A Case for Cross-Cultural Short Term Missions: Introduction

(We just had a short-term missions team leave, and so it seems a good time to delve into this subject, one I had previously promised to discuss. Obviously it's a complicated topic, so this will be our introduction and we'll look at different aspects of short term missions in coming posts)

Short-term Missions - Good or Bad?

Of course, this is a ridiculous question.

("Putting things in your mouth and swallowing them, good or bad?" "Well, that all depends on what-" "Nope, don't try to dodge the question, you have to say whether it's good or bad.")

Nothing is gained from using a binary mentality to approach a complicated issue.

The question we should be asking, I submit, is what kind of short-term mission trips help accomplish the Great Commission, spreading the Kingdom, and do so in a way that is not obviously a foolish waste of the resources God has given us: time, money, energy, etc.? Then the question is whether those kinds of trips are feasible enough for churches to continue to do short-term missions as they currently do.

That is the question I will try to answer over the course of this discussion, and note that we're mainly focusing on cross-cultural short-term trips, though much of what we'll discuss applies to trips within a particular culture as well.

Claim #1: It is possible to have a short-term missions trip which does more harm than good.

This is something which in the past few years has been clearly acknowledged.

From the youth trip that ends up being more about keeping the high school guys and girls from flirting too much in their swimsuits on the beach than about running the kids' camp which was supposedly the purpose of the trip, to the big impressive voyage to a sensitive area in China or the Muslim world that ends up putting the local believers in danger while the visiting foreigners are obliviously enthusiastic about how "cool" it is to be on a "secret, risky" trip, one can stack enough bad examples together to convince some that short-term trips are generally more harm than good and should be abandoned as a paradigm for churches.

There's also the "bang for the buck" argument, which suggests that at some point a trip is not going to accomplish enough to justify its expense. Obviously it's impossible to put a dollar value on a human soul (an expression I may have heard a few too many times), but it's also quite easy to spend a lot of other peoples' money yet not really accomplish anything, so this is something we want to keep in mind. We must avoid both the sin of Judas, whose argument about money being wasted was based on a love of that money and not of Christ, and the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, who claimed to be giving their money to the Kingdom but intended some of it for their own selfish purposes.

Claim #2: It is not good enough that the people going on the trip are edified. The trip should have a specific goal that benefits those that receive the short-termers.

I have heard, many many times, the statement (and it is typically true) that "you will get more out of a short-term trip personally than you help the people you're going to serve."

Now so long as you do actually help the people you're going to serve as well, that's not a bad thing at all, it's what we call a "win-win." (arguably a "win-win-win" for you fans of The Office out there) If the team is helpful to the local missions effort, and the team grows in their own faith as well, that's a great outcome for a trip, regardless of which one is "more," which is not really something you can measure anyway.

And, honestly, the average short-term team is composed of relatively inexperienced travelers, who are going to need to spend a lot of time and energy just getting used to the new location. It's unreasonable to expect them to move mountains on stomachs full of unusual food, ears full of an unintelligible language, and brains full of jetlag. (Sometimes they do anyway; to God be the glory.)

But while as an observation the statement is accurate, as a motivation it's quite self-centered. The goal is hopefully to help the people you are going to, with personal growth as a welcome outcome, not to help yourselves with the trip as merely a means to that end.

This is especially true if a team's capabilities or preparation are not adequate to accomplish the goals of their trip, something which has been dangerously close to true on one or two trips I led in the past. We had a good trip, and felt like we'd learned quite a lot, but were not able to serve as effectively as we'd like, and some complaints from local volunteers even made their way back to me later through friends.

Claim #3: It is possible to have a short-term missions trip which is more helpful to the local believers and missionaries than it exhausts them.

On a positive note, many of us have participated in trips that seemed to be at least somewhat successful, in a measurable sense. People did hear the gospel. Something did get built. There were English teachers for an outreach event that needed them.

It's always tiring for those who receive the teams, that's simply a fact of short-term trips. But if the team can help accomplish something the local believers and/or missionaries would not have been able to do on their own, then some exhaustion is worth it. Speaking as a long-term missionary, we didn't come here to relax, we're just happy when our tiredness is accompanied by seeing God moving and people serving, and sometimes that happens through these trips in ways we couldn't do by ourselves.

(Convenient example that just occurred):
We just said goodbye to a team from California, who worked in our community for 3 weeks. Everything was new to them, most of them had never traveled internationally before, only one of them knew any Mandarin, and the weather was chaotic, but by the time they left two local high schools we didn't have any contact with previously had called asking about our English program, we had met the principal of a school we'd been working in for months, and they had shared their testimonies and the gospel with quite a number of students, planting seeds in some cases and watering in others. (And all this in a pretty dry field, more so than they knew)
After working with them for three weeks we all need a rest now, but we're quite pleased with what they accomplished, how their hearts were prepared to serve, and we thank God for bringing them.

This is an example of how things can go right. The team had been through a ton of training, didn't have any obvious personality conflicts, and had a missions organization helping to manage the logistics of their trip, so it was a better than usual case. Obviously trips can go very wrong as well, but that just means it's a question of how they're prepared for and conducted, not of intrinsic value.

We'll stop there for now, and take a more detailed look at what often goes wrong with short-term trips themselves in the next installment. But in the mean time I'd love to hear your stories, about short-term trips that went very right, or very wrong.
(Do remember to leave the identifying names out either way...)

Walking on Eggshells... Difficulties in Learning Chinese Culture

(Note: None of the characters in this story are based on anyone I know, they merely represent generalizations of situations I've encountered on my path of cultural learning in Taiwan.)

Let us say that you have been invited to a party. You recently moved to a new neighborhood, and you're excited about getting to know your neighbors. You receive the fancy invitation and are impressed, it looks like people here really have style, you'll be careful to make the best impression you can.

Arriving at the party, you enter and are surprised at how warmly you are greeted by the hosts and everyone else present; you've never felt so honored as a guest. The decorations are beautiful and different from the ones in your old neighborhood, and the refreshments are unlike anything you have tasted before, but you decide you like them. This will be great, you think. You did stumble a bit as you entered, feeling something underfoot, but you are too busy meeting new people to notice.

Soon after many polite words the host graciously takes his leave to welcome other guests, and you pass into the main room beyond. At this point you stumble again. You definitely stepped on something. Looking down, you see that it was an egg. Yuck! The shell is crushed beneath your nice leather shoe and there's yolk and albumen everywhere. Embarrassed, you look around. Fortunately no one seems to have noticed.

Making your way carefully to a table, you notice there are no napkins. You ask someone where you can find one. "Oh, please, allow me," they say with a smile, and offer you their own handkerchief. "Oh, no," you protest, "I don't want to use your handkerchief to clean this up, I just need a disposable napkin." But they insist, and you can't figure out a polite way to decline. Thanking them profusely, and deciding people around here must be incredibly nice, you look around, wondering why you couldn't see the egg before you stepped on it.

