Glimpses of Taiwan: Endless variety, conveniently-sized

One of the things I enjoy about living in Taiwan is the diversity of geography and experiences contained in a small area. Subtropical jungle is only miles away from the seaside, and modern cities are a convenient bus ride away from serene mountain slopes or volcanic hot springs. A couple hours' car ride can pass through multiple linguistic and cultural zones. It is very much like living in a respectably-sized country, only compacted so that the empty lands in between destinations are reduced to tens of minutes instead of hours. All that, and there are still nigh impassable mountain ranges with beautiful isolated valleys and rare species of endemic birds and insects.

I often recall a particularly enjoyable day I spent with expat friends celebrating someone's birthday.
After spending a few hours on the golden sands of Fulong beach, popular with foreigners, a few of us headed down the Taiwan's east coast for a few train stops.

Little seaside train stations provoke a feeling I haven't seen a word for: instant nostalgia for something I've never actually experienced in the past. I'm sure someone could come up with a good term.. instalgia? prestalgia? fauxstalgia? (It doesn't feel fake, though.)

(These pics are borrowed from the internet, as I sadly did not have my camera that day)

Arriving at Daxi station, after a short walk we found a stretch of beach across from Turtle Island (which really is shaped something like a turtle), grey sand laid out in the crescent of Honeymoon Bay, a spot popular with Taiwan's small but dedicated surfing community. Swimming out into the shallow water, comfortably cool and very clear since the black sand didn't cloud the surf, one could float on one's back and look at the steep green mountains that rose dramatically up from only dozens of yards inland, their tops obscured in mist.

Once our little beach-side party was over, including a mini-bonfire using driftwood we collected from a giant, abandoned concrete sea-defense bunker into which frequent typhoons had blown all manner of debris, our company parted ways, one friend and I taking a train and a bus through Jiaoxi and eventually back to Taipei.

Bird's eye view from the Taipei 101 building

View from the street...

Taipei itself is a fascinating city, even taken apart from Taiwan (and many southern Taiwanese people would encourage you to do so). While not on par with a Tokyo or London, it is a significant global city, with a unique blend of traditional "Chinese-ness" never damaged by the cultural revolution, and advanced 21st century infrastructure and hi-tech industry. (This combination was impressed upon me very visually once, as I watched a well-dressed businessman momentarily putting away his smartphone to bow with joss (incense) sticks before an old Buddhist shrine)

One could spend a great deal of time talking about Taipei, and we will talk more about its avenues and alleys in future posts.
But Taiwan is much more than Taipei...

Kenting Nationa Park - Mandatory vacation destination for Taiwanese

Hualien - Nestled in the mountains on the East Coast

Keelung Night Market... go here for seafood!

Rice fields outside of Taichung, near TEAM's gospel camp facility

Nantou, near Xitou Forest Park, in the middle of Taiwan's mountain ranges

On a boat in Kaohsiung harbor, looking back at the 85 (floor) Sky Tower

These are just a few random places and experiences... in the future we'll get to explore many of these areas in more depth. I'm excited to get back to Taiwan soon, and to let you all have a window into my world there.
Until then I'll continue to post theological musings, updates on my progress to Taiwan, and maybe tackle a controversial topic or two...

Unstoppable Motivation: The Glory of our King

"Kingship"

The Bible contains many truth propositions, but we do not worship an idea.
Our cause is Christ, but we do not worship an ideology.
"We love because He first loved us," but we do not worship people.

We worship the living God; Father, Son, Spirit; who reigns in glory on high, Creator of all, Judge of all, who is coming again to make all things new. And He is our King.

The modern, western phenomenon of the subjugation of the Rule of Man to the Rule of Law, Rex Lex reversed to Lex Rex, is the foundational basis for our system of government and indeed most of the various worldviews which could be called American have this idea at their core. And it did not happen overnight.

In the West, to fight against the evil and suffering wrought by corrupt tyrants, absolute monarchy as a concept was put under siege, and eventually broken. The Magna Carta and other great moments in history demonstrate the wresting away of power from one man and distribution among many. The advent of modern democratic rule distributed the power even further, to normal people, a new citizenry. Now at the onset of the 21st century, even the President of the United States of America, nominally the most powerful man in the whole world, is merely addressed as "Mr. President." From the perspective of history, this is truly a bizarre turn of events. Never before America had the population of a nation had so much control over their lives, and we still live in the penumbra of that blessing today.

