Guo'ing another Nian, and a Volcanic Lesson from God

(Title: Guo (過) covers a range of meanings including "crossing/passing over/through" and having experienced something before, and Nian (年) in this case means "year." The phrase Guo Nian (過年) in Mandarin could thus be translated "crossing over to the next year," and refers to celebrating Chinese New Year. It could also be translated as "Enduring/Surviving Nian." According to ancient Chinese stories, Nian was a legendary monster that attacked villages once a year, killing many people. One way to survive was putting red paper on the door posts of your house. Nian didn't like the color red, so if your doorposts had red on them your house would be safe. Sound familiar?)

It has sounded like a revolution is underway the last two nights here, with mortar-style fireworks going off every few minutes. Last night included machine-gun-like strings of firecrackers throughout the neighborhood too. Having friends who have worked in real war zones, I can be thankful that in this case it is only celebrations for the Chinese New Year.

Burning paper money on Chinese New Year's Eve at midnight.
Paper money is burned in little firepots like this in front of homes and businesses
on spiritually significant days of the month (using the lunar calendar, like Jewish holidays).
It's an offering to ancestral spirits. Lots of people were doing this last night in my neighborhood.

A huge part of Chinese New Year is the shared meal on Chinese New Year's Eve.
The family I'm staying with graciously included me in their family celebrations,
which included this amazing supper.

And continued with lots of fruit and snacks.

I last posted on my little excursion to visit a Baptist seminary in Taipei for a church-planting seminar. (Actually now that I think about it, I suppose going to seminary for a seminar only makes sense...)
If you didn't read that (you probably didn't, based on what blogger tells me) and still want to know about me finding my way to the downtown area and finding what was definitely a hidden urban ninja village, read it here... it's a quick photo essay.

Since that day, our little team here in Xindian has prepared for and successfully completed a week-long, all-day VBS. That was exhausting, but went well and we had about 70 people in total show up for the week-end performance, quite a few more than we expected. In the end, lots of kids heard about God, and we made a few more connections in the community.

I have lots of pictures from this VBS, but I assume most people know how those go. (Games, lessons, crafts, food, etc) People seem to like pictures of people (not to mention cute kids), though, so if you want me to do a photo essay of the VBS leave me a comment and if a few people mention it I can throw those up on another post here very quickly.

2014 Winter Break VBS!
Behind us is the community center where we had the VBS and hope to have a church.

By the end of the week I'd also picked up a sore throat and fever, probably from one of the kids, and am just now getting my voice back today. In the meantime, some Taiwanese American friends of mine from Texas invited me to join them in climbing to the summit of Seven Star Peak, the central mountain of Taiwan's highest dormant volcano, Yangmingshan.

But I almost didn't get up there...
After finding out that the trail was less than 2 miles up to the summit, I assumed it would be easy. I didn't realize that it was basically stairs the whole way, becoming more and more steep. After about the first kilometer of stairs I told my friends to go ahead, I'd catch up. I should have, I was realizing, actually eaten breakfast that morning. (And later I realized I hadn't eaten supper the night before either.)

Taiwan actually does have some of the world's most venomous snakes, though I haven't seen one yet.

The innocent-looking trailhead...

Over the next half kilometer's climb, I berated myself for being so out of shape, and wondered how long I'd have to make my friends wait at the top, at the slow rate I was going. I had also drunk all my water previously, and was sweating it out pretty quickly. After vowing to never call myself a martial artist again if I quit, I pressed on until I reached a pavilion and asked the Taiwanese people resting there if they'd seen two guys go past. "Yep," they replied (except in Mandarin), "they went on up."

My friends then called, to let me know they'd gotten to the top. I assured them I would be there soon, as I only had a kilometer left to go. (haha...) I then tackled the next section of the climb, which turned out to be the steepest portion. I am extremely stubborn, but my body suddenly didn't have any water left to sweat out, and it had been 8 years since I climbed this many stairs in a row.
As I rested, a little Chinese lady overtook me, walking slowly but steadily upwards. I could only console myself with the knowledge that I outweighed her by a good 80-100 pounds. Finally, after a hundred more stairs or so, I "gave up," and called my friends so they wouldn't have to wait on me any longer.

But despite good signal, my call didn't go through due to "network problems." I decided I'd get water faster going forward rather than back down, so I pressed on a little further. After a few more flights of stairs, I found a nice rock to rest on, and called again, even praying that they'd answer, so I could get some water which I needed rather badly by this point.

The stairs started out in a friendly sort of way

One dozen stairs are nothing. One hundred stairs are easy.
Thousands of stairs are very tiring.

