gods

A few weeks ago a god parade rolled through our town. I've heard that Taiwanese god parades are typically done during the day time to bring blessings to citizens in the light of day, but because Puxin is a small cluster of villages on the outskirts of a larger town, we got the leftover blessings as the procession came through through town after the sun had set. No matter. I'm sure the parade was just as festive as it would have been in the light. The fireworks crackled and glowed in the growing dark as people clamoured out of their homes to catch a glimpse of the passing spectacle. And as the gods passed, along with a marching convoy of exhausted highschoolers drumming away and the bored go-go dancer girls seated atop flashy trucks thumping out dance beats, people lined the streets to take pictures of their gods and invite blessings into their homes and shops.

In our brief time here, through conversations with locals and discussions with missionaries, we've had a chance to observe and piece together a sparse understanding of the unique religious climate that is Taiwan. In this polytheistic nation, where all gods are openly accepted- especially if they bestow blessings- three main religions reign: Taoism, Buddhism, Traditional Folk Religion. 

We've found during our conversations with people that there is little distinction between these religions in the actual workings of people's lives. As long as people perceive their gods to work, they will worship. It matters not what set of ideologies are proposed by a religion. So long as a business is saved, a child gets a good grade, or a felt-need met, a god is deemed worthy of worship. The interesting thing we've noticed is that religion is not about ideologies but simply about getting about something. Most Taiwanese we've talked with adhere to a mix of all three of these religions and don't think twice before crossing religious lines in their daily lives. So long as their lives are blessed.

As the parade passed by, I noticed a different god pass by every ten minutes. There is a different god for different aspects of life and creation: gods of wealth, gods of the harvest, goddesses of the water, the list could go on and on. Each diety can bestow or withhold blessings and favor can be beseeched if one would go to the temple to "bai bai" their god. 

That evening, as the gods bounced on by in their bamboo stilted stands atop the shoulders of frenetic young men; as neighbours entreated the favor of the listless statue with flashy LED lights powered by a trailing generator, I thought to myself, "This is so heartbreaking. Why are so many people revering something that can't stand on it's own two feet or stay lit with its own power?"

The humbling thing is that as I scoffed at these passing idols and the people who were bowing to them, I started to realize that invisible gods reign in our Western world so much as the visible ones do here in Taiwan. They fight on the battlefield of my heart and compete for a place on the throne of my life. So blind often are we to these insidious gods, yet we exalt them and sacrifice so much of our time and attention to appeasing them. 

In our culture, we esteem good things like education because a good education leads to solid job prospects and steady future income. There's nothing inherently wrong with desiring to do well to earn a living. But we've all seen when work and wealth becomes an obsession that overtakes our healthy passions and relationships. It becomes a god that we serve and bow our lives to. It sits enthroned as the most important thing we must revere at all costs.

the more visible gods

For me, those gods are frivolous things like social media: a desire for the "Instagram life" and the need to project my life as one to be desire. I spend so much energy chasing the values that this culture deems as beautiful. But what for? It has become my god, the idol I exchange my devotion to for a few pithy "likes" and scraps of social approval. For me, these gods are security which in itself is not a bad. But when I clamour to comfort and stability instead of clinging on to Christ who calls me upon the waters of risk and unknown, I put my hope in control and my own plans. I trust other gods.

So these gods parade, masquerading as innocent statues, creeping stealthily into our lives, choking out the wholesome parts and pushing away our affections for God. The struggle is real. We must beware. We need to take stock. We need to repent. And like Gideon, we must tear down those altars we have built.

I just want to end with a simple question for you. No matter where you live, whether in Taiwan where the gods are more visible, or in the West where the gods are inconspicuous, these gods exist. We all have things we bow and give our lives to. Take a moment to think.

What are the gods in your life? Are they worth serving?

Changhua

On this week's day off, we went to Changhua to do some exploring. But we needed to ride into the next town to first catch a bus to head to Changhua. And lo and behold, midway into the ride to Yuanlin, I discovered a flat. At first reaction, I started complaining in my mind how of all the days to pop a tire it had to be on my day off. But I soon realise, as it always is, that God was behind all of this.

After riding a few more minutes with the flat and Michelle praying, I looked across the street and there it was, a bicycle repair shop as if it dropped out of heaven. So glorious. Scampering across, we quickly approached the owner.

So long story short, what turned out to be an interruption turned out to be a God-given opportunity. Upon talking to us, the shopkeeper knew we were foreigners but asked us a strange question about whether we were living with American missionaries. Though we aren't, I sense that God is opening up an opportunity with this friendly and talkative shopkeeper. I hope to visit him again soon.

