Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A New Feature
I have added a new feature to The Taiwan Adventure. TG Daily a news organization in Taiwan will feed Taiwanese news directly to the site daily. These are selected by them and are current topical news. For example, today December 23, there is a report on our recent earthquake and the talks between Taiwan and China. These are what people are talking about, right now, on the street. I thought it might be of interest to people who are following, I know I said it wasn't a political blog, but I my be forced to comment, occasionally. I want you to know I don't select the stories or have any ability to edit them. Let me know if there is an interest. If not I will discontinue it. If so, we'll see how it goes.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Random Asianess: Random Thoughts
First of all, I'm sorry it has been so long between posts. It has been somewhat hectic. We moved to a new house. We started a new weekly outreach, "The Coffee House," and we're busy with all the regular stuff. But it's been exciting and I have several posts that I'm writing, so they may be coming fast and furious for a while. Today I want to post some random things that we have encountered along with some insights. I call it Random Asianess. I may do these things once in a while:
Random Thoughts:
1. The Funeral
The day we moved in there was a Buddhist funeral on our street. They erected a tent that covered both lanes of the road, completely blocked off the street. In there, they had the casket and the deceased neighbor. But outside they had these displays of beer cans. Two pyramids of probably 50 cans of beer. Apparently this neighbor was fond of beer and so this beer was for him to drink while he waited to be reincarnated.
This is part of ancestor worship. They buy special “blessed” money from the local temple and burn it, so the dead people will have money to spend.
At the end of the funeral, which can sometimes last 30 days, there was a procession. The hearse was followed by 4 flutists, playing traditional Chinese music, all of the dead neighbor’s friends and family, and a number of the temple’s vehicles. In the first a drummer, In the second were representation of the gods the third was more drummers and finally the last car blared “pop” music and had a pole dancer. This dancer was to entertain the gods and make them more accepting of the dead person. This guy probably had more fun at his funeral then he did in life.
2. Traffic
The traffic sometimes is ridiculous. You stop at a stoplight with maybe 25 scooters and a line of cars. All of the stoplights have a countdown of remaining seconds until the light changes. At 2 seconds before the light changes scooters start to accelerate from the stoplight. It sounds like the start of a motocross race. In So Cal we have to wait for three cars to run the red light before we pull away from the stop. Here, nobody waits. The intersection has cars going in all directions. It’s pretty intense. But everyone seems to know what every other driver is going to do. There are surprisingly few accidents. One of my friends commented, "Driving in Taiwan is complicated, you know, there's a lot of laws but nobody follows them."
3. Vehicle Accidents
The other day Emily and I saw some kid get hit on his scooter. He came through an intersection and some truck driver pulled out and T-boned him. The kid did a backward somersault off his bike. He didn’t seem to be too badly hurt. There’s so much traffic on streets that all accidents seem to be low speed. But it’s still dangerous for motorcycle riders. When the police came, I waited because I saw the whole thing. He was completely uninterested in what I saw. He didn’t even write it down.
I’m a foreigner and the police don’t want to deal with us. Rather than try to talk with us in English they just wave us off. One guy told me that a policeman stopped him on his bike and was angry about something, but when he saw he was a foreigner he just walked away. He still hasn’t figured out why he was stopped.
4. Being a Foreigner
Young people just want to talk to me. Not because I’m cool or they think I’m great, but I’m American and I’m a good chance to practice English. Me, I don’t mind because I like to talk to young people and I can steer the topic to what I want to talk about.
Often, though, they don’t have much to say after “hello.” They just stand and smile, so I start talking to them and they don’t get it. But it’s fun. Occasionally, I meet someone who can speak English well and they will talk to me for 20 minutes.
Teenage girls always want to talk to my daughters. And ask for cell phone numbers and Facebook page information. They always want to have their picture taken with a foreigner. It makes them seem more sophisticated. They also want to be friends, so the kids are tasting popularity.
