"Have yourself a merry little Christmas"

Well, now begins the final 10 days of my trip. It seems like only yesterday I left the clean, quiet suburbs of Sydney and came over here. I think I'm finally becoming comfortable with the food and noise and language barrier. But I am definitely missing all you guys... so I will come back!

Weddings Part II
On Sunday, we were privileged to be invited to the wedding of Dr Lai's brother-in-law at the local restaurant. Once again we didn't get to see the ceremony but came along for the 10 course banquet that followed. Even though we had only met him briefly at Mr Cow's wedding we were seated up the front near the bride and groom's table, which is a sign of honour here. At the last wedding we attended, I thought we managed to do fairly well at disguising our dislike of some of the bizarre culinary concoctions. However, it appears that perhaps they were more perceptive than we thought, as this time we were placed on the vegetarian table and served all sorts of colourful (purple spring rolls?) delicacies. This was not the only surprise. We were also seated next to an American lady and her 14 year old daughter (from Miami) and we were as surprised as they were to see other Anglo-Saxons at an Asian wedding. Apparently they have lived in Puli for 13 months and before that lived in Taichung for many years, so they can both speak fluent Mandarin (which inspires me with hope in light of my poor efforts at speaking Mandarin). As we talked to them they told us that apparently there are about 100 'white' people living in Puli (we had only seen 1 up until this point!) but apparently many of them don't wish to be there and so they sit indoors all day and talk to the other foreigners here and don't venture out into public much. I think that's pretty sad, because the Taiwanese people here are very friendly and eager to befriend us 'Westerners'. During the wedding, there was more aboriginal dancing and this was followed by karaoke, which our American friends were quite keen to participate in.
Unlike in Western weddings, where everyone waits to formally farewell the bride and groom, in Taiwan the bride and groom stand by the door and people trickle out of the wedding as the please, shaking their hands and having photos taken. Apparently they also take all their official wedding photos days or weeks before they get married so often the dress you see the bride wearing is not the dress she is wearing in her photo.
Dr Lai was really nice in organizing a lift for us to get home. However he failed to mention that this lift involved riding in one of the wedding cars. So we got chauffeured back to the hospital in a nice black car with red wedding ribbon tied all over it. Very nice!

Visit from Australia (or is it London? Or Hong Kong?)
After we got back to hospital, our friend Carmen from medical school in Sydney (but she is from Hong Kong) came to visit us. She had just finished her elective in Kent (England) and was visiting her boyfriend in Taiwan and so popped over to Puli to visit us. It was nice to see another familiar face and we showed her our hospital (there's not much to show so that took all of 5 minutes) and then took her to the paper factory (where they make paper the old fashioned way). She only got to stay for one hour (but I wouldn't stay for more than an hour in Puli if I was a tourist here) but it was fun to catch up and hear what had been happening in England.
NB: I know Carmen reads this blog, so I must say 'nice' things about her (haha - just kidding Carmo! You are always nice to me!)

"Real food" (not CBS)
On Friday night Dr Nathan invited us to his house for dinner along with one of the residents (Dr Lin). Dr Nathan, his wife Yvonne and their 3 children used to live in New Zealand and so they understood the kind of food we were used to and understood the kind of culture shock we had been experiencing, so they cooked us the most amazing Western meal ever! I would probably have to say it was the best meal we've had in Taiwan! Yvonne cooked these marinated lamb chops with pasta and salad and cold chicken and beef. It was fantastic (they even used Flora margarine imported from New Zealand) and we all enjoyed the meal (except for poor Dr Lin, who having never left Taiwan before, found our Western meal as foreign as we find normal Taiwanese cuisine). Over dinner we were able to talk to Dr Nathan and his wife about their experiences of life in Taiwan and New Zealand and hear about how God had been working in their lives. He told us the story of how he met his wife, and how he had come to end up working in Puli. Dr Nathan really has a passion for his medical work and for his family and for serving the church and for telling people about Jesus. He has been a great encouragement to all of us over the last 6 weeks.
Dr Nathan's oldest 2 children are 13 and 14 years old but his youngest is 13 months. Her name is Joy and she is a real cutie! The whole night she kept us amused with her antics and the story of her birth is quite amazing (medically, it was quite risky and 'should' have required a lot of surgery but in God's grace she didn't).

