Thursday, April 16, 2015

Records 新紀錄

(Moving faster!)

A little while ago, when Daan and Taipei South congregations were just splitting, I mentioned that it was a time of great inner conflict for most of us. One the one hand, splitting into two congregations was a good thing; it proved we're having success in the ministry, it opened the way for future success, and it made the elders' jobs easier, as they have fewer people to look after. On the other hand, it meant we'd be seeing a lot less of many of our friends, as our schedules, service arrangements and meetings changed.

We officially split at the beginning of last month, which means that only about six weeks have passed- and already, at this early date, it has been overwhelmingly worth it! Although our publisher count has dropped to only about 85 (from 170-something when we were one big congregation), we have an average attendance for last month of 130, and we had 192 people attend the Memorial! Both congregations average bible studies have gone up; more people are pioneering, although that could be influenced by the Memorial as well; even the table we have set up at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial hall broke its record not one, but twice! It's clear that Jehovah is blessing these new arrangements and helping us to move ever faster as time goes on.

I want to mention again the two times CKS broke its record, because I think it's really cool. 

As does Sr. Shen 神姊妹!
The first time was nearly a month ago, when in one seven-hour day the Witnesses manning the cart placed 70 books and 40 brochures, with three people applying for Bible studies. Wonderful! That was a record-breaker, but not by all that much; although on an average day we usually place only 20-30 books and brochures combined, we've had good days before that weren't that much lesser than this first record breaker. The second one came last week, last Monday in fact, when in one day we placed- get this- 193 books and 146 brochures, with seven people requesting a Bible study! I was there for the first three hours of the day, and while we were there I had to leave CKS twice to quickly ride to the hall and back with more literature, because we had run out!

At CKS, we predominantly talk with Mainland Chinese tourists who've come on vacation to Taiwan. Although China is officially the least religious country in the world, with many religious groups under heavy restrictions or outright banned- Jehovah's Witnesses included- it's easy to see that many of the Chinese people still have the spiritual need that Jesus mentioned in his Sermon on the Mount, and it's important that they too get the opportunity to learn the truth about the Bible.

Having a smaller territory is a bit more convenient for our regular door-to-door work, as well, since most of us don't have any kind of motorized transport- it's all bikes and feet!

The all-important coffee break, with Chongren studiously ignoring the camera

A small amount of the increase in publishers is because a few people have returned to Taipei South after a period of absence. For instance, Giancarlo has come back after being in Panama for six months. What was he doing in Panama for so long, you might ask? Good question- he was marrying his beautiful bride Sarah!
Seen here travelling in great style to lunch
Also, we've finally gotten through to Marco- he's been attending our Family Worship for a few months now, which is all in Chinese (well, Chinglish), he's attended a few meetings, he's even come with us to the assembly, and now he's finally moved from Taipei English to our Chinese hall. Good job man!
Also, he's not that tall, this door is just really short
Not only that- look who it is!!

Jerry!! (And me and Kuanzheng)
...unfortunately, Jerry didn't move back yet, he's still doing his Substitute Military Service. They moved him down to Chiayi, apparently, and he says his new job is incredibly, crazy boring. He's the manager for all the other guys doing civil service instead of the mandatory draft, and he says unless someone has a problem- which isn't often- he just goes outside and sweeps the sidewalks all day. Still, he's already a third of the way through (it's 18 months long), and he's in good spirits- he's doing it for a very good reason, and he knows it.

Afterwards, we went out for some Xinjiang food- try the "fried evil"!
A few days after taking that picture, Terry got really sick- he says he's got walking pneumonia or something- so he's had to call in a lot of us as substitute teachers lately. Personally, I filled in for him at a rich kids' high school out in Keelung for one day this week, which was a really interesting experience. Up until now, my biggest class has had fifteen kids in it, and I usually teach 7-13 year olds. This school, on the other hand, had classes of fifty or sixty kids, all 15 or 16 years old. Since I was a substitute, they had all the classes planned out for me already, and all I needed to do was get the kids through the material and tests without anyone dying- and in that I succeeded! Teaching one person is so different than teaching an entire classroom, you need a whole new set of skills... Terry deserves his reputation as a good teacher.
High schoolers asking their Confucian predecessors for help
And for one last record, our Family Worship has been growing. Now we're up to seven people in regular attendance; we're all single brothers and sisters who don't have families in Taipei, so we made our own! It was a bit difficult to stick to the schedule when we first started doing this in Taipei, but it's really paid off... Tuesday night is always fun now. 

Knights of the Red Table
And it helps when we order pizza and the pizza place slightly burns our pizza, so they give us the burnt ones for free on top of what we ordered! Double pizza night!! It wasn't badly burnt, easily still edible, but man... we were eating that for the rest of the week.

I'm going to Macau tomorrow for a visa run, I'll try to do another post about that interesting city soon! Who knows, maybe I'll break another record...

1 comment:

  1. I am so delighted you have started this blog again. I do so look forward to your news, it's always so interesting and inspiring. It was wonderful to see you, you look like a man now, not boyish at all anymore. I will keep you in my prayers that you find your way successful in all the important ways, especially Jehovah's service. I love you dearly, my cousin, and know Jehovah will guide your way as you have put yourself so completely in his hands.

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