5. Taiwanese People
Being from Southern California, I am amazed at how many people in Taiwan will go way out of their way to do something for you. There is none of the American reluctance to get involved. My landlord was visiting our house the other day. She got this perplexed look on her face. So when we asked her what she was looking for. She asked where the TV was. We told her we didn’t have one. She got a horrified look an her face and wanted to go immediately and buy a flat screen TV for us. We had to convince her that we didn’t have a TV because we didn’t want one. Another woman spoke to the landlord about some repairs that needed to be made in the house. The repairs were scheduled for the time we had to leave for Chinese class. So this woman offered to stay at the house until the repairs were made.
I think this is the way America used to be: A place where people were concerned for their neighbors. It’s one of the things that makes Taiwan such a great place to live. I hear a lot of ex-pats here who are critical of Taiwan for certain things; fist fights in the congress, the Asian way of doing things, the inefficiency of the police. All of that stuff exists. This definitely isn’t America. But for me it’s all about people.
6. The gods of hell
Today there was a politcical rally near the church. And they are like many political rallies, in that, they try to draw a big crowd and then convince the people to vote for their candidate. But this was different, because this politician, pulled out the big guns. No, not free beer or food. This guy took the three "gods of Hell" for a walk to his rally. The local Buddhist temple marched three 9 foot representations of the gods of hell right to the rally. Drums beating, dragons dancing, traditional music, fireworks and the gods of hell. Makes Obama rallies look tame by comparison. This guy will probably be elected
Random Thoughts:
1. The Funeral
The day we moved in there was a Buddhist funeral on our street. They erected a tent that covered both lanes of the road, completely blocked off the street. In there, they had the casket and the deceased neighbor. But outside they had these displays of beer cans. Two pyramids of probably 50 cans of beer. Apparently this neighbor was fond of beer and so this beer was for him to drink while he waited to be reincarnated.
This is part of ancestor worship. They buy special “blessed” money from the local temple and burn it, so the dead people will have money to spend.
At the end of the funeral, which can sometimes last 30 days, there was a procession. The hearse was followed by 4 flutists, playing traditional Chinese music, all of the dead neighbor’s friends and family, and a number of the temple’s vehicles. In the first a drummer, In the second were representation of the gods the third was more drummers and finally the last car blared “pop” music and had a pole dancer. This dancer was to entertain the gods and make them more accepting of the dead person. This guy probably had more fun at his funeral then he did in life.
2. Traffic
The traffic sometimes is ridiculous. You stop at a stoplight with maybe 25 scooters and a line of cars. All of the stoplights have a countdown of remaining seconds until the light changes. At 2 seconds before the light changes scooters start to accelerate from the stoplight. It sounds like the start of a motocross race. In So Cal we have to wait for three cars to run the red light before we pull away from the stop. Here, nobody waits. The intersection has cars going in all directions. It’s pretty intense. But everyone seems to know what every other driver is going to do. There are surprisingly few accidents. One of my friends commented, "Driving in Taiwan is complicated, you know, there's a lot of laws but nobody follows them."
3. Vehicle Accidents
The other day Emily and I saw some kid get hit on his scooter. He came through an intersection and some truck driver pulled out and T-boned him. The kid did a backward somersault off his bike. He didn’t seem to be too badly hurt. There’s so much traffic on streets that all accidents seem to be low speed. But it’s still dangerous for motorcycle riders. When the police came, I waited because I saw the whole thing. He was completely uninterested in what I saw. He didn’t even write it down.
I’m a foreigner and the police don’t want to deal with us. Rather than try to talk with us in English they just wave us off. One guy told me that a policeman stopped him on his bike and was angry about something, but when he saw he was a foreigner he just walked away. He still hasn’t figured out why he was stopped.
4. Being a Foreigner
Young people just want to talk to me. Not because I’m cool or they think I’m great, but I’m American and I’m a good chance to practice English. Me, I don’t mind because I like to talk to young people and I can steer the topic to what I want to talk about.