The floor is clean, though, no other eggs to be seen. You try a few snacks and mingle with the other people, who are all interested to talk to the guest and lavish with their compliments. Soon, however, as you are approaching to shake hands with someone, you feel it again. "Crunch." Looking down, you see your shoe is again slimed by a raw egg you've stepped on. You smile apologetically for the unusual incident, but no one else has changed expressions or taken any notice at all. The man shakes hands with you, and everyone continues the lively conversation.

This seems strange. Turning to one new acquaintance, you motion down at the smashed egg. He gives you a very brief confused look, then smiles and invites you to try more snacks before moving on.
Suddenly you notice something strange about the way he is walking. He seems to be choosing his steps very carefully, as if avoiding something. Looking around, you see that everyone is walking in this way. They must be able to see the eggs on the floor! But why didn't they warn you about them?

In your old neighborhood, there were a few eggs on the floor too. Sometimes they were hard to spot, but there was always a little sign warning people of their presence, or at least a mark on the floor. This way even newcomers could know to avoid them. If they would do that here, it would make things so much easier, but it seems like no one has thought to do this. You think about suggesting it, but decide it would be a little too forward to do at your first party here. Maybe next time.

You still have egg on your shoe, and begin looking for napkins. Still none to be found. You don't want to ask anyone for fear they'll offer you their handkerchief again, but eventually you break down and do so. This time, the person is unlike the others, a little less friendly. He offers you his handkerchief, but seems a little reluctant to do so, as if it's an obligation. You try to decline, but he seems to be getting increasingly annoyed, so you give in and accept the handkerchief. He moves on quickly, and you really start hoping you can find some napkins soon.

As you walk away, it happens again. "Squish." Now you're starting to get annoyed too. You beckon to someone you met earlier, and they come over with a friendly smile. "Are there a lot of eggs on the floor here?" You ask. The person seems startled by the direct question. "Oh, it's possible that there may be one or two," they say, "but you shouldn't worry about that. Just enjoy the party!" You point at your shoe. "Do you not see that I have egg all over my shoe?" They shake their head quickly, not looking down. "No no, I'm sure nothing like that would happen." You can't get much more out of them, so you thank them and continue on.

You need to clean your shoe, this egg even got a little on your pant leg. But you are beginning to think there really might not be any napkins at this party, and you didn't know to bring your own handkerchief.

You notice someone's child standing nearby, and she is giggling at your shoe, clearly because of the egg all over it. It seems rude, but mostly you're grateful someone has acknowledged the egg at all. You motion to her, but she is shy and runs away. Before she leaves, though, she points to a spot on the ground nearby and grins.

Walking there carefully, you nudge the place she pointed to with your foot, and sure enough you feel an egg roll away. Why don't they just mark where the eggs are like normal people!? "If only I had someone to walk around with me," you think to yourself, "they could point out all the eggs and I would know where to step."

You see someone who greeted you when you first arrived, and walk quickly over to ask them for help. As you move in that direction, however, your knee suddenly strikes an unseen obstacle. With a strange sound, a whole giant pile of eggs tumbles to the ground, sending puddles of raw egg everywhere. Some of it gets on the other guests, who give you irritated looks. One or two look outright angry. One of the hosts who greeted you rushes over. "Are you enjoying the party?" he asks, looking concerned. "Yes thank you," you say, "but all these eggs... I'm sorry." The host smiles a little painfully. "Oh, no need to apologize at all, just..." -he lowers his voice so only you can hear- "try to watch where you are going, ok?"

He turns to leave. Almost panicking, you grab at his sleeve. Several bystanders wince. He turns, and now his smile looks very artificial, the duty of a gracious host encountering a painful social situation with all the courtesy he can muster, which to his credit is considerable. "I'm sorry," you begin, "I appreciate the invitation so much and I don't want to be rude, so if someone could please just show me where the eggs are on the floor, I could avoid them and everything would be ok. In my old neighborhood we always marked the eggs, but it seems like here I'm the only one who can't see them." He looks confused. "You are new here, of course, and we are so glad you have joined us tonight. But you know, forgive me for saying so, but this is not your old neighborhood, so we will be very pleased if you can understand some of our rules. One is that it's... a little uncomfortable to talk about the eggs. It's better not to talk about them at all. Please just watch where you step very carefully, but really, what is a broken egg or two between friends? We are so glad that you were able to come."

You watch miserably as the other guests begin scooping up the puddles of raw egg in their handkerchiefs, some even using their suit coats and expensive purses. Some manage to force a smile at you in the process, but others whisper and glance furtively in your direction.

Just then you see an attractive young lady who has already given you an appreciative glance or two headed your way. She smiles at you. "What a mess! I see you are new to our neighborhood, yes?" You nod, and she moves in to whisper. "I see you have found out about our eggs." You feel a rush of relief. "Yes, these eggs, I'm so embarrassed, I don't know where to step. There aren't any markers here." She laughs. "Don't worry, I have lived in other neighborhoods before, I know they usually mark where the eggs are. But here is different, you have to learn to know where they are without markers. We can't see all of them either, but if we can't see them we know where they will be." You sigh. "But how long will it take me to figure out how to do that?" She shrugs. "I'm not sure, some of our guests learn quickly, others never do, they have to bring people with them to parties to show them where all the eggs are, and to clean up the messes they make when they miss one. But why do you want to stay here, wasn't your old neighborhood better than this?" You hesitate. "I don't know, this place seems nice too." She rolls her eyes. "It's boring. I liked the other neighborhoods I visited better. But there's no place like home I guess. Anyway, let's talk about the neighborhood you came from, what's it like there?"

You hesitate. "I really need to know about the eggs, can't you help me with those?" She thinks for a moment. "Actually, since I lived in other neighborhoods for a long time, it's hard for me to teach you how to see the eggs. I even step on an egg now and then myself, but I have a handkerchief so it's no problem." You nod enthusiastically. "Yes! I need a handkerchief, at least that way I can clean up my own messes. Where can I buy one?" She smiles apologetically. "I'm sorry but they don't sell them. Your parents give you one when you are a child, and you keep it your whole life."

You sigh. "You mean there's no way to get one?" She grins mysteriously. "There is at least one easy way."
"What's that?" you reply, eager to find at least a partial solution to this mess. "I can let you use mine," she says. "I don't need it all the time, and I can also help tell you where some of the eggs are." You agree enthusiastically, certain that the worst part of the party is behind you. (And her attractive company is not unwelcome either.)

