Into The Light

(I should have posted this last Friday - April 23) I just came out of another meeting with Brother SQ at Shilin Detention Center. This one was a lot less intense and emotional than the first, but covered more practical issues: like what sins to confess and which ones to keep quiet about, whether it was okay to grass up a friend, the choice between being an informer and still ending up in prison or keeping your mouth shut and being well respected inside for a very long time, and the worry about being labeled as a sissy if you preach the gospel to other prisoners.

I have to admit, I’m over my head with this kind of stuff. I wouldn’t last 10 minutes inside there. All I could say is that you have to confess your sins and wipe the slate clean with both God and men as well, but if a lot of people are going to be hurt by some of your too open and honest confessions, it’s probably best to try to make your peace with God and keep quiet about them. I don’t know the Biblical basis for grassing up your mates.

I’m going to need some guidance for this one. Thank the Lord, last weekend I went to a national coordination meeting for volunteer organizations in Taiwan - which was remarkable only because of how lifeless and behind the times it was. I made a comment in the meeting, and was slowly writing out what I said in Chinese on a comment sheet, praying that someone would come and talk to me so I could make a useful contact, when who should walk up but a woman from the Rehabilitation Association - who deals with prisoner services! I don’t know what message I would have taken if the guidedogs for the blind foundation came up to me, but I took it as a sign. I haven’t called her yet, but I certainly will after today’s visit.

Yesterday evening, Lian Erlang - Shuzhen’s father - got baptized. What a wonderful thing that was. Trying to do everything in Taiwanese was a struggle, but we got through it okay.

Heavens above, I’m sitting on the MRT while typing this, and I can see Zhang Boya (pictured) opposite me - the former Minister of the Interior. I wonder where she’s going.

Right, back to the baptism. The best thing was his son, Lian Zhendong, came too. He was saved just the week before, and he said a few words in prayer for his dad. The two have a slightly awkward relationship, as most Taiwanese dads and sons do, so that was lovely to see.

Ramblings At The End Of A Long Day

Shuzhen’s father came on his own fruition to the meeting today (Sunday 3/28), and Dajie prayed by herself for the first time. Mr Lan and his wife were there too, and they seem to be on the brink of getting baptized - Lena and I will be gong to see them on Wednesday with Shuyuan and Qionglin. Br. Zhong invited a brother called Joel from Indonesia, who is already heavily involved in his own church, so I don’t know how far we can go with him, but he said he’d come next week too. He also said he would come to the training in the evening, but pulled out at the last minute because his church was having a meeting about Easter. I had mugged up on tonight’s lesson - on 1 Corinthians 12 - because I was interpreting for Joel, but when he didn’t come, I could just relax and enjoy the lesson having done all my homework - which made it so much better. Oh, and Yuanmei came for lunch today as well. So all in all, it was a perfect day.

One of the good things I said in the afternoon was to encourage Dajie to just pray for what was in her heart, because God knows what you’re thinking anyway. I hope I didn’t offend Liqing when I said that, because she was correcting her older sister when she was praying for her grandson to get into Taida. I told Dajie to just to say what she wanted, but keep praying, and in the end, as she got closer to God she’d pray for what God wanted. I stole that line from something Bo told me a few years ago, but I don’t think he’ll mind.

I talked to Steve on the phone to catch up, and to ask him for advice on a proposal I’m writing. Although we did talk about Christianity, I didn’t argue my case at all. Well, we’ll see what happens. I’ll place that one it God’s hands. Amen.

Eternity in man's heart

What an amazing day. It didn't start so well when I got up and immediately picked a fight with Deping, but it ended by baptizing Qionglin’s brother-in-law!

Between those two events was a testimony we were asked to give at Xinji Building. It has been hanging over Deping and me for a while - we weren't qualified to talk about the subject (running a children's group), it was a big audience of about 1,000 people, and we hadn't put enough work into writing or memorizing the testimony. So when the big day finally came on Saturday, I snapped back at Deping when she was trying to tell me something. But we made it up and got ourselves to Xinji Building in time.

Our testimony went okay. Here it is in Chinese. It was a bit rubbish, but at least we weren't as bad as one of the elders who gave the first message - he seemed to be encouraging everyone to take sweets into the park to entice children into the church! Surely not a good idea. Anyway, the second elder was really good - he talked about the decline in church life in the US, and how that macro historical trend is a mirrored in the micro development of a child into adulthood who drifts away from the church in the same way. The answer, he said, was to draw on Romans, preach the whole gospel, and teach young people how to run meetings.

Qionglin, Shuyuan and their friends the Lans were there. After the Lan’s went home, we grabbed something to eat, then went to see Qionglin’s brother-in-law, Wei Jiajun, at a hospital miles away in Xizhi.

He has lymphoma, so was weak, and he was losing his voice too. He’d asked Shuyuan to bring over a Bible - I gave him an extra one I had on me at the Xinji Building - so we got down to preaching the gospel to him. Shuyuan went through a flyer he’d brought, and then I started on the Mystery of Human Life, and moved straight onto the last bit after going through the first key. I basically said that only God could satisfy us because, like it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, we have eternity in our hearts: material and worldly things can never satisfy us, because we’re not made for them - we’re made for God. Then I asked him if he wanted to get baptized, and he said yes! Full immersion wasn’t an option in the hospital, so we did it by pouring water on his head.

Amazing. That’s number five for our little district this year - three were baptized in our bathtub at home (Chen Xiaorong, Liu Rongshu, Cai Wanzhen) and one at Huang Wenhong’s place (Xie Shuqing). Jiajun is also the first member of Qionglin’s family, apart from her, so it’s very important for her. What a day. Shuyuan and Qionglin couldn’t believe it was so easy, because he’d been very stubborn before, and quoted Buddhist scripture back at them. Qionglin said God gives authority to the district leaders - I don’t know about that, but all I know is that it’s not me. I can’t even memorize the thing you’re supposed to say at the climax of the baptism.