Come and listen

Two blog posts in the same month! Call the Vatican or whoever verifies miracles, because this definately qualifies as one. Truly, nothing is impossible for God. Anyway, here's the latest edition of my newsletter. Enjoy!

親愛的弟兄姐妹
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Well, usually I try and make my newsletters well connected, well-written, with an overarching theme, a catchy story, etc., but this time, God’s too awesome, and I’ve got too much to share. So what follows is a short conglomeration of different things that have happened in the past two and a half months. Come and listen to what He’s done…

I was sitting in my room the other evening, wallowing in an unwarrantedly grumpy mood, when I decided to check my e-mail (maybe there would be something good in it this time). I fully expected to find only the usual barrage of SPAM and life-business type e-mails, and doubted that I would run across anything important enough to justify putting off my bedtime another twenty minutes or so. Undaunted by common sense and sound logic however, I soon had my internet browser open and my inbox accessed. After a brief glance at both senders and subject lines, I noted with an ironic sense of satisfaction that my in-box did, in fact, appear to be devoid of anything of interest.

Appearances are often deceiving though, as they were in this case. The content of an e-mail from one of my missionary colleagues, Mike Kersten, left me amazed and confused. The Zhong Zheng University English Hala Club, which happens once a week on Thursday nights, has a variety of topics and activities in store for students who wish to practice their English for a couple hours, previous meetings have had anything from Ultimate Frisbee to photo scavenger hunts to English music and drama. Whatever may capture the interest of a Taiwanese university student seems to be fair game, including Bible study, apparently. Mike’s e-mail explained that this week, the members of English Hala Club, a fair number of which have started coming to our Friday Night Bible Study this year, decided that instead of a karaoke party, they would just as soon have Bible study. They asked Mike to plan it, which he was happy to do, and he in turn needed a guitar player or two. Hence the jaw-dropping e-mail. OK, yeah, sure, I can help with that. So we had Bible study last Thursday night. Mike led, despite a nasty headache that the Enemy had beset him with that evening, Mark Wolfram and I played guitar, and the whole thing went really well. God is awesome. He takes a “random” bunch of Taiwanese university students who speak English, puts a “random” bunch of missionaries in the general vicinity, and then they start wanting to have Bible study at their otherwise completely secular English club.

And then there was Easter. Besides all the obvious reasons why Easter is the best holiday ever, in Taiwan it’s particularly significant because it’s one of two times during the year (the other being Christmas) when our church does baptisms.

I should probably explain a little bit about baptisms here. In the Western world where a majority of people either are Christian or are at least familiar with Christianity, baptism is often treated with a kind of casual familiarity that tends to detract from its very real significance. Lots of people are baptized and then nurtured in a faith that continues to grow their whole lives, but for some, baptism is where their faith both starts and stops. For one reason or another, whatever faith that was planted at that time did not take root. Consequentially, baptism gets shrugged off, and life goes on without much thought being given to the matter. From what I have observed here in Taiwan, however, baptism is a very serious matter. The vast majority of people are not Christian, are not baptized, and still practicing traditional Chinese religion. By being baptized, however, a person publicly declares to everyone that they are officially Christian and not a part of that old way of life. And since that old way of life often includes ancestor worship and providing for their parents in the afterlife, being baptized is also sometimes looked on as turning one’s back on one’s family. It’s not a matter to be taken lightly. I’ve known of people who confess to being Christian, but delay their baptisms for quite some time, even years, while praying for God to work out their family issues.

But thanks be to God! This Easter we had three baptisms! One was a teacher at Concordia Middle School, and incidentally, the mother of one of my kindergarteners. The second was Lily Wasmund, the new baby girl that our volunteer coordinator Matt and his wife Dee Dee recently adopted (yay!). The third was a gal from a family where God has a masterpiece in progress. One of the girl’s older sisters was baptized about a year and a half ago. She has since witnessed to the rest of her sisters and brother, and God has done great things. Two of her sisters have been baptized now, one last Christmas, and the other on Easter. Praise God for His work in these three women, and continue to pray for them as they witness to their other three siblings and parents. I have rarely experienced such joy as that day when God added three more to His family.

Easter was also a time of celebration in the kindergarten. On Good Friday, instead of having normal English classes, we took a day out of the week for an Easter activity. We had different stations that the kids would go around and do. We had an Easter egg hunt, an Easter egg relay, Easter pictionary, an Easter craft, and the Easter story station, which was my privilege to run. I got to tell every one of my K-3 students that Jesus is alive! Even kids know the difference between dead and alive, and they all know that dead things don’t come alive again…unless it’s Jesus. “Where is Jesus?” I asked.

“Jesus is alive!” was their joyful response.

I realized that something more wonderful than I could have imagined had happened. They got it! They understood! Through barriers of language and culture and being wiggly five year olds, they understood! And I know they understood because three weeks later their parents were asking about it at our CELA new student recruitment meeting. Mothers who were Buddhist asked why their kids come home talking about Jesus. And while I was sorry for the conflict that some of my students are getting a taste of so early in life, I also rejoiced that God is present and is working in their young lives.

And somehow, God has seen fit to include me in all of this. I haven’t done anything spectacular or amazing or great. God has though. He’s the Vine; I get my kicks being a branch, just kind of hanging out. And what a blessing this time has been to see the fruit of the Vine!

May this newsletter find you all similarly rooted…

…In Christ,
Peace and Joy