Often, though, they don’t have much to say after “hello.” They just stand and smile, so I start talking to them and they don’t get it. But it’s fun. Occasionally, I meet someone who can speak English well and they will talk to me for 20 minutes.
Teenage girls always want to talk to my daughters. And ask for cell phone numbers and Facebook page information. They always want to have their picture taken with a foreigner. It makes them seem more sophisticated. They also want to be friends, so the kids are tasting popularity.
5. Taiwanese People
Being from Southern California, I am amazed at how many people in Taiwan will go way out of their way to do something for you. There is none of the American reluctance to get involved. My landlord was visiting our house the other day. She got this perplexed look on her face. So when we asked her what she was looking for. She asked where the TV was. We told her we didn’t have one. She got a horrified look an her face and wanted to go immediately and buy a flat screen TV for us. We had to convince her that we didn’t have a TV because we didn’t want one. Another woman spoke to the landlord about some repairs that needed to be made in the house. The repairs were scheduled for the time we had to leave for Chinese class. So this woman offered to stay at the house until the repairs were made.
I think this is the way America used to be: A place where people were concerned for their neighbors. It’s one of the things that makes Taiwan such a great place to live. I hear a lot of ex-pats here who are critical of Taiwan for certain things; fist fights in the congress, the Asian way of doing things, the inefficiency of the police. All of that stuff exists. This definitely isn’t America. But for me it’s all about people.
6. The gods of hell
Today there was a politcical rally near the church. And they are like many political rallies, in that, they try to draw a big crowd and then convince the people to vote for their candidate. But this was different, because this politician, pulled out the big guns. No, not free beer or food. This guy took the three "gods of Hell" for a walk to his rally. The local Buddhist temple marched three 9 foot representations of the gods of hell right to the rally. Drums beating, dragons dancing, traditional music, fireworks and the gods of hell. Makes Obama rallies look tame by comparison. This guy will probably be elected
Monday, October 19, 2009
Can a Movie Outreach Still Work?
Tried and True Method
Ever since the days of the prophecy “Big 3” men have tried to reach their cities through movie outreaches. It would be easy to look at what we’ve done here this week and say, “When’s that boy gonna get creative.” It’s such a simple thing. Find a movie you can preach on, and show it. Could anything be less complicated? In America, I could do a movie outreach in my sleep.
First of all there’s flyers. In California, no problem, a quick moment on the excellent and efficient So Cal Fellowship Graphics website. (www.scfgraphics.com) And flyers will be tastefully and artistically rendered with all pertinent information and delivered directly to your door. Note: No payment was made for this shameless plug, at least not YET!
Secondly, A few calls to pioneer pastors, who owe you one, and an announcement or two over the pulpit and a fully equipped ARMY, eagerly descends on your city to do battle with the principalities and powers of darkness; to snatch the souls of men from the very gates of hell. Sometimes they even pass out flyers, too.
Third, bright, shiny, newly purchased equipment is lovingly and gently set up and carefully prepared in pristine conditions for the comfort the visitors who come to your church to see the epic drama you will present.
Then finally it’s “Game Time.” Hundreds of open, hungry people show up, standing in line for hours to see the movie that holds the secret of salvation for them. They are literally making every effort to keep from throwing themselves on the altar and crying out, “What must I do to be saved,” before the movie is even over.
The words of your Altar Call drip from your lips. The response is overwhelming. The City is turned upside down. Okay maybe it’s not quite that easy.
But here, in Taiwan, it is only that simple for the men who have been here for years. I had a few struggles to overcome.
The first was flyers: Finding a printer was a little difficult. There is no phone book. You can’t just grab the yellow pages and look it up. And even if you could, I don’t read enough Chinese to recognize the Chinese word for printer. It does no good to drive around because I can’t read the signs, either. But, resourceful guy that I am, I called up Pastor Robert in Zhongli and he talked to his printer.