Soon, however, you realize that all is not well. The girl sticks close to you, not seeming to be familiar with the others at the party, and seems more interested in chatting about the place you came from than helping you meet more people at this party. You also get odd looks from some of the other guests that you weren't getting before. Once the host makes eye contact with you and shakes his head slightly, pursing his lips. You don't know exactly how to interpret any of this, and mention it to the girl. She shrugs. "I don't know, I don't really understand half of why they do what they do here." "But wait," you ask, confused, "isn't this your home?" She frowns. "Eh, I never really liked it much. I loved watching TV shows about other neighborhoods when I was a kid, and began visiting them as soon as I could. So there are some things I never bothered to figure out. It's not a big deal, just ignore them."

As she continues talking, you glance at the floor. There is an egg at your feet! You interrupt her excitedly. "I can see an egg! Right there!" She gives you an impatient look. "Yeah great, anyway, what I was saying-" you don't hear the rest, being too excited about this development. Motioning to someone nearby, you point at the egg. They frown at first, confused, then smile happily and nod. "Yes yes, good job, you are learning."

You turn back to the girl, but she doesn't look happy. "You're weird," she says, "I thought you were more like the guys I met in other neighborhoods. They weren't obsessed with egg-spotting, they just liked to have a good time." You are confused. "Isn't it good for me to learn how things work here?" She is digging through her purse for her phone. "Yeah I guess so. Hey I have another friend from different neighborhood who just got here, so I'm going to say hi to them. Maybe I'll introduce you guys later." She holds out her hand, taking back her handkerchief (which you notice is tattered and in poor condition), and waves as she turns and walks away.

You are a little sad to see her go, but at the same time get the inexplicable feeling you might have avoided a bad situation. Looking around, you see that in front of you is a large, open space of floor. One or two eggs are visible to your newly sharpened vision, but you suspect there are many more. You realize that despite her friendliness, the time you spent talking to that girl didn't help you learn how to see the eggs at all.

Suddenly you notice there is something sticking to your hand. Several threads of her handkerchief seem to have come unraveled while you were holding it. Without thinking too much, you thrust them into your pocket and begin the slow task of making your way across the open floor to a table with even more delicious-looking snacks further on.

You tread very carefully, ready to pause at the slightest feeling of something under your foot. Just then a stranger, seeming to have already had too much to drink, stumbles into you, muttering something insulting about stupid guests not even knowing how to walk correctly. You stagger back several steps, crushing three or four eggs in the process. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" you say angrily, trying to help him to his feet. There is an audible gasp from a couple of bystanders, and everyone averts their eyes.

The host is suddenly there, looking serious. He too ignores the drunken man, who trots away unsteadily breaking an egg or two himself, though no one seems to notice, and lays a friendly hand on your shoulder. "We are so glad you were able to visit us," he says, with a smile that is not entirely convincing, "but maybe you are growing tired? We don't want you to feel obligated to stay if you would like to rest." You are sure he is annoyed and wants you to leave, but you are angry too. It's not your fault there are so many eggs but no one wants to talk about them, not your fault someone had too much to drink, not your fault there are no napkins anywhere. This whole complicated situation could be resolved if someone would just clearly mark the eggs or at least set a stack of napkins out somewhere.

Summoning all your patience and courtesy, you thank him, but assure him that you are not tired yet, and would love to try some of the other delicious-looking snacks before you leave. He looks much less annoyed after you say this, and repeats your words for others to hear. "I am so glad you are not tired, and you are welcome to try any refreshments you like, although we apologize that they must look and taste terrible compared to what you are used to." You shake your head. "No no, they really are delicious."

He pats your shoulder again. "Don't be so polite! Here, let me help you, there might be something on your shoe." Your anger is cooling now, and you feel terrible that the host himself is now having to clean the raw egg off your shoes. "Please, let me," you say, trying to take the handkerchief from him, "I am embarrassed for you to do it." He refuses, and you repeat the offer twice. To your surprise, he then immediately relents, seemingly very relieved for not having to do it. "Alright, although I admit that it is we who are embarrassed by our floor having so many eggs in these modern times. No doubt it is very difficult for someone who comes from a high-class neighborhood with no eggs."

You blink. "What, no eggs? That's not true at all, we have eggs on our floors like you. But we mark them so people can avoid them. Well, most of them." It suddenly occurs to you that not every single egg was marked in your old neighborhood either. But those were the obvious ones, right? The host shrugs. "We always thought our guests must have no eggs, otherwise why step on them here? But it's not important, please, enjoy the rest of your time! Forgive me, but I must visit the sink. You know..." He nods at the egg-covered handkerchief. You carefully hand him back his handkerchief, feeling bad that he must now go wash it. As he leaves, you realize several threads from his handkerchief are stuck to your hand, just like before. You put these in your pocket as well, wondering why the handkerchiefs in this neighborhood seem to lose threads so easily.

You manage to make it to the next table without stepping on any more eggs, to your great relief. There are more people around this table than the earlier ones, and the snacks really are incredibly delicious, though even more unusual and unlike anything you had in your old neighborhood. Eating them there, you wonder if you even would have enjoyed them, if you hadn't had the chance to try some of the other snacks here first. You step on a few more eggs, but the guests are always graciously willing to lend you their handkerchiefs. Like the others, their handkerchiefs are always losing threads in your hand, though they are noticeably in good condition and not threadbare at all. You notice there are several different colors and shades, but nearly all of them have strips or patches that match those that other people are carrying. Strangely, the people back near the door have the most colorful ones, but looking ahead, at the innermost table with the craziest looking snacks, nearly solid-colored handkerchiefs are more common.

Looking back towards the door, you see the girl from before, talking to another guest who looks like he's from a couple neighborhoods beyond yours. He has so much egg on his shoes you can't tell what color they originally were. He points at them and they both laugh, and then she steps in close to hug him, getting egg all over her own shoes in the process. Strange, does she not care? And why doesn't she tell him about the handkerchiefs?

Thinking about this, you don't watch your feet, and step on another egg. This time you reflexively reach into your pocket, forgetting you didn't bring any napkins, and feel something small and soft. Pulling it out, you see that all the threads from handkerchiefs you've borrowed that kept sticking to your hand and ended up in your pocket have twisted around each other and started meshing together; it's starting to look like a really ragged version of one of the handkerchiefs the people here carry.

Stooping down, you begin to clean the egg white off your shoe with the loose web of threads. It's messy and the egg gets all over your fingers, but it's something.

Suddenly, you realize that you know what to do. At this rate, learning to spot the eggs is going to take a long time. But in the mean time, you're going to be borrowing a lot of handkerchiefs...

Earthquakes: This World is Fundamentally Unstable

Earthquakes are a more or less daily occurrence here in Taiwan. Half the time you don't even feel them, you're walking up stairs or riding on a bus or listening to music with your headphones on, and may or may not notice a little disturbance in your body's sense of equilibrium. Anything less than a nearby 3.5 might slip past unobserved.
On the other hand, I've seen mountains here with the entire mountainside gone, from the last deadly quake.
The next one could happen at any time. We all live in the meantime, whether we like it or not.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, earthquakes are caused by giant pieces of the earth's crust pushing against each other. When enough pressure builds, they overcome whatever incomprehensible forces of friction hold them in place and skip past each other, just a little. That little skip sends out massive shockwaves (of various kinds) which rock the surface.

