Tag Archives: Pentecost

Advent Church, Taiwan

Pentecost & Dragon Boat Festival 2019!

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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!

Taiwan

Rainageddon Hits Taiwan

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And it was quite some weekend….

644 mm of rain fell on Sanzhi on Friday from about 2:00 – 11:00 am. That was the start of it all.  This was the scene on the coastal road on Friday morning from inside my bus….

Fridays’s report about the situation from the Taipei Times is here….

The local river at Sanzhi on Friday afternoon ….

The rains spread south over the weekend.  Tons and tons of rain.  2 dead, several missing, homes and businesses washed away or flooded. Terrible damage to infrastructure, agriculture and businesses.  This is today’s Taipei Times report here

Yesterday I went round the coastal road to Keelung.  The road passes along by some of the worst hit areas.  In Keelung, an area of the town along by the river had been flooded, and the army was helping clear up. This was the scene outside a dentists, they’re all there clearing up.  The whole road looked like this. People everywhere.

The road round the coast is open for one lane only each way.  Landslides everywhere cos the mountains there are steep.  This was the scene near the nuclear power station…  see all that mud?

This is not a typhoon. It’s the Plum Rainy Season.  Never normally like this.  Tragic.

Fortunately, the rains are expected to stop today, and repairing the damage can begin in earnest.

On Saturday I spent the morning writing a CMS newsletter.  I had decided early last week that Saturday was to be the day, but I had no idea at that point what my theme was going to be.  Events last Friday kinda of decided for me.  Am sending it off today to CMS for processing.  Check back in a few weeks time!

And finally, the reason for going to Keelung was to attend the Pentecost service at Trinity Church.  This is the back wall of the church….

Pentecost greetings to you all!  May the fire, passion and love of the Holy Spirit bring healing, grace and mercy in this dark, broken and suffering world.

Taiwan Episcopal Church, Diocese of Taiwan

Celebrating Pentecost at St. James’ English Service, Taichung ~ and Kelvin’s Confirmation!

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Special congratulations to Kelvin and his family on his confirmation at St. James’ Church, Taichung yesterday, Pentecost Sunday ~ YES!  And as it was Pentecost it was most appropriate that the congregation was all from everywhere ~ including Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Japan, India, Germany, Malta, UK, USA and maybe more besides – it was a great day indeed!

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Yes, a wonderful day ~ lots of people at the service, including Bishop Lai, Rev. Lily Chang and Rev. Joel del Rosario, and all followed by a big lunch, kindly hosted by Kelvin’s family. And such a lovely family they are ~ Harrison, Nancy, Kelvin and Allen ~ from Bangalore, where I visited a few years ago and had a great time with Kelvin’s grandmother and uncle ~ so amazing!  But that’s a whole other story ~ and the uncle gets marries next week, so the family is returning home for the great occasion – 4,000 people expected.  Kelvin’s confirmation party in Bangalore is expected to be a relatively small event in comparison – for maybe only (!) 100 people ~ wow, they certainly know how to celebrate!  Kelvin graduates this coming week from High School in Taichung, and returns to India for university studies – so this was his great send-off too.  We’ll miss him, but so glad the rest of the family will still be here ~ we love ’em all to bits!

Praying for God’s blessing on the family and especially for Kelvin as he sets off for university in a few weeks time….

And I hope you noticed Kelvin followed the Indian tradition of taking off his shoes when approaching the altar, including for confirmation, and did you also notice Kelvin’s socks – and the red stripe for Pentecost?  YES!!