The second was the design: It takes special software and a special font to
type in Chinese. I don’t have it. So each character has to be created by hand in a graphics program. But…you have to know the character to be able to do that; because of that a strategy was born. Aim for young people that are interested in learning English. So I made the flyers in English. Then I took a flyer that had the church name, address and phone number in Chinese and “cut and pasted” it onto my design. That way they could give it to cab driver and he could read it.
The Third was the language barrier with the printer: He had no idea what I was saying and I got about every 4th word of what he was saying. I understood marginally, he just smiled. So I had to ask Pastor Robert’s wife, Nicole, to communicate with him. Then I found out that I couldn’t design on 8 1/2 “ by 11” paper I had to use A4. A4 is a bit larger, so I had to fix it. Because of all this the flyers were received Saturday morning…the day of the event. I felt pretty stupid.
But my family and I, and a friend from the Zhongli church, Eugene, made it to the outreach. In two hours we passed out 700 flyers, and had an opportunity to witness to a number of groups of young (Middle School, High School and University) students. Three people made it to the event. We showed "Facing the Giants" and served popcorn and Coke. We got to know some people and contacts were made. One visitor, a teacher, wants to bring her entire class to see the movie. Maybe it will result in an inroad into the English School where she teaches. No one got saved at this event but we made some contacts and met a couple of people we can follow up on. Sunday morning we had two more visitors who did get saved.
Now I’ve got it figured out…Next month we are gonna TEAR IT UP!!
Ever since the days of the prophecy “Big 3” men have tried to reach their cities through movie outreaches. It would be easy to look at what we’ve done here this week and say, “When’s that boy gonna get creative.” It’s such a simple thing. Find a movie you can preach on, and show it. Could anything be less complicated? In America, I could do a movie outreach in my sleep.
First of all there’s flyers. In California, no problem, a quick moment on the excellent and efficient So Cal Fellowship Graphics website. (www.scfgraphics.com) And flyers will be tastefully and artistically rendered with all pertinent information and delivered directly to your door. Note: No payment was made for this shameless plug, at least not YET!
Secondly, A few calls to pioneer pastors, who owe you one, and an announcement or two over the pulpit and a fully equipped ARMY, eagerly descends on your city to do battle with the principalities and powers of darkness; to snatch the souls of men from the very gates of hell. Sometimes they even pass out flyers, too.
Third, bright, shiny, newly purchased equipment is lovingly and gently set up and carefully prepared in pristine conditions for the comfort the visitors who come to your church to see the epic drama you will present.
Then finally it’s “Game Time.” Hundreds of open, hungry people show up, standing in line for hours to see the movie that holds the secret of salvation for them. They are literally making every effort to keep from throwing themselves on the altar and crying out, “What must I do to be saved,” before the movie is even over.
The words of your Altar Call drip from your lips. The response is overwhelming. The City is turned upside down. Okay maybe it’s not quite that easy.
But here, in Taiwan, it is only that simple for the men who have been here for years. I had a few struggles to overcome.
The first was flyers: Finding a printer was a little difficult. There is no phone book. You can’t just grab the yellow pages and look it up. And even if you could, I don’t read enough Chinese to recognize the Chinese word for printer. It does no good to drive around because I can’t read the signs, either. But, resourceful guy that I am, I called up Pastor Robert in Zhongli and he talked to his printer.
The second was the design: It takes special software and a special font to
type in Chinese. I don’t have it. So each character has to be created by hand in a graphics program. But…you have to know the character to be able to do that; because of that a strategy was born. Aim for young people that are interested in learning English. So I made the flyers in English. Then I took a flyer that had the church name, address and phone number in Chinese and “cut and pasted” it onto my design. That way they could give it to cab driver and he could read it.The Third was the language barrier with the printer: He had no idea what I was saying and I got about every 4th word of what he was saying. I understood marginally, he just smiled. So I had to ask Pastor Robert’s wife, Nicole, to communicate with him. Then I found out that I couldn’t design on 8 1/2 “ by 11” paper I had to use A4. A4 is a bit larger, so I had to fix it. Because of all this the flyers were received Saturday morning…the day of the event. I felt pretty stupid.