I've experienced earthquakes of various kinds in Taiwan. One of the first was a magnitude 4+ over on the east coast, with the epicenter very close to us. At first I thought a train was rolling right next to the building we were in, then I remembered there were no train tracks so close. Then I thought it was an airplane, but it would have to be nearly skimming the ground to shake the room like that. About that time someone said "we should probably go outside," and we evacuated to see the trees and other buildings trembling for a few more seconds before the tremor passed.

Another time (several years ago) I was sitting in my 2nd floor apartment in Taipei and suddenly a small and very deep earthquake right below the city sent seismic waves straight up. My chair did a little hop (with me in it), and while I was trying to figure out what had happened, I heard all the metal doors in the building that opened into the stairwell begin rattling in their frames, floor by floor, up to the top. By the time I wondered if I should evacuate the building, it was pretty much over. (I have a feeling that if I ever experience a severe enough earthquake, I won't be pondering this question)

I appreciate earthquakes.

They remind me that the "solid ground" we stand on, dig into, build cities on, is not fundamentally solid, merely massive slabs of rock which are but a thin crust floating above a mantle, which lies above an outer and inner core.
What we want to rely on as solid and immovable turns out to be more like a cracked eggshell above burning molten rock, whirling on its own tilted axis, itself constantly in flight around the raging, spherical cauldron of nuclear fusion known as our sun.


All this is a more emphatic confirmation of what earthquakes remind me, namely that change is constant, and what we trust for security is fundamentally unstable. One seeks in vain for anything physical, tangible, concrete, which could not at some point give way. Authority figures grow old and eventually die, institutions fail, even great nations and mighty empires break apart, fade, and are lost to the annals of history.


Life is fleeting, as Solomon observed. We are here for a moment, then gone, like the flowers that fade.

A life invested in preservation, in the collection of physical things or assets, in the building of something doomed to swift obsolescence (sometimes even before we are gone), is a life spent in vain, on building sandcastles while the tide has not yet come in. It's a hard truth, one many people, perhaps many Christians, do not want to hear. But scripture makes the point repeatedly: our only legacy is our eternal legacy. The world itself is not eternal, and scripture is quite clear on its fate.

"...the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." (2 Peter 3:10)

Your valuable possessions are stored in what, the world's most secure bank vault? It could be gone tomorrow, like Pompeii, like Fukushima. The earth itself is unsafe, an unstable foundation. Jesus' words about not laying up treasures on earth make a lot of sense in an earthquake... So don't do it.

Your things are not eternal; the world is not eternal; only God, people, and truth are eternal. 

Live for what is eternal, before the ground gives way beneath you.

Adventures in Taiwanese Food - Part 1

There's a humorous old missionary saying: "Where you lead me I will follow... what you feed me I will swallow." Even as a young child I enjoyed hearing the comical stories missionaries would share of the very unusual things they had been forced to eat and pretend to enjoy.

Fast forward a few years, and I am now on the mission field myself, encountering all the interesting food Taiwan has to offer. And... it's pretty amazing. No roasted tarantulas, fermented horse milk, or rotten fish here, but I've had pig spinal cord, bird's nest soup, and stinky tofu, and enjoyed it all. Either God has graciously changed my taste buds or I was born with a Chinese stomach, but I've encountered very few things I honestly don't like here, and lots of food I really enjoy. Much ministry and relationship-building here happens over a good meal and afterwards, much like what we read in the New Testament.

First, some words about the food situation in Taiwan:

1. It's Cheap - American dine-in chain restaurants here (T.G.I Friday's is fairly popular, for example) are typically about the same price they'd be in America, just translated over into Taiwan dollars. That makes them comparatively pricey, so I basically only eat at that kind of restaurant when specifically invited to eat there by friends, which happens maybe once a month. 
But for local food, although there's been significant inflation in recent years, it's still roughly half to two-thirds the price you'd pay for a similar portion and "level" of food in the States (where there's also been inflation). So for $5 you can eat an enjoyable meal, and if you just want to get full you can do it for $3.

This is nice because I'm aware that I'm currently living on the support of other believers, and I believe that a lot of responsibility goes along with that in how I spend money, including where I eat. Happily, I also get treated to meals a lot. (-A Taiwanese courtesy to guests, which it's also polite to attempt to avoid if it happens too much, although people are sneaky and will say they're going to use the bathroom or take a phone call and pay while they're gone. I'm getting better at treating people myself occasionally, or getting around them paying for me one way or another.)


2. It's Healthy(er) - Although you can easily find sugary, salty, processed snacks if you want, for a random meal in Taiwan you probably can tell what everything was before it was cooked; processed foods make up a much smaller part of the diet. There is less sugar in baked desserts, vegetables are actually tasty and not an obligation, lots of fresh fruit and fruit juice available, and generally the calorie density is much lower than in American food, which means many people can eat the same amount of food they'd normally eat, and still lose weight, especially if you go heavy on the meat and vegetables and light on the rice.

3. It's Delicious - Taiwan culture is, among other things, a food culture. This means that the preparation, consumption, and enjoyment of food is a significant consideration in daily life. (Some people may perceive this as gluttony. Certainly gluttony exists here, as anywhere, but I think one needs to understand what gluttony looks like within a specific cultural context rather than making assumptions based on your own cultural habits.) Because of this food culture, food is held to a higher standard in general, with a dizzying variety of options and flavors and combinations. Traditionally, presentation, fragrance, and taste are all necessary in a well-prepared Chinese dish.

And now, here's a very random selection of food I've been enjoying for the past two months. (Over half my meals are eaten with my coworker's family, as I'm spending the first few months here in an add-on rooftop apartment they own right above their apartment)
So, in no particular order:

At my coworker's place, Chinese curry and sides

At the 101 Building Food Court. Hainan Chicken & Rice (A personal favorite)

Christmas Day - Treated to a nice dinner by a friend's father, a new believer.
Papaya spears topped with sort of a French seafood bisque. This would be an example of Taiwan "fusion food"

Coffee deserves a mention in here somewhere. Although not originally a "coffee culture,"
Taiwan is now full of interesting cafes. This is at my friend's cafe near Keelung.

Sababa's. Really good Israeli/Mediterranean food, but it's gotten more expensive
since I last lived in Taipei, so I won't be going there often now.

One of our VBS lunches. Should have opened the containers for this pic, it's fried dumplings and fish ball soup.

A very simple vegetable lunch on Chinese New Year's Eve, because...