The call still wasn't going through. And I didn't feel much like moving. But I couldn't just sit there and let them wait on me until they finally decided to come down and see if I was ok. And the water was ahead, not behind. I struggled up a few dozen more stairs, then a few more, and suddenly noticed the trees had begun to part, and a panoramic view began to open up in front of me:

A glimpse of Taipei from above

I'd "given up" just a few yards from the view I'd been hoping for when I started the climb. Had my friends answered the call, I'd never have climbed just a little higher to see it. The lesson couldn't have been any more obvious had God sent an angel to spell it out for me with flashcards...

The previous picture was taken from where I'm standing in this picture.
The place where I had planned on stopping was that shaded rock in the middle of the picture.
Wouldn't that have been sad?

And just a few dozen steps higher...

Now with a cool mountain breeze assisting (And also carrying the rotten-egg stench of sulfur from the slumbering volcano's fumaroles), I climbed over half of the rest of the way. In the middle of a steep section I was feeling seriously dehydrated and about to really stop, when I heard my phone ringing, it was my friends. I told them where I was, and they said I was nearly there, but they'd head my way with the water and I could meet them halfway. I began to do so, when suddenly the trail leveled and the sky opened up overhead. I'd finally reached the top.

"And those happy climes that ly
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky..."

Highest dormant volcano in Taiwan, check.
Jade Mountain (Highest in Taiwan at roughly 13,000 feet), on the to-do list...

Taipei and the Danshui river.

I love Taiwan.

Friends from Texas

Some very active sulphur vents. Here's hoping this volcano never wakes up.

Some friends we made at the summit. Went to eat American-style burgers with them afterwards
and had a good conversation which touched on spiritual matters as well.

Lesson learned? I hope so.
I hate to think of all I might miss the next time I'm tempted to quit just a little too soon...

From a Hilltop Seminary to the Taipei 101 Building

Note: I've decided to stop putting "bonus picture post" in the title of these pictures posts because there will probably be a lot of them. And they're not really "extra" now that I'm in Taiwan and generating new content instead of occasionally drawing from archived photos. I'll keep using the bonus picture post label, though, so everyone can find the other ones easily.

A few days ago I visited Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary in Taipei for a joint church-planting seminar. Most people there were older pastors of smaller churches, as the larger churches hold their own seminars. I was happily surprised that I could understand well enough to get at least 80% of the points the main speaker was making and follow the stories. He shared a lot of practical advice, mostly about the importance of a vision, and how if you are apathetic regarding how you come across to visitors, they will tend not to stay. It wasn't Tim Keller, but some of it was probably very helpful advice for smaller churches who were already established but struggling.

Is this Jurassic Park? No, better... a theological seminary in Taiwan

Pretty cool chapel

From what I can read of the Chinese, it's basically the same as what's there in English

There was a lot more I didn't feel like poking around to see, being barely awake

I had not slept well the past several days and was very tired, so I opted to leave after the morning session had finished and we'd eaten lunch. The plan was to simply walk back to the 101 building, which I could see from where I was, and take the MRT (metro transit system) back home to rest.

See, it's RIGHT THERE. Should be easy to walk to it from here.

However, I quickly found that all roads did not lead to Rome, as it were. I wasn't lost, but it was turning into one of those "you can't get there from here" moments again.

Found a little "valley" along the way, but my path didn't lie in that direction.. I like to believe this is a hidden urban ninja village, and that old guy was a sentry and would have beat me up if I actually went down the stairs.

After running into a gated off area or two, I did a little cheating with Google Maps to see which road actually led me towards my destination. Turns out it was a bit tricky in that particular spot, and I might have spent half an hour finding the actual road. Which can be really fun, but not when you're half asleep.

As I got closer to downtown, I passed through a market area I'd never been to before. Apparently it's fairly well-known, just not to me until now.

The place is called "Wu Xing Square."
It wasn't square, it was all along this road, but there's probably more to it that I didn't see.

I was basically already downtown at this point, I just needed to cross the metaphorical train tracks.
I did so, and voila:

I rarely come at the 101 from this side. It's nice. *bird chirping sounds*

I usually come at the 101 from -this- side.*road noises*

101 ahead, World Trade Center to the left, Metro down below.

Having finally arrived, now you get a few shots of a (non-rush-hour) metro station. Taipei's metro system is not the biggest or most complicated in the world (although it's being continually expanded), but it has a reputation for being clean and efficient, which is deserved.

They don't all have the floor to ceiling ads.

No eating, drinking, chewing gum, or doing betel nut past this point!
You must also give up your seat for the elderly, pregnant women, or anyone with special needs.

Waiting for my train. Actually this is the opposite side from my train but it had the cool lights in the background. This concludes another little excursion, and I'm heading back home to finally sleep now
(I ended up preparing the most recent prayer update email instead. But -that- night I did get good sleep.)