Yet with this blessing comes a weakness; on a fundamental level, we do not understand Kingship. Not the charade monarchs of modern Europe, with little more than symbolic power in the current government structures, but a real King: One-man rule, whose will may not be contradicted, and who holds the power of life and death over any of his subjects.

"No one can tell me what to do," is a common American idea, even supposed ideal.
But a King can tell you what to do. It is his role to do so, just as it is the role of his subjects to acknowledge his claim to their obedience. This is acknowledged by Paul in Romans 13 and Peter in 1 Peter 2, even in the context of the evil rule of Emperor Nero.

When honoring Christ as our King, we accordingly set aside our role in the decision-making process of His eternal kingdom that anyone living in an earthly democracy enjoys. There is no democracy of God; there is the Kingdom, and we serve a Risen King at whose Name every knee shall bow. The supreme Ruler and Creator of all things who reigns not only by Right, but also by Might, transcendent and exalted, determining the course of all things by His sovereign command.

A Question: In this context of God's overwhelming sovereignty, why do Missions? (...or anything else?)

When approaching the task of taking the gospel to the world, some have argued that a reformed view of God's sovereignty and election takes away the motivation for our calling. If our eternal destination is ultimately in God's hands and not our own, why bother to go tell people what ultimately won't change their eternal fate? (I don't wish to debate the reformed perspective here, but I think as Christians we can all agree that we do not save ourselves, regardless of how much of a role we may or may not play in the process. Let us proceed for now on that agreement, deal?)

Now some answer this question simply that we go out of obedience, because Christ told us to. That is not a "wrong" answer, but I think it falls short. Another, better answer is that the God who ordains the ends also ordains the means, and we are the means by which God has determined to spread His kingdom. This is necessarily true, but I would argue that this too falls short of the full reason.

Our ultimate motivation for missions, as rightly proclaimed by John Stott, "should not be obedience to the great commission, nor even the loving concern for those who do not yet know Jesus, important as these two incentives are, but first and foremost a burning zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ."


Amen. By no means lessening the first two reasons given, we acknowledge that they must take the second and third place before our ultimate purpose which is derived from "the chief end of man," our raison d'être. So then we have-

An Answer: We seek to advance the Kingdom of God for no lesser purpose than the greater glory and exaltation of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King, among all the peoples of the earth.

Does this kind of language evoke any reaction in you? Western culture seems increasingly and obsessively fixed on the trivial, while mocking whatever is sincere or honored. This soft-sell nihilism can deaden us (or even make us laugh) at things which should command our immediate respect and humility. And growing up in church can, sadly, expose us to some truth so often that its power to affect us grows cold. I believe it is every Christian's duty to stir up these embers with worship and reflection on the person of God, so that what is stale becomes shockingly fresh once again.

In my own life, God has seen fit to bestow on me the priceless gift of tiny glimpses of His glory and majesty. And I am certainly no one special! Just as Moses asked God "show me Your glory" (Exodus 33), for we who are found in Christ, God will reveal His glory to us in our own lives if we ask Him.

I don't know how He will do it for you. For me, those little glimpses put to shame any petty motivations like money or success. There is an eternal reality which will shatter the world's temptations like candy glass before a hurricane in those moments when it breaks into your life. One of those realities is this:
You will die, then you will face the Glorious One. And so will everyone else.

He is a King I would die for; He is a King I will live for.

May His glory be ever before us, that we may relentlessly seek His exaltation in our lives and proclaim His glorious Name in every corner of the world, that all may enter His kingdom.

Soli Deo Gloria.

A Departure is an Arrival

Crickets and thunder are singing tonight,
Like warm Southern nights of my youth

It's hard to believe I've been into the sky
(O'er oceans and clouds to a city of crowds)
To a jewel in the East China Sea

Now across the Pacific I soon shall return
(O'er islands and clouds to my city of crowds)
Away from the land of my youth

I've tasted its waves from those far shores alone;
A place which I've found can be home.

"Relevancy"

Beginning in the late 19th century, in the face of seemingly unanswerable attacks by post-Enlightenment scholarship, many German liberal theologians tried to save what they saw as the valuable cultural institution of Christianity by removing the supernatural portions of our Faith. They perceived their goal as that of saving the Church, but only succeeded in attempting to discard the Faith itself. In so doing they denied the power of the gospel, and were left with only the fading inertia of whatever positive moral influences it still provided in their society, and the lovely exterior covering of tradition and meaning it had accrued over time. (For my computer-literate friends, we might say they wanted to throw out most of the source files yet somehow retain a functioning GUI.)