...this was coming later. Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, a really great meal
cooked by my coworker's wife, daughter, and some friends.

More obligatory Chinese New Year's feasting with my coworker's family. That's 'Peking' (Beijing) Duck on the left.

Squid on a stick! So good...

Streetside Soup Dumplings (Xiao long bao), with ginger garnish.

A winter evening's snack - peanuts and oranges. Taiwanese in-home meals are often followed by fruit and snacks.

Black-boned Chicken. As you can see, pretty much the whole chicken is black.
Tastes pretty much like normal chicken, but it's thought to be extra-healthy
and served in a Chinese traditional medicine broth.

Now some unhealthy food. Spicy Thai (NOT TAIWANESE) potato chips.

Valentine's Day was... "tranquil." 7-11 snacks made it a relatively festive party of one.

A lovely meal cooked by my coworker's wife and a friend.

After a long evening of walking around the city, stopped by a Taiwanese diner for a very late supper.

The best Gua bao I've ever eaten (Rice bun with lots of moist pulled-pork BBQ hidden under the Chinese parsley), with pork intestine soup.

So that's a very random assortment of what I'm eating these days, and I'm grateful for such a variety of good food.

Thanksgiving Update + Visa Approval

Just wanted to do a short entry to thank everyone who reads this blog, and especially those who comment.
Thanks for making November my highest traffic month yet!

Also, I am happy to announce that after much paperwork and weeks of waiting, I have gotten approval for my volunteer visa from Taipei. Hopefully my frustrating experience with attempting to obtain a religious visa and our subsequent solution of a volunteer visa will be a good model for future missionaries caught in this situation to follow, but it's in the nature of living abroad for these things to happen, and the whole visa situation never stops fluctuating. Either way, as I noted in a previous post, I have a lot to be thankful for despite the delay, and got to see God do lots of things in the meantime.

Finally! I think I lost two years' worth of stress-induced aging when I got the news...
(This picture is sort of a collage; didn't want to post the actual docs online)

Thanksgiving is much more than merely a day to overeat and watch TV to mark the commencement of the holiday season. I hope we can push back against consumerism and remember that a day to focus on how much we are blessed is not only a personal duty (gratitude to God), but probably would do something for national sanity in the U.S. A time to remember that societal instability and economic malaise may presently describe us, but need not ever define us.

The value of a "day of gratitude" is not lost on many Taiwanese people, and it seems that many churches in Taiwan are adopting the holiday as well! (The Mandarin is more or less a direct translation which backtranslating into English comes out to something like "Gratitude Day") Due to the previous visa delays I won't be spending this Thanksgiving in Taiwan to report on the festivities, but my family is certainly happy to have me for one more holiday.

As I don't have the visa itself yet and still have to negotiate that with the Atlanta office that's been quite difficult to deal with, I don't have a departure date yet, but looks like Christmas is likely to be spent in Taiwan. Last time I was in Taiwan for Christmas was in 2007. Taiwanese families typically don't celebrate it (unless they are Christians), but Taipei City was festive for the season:

Downtown Taipei after Christmas, Dec 2007

A little blurry, but you can see the super-tall Taipei 101 building lit up colorfully.
Expect better quality pics if I make it there for the Western holiday season this year.

When God Says No - Revisited

So a couple of months ago I wrote a post about when God says no, investigating how we can't always understand why God says no in certain circumstances, but we know He is using everything to bring us closer to Himself.

Sometimes we don't get to find out why God said no; sometimes it goes against all human emotion and reason to think that God could possibly say no in a given situation. I try to address those thoughts in that post.

But sometimes we do get to see in hindsight why God said no.

The context of this post is that I just found out today that my Taiwan visa has been delayed yet again, due to a different part of the Taiwanese government having assumed responsibility for handling volunteer visa applications.

To be blunt: This sucks. I've waited an additional two months in limbo, the narrative of my life seemingly on hold (right before my life situation changes dramatically), not allowed to get to the mission field where my heart is. I long to begin ministry there. I'm missing a Taiwanese friend's wedding we thought I'd surely be able to attend. I'm not able to be immersed in the language I'll need or to begin building (and reconnecting with some of) the relational networks through which things are accomplished in Taiwan.

Also, this isn't even as good a visa as I was going to get before the Atlanta office flat out denied me one for reasons they didn't feel necessary to straightforwardly explain. Now even the inferior visa is becoming mired in bureaucratic entanglements. If I had a dollar for every time someone said "why aren't you in Taiwan yet? I thought you were already there!", I'd be rapidly approaching taxable income.

(And while we're being very honest and direct, please don't tell people in my situation "this is God teaching you patience" unless you'd like people to tell you "this is God teaching you to not love money" when you lose your job. It's great to remind people that God has a purpose in delays, but maybe stay away from anything that seems to roll off the tongue too easily in these situations. It's advice I need as much as anyone else.)

So emotionally and psychologically, that's where I was this morning. Actually it was briefly even worse than that. The temptation to bitterness "Ok God, what did I do wrong this time? For which of my sins are you punishing me?" was strong for an hour or two. It's hard to explain the pain felt by a missionary with a call to a place and people who's prevented from Going to them. It's not that you foolishly think God needs you to do anything there, it's that in a special way God has anchored your heart and purpose there and you're bungee-corded to them, and the stretch begins to ache.

However. Just as I said before, whenever I tried to do something within scriptural guidelines but God changes my plans, I have seen Him work in ways that I wouldn't have seen if my own plan had worked out.
In my particular case, rather than punishing me for my complaining and lack of trust, God graciously allowed me to see some of what He was accomplishing by my delay. Just a few of the opportunities I've had a chance to participate in since I wasn't able to leave at the beginning of September include:

• Preached a Sunday night service at my sending church, encouraging everyone with the reminder that Rev 7 tells us the Great Commission -will- be fulfilled, and how that is happening all over the world right this moment.
• MC'd a multi-church youth event in Plano and shared the gospel in detail with all the attending Asian American students before leading them through a prayer of repentance and acceptance and encouraging believers to recognize Christ's primacy in their lives.
• Discussed theology with Buddhists trying to convert me, learned a lot about Buddhism and challenges I will face in explaining the gospel in that religious context.
• Ended up in conversations with several people about barriers that were keeping them from believing in God.
• Visiting several Chinese churches, including sharing my Taiwan plans with a new (to me) fellowship who are interested in partnering with me and updating many people on my plans and asking them to pray for Taiwan.
• Discovered a few other people looking to do ministry in Taiwan.
• Connected with a representative from an American church potentially interested in long-term ministry cooperation in Taiwan.
• Said my goodbyes to a lot of people. I know I'll probably never see some of them again on earth, but I look forward to our reunion in the presence of our Lord.