But my family and I, and a friend from the Zhongli church, Eugene, made it to the outreach. In two hours we passed out 700 flyers, and had an opportunity to witness to a number of groups of young (Middle School, High School and University) students. Three people made it to the event. We showed "Facing the Giants" and served popcorn and Coke. We got to know some people and contacts were made. One visitor, a teacher, wants to bring her entire class to see the movie. Maybe it will result in an inroad into the English School where she teaches. No one got saved at this event but we made some contacts and met a couple of people we can follow up on. Sunday morning we had two more visitors who did get saved.
Now I’ve got it figured out…Next month we are gonna TEAR IT UP!!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Vision Beyond the Horizon
The Vision
In light of the incredible investment that has been made to send us to this country, there is in our minds a sense that we must be fruitful, that’s the calling placed on all Christians, fruitfulness is an expectation. But I look at that calling in terms of what others have done to facilitate fruitfulness in my ministry.
We have entered into a sacred trust. While those others have never pressed an obligation on me to succeed: To reach certain numbers of people, or to bring about a financial return on investment. There is in me a desire to honor that investment, to honor the sacrifice that others have made.
I understand that none of us think that this is about nickels, numbers and noise, but about the winning of souls to the kingdom of God. It is my desire to diligently pursue my calling in God and honor the vision of Jesus Christ, which is clearly spoken to Paul.
Acts 26: 17 & 18
Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
I want to be able to give the same account for my ministry that he did in testifying to King Agrippa. “Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” I want to be able to stand before God and say the same thing. I want my vision to be His vision.
In the early days of oceanic exploration, it was believed that if a boat sailed out beyond the horizon that it would fall off of the edge of the earth. It took men with vision to pay for ships and equipment that could, in all possibility, result in a crushing financial defeat. It is difficult to imagine the trust that Ferdinand and Isabella had in Columbus. They, like Columbus, were ignited by the possibilities of Columbus’ vision. They can only be called people of vision. I’m thankful to partner with people who have that same kind of vision. I’m grateful for the investment and support of the Colton and Tucson Congregations, Pastor Strutz and Pastor Warner.
In light of the incredible investment that has been made to send us to this country, there is in our minds a sense that we must be fruitful, that’s the calling placed on all Christians, fruitfulness is an expectation. But I look at that calling in terms of what others have done to facilitate fruitfulness in my ministry.
We have entered into a sacred trust. While those others have never pressed an obligation on me to succeed: To reach certain numbers of people, or to bring about a financial return on investment. There is in me a desire to honor that investment, to honor the sacrifice that others have made.
I understand that none of us think that this is about nickels, numbers and noise, but about the winning of souls to the kingdom of God. It is my desire to diligently pursue my calling in God and honor the vision of Jesus Christ, which is clearly spoken to Paul.
Acts 26: 17 & 18
Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
I want to be able to give the same account for my ministry that he did in testifying to King Agrippa. “Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” I want to be able to stand before God and say the same thing. I want my vision to be His vision.
In the early days of oceanic exploration, it was believed that if a boat sailed out beyond the horizon that it would fall off of the edge of the earth. It took men with vision to pay for ships and equipment that could, in all possibility, result in a crushing financial defeat. It is difficult to imagine the trust that Ferdinand and Isabella had in Columbus. They, like Columbus, were ignited by the possibilities of Columbus’ vision. They can only be called people of vision. I’m thankful to partner with people who have that same kind of vision. I’m grateful for the investment and support of the Colton and Tucson Congregations, Pastor Strutz and Pastor Warner.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Typhoon Revival
The Rains of Revival
As Typhoon Parma was blowing up the Pacific Ocean past the Philippines with winds of 129 mph, another wind began to blow in Taoyuan: The wind of Revival. Arriving just days before the revival, Trevor Fong from Perth, Australia blew into town to preach for us. This is the first revival at the church since our arrival on the island.