I suspect decades down the road, American cultural Christianity (from the megachurches down) might be accused of something similar: discarding the hard truths of Scripture not to remain relevant in the face of Rationalism, but to remain relevant in an entertainment-crazed culture in which the only absolute is that the final arbiter of good and evil is society's collective opinion, which must never be contradicted or opposed.
And looking around, we do find that much of the Church in America is preoccupied in chasing the idol of false relevancy. This is sadly ironic in that one thing the Church, commanded to communicate eternal, unchanging Truth to the world, has always been particularly poor at is achieving the sort of relevancy which must constantly change with the times and trends. The church seems bent on playing catch-up with the world, either "Come see, we do that too," or "We made our own, Christian version of that," not realizing that while this attempt to stay on top of secular trends may seem cool to those who remain within the Christian bubble, it is woefully unimpressive to those who do not.

Imagining an elderly couple trying to use communication age acronyms like "lol" and "ikr" to seem relevant to their grandchildren is a good illustration. Will this impress their grandchildren? Most likely not, though they may find it amusing. And outside the family context, as a longtime youth worker I can testify to how embarrassing it is when anyone old enough to have children in school tries to adopt the latest speech styles of students "to relate to them." (Seriously, don't ever do it, we cringe in embarrassment for you.)

Few things make a person seem more actually out of touch than trying to pretend they are relevant in this particular way. Part of the reason for this is that, seemingly contrary to popular opinion, students are quite aware that older adults have useful lessons to offer them. And this is what they want, not inherently doomed attempts on the part of the speaker to pretend they are still young enough to be socially relevant. All people want to hear something which they think will be valuable for them, and the style used to convey it should be whatever can best not interfere with its delivery.

The earlier example is the same; the grandparents don't need to try to be trendy, their grandchildren (hopefully) already love and respect them. And if not, then attempting to adopt their language will only hurt the cause. Grandparents are 100% relevant, however, when they offer what only they can, the unique dynamic of love, wisdom, and affection which leaps across two generations and enriches both.

The Church is no different. We are not Steve Jobs, who walked the earth 2 years ago and is now dead. We are the Body of Christ, who walked the earth 2000 years ago and lives, and is the source of life. We've been given precious, eternal truth, and our clumsy attempts to impress the world by looking like it merely distract. The revelation of the identity of God and atoning work of Christ has overthrown empires, and permanently changed the course of human affairs. The trends of a particular decade are vanishingly flimsy and transient by comparison. (And there is a secret which seems to have eluded even those relevancy-chasing church leaders but is apparent through the example of Islam today: In our relativistic age, that which refuses to compromise is increasingly relevant by its very nature, like a rock in a stream which forces the water to flow around it.)

The Church is only relevant when we deal in what only the Church possesses, the unchanging, eternal truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which can transform a life today just as easily as it did a thousand years ago.
It is not the world's message, it is a message which the world lacks, and is dying to hear.
Life-saving truth is always relevant.

Introverts as Missionaries?

So I've both noticed many and received a few questions about ministry (especially missions) and introversion lately. There seems to be a widespread feeling that missions is something which so heavily involves constant interaction with other people that introverts are ill-suited at best to pursue this kind of ministry.

As an introvert who is going into cross-cultural ministry, I want to specifically engage this issue and perhaps address the concerns of some introverts who are considering going into missions, yet are worried they won't be able to handle the social load.

For starters, let's look at what it means to be an introvert.

The common perception: You're socially underdeveloped/deficient
Introversion is usually not considered a positive trait (or even a neutral one) at least in America, where "putting yourself out there" and fearlessly engaging and thriving in the social scene is considered almost de facto necessary for success.

In the church, a similar way of thinking persists, though under another name. We are called to love and serve other people, so how can you not be a people person? Perhaps you are simply not a mature enough Christian to have developed a strong love for other people. I am only somewhat hyperbolizing, and could tell stories... People-people are sometimes incapable of understanding how you could want to do anything but spend your time in the company of other people. And the introverts twitch a little, feeling their very sanity depends on getting away for a little while to a quiet cup of tea and book that needs finishing.

In Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (a book which I highly, highly recommend for introverts or extroverts wishing to understand your introverted friends, family, and colleagues), the author discusses at one point how American churches often demand extroversion as a qualification when looking to fill leadership positions:

"A senior priest at another church confesses online that he has advised parishes recruiting a new rector to ask what his or her Myers-Briggs score is. "If the first letter isn't an 'E' [for extrovert]," he tells them, "think twice ... I'm sure our Lord was an [extrovert]." (Cain, Susan; Quiet; p65)

The above example is a Catholic church, but I would argue from experience that this phenomenon is even more common in Evangelical churches. Contrast this to what we know about Christ; He often slipped away from the crowds, spending the night alone in prayer. Whether in His humanity Jesus was an introvert, extrovert, ambivert, or transcending all of these, we should follow His example of spending much time with people, and much time alone with the Father.

Seriously.. introverts (and extroverts) need to read this book.

The reality: You simply relate to people differently
Due partially to books such as the one quoted above and an increase in online materials regarding introversion (Google "myths about introverts" for many insightful articles), there is a growing awareness that introverts are not, in fact, people who necessarily dislike other people or the company of other people.

As it turns out, introverts simply are refreshed and energized by spending time alone, and not with other people. I have often been assumed to be an extrovert because I am friendly, have a very large circle of acquaintances, and am fairly active socially. But people who see these factors and assume extroversion don't see how I often return home from a long day of (profitable and enjoyable) meetings totally drained, and spend hours silently reading and listening to music before I sleep. This has not prevented me from meeting and keeping up with large numbers of people in multiple states and countries; it just means every now and then I need a break from people, and I must take care to make sure I get it. Those alone times can be highly productive as well; my spiritual gift of teaching is much less effective without periodic times of reflection to process the lessons God has been teaching me recently, and obviously any writing I do occurs during those alone times.

A Truth: Global Missions would be impossible without Introverts

This might seem a bold statement to some, but the whole range of spiritual gifts that accompany introversion are extremely important to any mission team. Not all countries and cultures value the super-extroverted American ideal, and some may even find it offensive. The ability to empathize with people and slowly build a small circle of meaningful relationships, something which comes very naturally to many introverts, allows for a more enduring presence in a community and the chance for long-term partnerships to accomplish real change, when the dynamic speakers and event-based outreach ministries have passed on.

This is, of course, not meant to suggest at all that extroverts are not capable of these kinds of relationships or that their ministries do not have long-term focus. But there is a "soft power" of introversion which endures quietly in difficult situations. Transplanted into a new ministry field, they might not shoot out many branches at first, but they may be putting down deep roots which will help them weather the storms that any cross-cultural ministry eventually faces. Introverts may often be better at "leading from behind," being comfortable with letting local leadership-in-training take center stage while continuing to provide support and direction until they are able to fully lead on their own.

Another example might be seen in the way new missionaries learn the language of their host culture:
In the beginning there seems to be a clear advantage to the extroverts, who are quick to "get out there" and try their new language skills in the streets and with the many new friends they've probably already made. The introverts, by contrast, may still be adjusting to the new environment and not have made many friends yet. It may be easy for them to let the extroverts do the talking at first. However wait a few years down the road, and the introverts' typical love of books may have propelled them into higher levels of literacy, and their small circles of close friends will provide many opportunities for socially safe but effective language progress.

In the end, it should be obvious that both extroverts and introverts have skills and abilities which make them effective in ministry, and that they are able to cover each others' weaknesses.

Extroverts should be careful not to judge introverts for not jumping into socializing with them, and introverts should be careful to develop their people skills as much as possible. In my own case, as an introvert I try to develop my "social endurance" just as an athlete develops their physical endurance. I'll never be a natural at it like some of my friends are, but I am much better at it now than I used to be, and have been blessed by the increased chances for meaningful meetings and relationships that have happened as a result.

So the answer to introverts wondering if they are cut out for cross-cultural missions is a resounding: maybe!
The issue is not your intro or extroversion, but whether this is God's will for you. If it is, He who calls will supply everything you need to answer the call. Pray that He will open and close doors as necessary to lead you in His will, and never let introversion be a reason to hesitate. (Remember Joshua 1:9!)

For life on the field itself, simply be self-aware, recognize that you need to set aside rest times (keeping one day a week at least partially free is a good idea, God created the sabbath for a reason), and at the same time don't let your introversion become an excuse for self-isolation or social laziness.
Since the inner life of the mind is such a constant reality for introverts, remember to "take every thought captive" to Christ. As a famous pastor and teacher was fond of saying,  "You are not what you think, but what you think, you are."

Your introversion is a gift that God has given you, that comes with its own benefits and abilities, to serve Him in the ways for which He has created you!