Christian stuff
I would like to first correct something I said in a previous blog, which I think may have been read the wrong way. I wrote about the concept of 'losing face' and how that is something that is seen as bad in Taiwanese culture. "Losing face" in Taiwan has more to do with other people's perceptions of you than your actual worth. What I meant to say was that in Philippians 2:7, Paul speaks about how Jesus "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant" and I meant to refer that to say that this concept (of Jesus humbling himself voluntarily) may be quite foreign to the Taiwanese culture. I did not mean it to say that God the Father somehow lost his honour or glory, so I apologise if this caused some confusion (or claims of heresy - I like to eat steak, not be burnt at the stake!).
On Friday we were able to talk to Yvonne and Nathan about their Christian lives and it was a testimony to God's grace how he has been working through their lives to grow them in maturity as Christians and use their lives to bring others to know Christ.
On Sunday morning before the wedding we asked Dr Nathan if we could go along to his church with him (we had been to 2 other churches in Puli but not his one yet). His church is a rather small church named Puli Grace Church and is held in a large room above a set of apartments or shops. The church people were very friendly and we even saw one of the nurses (Ching Pai) there from our ward (who Pete and Jade are jokingly trying to set me up with - I don't think she even speaks English!). The first song we sang was "Blessed Assurance" which I could only remember the first verse to in English (it's hard to remember the English words when they are singing in Mandarin). Then the pastor (a lady) welcomed us formally and the whole church (all 30 or so of the congregation) came up and shook our hands individually. The lady pastor got up and preached a sermon, which went for about 30 minutes. I was extremely impressed by their thoughtfulness, as when they knew that we couldn't understand Mandarin, they got one of the local university students (who could speak English) to stand next to her with a microphone and translate the entire sermon as she preached it.
The sermon was about how we should learn to be like Mary because God blessed her as she listened to God. It sounded very similar to the 'prosperity gospel' (saying that we must expect to have a lot of physical blessing in this lifetime - while denying the reality of the suffering that Christians must endure as they take up their cross daily to follow in the footsteps of their Lord Jesus) in some respects (but I have heard Dr Nathan talk against the 'prosperity gospel' at hospital?) After the sermon, we sang "Blessed Assurance" (again) repeatedly again and again. Then they had a time where we all held hands and prayed together (all together at once and out loud) and it sounded like a zoo (I'm sorry to say) and people were punching themselves in the stomach as they prayed. I'm afraid it reminded me of some of the Pentecostal practices that I have seen in Australia and it seems that the appeal of blessing and wealth and happiness 'now' is very appealing to the Asian culture.
Now without entering into a debate on the whole Pentecostal issue; I only wish to say that there are many people in that church who do love Jesus and persevere tirelessly to make him known in their lives and the lives of others (like Dr Nathan), but that the unbiblical teaching about 'expecting' God to give you lots of material possessions and some of their church practices (praying in what appeared a very disordered manner) seemed very unhelpful. I really wish I could spend some more time here, talking to the Christians about the Bible and encouraging them as it seems they often don't get 'fed' much 'real food' from God's word. I'm sorry if I sound a little hard line or judgmental. I do not wish to be either, but I do want to see people here come to know God as He has revealed himself in the Bible. It seems that people here can (not necessarily 'are') be in danger of following a 'Jesus' that the Bible doesn't teach.
On the way home we talked to Dr Nathan and Pete mentioned what our sermons in Australia are like (explaining a passage). Dr Nathan said he felt that often in his church he wasn't 'fed' well, but that he had to 'feed' himself with his own personal Bible reading. Keep praying for him and his family, that they would be fed as they read God's word and that they would continue to be a great witness to Jesus.

This morning Dr Wally and I were doing our ward round and halfway through he said "Quick, we must go!" I followed having no idea what was going on, but when we reached the 6th floor, we walked into the room of the lady with cancer (who had become a Christian) and she was being baptized! It kind of seemed weird to me to have a baptism in a hospital bed but then again, I was baptized in the Unigym pool, so I can't talk! She prayed with Pastor Tsai, Dr Chu, Dr Nathan, Dr Wally and myself and then Pastor Tsai baptized her (just with a water sprinkling - not a full immersion Baptist dunking) whilst she was till breathing on an oxygen mask. It must have made for quite a sight for any passerby. After we sang a hymn, there were some more prayers and then we left. It is so amazing that in this Christian hospital they can talk to patients so freely about Jesus. I lament that we are not able to do the same in Australia. Pray that the Christians here would continue to use this avenue to reach all people with the gospel!

Well, I will probably write another quick blog on Thursday before we head off to Heng Chun for Christmas (we are visiting a missionary from Sydney there). I pray that all of you back home will have a blessed and happy Christmas.
It is so amazing to contemplate the message of Christmas. On the Old Testament, the people could not come into contact with God directly. At Mount Sinai, they could not touch the mountain. As they wandered the desert, God had to be separated from them by a tent/tabernacle. When Uzzah touched the ark (which represented God's presence to the people) in 2 Samuel 6 he fell dead. When God lived in the Most Holy Place within the temple, the high priest could only enter once a year before God and only after offering many sacrifices. Yet the message of Christmas is the birth of "Immanuel" which means "God with us"... the perfect and holy God became one of us and dwelt among us. Our broken relationship with God was restored and now we can call the God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) our Father. May he be praised!

God bless,

Jimbo