Trevor comes well qualified to preach in Taiwan. He pastored the church in Zhong Li for seven years and understands the Taiwanese mindset. He spoke three powerful sermons, dealing with issues that are important to people’s lives. The first was on our response to God. In the audience were 2 university students who heard the message and responded.
The second sermon was on dealing with torment in our lives. This was powerful as a man in the church suffers with anxiety and insomnia. Last night, he told me that as a result of this ministry. He has slept 5 nights in a row without the use of sleeping medication. This is a record for him. Praise God for powerful preaching.
The third sermon dealt with reaching the lost and was an encouragement to the Nieds and to us. I believe that this revival is the beginning of breakthrough for our church.
Typhoon Parma
On my Facebook page, I gave a brief word about the typhoon. It traveled close to Taiwan but did not actually come up on the island. It veered off to the west and seems to be heading away from us now. We have received two solid days of rain but no winds. It is still close enough to turn and make landfall on the southern tip of the Island. This is the same area that was battered so badly in September.
This shows the track of the typhoon. You can see how close it came to Taiwan. Taoyuan is in the northwest corner.
Hualien Earthquake
On the day before the typhoon, a typhoon is a hurricane on the Pacific Ocean, (they’re hurricanes on the Atlantic and typhoons on the Pacific), there was an earthquake in the city of Hualien. At Hualien the earthquake was a magnitude 6.3 quake. For those of you in So Cal who have experienced many of these you can understand the size of the quake. We felt the quake in Taoyuan but it was a minor quake here.
On Facebook, I commented that Taiwan’s shaking. One of the comments that I got back was from one of my closest friends in High School. She said, “What does it take to get people over there to pray?” What indeed? Taiwan needs Jesus. As long as I’m here I’m going to be praying,
As Typhoon Parma was blowing up the Pacific Ocean past the Philippines with winds of 129 mph, another wind began to blow in Taoyuan: The wind of Revival. Arriving just days before the revival, Trevor Fong from Perth, Australia blew into town to preach for us. This is the first revival at the church since our arrival on the island.
Trevor comes well qualified to preach in Taiwan. He pastored the church in Zhong Li for seven years and understands the Taiwanese mindset. He spoke three powerful sermons, dealing with issues that are important to people’s lives. The first was on our response to God. In the audience were 2 university students who heard the message and responded.
The second sermon was on dealing with torment in our lives. This was powerful as a man in the church suffers with anxiety and insomnia. Last night, he told me that as a result of this ministry. He has slept 5 nights in a row without the use of sleeping medication. This is a record for him. Praise God for powerful preaching.
The third sermon dealt with reaching the lost and was an encouragement to the Nieds and to us. I believe that this revival is the beginning of breakthrough for our church.
Typhoon Parma
On my Facebook page, I gave a brief word about the typhoon. It traveled close to Taiwan but did not actually come up on the island. It veered off to the west and seems to be heading away from us now. We have received two solid days of rain but no winds. It is still close enough to turn and make landfall on the southern tip of the Island. This is the same area that was battered so badly in September.
This shows the track of the typhoon. You can see how close it came to Taiwan. Taoyuan is in the northwest corner.
Hualien Earthquake
On the day before the typhoon, a typhoon is a hurricane on the Pacific Ocean, (they’re hurricanes on the Atlantic and typhoons on the Pacific), there was an earthquake in the city of Hualien. At Hualien the earthquake was a magnitude 6.3 quake. For those of you in So Cal who have experienced many of these you can understand the size of the quake. We felt the quake in Taoyuan but it was a minor quake here.
On Facebook, I commented that Taiwan’s shaking. One of the comments that I got back was from one of my closest friends in High School. She said, “What does it take to get people over there to pray?” What indeed? Taiwan needs Jesus. As long as I’m here I’m going to be praying,
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