With the bike tire fixed, we were good to go and got on to Yuanlin and then to Changhua. Changhua, according to tourism sites is the breadbasket of Taiwan, one of the first settled places on the island. Life is simpler here. Lots of agriculture and simple foods. Very different than bustling Taipei or even Taichung.

猫鼠面 or Cat Mouse Noodles. No idea how they got the name, but it's great! 

Changhua and some other cities in the county now have Ubikes, stations where you can rent out by every 30 mins.

Nice to ride instead of walking in the sun

A railyard museum

So that was pretty much the day. An interruption in the morning, a nice stroll in the railyard and then a relaxing read in the coffee shop. A great way to enjoy the day off! 

Time

The last week or two have been a weird period of adjusting to the pace of life here in Puxin. As urbanites teachers enslaved to the clock, Michelle and I have been trying to figure out the value of time here. We are so used to calculating down to the minute in our timetables and packing our days full of tasks, events, and people to see. But here in Puxin things don't run at the same speed. Things are much slower.

People have asked us whether we've been busy. And while we haven't been drowning in busyness as we're used to in the classroom, we still reply that we have been. It's just the busyness here looks different. We are not running kids off to their next class, diffusing an argument between groupmates, or cramming down a lunch so we can discipline a student. Rather our days are packed with reading the Bible, meeting to talk about ministry, occasionally studying Chinese, and riding our bikes to the grocery store to pick up eggs and meat.

Time moves differently here. It's loosely governed and counted by chunks: appointments take up your morning and hanging out with kids could mean starting sometime around 5pm and just sitting around for the next 4 hours. To be honest, it's been a bit of a struggle getting used to the work output here.

So we've been adjusting to this new notion of time. Be flexible. Do what you can. Things may or may not happen at their proposed times. Sometimes they won't happen at all.

On a day off the Chen's took us out to Lugang, an old fishing village on the coast.

Ministry has been interesting as well. Since school has started for the highschoolers, we've been figuring out how to provide a safe and productive afterschool hangout environment for the students here. Most students don't have much to do at home, no homework, no real hobbies or extra-curricular activities. Some head to tutorial classes. But most who don't will often spend their evenings playing with their phones. We've been brainstorming how we can give the students a place to learn, grow and develop better study habits. So on weekdays after school, kids are invited to come hang out. Some days they come, some days they don't.

On the days they do come though, it's usually pretty loud and happening!

Here are a couple pictures:

Last weekend: putting up some Mid-Autumn festival decorations for our BBQ.

Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ (Kao Rou) is very popular here.

Families gather outside their front door, squat, and then grill food together for the whole evening.

Some of our girls being silly.

This girl had never eaten Hong Kong-style moon-cake. Her response: "These things are horrible. I will warn anyone who goes to Hong Kong to never buy them!" She then paid her friend to finish her piece of "disgusting" moon-cake.

The other ministry starting off are Champion classes at the local highschool. Champion classes are the equivalent to Health or CAPP classes back at home where students learn life skills to deal with stress and life problems. Wayne and Angela teach classes every week and have invited us to be their assistants in class. It was a neat gaze into schooling here in Puxin.

Pu-Hsin Junior High School

Waiting for students to finish their after-lunch siesta. Too hot to learn!

Ninth grade

Learning about life! 

I think that being here in Puxin the last few weeks has slowly stripped away the value I place on achieving things in my day. The slowness has forced to be honest with myself. Without my job, my appointments to run off to, and my errands to attend, I've been forced to ask myself where I derive my sense of identity. Do I feel good about myself because I was able to accomplish things today? Was I successful because I was able to pack much into my schedule? Or am I still being fruitful - or more importantly faithful to what God has called me to despite the slow turn of events?

We all live in different places with different paces of time. What I've learned in my time here is that God doesn't measure based on the busyness of my calendar but rather how my heart will delight in being faithful to Him in every moment of my day. Whether life be quick or slow, may my heart rejoice in giving Him my very best even when it might not seem like a lot in my own eyes.

Even when it's mundane.

Even when it's plain.

Puxin: Sights, Sounds, and Smells

Hi Everyone,

So it's been a few days since we've arrived here in Taiwan. We are settling in well with the Chens. We had our orientation a few days ago upon arrival and have had a chance to see some of the students we hope to connect with after the school year starts. Today we had more of a chance to walk around town and explore a little bit, so we wanted to take this chance to share a little about this place we call home for the next half a year.

Sights: Puxin is a small sized town in Taiwan with around 35 000 people and several surrounding villages. It's closest bigger-city neighbour is YuanLin, so if you'd like to google it, you can probably find Puxin on its left somewhere on the map. It's got a typical main street with shops that line both sides, and then residential houses scattered about.