Apparently at least one of those things needed to happen before I went to Taiwan! Or maybe something else I didn't even attach much importance to... some seemingly offhand remark to a student who will later become a missionary, some encouragement that was what someone desperately needed to hear. It's impossible to know. But God is always working through what we do in faithfulness to Him, and we'll never know how much He's accomplishing behind the scenes.

After asking for prayer on facebook (and getting some) and doing some honest talking with God, I'm happy to be able to say that He chose to set off a volcano of encouragement in my spirit that burned away my doubts and gave me the motivation to move forward, not just existing until I can leave, but living intentionally through the time. He loves us like that.

So now I'm delayed again. I'll be doing Thanksgiving in the US, and hopefully heading out shortly afterwards. Honestly I don't know what the purpose is in this further delay, but it's harder to doubt God has a purpose when I can clearly see His hand at work in the previous delay.

That doesn't make it easy, but I know others have it harder. And I will pray for the strength to live every day for God until things start moving again. And if you need it, I'd be happy to pray for you too.

When God says: No.

There is a popular proverbial bit of encouragement that gets passed around the internet:

If the request is wrong, God says, “No.”
If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.”
If you are wrong,  God says, “Grow.”
But if the request is right, the timing is right, and you are right, God says, “Go!”

I know it has encouraged a lot of people in difficult situations, probably including some of you reading this, so don't take what I have to say as a demeaning of the intent of whoever wrote this.

However, I think any Christian senses or has experienced that reality often more complicated than this. What about when God says No and the request was for someone to survive a dangerous medical procedure? What about when the request is for someone to become a believer?* What about when the request is a child praying for his parents to stay together? Are those wrong requests? Is the timing wrong? Is the person wrong to ask for these things?

Atheists or others antagonistic towards the Christian faith will sometimes bring up questions like this, and we may find it difficult to give them a satisfactory answer.

(*- This very difficult question suggests to me that the ongoing discussion within the Church over God's sovereignty and man's ability to make choices, while obviously sometimes allowed to dominate time that should be spent focusing on those things that we do understand and should be putting into practice, is not merely "a peripheral topic that we should just ignore because it causes arguments and focus on other things," but in fact a dialogue over the very nature of God and His salvation plan. So since I think the answer to this particular tough question is tied into God's plan for salvation for humanity, I won't address it directly in this post today. But keep it in mind, because ultimately every Christian must have an answer to this question, be it as simple as "We don't know but God knows and I trust Him," which is as correct as any answer can be)

I recently encountered another "God saying No for reasons we don't understand" moment, and although mine doesn't come close to being as difficult as the examples I listed above, I think they all have something in common which is crucial for us to understand as followers of Christ.

I'd like to approach the issue from both the rational perspective and the emotional perspective (though of course it's impossible to entirely separate them), since I think often both of them are in play when we don't understand God's "refusals."

A. Rationally

 

1. God Knows More Than Us.
 
This past week, I encountered the first serious roadblock to my journey towards missionary work in Taiwan, being denied a religious visa by somewhat antagonistic and unprofessional visa office personnel at the particular consulate office I am required to use in my Taiwan visa applications due to my permanent address being in the Southeast. After attempting to claim first that I was unqualified due to not meeting the visa requirements to the letter (something they'd never been so strict about before, but fair enough), then that I didn't meet their nonstandard definitions of the requirements (getting into sketchy territory here), they resorted to making up unlisted requirements to have grounds to claim that I was unqualified. This is new territory for Taiwanese visa applications, and TEAM in Taiwan will be looking at whether or not its feasible for future missionary candidates to use the religious visa to do ministry in Taiwan, even though it seems this office has a reputation for being particularly difficult.

I had a lot of people praying for me. At least dozens, if not over a hundred. And the more people who said they'd pray for me, the more the visa office made it clear they were going to refuse me the visa. It's as if the more people prayed for them to be willing to grant me the visa, the more God in response hardened their hearts instead.

And I believe that He did just that. I have seen God change my plans too many times to believe He puts much value in my plans. And rightfully so. I am eternally grateful (literally) that God sees fit to ignore my plans and substitute His own. He is omniscient; I am, at best, somewhat more rational than the average person. (and there are days when I'm not so sure about that either)

So although on an emotional level it's disappointing that my Taiwan departure has been delayed by antagonistic paper pushers, after 5 years of working to get back there, on a rational level I know there's a reason for the delay that I might even be able to see myself, in retrospect.

It is not irrational for God to say No when I was praying for Yes. It is irrational for me to not trust that He knows better than me. If He didn't, He wouldn't be God. Our perspective is limited, even when we're not being especially self-centered or short-sighted. We cannot possibly know what is best for ourselves more than God can. It is only reasonable to trust Him with the decision-making.

2. In a Fallen World, 'Bad things' happen by Default

I won't spend too much time on this, but anyone who believes the story of the fall in Genesis must recognize that God created a beautiful world and pronounced it good, and then the first two humans He made decided they knew better than Him, and fundamentally wrecked it for the rest of us. That fallen world continues to fall, and the consequences of human sin are part of life in that world. People make foolish decisions, or evil decisions, and it causes pain and suffering to others. For God to let humans suffer in a broken world which He made and they broke is fair and just; for God to show mercy and sometimes specially intervene to reverse the consequences to our benefit is grace. Obviously we like the second one more, but grace and justice are equally attributes of a perfect God, reflected perfectly in all His actions. (Not in opposition to each other, as they are so often wrongly portrayed. God is both infinitely just and infinitely gracious. If it seems that these two attributes are on a collision course with each other, that's because they are; and where they collide is a Cross. And right in the middle of this collision we find Christ crucified, the perfect resolution of grace and justice which brings unity to these attributes which are supposedly in conflict. Perhaps this is why the Scripture speaks of Christ being the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But let us return to the topic at hand.)

B. Emotionally

Fair enough, you might say, but what about on an emotional level? Doesn't God know we have feelings? Doesn't He love us more than to just rigidly enforce His will over us with no thought to how crushed or disappointed we might be? (Ok, you may or may not say it, but I think we all feel this way at times)
There are once again two sides to the answer:

1. God is Strong Enough to Always do what is Best for You.

An earthly father (or mother), eventually tires. If a child begs over and over, especially getting into the teenage years, sometimes parents give in. If the parents are not 100% sure granting the request would be harmful, and the child wants it badly enough, at some point they may relent, especially if the child ups the ante by putting the child-parent relationship at stake. "Say yes or I'll hate you forever," this kind of thing. Humans are weak, this kind of strategy works on us.

But God is not weak, God is infinitely strong. Emotional blackmail has no effect on the Creator who knows you better than you know yourself. Parents cannot foresee every outcome, and may eventually tire and relent, hoping that a good, or at least not harmful, possible outcome will occur. God foresees every outcome* and can thus answer prayers based on 100% knowledge. And no matter how many times you ask Him for something which would ultimately be harmful to you and others connected to the situation and the future ramifications of that situation, He will say No. He does not tire of doing what is best for you, whether you see it that way it or not.

