I don’t believe in Heaven or Hell …

Q. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. It’s not real. It’s useless for you to try to use fear to scare me to believe!

A. This is a category error committed by many people, especially post-modern, who have their minds closed. They think that just because they don’t believe in something, that settles the matter. The problem is they failed to distinguish between the subjective and the objective. What they choose to believe or not believe is subjective, but the truth or validity of the thing under consideration is objective, independent of whether he believes it or not.

For example, people in ancient times believed that the earth was flat, but that did not change the fact that the earth is actually spherical. Many ancient people also believed that the sun, moon and planets circled around the earth (geocentric), but the fact remains that the earth, moon and planets revolved around the sun (heliocentric). Belief or disbelief about a thing does not change the thing itself, it only changes the person who held that belief, and how he will react as a result of his belief. Truth is objective, not subjective, whether you believe it or not.

But back to the reality of heaven and hell. If you are looking for scientific proof, in the sense that you do an experiment, observe the results, and then deduce a conclusion, then the answer is there is no “scientific proof” for the existence of heaven and hell, but that would be another category error. You can’t prove heaven and hell by experiments, just as you can’t prove historical events by experiments, because history took place in the past and are not repeatable. So how do you know whether a particular historical person or event is true? By looking at the evidence of historical and archeological records. If something is attested to by many witnesses in written records, and collaborated by artifacts dug up by archeologists, then the truthfulness and reliability of that assertion is confirmed. If there is no evidence supporting it, then it’s a myth or legend until proven otherwise.

The same applies to heaven and hell. The Bible teaches plainly that heaven and hell are real, and the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible had been proven despite attacks by skeptics to the contrary over the last two thousand years. The proof of fulfilled prophecies demonstrated that the Bible is of divine origin, and archeological findings have supported the accuracy of the Bible time and time again. But besides the testimony of the Bible, there is also the testimony of many people who had died and subsequently revived, who testified to the reality of heaven and hell which they were allowed to visit. Now if there were only a few, you might claim they were hallucinating. But since there are many cases spanning a wide spectrum of age, nationality, education, occupation, and religion, there is no possibility of collusion, and such evidence would stand up in a court of law. So if you ignore heaven and hell it is only to your detriment, as you waived your right to prepare for where you would end up!

Hong Kong Food

We dined at a number of restaurants, some of which are worth your visit when you travel to Hong Kong. The first one is Ah Ma Good Soup in Mongkok, which specializes in Chinese soups with good ingredients without MSG. It is owned by Christians, with John 6:35 prominently displayed at the front entrance. The Ah Ma Kitchen’s Prayer is printed right on the menu, and the restaurant closes on the Lord’s Day.

http://www.ahma.com.hk/movie.html

John 6:35 “I am the bread of life” prominently displayed at entrance.

Ah Ma Kitchen’s Prayer printed on menu.

The second one is Tonkichi Japanese Restaurant in Causeway Bay, which specialty is deep-fried pork and seafood, very tasty and juicy.
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowUserReviews-g294217-d786797-r117867475-Tonkichi_Japanese_Restaurant-Hong_Kong.html

Japanese deep-fried seafood and pork filet.

The last one is Yik Sun in Wanchai, a 50-year old restaurant with good Cantonese food. They are famous for their lemon chicken and pai pa duck, which we tried and are delicious.

http://whispalms.blogspot.ca/2010/12/bill-to-name-yik-sun-restaurant-wanchai.html

Pei Pa Duck with crispy skin and no fat.

Hong Kong Reunions

After our STM we spent a week in Hong Kong to visit our family and friends. The first group consisted of several former MBC members who have repatriated back to Hong Kong. The second couple is now serving as a lay pastor in another church in Toronto. We were so busy that we seldom meet in Toronto, but caught up with each other in HK! The last one is a former SMCBC member who went back to HK 26 years ago. We found out later that they knew some personal friends of ours very well, plus we knew their sister-in-law in our university days. What a small world!

Dinner with MBC members who moved back to Hong Kong.

Afternoon tea with H. and T.

Dinner with former SMCBC member C. and her husband L.

Missionary Commissioning

Vision 119 consists of calling for 119 workers to plant 60 churches along old Route 1 and 19 in Taiwan. We were privileged to attend the commissioning service of one of these workers, sister Naomi Camp Leung, in Hong Kong. She will be serving to reach the Hakka people as well as Asian expatriates, primarily foreign workers and overseas brides, in west Taiwan.

Hong Kong Free Methodist Church partnered with SEND International to send Sister Leung to Taiwan serving under Vision 119. Display background is traditional Hakka fabric.

