Friends 朋友們

(Of all shapes and sizes!)

This week has been a bit all over the place. The weather has changed drastically within the last week- we went from 50 degrees and rainy to 90 and sunny! Apparently the temperature will drop again, but the changes have made everyone a bit tired.

Nonetheless, it was a good week! We started it off well by doing some cart witnessing with the English, in both senses of the word.

Although Joel looks more Amish in this picture...

It was an interesting experience. On the one hand, it was a bit awkward to be able to chill in chairs while drinking smoothies and counting time... on the other hand, it was really relaxing and we placed four books! While we individually didn't talk with as many people, our sign certainly had more people reading it than we would ever had talked to in the same two hour period. Not only that, everyone we did talk to took the first step themselves- they stopped and took a book, then we approached and asked them about it.

Immediately after this picture the tie came off. It was a good day.

So one day last week, I was invited to join a group of foreign brothers and sisters (外國人， 合起來!) hiking up a mountain near Taipei, Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan 象山 (X is something like "sh" in Chinese- Shyiang-shan)). Only one problem- they were leaving to hike up at 4:30, and my school doesn't get out until 5. No problem, right? I mean, Xiangshan is a mountain, and they're going to the top of it... how hard could it be to meet up with them?

So I set off confidently, still carrying my very heavy schoolbooks, in pursuit of the group up the mountain. Nikolai had given me some basic directions to get me started, but unfortunately, there wasn't any clear path for me to take...

So... this way I guess?

It was a nice hike, but tiring! Xiangshan isn't very big or very tall, but it is quite steep; not only that, but I was trying to catch up to people who had a half-hour lead on me, and I was still carrying my schoolbooks! Before long I was really sweating, but the mountain really was very interesting.

Who uses that chair?

Soon, I come across what looked like a real way up, which was nice in some ways and unpleasant in others...

Sorry for the bad quality :-/

Looking back at the city from a clear spot.

A small shrine halfway up the mountain.

The stairs continued a long, long way. I'm not sure how many steps there are, but certainly a few thousand. As I climbed, the sun began to set, causing a nice cool breeze to come in.

Higher up now, looking back on the city

Almost to the top now... I came across this rock, put there in case you forgot where you were while climbing I guess?

XIANGSHAN

Of course, the hike wasn't over. I was seriously beginning to worry that I had taken the wrong path- there were choices on the way up, but I consistently chose the ones that looked like they went up higher, on the grounds that we'd probably meet at the summit. But what if that wasn't the plan? What if they'd already left? I picked up the pace.

The sun had set now, but there was still more mountain to climb. At least I see other people now!

At long last, sweaty and tired, I heard familiar voices coming from ahead: "Okay everyone, group picture! Wouldn't it be weird if Dylan arrived right now?" I couldn't ask for a better line to arrive on, so with one last burst of speed ran in front of their camera and ruined their picture!

But then we took a better one! Hi guys!

The view up at the top was amazing, and the breeze was nice as well. We hung out for another half hour or so, munching on snacks and beer, until we headed back down for pizza and board games at Terry's house.

Taipei at night

Over the weekend, we had a memorial service for a sister who recently passed away at the age of 97. She was the only one of her family to be a Witness, but her family wanted to respect her beliefs so had the service at our hall. Because so many non-Witnesses were going to be attending, the elders asked as many foreign friends as could attend to attend, to demonstrate our worldwide brotherhood. Once it was all over, the sister's oldest daughter went up on stage in tears thanking us for our love and support.

The next day at meeting, we still had flowers left over from the memorial, which led to this picture:

We actually had so many flowers we had trouble giving them all away!

That story actually reminds me of something that happened two weeks ago that I forgot to mention. Two Sundays ago, we had a group of eight students from a Catholic university, Fu Yuan Da Xue, come to audit us as part of a school assignment. They aren't training to be priests or anything, it's just a Catholic university, but their teachers wanted them to be introduced to many different religions. They picked Jehovah's Witnesses because of the religions that use the Bible, they couldn't think of a less Catholic religion than us! By all appearances they liked what they learned... although the group as a whole took one of each of our books to study, several of them took additional books to study on their own (Mankind's Search for God was especially popular). I had never seen anything like it before, but... sure, come on and study us, if you like what you're learning keep coming!

This last week, myself and a Spanish brother named David Llach (the same one I went to Yeliu with) started up an informal witnessing arrangement- informal informal, blue jeans informal. The idea is we can use our presence as foreigners who are learning Chinese to give a good witness and see what comes of it. The plan is, essentially, to be as stereotypical as possible and try to get people to notice- try to read Chinese signs and obviously not understand, do homework in public and look like you're having a bad time, etc. It's nice and relaxed, and we think it has a good chance of working!

It helps that we get to walk around places like this!

It might not work in some Western countries, but people in Taiwan are actually really friendly, especially if they think you can speak some Chinese. David and I decided to try this out when we were thinking about the differences a male pioneer and a female pioneer experience when talking to someone at the door. If you're a householder, and two adorable Japanese sisters come up and start talking to you in bad Chinese, chances are you'll keep talking to them if you don't have a good reason not to. But that same householder, confronted by two (very large by Chinese standards) Western men in ties, will most likely feel too intimidated to have the conversation go very far.

On the flip side, if you came across those same Western men, but instead of being at your door with unknown (to you) motives, they are instead sitting in a park trying to figure out how to write Chinese, you will feel much more relaxed, and if one of them asks you for help you are likely to go over and talk with them. After helping them, you might want to know why they're learning Chinese. And when they say they're trying to help people understand the Bible, you might have a question.

The park we ended up wandering over to- it had gotten late so we were just about to head in.

Since the weather has gotten warm, all of the trees are in bloom right now, which makes parks even more beautiful.

Cherry blossoms- that Taiwanese guy agrees with me, they're beautiful!

Also this last week, we got a group picture of the 25 or so people who met up for some evening witnessing:

I never could get everyone to pay attention... (click to enlarge)

Also also this last week, a bunch of us were invited over to Paul's house for a delicious and huge dinner. I contributed a bottle of wine and a tiramisu, because I'm fancy like that (and also I don't know how to cook! Or, to make meals at least- I can cook enough to not starve.)

Joseph spent about a half hour teaching the Korean sisters how to to "the Charleston"!

It doesn't seem like I'm that busy, but looking back on a week I've really had a lot of stuff going on!

But I also want to mention some bad news that some of you have no doubt already heard- there are, as I write this, riots happening in Taipei City. Some 20,000 students from all over the country gathered to protest a trade deal that they feel will hand over too much control to Mainland China. They broke into the Executive Yuan, a government office, and were repulsed by first water cannons and then rubber bullets. A few students died, which brought more outcry and more protesters. Yesterday night there was an attack on the lines, with several people being beaten to death by nightsticks. Taipei City called from assistance from the next two biggest cities, Taizhong and Gaoxiong, but either they don't care or they also have protests because they both said no.

I saw this sign outside the Nat'l Taiwan University today:

"I only have one request. Tonight when you leave school, you do not bleed to death."

Taiwan is a nice place, but these people need the hope that the Bible gives us as well. No place is perfect, and everywhere there is corruption and suffering. It's hard to say what the outcome will be- will the protesters back down, tired of being killed? Will the police refuse to kill any more, probably leading to impeachment? Will it be a revolution, and if so, will China seize the opportunity to invade? All possibilities.

Regardless, I'm safe. The riots are far from my house, and as a foreigner I have absolutely no bearing on either side's disagreements. (If China invades, that's another story, but even now that's unlikely to happen.)

I will keep you posted on any updates.