Bonus Picture Post! #3 - A Walk Through My Community, Part 2

My walk continues as I pass by the street I live on, and head towards the renovated area around the new HTC research center. (HTC is a Taiwan-based smartphone and tablet manufacturing company, their HTC One phone was relatively popular in the US as well)

I live down this way

Recycling truck on the move

Garbage truck. There are no household garbage cans to put on the street in Taiwan, or streetside dumpsters.
If you don't live in a highrise, you take your garbage directly to the truck and toss it in there.
They run on a daily schedule and play music (like an ice cream truck) so you know they're coming.

I have no idea what this is, except I think it's a plant and not an alien life form.

Coming out of the residential area, towards HTC. Notice the drying clothes blowing in the wind.

HTC's new research facility, a big boost to the local economy.

HTC built a corporate park for their employees, it's quite nice.
That stuff in the water is fountain equipment.

Some team of architects/designers is proud.

Kids playing in the park area under the watchful eye of their father (offscreen).
The apartments to the left have one of the most interesting uses of empty space I've seen around here.

Sweepers making sure it stays picture-perfect. Note the mountains in the background, they're never far away in Taiwan.

It's a very nice park, and for community use as well as HTC employees. Looks like the perfect spot for a quiet time to me!

One of several schools in our immediate vicinity.

Many areas lie behind gates in Taiwan, access is restricted to those who have a reason to be there.
It's a good metaphor for the barriers to ministry here; relationship is the key that unlocks them.

Another school, this one right behind the community center in Part 1 where our church will theoretically be meeting.

It's getting later in the afternoon, time to head back home.

In my current (temporary) residence, a floor above my Taiwanese coworkers.
This is the view out the front...

And this is out the back.

Well, this concludes our little exploration. As you can see, we have everything in Dapinglin, from affluent community parks and high-tech global companies along expanding subway lines to Chinese traditional markets and alley mazes along concrete drainage canals. It's a diverse and growing community, and I'm excited to be working here.

Bonus Picture Post! #3 - A Walk Through My Community, Part 1

So I thought I'd take you all on a little walk around the area surrounding my current residence in Dapinglin, which is the same set of neighborhoods to which our church -once planted, God willing- will be reaching out.

There is a wide socioeconomic variation within a small area here, as you will see. One church cannot reach these tens of thousands of people with very different life circumstances, but it's a start, and with God's blessing we hope it will be both a quickly reproducing church and a model for planting similar churches in other locales.

Let's go!

This is the community center where we'll start teaching classes soon, and eventually hope to have a weekly service

This is a fairly typical major street around here

There's Gigabyte, for my computer savvy friends. Left foreground is a gas station

An extremely common sight along Taiwan's streets

One of the many convenience stores sprinkled throughout the area.
If I turned the camera to the left, you'd see another one less than fifty feet down the road

One of the reasons you can have so many convenience stores... population density

Let's get off the main road and find some less affluent neighborhoods

There are more cellphones than people in Taiwan,
but you can still find payphones dotted here and there...

Wandering more or less aimlessly... I find an "unimproved neighborhood"where there's a local market.
It looks worse right now than usual, I'm just there when everything is closed and deserted.
I'll try to go back again when it's more lively!

Going deeper into this lower income community.

Rather deep... (Same picture as above, different perspective)

Apparently if I want some Chinese medicine, I should go here. I was later told that somewhere back up in here is a tree that is thought to be inhabited by a spirit, and worshiped accordingly by some in the community

For anything else I could possibly need, there's this little shop.

(Skipping a few pics where I show how I manage to find my way back to the main road out of a tiny maze of dead-ends and back alleys. I was never far away from it, but in the older parts of town here the streets aren't straight, and you can't figure out how to get "there" from "here")

I said micro-community earlier because every picture so far (and all the pics in Part 2 of this post too)
are within two or three square kilometers' area. See any names you are familiar with in this pic?

Probably about 300' away from that drainage ditch, I could be somewhere in NYC.
Although I suppose that drainage ditch looked like some parts of NYC too...

Construction for the new subway line. Dapinglin's Metro line station is about to become a transfer station.

This new subway line will make things a lot more convenient for those of us out in the "suburbs" (there is no such thing as an actual suburb in Taiwan that I'm aware of, but in the sense of outlying-but-connected cities that are part of a metro area) south of Taipei City.

So that was my foray into a poorer micro-community and back. I discovered one tiny local church while in there, I am told attendance is about 10-20 people. I might try to drop by sometime later and see if my not-very-good Chinese is sufficient for a conversation!

Just for fun: Do you want to go on a similar walk? Copy and paste this into Google Maps: "台湾新北市新店區寶安街Leben Cafe 喝杯咖啡" You'll be starting more or less in the middle of where I took most of these pics. Use street view to zoom all the way in and explore the neighborhood!

CONTINUED IN PART 2...