Why I'm Going to Taiwan, Part Three

This is the last of a three-part series on why I'm going to Taiwan for long-term missions.

Reason I'm going to Taiwan #3: The gospel is barely present there.

This might seem like a very obvious reason, but I have listed it third for a reason. While it indeed is a perfectly appropriate motive for taking the gospel cross-culturally in general (An all-consuming zealousness for God's greater glory in all the world would seemingly be the highest motive, but wiser men than I have weighed in on this issue), it does not necessarily lead us directly to a particular ministry field. We must be careful not to substitute pragmatism or even splagchnizomai for God's leading. Many places in the world lack widespread gospel presence, and while that fact obviously shows we have much work ahead of us to fulfill the Great Commission, we must still go through the process of seeking God's will and determining to which ministry field we will go.

Missiologists would identify our current phase of world mission as focusing on unreached people groups. This is as it should be, as our responsibility is to take the gospel to every culture, and not to move through cultures one by one until the gospel is accepted by a majority in each (something which we know from Scripture (Matt 7:14) will sadly seldom occur).

So one can see that the least-reached areas deserve special attention and focus, and many are called, as was Paul, to preach the gospel where Christ is not known, so as not to "build on someone else's foundation." (Rom 15:20) But the appropriate ministry area for any particular missionary, however, is not necessarily the "least-reached" one, but the one to which God leads him.

For me, realizing (really realizing, not just acknowledging as a fact) just how few Taiwanese know God or have a chance to hear about Him in a relevant way rocked me to my core. Knowing that for every 100 Taiwanese people I saw on the crowded streets, at least 97 of them did not know Christ, and would die unreconciled to God and be eternally away from His presence, was almost more than I could bear. (For more info on the state of the church in Taiwan or anywhere else, I recommend looking at the latest edition of Operation World.)

That was one of the primary motivators for me to consider missions in general. (I hadn't yet decided on Taiwan in particular, that process is described more in the first two parts of this series.) I enjoyed my job as an engineer, and knew it was a blessing from God. But I could no longer in good conscience merely sit at my desk every day and make a very good income knowing that halfway around the world, people I had become quite aware of through my trips were living and dying almost wholly without the knowledge of the gospel. I could not do it.

So I began to open myself to the idea of missions, although I had never considered myself missionary-material before. Honestly, I wasn't crazy about working with people at all at this point. I did C++ programming mostly at work, and it made sense. Tell the computer to do A, and if it didn't do A, you could be more or less certain that you had told it wrong. People, on the other hand, were unpredictable, and seemed to get emotional over the strangest things. (On the Myers-Briggs personality test I am an INTP, aka the Rational-Architect, which is not at all what people generally consider "a missionary personality.")
So I prayed to God, and suggested that if He wanted me to be a missionary, He would have to help me develop a heart for people in reality and not merely the abstract. This prayer He has been continually answering since I prayed it; I am a very different person now, though still an INTP. (I have also learned that there is no "missionary personality," and that INTP's or ESFJ's are equally able to love people and serve God cross-culturally. I am living testimony that someone whose idea of a satisfying night was reading books on Chess strategy alone with some hot tea can be used by God just as much as someone whose idea of a satisfying night is sharing your deepest feelings with two dozen of the new best friends you met last week... but more on that in a later blog entry!)

Concurrent with this growing missional awareness was the realization that God had plans for me that involved Taiwan specifically. During my second trip to Taiwan, while praying at the gospel-sharing evening of our summer camp, God spoke to me as clearly as He ever has, and let me know that I needed to go back to Taiwan. I asked the missionary field leader there what to do. He recommended I stay in Taiwan for a year and experience life and ministry there, and then make a decision about longer-term ministry, if that was applicable. After prayer, I felt strongly that this was the next step God was leading me towards, and so I agreed to do it.

Then it was a question of quitting my engineering job. Strangely, this was one of the easier parts. Once God had made something as clear as He had made this to me, it was simply a question of whether or not I would obey Him. And I had no desire to end up in whatever the equivalent of a big fish's stomach for three days would turn out to be for me... so I thanked my boss for the opportunity to work at my company and the experience I'd had there, and gave notice. To say that the next year I spent in Taiwan was life-changing would be both trite and an understatement. By the end of that time, I was not only convinced that long-term service in Taiwan was something God had prepared me to do, but that I would be happy to do it, if that was His will. (The process of determining that with confidence is dealt with in the previous two entries.)