Way of Life of the Hakka People

The Hoklo’s Way of Life

Rev. Powell delivering challenge “So I am Sending You” (Jn 20:21)

Congregation of Kwai Chung Free Methodist Church

Laying on of Hands by commissioning committee

Her prayer requests are:
1. Close relationship with God,
2. A caring heart,
3. Joyful spiritual life,
4. Passion in mission,
5. Harmonious team relationship,
6. Humility in ministry,
7. Fluent language study, and
8. Family members believe Jesus.
Her support is currently at 2/3 of her financial requirements. It is such a joy to see brothers and sisters responding to God’s call by faith. Please pray for her requests above and financial support as she steps on the mission road.

Mission Accomplished

Two months ago we were facing a daunting task of trying to take on two assignments concurrently. The first one consisted of writing a ministry manual for the Taiwan field of a mission organization. An administration manual already exists, but there was no counterpart for the ministry side. Since we felt input from all personnel to be necessary for the end product to be widely accepted, as a starting point we interviewed all church-planters and supporting staff, with open-ended questions to solicit opinion on how things are done currently, and how they can be improved.

Twenty-one interviews were conducted with 23 people over a 3-week period, with each interview lasting an average of 3 hours. We consolidated and analyzed the results, then wrote a summary report of the current status of operating procedures. We then consulted friends at other mission agencies to see how others have approached the same subject, and finally compiled a handbook of processes taking into account current procedures as well as ideas from external sources.

The second job was to substitute for a missionary couple while they go on home service. They are veteran church planters who had planted several churches before, and had just moved into a new area to start a church plant. Since half of our time is already tied up with the ministry handbook project, we were only able to maintain the outreach projects they have started, but unable to develop new contacts due to time constraint. The initiatives to connect with the community include a Virtues English class for grades 4 to 6, a community English class with two levels (phonetics for beginners, and conversation for more advanced students), and personal evangelism and follow-up for those interested to know more about the gospel. Other activities include assisting in a youth fellowship, in Sunday worship, and another English class in an elementary school.

So every week we spend Monday to Thursday in Taichung conducting interviews and writing the ministry handbook, then drive to Dalin/Minxiong about 100 km away and spend Friday to Sunday acting as substitute missionaries to maintain the programs already underway.

By the grace of God, what seemed like an impossible mission was finally completed on time and within budget (i.e. the funds we raised for this STM). We submitted the draft interview summary report and the ministry handbook three days before our scheduled departure, and maintained the programs with favorable feedback from the parents as well as from the adults we followed up. The only thing left is to wait for the review of the draft reports by the leadership team and update anything that needs revision. We also have a standing invitation to return to conduct other projects. None of these is our own doing, for we know too well that we could not have accomplished this on our own. We thank the Lord for His enabling and our sponsors for supporting us in prayer and financially. What a privilege it is to serve the Lord in missions!

Table of Contents of Member Survey:
Member Survey Table of Contents

Table of Contents of Ministry Manual:
Ministry Handbook Table of Contents

Attitude, Aptitude. Altitude

One of our missionary friends shared with us how he learned Mandarin and Taiwanese. His original ambition was to become a doctor. To enter medical school in the US, one has to pass the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) first. He wrote the test, but the score was not good enough. So he waited and wrote again, but the results were still not satisfactory. So in the mean time he entered graduate school, wrote the test a third time, but didn’t make it. He studied hard and tried once more, but got exactly the same score! Perhaps God was telling him something by closing the door. So he switched to missions, which he loved but the medical profession was in the way. God has a way of reordering our priorities.

He and his young family came to Taiwan almost twenty years ago, sight unseen. They had not been here before on a STM trip, rarely tried Chinese food in the US, then dived into one of the hardest languages for foreigners – Chinese. That took a lot of faith. His wife studied Spanish and French in college and scored a high 95 percentile in the language aptitude test, but his score was average at 55 percentile. He would practice and practice to master the pronunciation, but his teachers told him (later) that they hated teaching him Chinese, because he could not hear the differences in the tones and never got it right. But he persisted.

However, in addition to his language challenge, he fell very sick and had to be hospitalized. As if that wasn’t enough, he developed meningitis to add to his woes. He stayed in the hospital for several weeks, but something happened after he recovered. He can differentiate between the tones and can speak proper Mandarin! It’s as if God was telling him that He will enable him to do what He sent him to do. Aptitude is good, but attitude is better. Now he preaches in Mandarin and can speak Taiwanese. It’s not your aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude. Trust in God’s grace and enabling. He will see you through.

