For most of 2002/3, it was a case of 'more of the same'. I decided to carry on teaching at Shane English School in Lujou for another year. Church life was going well, and I'd got involved with a few things at Evergreen Fellowship... Added to which, I didn't have a clue what to do if I repacked the suitcase and returned to the UK. Thanks to Chinese classes and (mainly) the help of new church friend, my Chinese was steadily improving. I did, however, travel back to the UK for Christmas 2002 - a great opportunity to see the family after a year and a bit away.
Alpha?
Having done the Alpha Course at university, I'd experienced first-hand how effective it was at explaining Christianity to unbelievers, fringe believers, confused believers or people like me (back in 2000) who couldn't decide which category they fitted into! I explained, rather tentatively, to leaders at church that I was interested in starting a course and they were very supportive. Rather oddly, money had been set aside in the church budget for an Alpha course, although I never found out who was responsible for that. Set to remain one of life's mysteries, I suppose! Paul Sharpe, Peter Barban and Dave Brown were all supportive, although one of the deacons had discovered some diatribe against Alpha online, in which the writer denounced Nicky Gumbel and Holy Trinity Brompton, and claimed that the Holy Spirit elements of the course were demonic. This deacon brought these objections to a (pretty chaotic) church meeting, where I was making my course proposal, and I ended up feeling pretty discouraged. I loved the church, but the meeting seemed dominated by personal 'differences' and there certainly wasn't any real feeling of unity there...
Mercifully, Kevin Tung (Evergreen leader) took me under his wing, so that he could be my point man for all things Alpha. From that point, things started to move forward again. Resources in Chinese and English were ordered from Hong Kong and I started to get a team in place for a September start.
SARS... and a Retreat Up a Mountain
SARS hit Taiwan in early 2003, having already menaced Hong Kong and southern China. Traveling on the Taipei MRT most days, I noticed that quite a few people were starting to wear medical-type face masks. It was hard to know at that time how much of a risk SARS was - there were stories of an outbreak at a local hospital, and anyone with a temperature of over 38.5 degrees was advised to stay at home (and anyone who lived with them). Church was still open on Sundays, although Evergreen had to meet outside for a few weeks. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, actually, as we were a much more visible presence outside, meeting by the church entrance where all the passers-by could see / hear our meetings.
Went on my first Evergreen Retreat in May. There had been talk for a while of the retreat being cancelled due to SARS, but it eventually went ahead as planned. We did all have to have our temperature taken when entering the main meeting area, though. The retreat site was at a beautiful location, high up a mountain close to Hsi Chi, Taipei County. I remember heavy rain on one of the days, but also recall having a lot of fun. I led one of the small groups and 'translated' for Winnie Liang, the retreat MC. I say 'translated', as most of the people there were Chinese speakers and I could give a 'gist understanding' to my fellow foreigners. It seemed to go OK, at any rate. Looking back, something else took place that seemed pretty insignificant at the time. I chatted to a girl called Joelle for the first time; what blossomed from THAT encounter deserves a a blog of its own!
Evergreen Prayer Meeting
The Saturday fellowship had a midweek prayer meeting, which I was VERY keen to attend. My teaching schedule got in the way for a while, but Corina managed to juggle it a bit and free up my Wednesday evening. Getting together for prayer and midweek fellowship with other guys became one of the mainstays of my week - and stayed that way pretty constantly for about 5 years. In that time, I came to know people like Kevin, Morton (who went on to be my best man), Matthew Conway, Jason Ball and Stephen (for a short time, unfortunately) much better than I ever could at the Saturday meeting.
Alpha?
Having done the Alpha Course at university, I'd experienced first-hand how effective it was at explaining Christianity to unbelievers, fringe believers, confused believers or people like me (back in 2000) who couldn't decide which category they fitted into! I explained, rather tentatively, to leaders at church that I was interested in starting a course and they were very supportive. Rather oddly, money had been set aside in the church budget for an Alpha course, although I never found out who was responsible for that. Set to remain one of life's mysteries, I suppose! Paul Sharpe, Peter Barban and Dave Brown were all supportive, although one of the deacons had discovered some diatribe against Alpha online, in which the writer denounced Nicky Gumbel and Holy Trinity Brompton, and claimed that the Holy Spirit elements of the course were demonic. This deacon brought these objections to a (pretty chaotic) church meeting, where I was making my course proposal, and I ended up feeling pretty discouraged. I loved the church, but the meeting seemed dominated by personal 'differences' and there certainly wasn't any real feeling of unity there...
Mercifully, Kevin Tung (Evergreen leader) took me under his wing, so that he could be my point man for all things Alpha. From that point, things started to move forward again. Resources in Chinese and English were ordered from Hong Kong and I started to get a team in place for a September start.
SARS... and a Retreat Up a Mountain
SARS hit Taiwan in early 2003, having already menaced Hong Kong and southern China. Traveling on the Taipei MRT most days, I noticed that quite a few people were starting to wear medical-type face masks. It was hard to know at that time how much of a risk SARS was - there were stories of an outbreak at a local hospital, and anyone with a temperature of over 38.5 degrees was advised to stay at home (and anyone who lived with them). Church was still open on Sundays, although Evergreen had to meet outside for a few weeks. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, actually, as we were a much more visible presence outside, meeting by the church entrance where all the passers-by could see / hear our meetings.
Went on my first Evergreen Retreat in May. There had been talk for a while of the retreat being cancelled due to SARS, but it eventually went ahead as planned. We did all have to have our temperature taken when entering the main meeting area, though. The retreat site was at a beautiful location, high up a mountain close to Hsi Chi, Taipei County. I remember heavy rain on one of the days, but also recall having a lot of fun. I led one of the small groups and 'translated' for Winnie Liang, the retreat MC. I say 'translated', as most of the people there were Chinese speakers and I could give a 'gist understanding' to my fellow foreigners. It seemed to go OK, at any rate. Looking back, something else took place that seemed pretty insignificant at the time. I chatted to a girl called Joelle for the first time; what blossomed from THAT encounter deserves a a blog of its own!
Evergreen Prayer Meeting
The Saturday fellowship had a midweek prayer meeting, which I was VERY keen to attend. My teaching schedule got in the way for a while, but Corina managed to juggle it a bit and free up my Wednesday evening. Getting together for prayer and midweek fellowship with other guys became one of the mainstays of my week - and stayed that way pretty constantly for about 5 years. In that time, I came to know people like Kevin, Morton (who went on to be my best man), Matthew Conway, Jason Ball and Stephen (for a short time, unfortunately) much better than I ever could at the Saturday meeting.
Comments