So we may not be able to think of a single way God's saying No could be a good thing, but it's not up to us to think until we figure it out. The question is whether we trust that He knows what He's doing, or accuse Him of either ignorance or maliciousness.

(*- Many Christians believe it goes farther than that, and that God has in fact already ordained the outcome. I am very careful about how I articulate my position with regards to sovereignty and election, because I believe the questions are often phrased in a nonsensical way that forgets God does not look at things from a human, time-bound perspective, but that's the subject of a planned future post.)

2. The Greatest Thing God can give us is a Deeper, Fuller experience of Himself.

Get that into your head and heart, if you can. I am trying to drive it into mine.
For any human, this would be untrue (and a blasphemous claim), but for God it is necessarily true.

Denying someone a lesser good to give them a greater good is right, and in fact knowingly refusing them the better good to give them a lesser good would generally be considered unloving if not outright wrong.
For example, if given a choice between the two statements "I love your new car!" and "Your house is on fire!" it's not hard to guess which one you'd pick. However, if I drive past you going the opposite direction in busy traffic and have only time to shout one brief sentence out the window as I pass, would it be evidence that I care about you more or less, if I chose to deprive you of hearing "I love your new car" in order to inform you that "your house is on fire"? It is my concern for your well-being that would prompt my saying no to your hearing the car compliment in order to say yes to your hearing the less pleasant message, and I can't imagine many people who would resent my decision. Yet so often when God gives us the unpleasant but more loving answer, we act as if we momentarily doubt He really wants the best for us.

Earthly blessings, happiness, comfort, self-actualization, meaningful experiences and memories, all these are what we naturally want and chase after. But our walk with God after regeneration is partly a process of learning that all these things we have lived for are merely derivative in comparison with the experience of God Himself, from whom all these blessings flow and who is greater than all of them put together, and in whom is the ultimate fulfillment of those desires anyway.

Some people get angry or uncomfortable this way of saying it, but it's an unavoidable fact that if God says No because He wants to reveal more of Himself to you through whatever difficult consequences result from His refusal to grant your request, it is right and loving of Him to do so, even from our human perspective.

If God said No to every attempt I made to get to Taiwan to do ministry, yet every time I drew closer to Him and understood Him better due to it, my only correct response could be to praise Him for His love and for giving me the greatest gift He could give. (I can't promise I would respond in such a glorifying way, but it would be the right response)

Thankfully if we have the Spirit, it will often be the case that God reveals Himself to us through the times He says Yes, because we will be asking for things that are in keeping with His will. But sometimes our wrong requests are simply based on ignorance. They are not bad or sinful requests, it's just that we can't see clearly enough or far enough to understand why God can't say Yes. This is when it comes back to the answer you already know: We just have to trust the Infinitely Trustworthy One.

I trust God will lead me to Taiwan as He has led me all the way up to this point, sometimes with amazing works on His part to open doors and make things happen. I also trust that, due to His leading and calling along the way, His plan for me to draw closer to Him involves me proclaiming His name in Taiwan, that He may be more greatly glorified in that dark place.

But whether He miraculously has me in Taiwan 3 weeks from today, or whether I somehow never go there again, He will in every action and outcome offer me the opportunity to draw closer to Himself, which is the greatest gift and blessing with which He could answer any prayer of mine. That sounds like a good "spiritual" answer to the question of God saying No because it is; we live in a spiritual world, and on this point they got it right in Sunday School: "Jesus" really is always the right answer.

Bonus Picture Post! #1 - Orchid Island

Dear readers, I have discovered that facebook uses strange methods for determining what thumbnail picture options it offers when I post links to articles here. Apparently it only likes the smaller ones. (If anyone has more technical info, feel free to leave me a comment)

What that means for you is, I include lots of pictures in this post, to test which ones FB lets me use, and some readers might notice me changing the sizes on them.

For starters, here are some from one of the most interesting side-trips I got to do during my year in Taiwan (that wasn't an unplanned visa run!). In August, some of my Taiwanese fellow gospel camp volunteers and I took a ferry over to Orchid Island (Lan Yu) off the coast of Taiwan for a couple days of camp staff retreat after the summer camping season was over. We also had a mini-camp for the kids on the island, I might post some pics of that later if people are interested. (Basically that means respond if you want to see pictures of cute kids, Taiwanese camp volunteers, and one white guy)

Leaving the harbor

Arriving at Orchid Island, with oddly-shaped mountains shrouded in mist...

The view from our "hotel." I believe the large building is a government-built school.
Years ago Orchid Island was selected as a location for a nuclear waste dumping site,
but the local people were told it was going to be a fish cannery and tricked into agreeing...
so they got lots of government-paid-for infrastructure by way of a belated sort-of apology.
(I don't know if this story is entirely accurate, but it's what I was told)

A concrete model of the local people's traditional seagoing canoes.
The native people of Orchid Island are not Chinese, but Pacific Islander.
Many anthropologists believe that Oceania was populated largely by ocean-going
peoples who island-hopped from Taiwan thousands of years ago.

A quiet moment by the sea, at sunset.

We quickly found the real rulers of the island were wise-looking goats.

We woke up very early one morning before dawn, to get to the top of a mountain and watch the sunrise.

The pre-dawn scooter ride was exciting

We assemble at the mountaintop observatory area

Dawn approaches over the Pacific, beyond the lights of a fishing village.

Roughly the same picture, a little later

The locals said the farthest rock peaks rising from the ocean used to be one long ridge,
but during WWII in the early morning dark the Americans thought it was a Japanese destroyer and bombed it.

Fun with perspective

I got some National Geographic quality shots on this trip, it's really a beautiful island.

Alright, I have four albums from this trip on facebook for the especially curious. (and for people who prefer to look at pictures with people in them) But I think this is a good enough set of pictures for one post.
We'll close with a picture of my most interesting meal of that trip:

Flying fish noodle soup!

Stay tuned for more random picture posts in the future... I have thousands of Taiwan photos and I'll post a few up now and then. If you are interested to see pics of any particular kind of stuff (People, Cities, Food, Nature, etc) feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

A Musical Interlude - Taipei 101 Flash Mob Chorus

We take a break from normal posting to bring you a little taste of Taiwan, 2013. This is a musical flash mob event which took place in the awesome foodcourt of the basement of the 101 building (until a few years ago, the tallest building in the world). I can and will say a lot about Taiwan on this blog, but sometimes I think music can express things more deeply and clearly than words can, even in a language you don't know.