Main street stroll

Corner store beside where we live

A ride into the surrounding village

Sounds: We are situated on a rather heavily used street, so besides the overbearing stench of the stinky tofu stall a few houses away the next thing you'll notice is the constant din of traffic and the shrill of the passing moped. Still, it's nothing like what traffic is like in Hong Kong (thank goodness) and you can easily find your way across the street, though it would be wise to walk in a predictable manner so you don't get hit by the oncoming scooter!

putt-putt-putt-putt

The school across from our place

Smells: If you take a stroll along main street, the predominant aroma will be of boiling oil and fried goods (donuts, chicken, mushrooms, tofu, potatoes... I don't know how Taiwanese are so creative in finding all these different things to fry). But the other smell to notice is the incense as you pass by the different temples in town. This month in particular is interesting- it's ghost month in the Chinese calendar. Tradition states that the spirits of the dead come out to visit families, so to appease them and ease their suffering, it is important to leave offerings of food, drinks, and money out for them to use. Yesterday was the last day of Ghost month, so many families took the opportunity to send the spirits off with offerings and incense.

If you see a temple, you'll likely smell the incense

A store-front offering to the ghosts leaving town

What's next: The students at the nearby highschool start classes in September, so the next week or two will help us gauge our ministry priorities and what our schedule looks like. We hope to have an after-school hangout centre for them to relax. We will also have a Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ for them, so we are praying that event kickstarts a steady group of students coming to visit.

Personally, we will start our first begin our language learning this coming Thursday. We're already trying to practice our by speaking with students and watching Meteor Garden. I'm also trying to write down all the new words I encounter throughout the day on sheets of paper so I see them more often, but Mich doesn't like the papers so she has them on her phone.

 It's been a positive start so far. We're happy to be here and happy to be learning lots!

Blessings!

1 Day Til Taiwan

It has been a week since we left Vancouver and we were blessed to have spent quality time with friends and family. We experienced the love and support of our church back at home as we head to Taiwan.

Taiwan Prayer Night - included with a delicious spread of Taiwanese food

A British and Taiwanese Farewell BBQ

Since returning to HK for our brief one-week pit stop before Taiwan, things have been busy. The last few days have been a flurry of packing, running errands, and completing our journey guide before our start in Taiwan. It's strange because time has a way of just flying by. Before we know it, the day is over but there's still tons to be done.

packing everything for Taiwan

We think one of the biggest differences coming back this time is that we don't have a home to go back to. We've since moved out of our place and our friends James and Rodi have moved into our flat for the year. Gone are the days when we used to load up our luggage with teaching supplies, dried goods to last the year, kitchenware and clothes- this year, we had no where to put these things because our home wasn't really our home anymore. It was a really odd feeling to enter our apartment that day and see the place we had called home for 3 years with other peoples' stuff, everything eerily in the same place, but strangely different. It's one of those little losses we'll have to accept as we transition this year.

moving day: we waited an hour for a taxi

Another bittersweet moment: we picked up our hedgehogs from the pet hotel. We've missed these guys all summer (6 weeks apart). They're still the same, still ridiculously cute and still so oblivious. One thing we are very grateful for is that a friend of a friend from my parents' church promised to take them in for the year. This was one of our greatest worries (this and the apartment) leading up to our decision to go on this one-year journey, so it's a great relief and an answered prayer to know that these two will be taken care of. We'll miss them a lot!

Uni!

The last few days have been full of encouragement as well. On Wednesday, we were able to have dinner with Ah Wah and hear his life story. He shared about how he ended up on the streets but also how God has taken care of him and caused his trust to grow over the years. We were so challenged and inspired this by this guy; here was a man who had lost everything in life, yet had the perspective to know that in growing intimately with the Lord, he had gained everything. Ah Wah told us that because the street cleaners often come by to clear his belongings during the day and fellow street people try to steal his things at night, he hides his most treasured possession - his Bible- during the day and sleeps with it during the night. Tintin was so challenged when he heard this, that he wanted to cry. How sweet the Word must be when it becomes all you have in life.

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On Friday night, some friends came over for a visit. It was such a good time of catching up, to hear how they were doing as they started off their school years. At the end of the evening they prayed for us to send us off. We are so blessed to have good friends.

On Sunday, it was refreshing to connect back with friends at St. Andrews. Our time here in Hong Kong has been more enriched because of these friendships. We thank God for placing us in a community with believers who are willing to share openly in life together.

So, we have one night left at our parents' place before we fly off to Taiwan on Wednesday. A few more things to attend to, friends and family to catch up with, and hopefully time to quietly prepare our hearts for what's around the corner. God is so good. We feel so full - full of love from family, joy of friendships, and peace to know that God has provided all we need. We appreciate your continued prayers and will update soon.