Nice Taiwanese Hymns

Even though we don’t understand Taiwanese (Min Nan), we learned a few Taiwanese hymns which are very melodious. The first one we learned in Cantonese and Mandarin years ago, but the Taiwanese version is a medley. The composer is a doctor turned real estate investor turned gospel singer. It’s very soothing when you are down and out. Her testimony is in the GoodTV interview shown in the video clip following, good for anyone chasing after their golden dream.

上帝在照顧你:

Sheet music: raykliu.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/god-will-take-care-of-you.pdf

杏林芥菜種 – 黃珊珊:

The second song is a light-hearted, faster pace piece that will cheer up many. It is sung first in Taiwanese, then in Mandarin.

真正好:

Sheet music: raykliu.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/really-good-1.gif

Lotus Land

Since we were able to finish the draft of our reports, we have half a day off waiting for the review and corrections. Our friends took us to Baihe (White River) in Tainan County for a day trip. Supposedly the village was 100% Christian nearly 400 years ago when Dutch missionaries first came to Taiwan. Even though Christianity had waned over the years and the place is now famous for its lotus farms, it has fewer temples compared to other towns we visited. It shows the importance of follow-up and perseverance in the Christian life.

Typical lotus farm in Baihe.

Lotus flowers come in white, yellow, pink and violet.

King lotus. It is claimed that you can sit on it without sinking, but in fact a plexiglass stand provided support.

Peanut plant, with small yellow flower.

Fire dragon fruit plant

Flower of banana tree

Plum tree

Xiantao tree

We noted one lot has all its trees cut at the base, and were told that it’s intentional to make the tree stronger. Sometimes our Heavenly Father will bring cuts in our lives to trim us, to make us stronger and more durable. You do not have to ask for trials and sufferings; they will inevitably come if you live a godly life as a witness to our Lord. Just know that while the enemy may try to use these to destroy us, our Father can and will turn these around to strengthen us. So endure and live honorably.

Tree with base cut to make it stronger.

Good Taiwanese Food

We visited a few good family restaurants last week, with good food at very reasonable prices. A meal there usually costs under C$3.50 per person.

50-year-old family restaurant famous for sticky rice.

Open only from 4 pm to mid-night, yet always full of customers.

One bowl of sticky rice – C$1.35. One bowl of soup – C$0.35. Free refill. Full for C$1.60!

Another good family restaurant. This one is famous for stinky tofu.

Unlike the deep-fried stinky tofu in Hong Kong, this is cooked in hot-pot.

This bread is like scallion-oil-cake, only more puffy.

Stone cake.

Xiantao, the type the Monkey King stole in Journey to the West

The last one is called a steak house but really consists of a buffet with 10 restaurants rolled into one: steak, Mongolian grill, sushi, HK style BBQ, hot plate, Taiwanese grill, hot-pot, deep-fried, various cooked cuisine, and desserts. It is more pricy at C$12.25 per person (tax and tip included), but still about half-price compared to Canadian all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants with fewer variety.

Steak house with 10 restaurants rolled into one.

Shaken, not Stirred!

We experienced a magnitude 6.0 earthquake during our last STM trip on March 27. We encountered another one, magnitude 6.3, on Oct. 31. It’s epicenter was near Hualien, on the east coast. We were working in our third floor apartment, and felt the building shaking for 10-15 seconds. We were not startled like last time. You might say we were shaken (literally), not stirred! But when we asked our office secretary, she said she was still afraid. Why?

I think it has something to do with conditioning. In terms of magnitude, this time was similar to last time at around 6. And since we did not suffer any harm last time, we assumed we were going to be okay this time. However, our administrator had gone through the magnitude 7.3 quake on Sep. 21, 1999, in which 2,415 people were killed and 11,305 people injured. To many, that quake was etched indelibly in their psyche, and even minor tremors would trigger fears that were buried until the next quake.

In a way, this principle works in our spiritual life as well. If our enemy wants to lull us into a false sense of security, he would increase the temptation gradually to entice us to sin. Like an addict whose dosage is increased slowly, we do not see any drastic harmful effect immediately and feel that we can get away with it, so it’s okay to dabble, until we are caught and it’s too late. On the other hand, if the devastation is sudden and severe, it wakes people up and shakes them out of their complacency, so that they are alert and watchful in case the calamity overtakes them. God sometimes use thunderbolts such as suffering and pain to call people back to Him. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. They are meant to be wake-up calls. Watch and pray.