So that completes the story of why I am going to Taiwan, and I would welcome any additional questions you might have.

Praise be to the Lord Most High for calling each of us in our weakness and imperfection as vessels of His own gospel, that we might share in the eternal blessing of bringing glory to His name!

Why I'm Going to Taiwan, Part Two

As mentioned in my previous entry, I'm commonly asked what led me to commit to long-term ministry in Taiwan. We continue here with a discussion of how I came to make that decision; I pray it may be helpful to anyone in the midst of the same consideration...

Reason I'm going to Taiwan #2: I love Taiwan!

I mention this second and not first because I want to emphasize that leading and direction from God should certainly take priority over preference for a particular destination. No amount of love for a place will produce eternal results for the kingdom of God, only God can accomplish that through us, so we must remain in His will and not assume strong emotional pulls in one direction or another are sufficient evidence of our being so.

I have great respect for missionaries I have encountered who seemed to be not especially attached to the place or culture to which they were called, yet persisted in faithfully slogging it out over years for the sake of the gospel. I hope that, in a similar situation, my endurance would be as great, seeing the prize for which we run. In my own experience, however, concurrent with my growing involvement in Taiwanese ministry was a growing love for Taiwan and its people.

Love for the people one is called to, I was once advised by an experienced Australian missionary who I greatly respect, is the only motivation which can keep one from eventually burning out. I don't know if this is the case in every situation, but one can certainly see how it would be generally true. At the time it was what I needed to hear; my love for Taiwan was rather abstract, in the way that one might say one loved NYC, for example, or "the beach." Certain things about the place strongly appealed to me, and I enjoyed my time there due to, and not in spite of, the place being itself. But my experiences there were still confined to two short-term missions trips, and I really knew very little about Taiwan.


Some things about Taiwan are readily apparent to the first-time visitor. Frequently cited are the island's natural beauty, the friendliness of Taiwanese people towards visitors, and its delicious and comparatively cheap food, notably the street food found in the numerous nightmarkets...

Mango ice dessert from one of Shilin Nightmarket's underground food stalls

An underlying layer of attractions reinforce this positive impression: a highly efficient mass-transit system (at least in Taipei, which is the first part of Taiwan most visitors experience), leading-edge technology side-by-side with ancient Chinese culture, and how even in the midst of thriving metropoli one is never far from the peaceful countryside.

Flooded rice fields in Dajia, near Taichung

After my year of living there, the initial attraction was now a deeper feeling based on real experience. I had visited many parts of the island and really lived life there, seeing Taiwan's land and culture firsthand. But more importantly I had formed real friendships and ministry relationships with Taiwanese believers. We were working together for God's kingdom, and our identity in Christ and common purpose defined us more than any differences in nationality. Culture gaps were there, and at times presented obstacles, but we overcame these through the fellowship we had in Christ.

To some, this may sound like an overly-rosy portrayal of cross-cultural work. Sometimes it's not so harmonious. Sometimes the people are not friendly, or suspicious of outsiders. Sometimes your supposed friends really have their own purposes in maintaining contact with you, and your own ministry coworkers oppose you for reasons that aren't always clear. All of these things can be true in overseas ministry, and I would be naive not to expect some or all of them to happen to me in the course of my life. I'm grateful that my beginning was smoother than is often the case, and won't assume ministry there will always be so. But it makes even less sense to me to set aside or discount the time God saw fit to bless with peace and productivity. Ministry need not always be a weary task, and a heart for your place of ministry and those you are ministering to and with goes far towards easing the burden of the work, even as it increases the burden one feels to spread the gospel there.

It's hard to summarize why one loves something or someone in one short sentence. Usually, if cause can be assigned, it's actually due to a whole host of reasons, large and small. My best answer is that God has given me a deep and compelling desire for the well-being of the Taiwanese people, in the eternal and most significant sense: that they know Him and the grace found in our Savior. In accordance with His call, He allowed me to experience Taiwan in a way that draws me deeply to that place and people. I expect the reader will understand that to recount those experiences would be to recount whatever it is that binds you to the places and people you love; the happy memories and beautiful moments, triumphs celebrated and difficulties endured, quiet places of peace and festive times of celebration, shared sorrows and shared growth.

They say home is where the heart is, and in our increasingly mobile modern world, more and more people are discovering that the converse is also true; where your heart is, that place can be home. Over the years of visiting and living in Taiwan, God has given me a heart for that land and people, and in at least that sense, it has become home.