Love you all.

NOTE: We will be blogging about what God will be teaching us through this experience. Feel free to journey and read along. We will be sending monthly prayer updates through email. Please let us know if you want to be on our mailing list. You can email us at: tintinandmichelle@gmail.com

The Gospel of the Overpass

Somewhere in a corner in Kowloon, there's a flyover that marks the boundary between Sham Shui Po and Tai Kok Tsui. In this dark lane, sandwiched between a park and funeral parlour three of our friends live. Sadly recently, three became two. On Monday, a funeral was held for Ah Sing, the oldest of the trio.

For Michelle and I, Ah Sing's funeral was one of the most inspiring and moving memorials we've ever attended. On a hot and muggy evening, twenty-five odd Christians gathered by the overpass to pay respects to the homeless man who passed. Some knew him only briefly. Others hadn't even met him at all. But all were there to honour the life of a man who had endured life so valiantly.

Not much was known about Ah Sing. For most of us, he was a man who sat in a wheelchair by the park who wore a gracious smile but lived a guarded life. For a few years now his health had been failing, his knee and hip shrivelling until he painfully lost the ability to walk. Having been confined to his wheelchair, he spent most of his time drunk in efforts to numb the pain.

Yet for his troubles and humble life, this was a dignified funeral. It was the gospel come to life. There by the overpass the Spirit was palpable and thick as if Jesus was present in that very place declaring to this broken city that his very heart was there, with the poor and needy. We sang, we cried, we laughed, we listened, and remembered the life lost. We celebrated because any life lived is a valuable one nonetheless. And here in a society that pushes the invisible to its corners, we the church gathered to declare that these lives were seen and their stories would be heard.

The most powerful testimony would come from a 16 year old girl who had befriended the trio. She talked about Ah Sing's hardiness and his stubborn drive to live. Then she paused and, with wisdom far beyond her years, talked about Ah Sing's drinking problem. "I've been thinking about whether I should mention his drinking problem tonight," she started, "but I realize that to not talk about it would not honour who he was. Yes, Ah Sing drank a lot, but he drank because the pain of his separated hip was overwhelming. In the end, I asked myself 'how would Jesus have seen Ah Sing?'" she continued. "Jesus would have accepted Ah Sing for who he was with his strengths and flaws. If we are called to truly love our neighbours, we should as well. Because after all, don't we all have our flaws?"

When the service came to an end, one of Ah Sing's buddies shared that Ah Sing must have been so proud to look down from heaven and see so many people gathered to celebrate his life. I quietly pondered this thought in the afterglow of the funeral. Indeed, THIS is what the Kingdom of God is all about: the injustices of life being levelled and the poor, hungry and meek being exalted. The Kingdom is about the church rising up to be the hands and feet of Christ to truly love and accept those around. For Christ says, "whatever you do to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did for me. (Matt 25:40)" Most of us are content sitting in our comfortable sterile sanctuaries, singing instead of serving, and yet our Lord calls us to go and love the lowly as we would love Him. What good is a church that doesn't even love her own Lord?

The sad thing isn't that homeless people die in our city - for all most die sooner or later- it's that most die without ever being dignified and loved as people whom God created. Even more tragic is that the church, the very Body of Christ in this age, lets that happen. Let us go, love others and do unto them as we would for the Lord.

3 More Weeks of Teaching!

Ahhhh!

This is surreal. I cannot believe that there are only 3 more weeks remaining in our school year. 

This year has been a whirlwind of busyness. Somehow in the midst of everything, God gave us the grace and sanity we needed to get through all the different challenges we faced. And now we are at the bittersweet time of the year when we must say goodbye to our students and see them off. 

Much has happened the last few months. For one, we finally shared with our classes that we were going to leave CAIS to go to Taiwan to serve next year. Our classes took it really well. When Michelle had the students pray for her after she had shared the news, one particular girl prayed, "God, I pray that Mr. and Mrs. Lam would not offend the culture in Taiwan and that they would be a blessing to others." What a powerful prayer from a nine year old! May that prayer be true of our lives - that we would be servants who are sensitive, who walk with others to bless them. That is our greatest desire for the next six months.

To be honest, as our time to leave draws near, the realization hasn't set on us how big of a change this year will be. We are excited, but really hope to find the time to settle down and still our hearts in preparation for this year. But in the meantime, there are still lots of people to say goodbye to, report cards to finish up, and a classroom of rambunctious kids to lead into the summer.  

Do pray for us when you remember. We could very much use your support!