully led by churchwarden, Mr. J. L. Lin on his guitar… Hey, Grace Church Choir are really good!
Meanwhile back outside at the entrance, and we had special gift packs to take home and friendly people there to welcome us!
During the service, there was a gift presentation to former clergy in charge of Grace Church, 3 of them were there in person, and the other 3 were collected on their behalf …
taken by Mr. Chuang Hsiao-Wu
The children meanwhile had activities planned for them in the vicarage front room, led by Kathy, daughter of Rev. Philip Ho. Nancy, Philip’s wife was also in action organizing things and taking photos…
from ‘台灣聖公會天恩堂 The Episcopal Grace Church, Tainan, Taiwan Diocese’ Facebook Page
