Unexpected Stories from the Field: When God Sees Your Struggles and Sends a Rock Concert

There are moments in the cultural adaptation process when it seems that things are hopeless. When you feel like you're never going to figure out how things work, or you simply don't have enough motivation to keep putting energy into trying. When the problem is not any particular difficulty or obstacle, it's that you're in a situation where the normal things you'd do to encourage yourself and push past difficult days and situations aren't possible, so your usual methods of overcoming are missing in action, and you're not sure what to replace them with.
And all that seems terribly unfair somehow when it was your desire to serve God that got you into this mess to begin with. Shouldn't His silences (if necessary) and blessings (yes please) line up properly with the peaks and valleys in our lives as we perceive them?


Then there are those moments which carry you forward, which keep encouraging you even when remembering them later, when sharing them with others. When God does things in your particular context that let you know He's there and He hasn't abandoned you.

A little over 6 years ago, last time I lived in Taiwan, after being there for a couple of months I was struggling inside. It was winter, and I was working through culture shock, had only had 4 weeks of Chinese lessons, was experiencing something like SADS from the endless cold rain in Taipei, and was not yet equipped to handle some of the psychological stress of the transition.

One evening, really struggling with my discouraged frame of mind, feeling beaten down and starting to have second thoughts about this whole year-in-Taiwan idea, I was walking down a street near Shi Da University, and on a whim stopped by a restaurant that had a picture menu up in the window which showed some tasty-looking meat. (picture menus are very nice when you don't know enough Chinese to order yet)
I hadn't randomly visited a restaurant on this street before, and in an incredible "coincidence" considering the number of restaurants in the area and the fact that she lived on the other side of Taipei, my Chinese teacher (who was only a year older than me) was also eating in that restaurant with some of her other students. Imagine you live in Manhattan and your friend lives in the Bronx and you randomly find yourselves at the same Subway in Queens. The odds of this happening are too low to bother trying to calculate them. God arranges meetings.

Anyway, fast forward through some other unlikely events, and a few hours later, I find myself running up concrete stairs, led by my Chinese teacher. She speaks to a guard who surprisingly gives permission for us to crouch down and slide under a slightly raised metal door. Suddenly I am assaulted by a stadium-full of light and rock music and roaring fans. I am in a Linkin Park concert in the Taipei Soccer Stadium, for free. As I am adjusting to the sudden explosion of stimuli, a drink is placed in my hand; "this is for you!"

Thanks to whoever took this pic of that concert, I didn't have a camera with me
(And our cellphone cameras were not very impressive in 2007)

It was a very good night. If you think God wouldn't arrange a very unlikely chain of coincidences that ended with one of His children attending a free rock concert to encourage them, you simply don't know Him well enough, or how much He loves you as an actual person (not a hypothetical "saint" who supposedly manages to be the holier version of a living sacrifice that only understands the sacrifice part), and wants you to grow closer to Him from wherever you are. I felt His abounding love that night nearly as strongly as I ever have.

I considered it an unexpected gift from Him, and was deeply grateful and not a little encouraged. I had not really been taught that God gave us these kinds of gifts, ones that were personally meaningful and not just spiritually significant. This was something I really enjoyed, not another lesson or obligation (you may detect legalism in my upbringing, you would be correct), did God give this kind of blessing too? Apparently so, if it wasn't somehow heretical to believe that God would arrange unlikely circumstances just so I could have a fun experience because He was happy to let me have it.
I was very excited.
"Ok Satan, my God saw you exploiting my struggling with your attacks of discouragement and countered with... a free Linkin Park concert. You just got totally outclassed."

In the days that followed I jumped into life in Taiwan and my wheels found some traction. I'm not saying I never struggled again, far from it, but it was different after that night. I just needed that little push from God at that critical moment, to remind me that He loved me personally, and was there, and would intervene when necessary, in unexpected ways.

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.)

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...