Since this blog is in English most of my readers won't be able to understand the lyrics to the songs, but I encourage you to take a listen anyway, the beautiful of the songs and the passion with which they are sung don't need translation. (and there are English subtitles which communicate the basic meaning of the lyrics, though their beauty doesn't really come across in the word-for-word translation)

There are 4 songs in total: the first is Green Island Serenade (Referencing the island of Taiwan. There might be some political implications with the choice of this song as well, but I will mostly steer clear of Taiwanese politics on this blog!), the middle part is a medley of two nostalgic/romantic songs, Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower, a very famous song, its story and a better translation of the lyrics than in the video is available here on its wikipedia page) and Bāng Chhun-hong (Spring Breeze, which is not sung in Mandarin but in Taiwanese, the local language which I hope to study after Mandarin), and lastly a very lively ending with Gao Shan Qing (The Mountain is Green, only a Chinese wikipedia entry for this one), a song about Alishan mountain and the native peoples of Taiwan who live there. Part of the song (you'll know!) is in Ami/Amis, the language of Taiwan's largest remaining indigenous tribal group.

To me, holding a flashmob in the basement of a ultramodern skyscraper featuring beloved traditional songs in these languages is "very Taiwan." If you've never been there, I hope you can get a feel for the place through this brief performance:

First, You've Got to Get There

It is widely acknowledged that the missionary lifestyle is not an easy one. Historically this was reinforced by things like missionaries packing their belongings in coffins when traveling to their ministry fields, knowing there was a good chance they'd be returning in them. Today the task is less dangerous in that sense (in most parts of the world), though it is arguably somewhat more complicated.

Cardboard boxes don't have quite the symbolic effect...

What is less commonly known is that one of the most difficult parts of many missionaries' work is getting onto the field in the first place. Ironically, one part that many people seem to consider the most difficult -actually deciding to go- was for me the easiest. God made it clear He wanted me to go; I could but say yes or no. (And saying "no" to God is not recommended.) Having said yes, I began to discover the truth that the difficulties didn't start once I was "over there," but began to immediately present themselves.

For many difficult tasks, it is possible to simply power through them. If asked to roll a heavy log up a hill, most people could do it if they had to. Simply dig down and refuse to quit, push as hard as you can, and get it up to the top by any way possible. Or for less difficult but longer and more boring tasks, like a pile of paperwork, one simply plods forward until eventually the whole thing is done. Unpleasant, but eventually overcome.

For getting onto the field, I found the complexity of the task to be that it's neither a matter of simply plowing ahead through any difficulty that arises, or waiting it out, but of accomplishing a number of things simultaneously, with a sort of default timer ticking beyond which people will begin to lose faith in either your calling or abilities. Going back to the log example, imagine being told to roll the log up the hill, within a certain time frame, and also to not crush any of the numerous wildflowers growing on the hill. Suddenly pushing with all your might is not an option. You are not allowed to "try as hard as you can," in the straightforward sense, and "try harder" is not an effective strategy. Nor can you do this task in small chunks with nice breaks in between; if pushed up only partway, the log will roll back down. (Thank God, sometimes He chocks the log for you, and moments of rest are supplied when He knows they are necessary.)

I did not write this to complain! God has called all of us to participate in spreading His kingdom to every part of the world, and He has given me a love for the field to which He is calling me. The labor in this sense is joyful. But I am trying to define the difficulty of a task which can't simply be pushed through, as it depends on the cooperation of volunteers on both an individual and a church level, nor always done in a logical step-by-step fashion, as the "next step" is often a preparation for something coming much later or a setback which forces one to rely on God and wait for Him to reveal a new and unexpected opportunity in another direction.

If only it were this straightforward!

In other words, the dance to the missions field is not so much "three steps forward, two steps back," as "three steps forward, five steps diagonally back to the left, a big jump forward landing on one foot, hopping there while waiting for a place to put the other one, sliding sideways, another step forward, two steps back, cha cha cha," etc. It's learning to trust God to provide the way forward through unfamiliar territory at the very time when other people begin to expect familiar-looking progress in exchange for their trust.

And it's a difficult thing for missionaries to be learning how to move along God's perfect but unpredictable path while many spectators expect them to be moving in the most productive, sensible, and competent direction (as an engineer by trade, this indeed makes the most sense by default, so I do fully understand this way of thinking). Put another way, it's like crossing a major street. People expect you to use the crosswalk in an inspirational sort of way, while it feels much more like God is calling you to play Simon Says in the heavy traffic.

If I can be very straightforward for a moment, it can be rather frustrating to be criticized from time to time by people who would themselves never dream of surrendering all hopes of a career and stable future in the normal sense, because of Very Important Reasons which any reasonable person would see prevent it from being an option for them. (Nevermind those reasons might have just as equally applied to you as well.) They expect you to overcome your unfamiliar difficulties as they overcome their familiar ones, and can adopt the attitude of making sure you "measure up," that support money is not being wasted on you. Unfortunately, this kind of judgmental scrutiny, while not helpful, is also not entirely unfounded. It must be recognized that there are career missionaries who are simply not up to the task, or who have gone onto the field for reasons entirely other than a calling or obedience to the Great Commission, or who spend their support money wastefully and accomplish little in their fields or even do great damage through willful sin. This is sadly the reality, and I believe accountability for missionaries is entirely appropriate. Exactly what form this could take in the sense of measurable goals is a great question which merits further discussion, but the willingness of someone to sacrifice what life they had to pursue God's call should perhaps merit good faith at the outset until proven otherwise, and indeed in most cases and churches it seems to do so.

But of course while having spiritual gifts which are appropriate to the task, cross-cultural missionaries have no special dispensation of knowledge or abilities from God beyond any other believer. God always supplies what is necessary to accomplish what He has called us to do, and so we are just servants of the Kingdom who have been called to exchange familiar neighborhoods for unfamiliar ones. And while the calling is sure (The Great Commission was not a suggestion), we're not always sure the best way to go about doing it. But the passion God has placed in me for His glory among the Taiwanese people compels me forward. That burning fire, lit by the Spirit, continues through the waves of spiritual opposition and temptation, the dark mists of disappointment or confusion about what to do next, or the storms of hardship and setbacks.

"Taiwan is still the only major Han Chinese population in the world
where a significant spiritual breakthrough has not occurred." Operation World

I have been very blessed to have many people trust me, even some people who are not naturally the trusting sort. I feel the weight of this trust very acutely, and pray that I will never betray it, the more so as I have personally been a witness to the grievous results of such downfalls. Yet I know that the ability to merit that trust is not in myself, but in the God who sustains me. He has promised to continue to do so; my task is to walk in obedience and communion with Him, down this strange road which has led through Huntsville, and Texas, and across the Pacific. May He grant the strength to do so, and if you have read this far, I would appreciate your prayers as well.

(And feel free to comment with any of your own prayer requests. I'm always happy to lift them up. It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that sometimes our insurmountable obstacles are not due to a lack of strategy, but a lack of time spent demonstrating our dependence on God through prayer.)