July 2006

A Glimpse of the Kingdom

We just returned from taking 32 Taiwanese pastors, women’s group leaders and seminary students to the Christian community of Taize in France. Taize is a wonderful place whose main purpose is to welcome young people to a life of worship and prayer three times a day, Bible study, small group sharing, common tasks of work and fellowship around very simple meals. Each week during the summer 3,000 to 6,000 youth descend on this small village of Taize. It is amazing in post-Christian Europe that so many young people have the desire to experience the reality of Christian community at Taize.

The first day I met a young Lithuanian man, named Linas, who has several piercings near his eyebrows. He carried an African drum that he plays occasionally in his church in Lithuania. He told me that he spent four days hitchhiking from Lithuania to Taize. At night, he and a friend slept in parks in Munich and Paris. One night our Taiwanese students gathered with Lithuanian youth to sing together. One group would sing a song in their native language and then share something special about their country. After hearing several Lithuanian songs, I asked Linas to share about his four-day journey.

I noticed that as Linas told of his journey, one of our Taiwanese aboriginal students, who name is Tahus, was listening intently to my translation into Mandarin. After we got ready to go back to the dorms to sleep, this aboriginal student took me aside and told me that he wanted to make an offering of a small amount of money to help Linas get back home. I knew that this aboriginal student, who comes from a single-family home, has almost no money, and his girlfriend’s family sacrificed to give him money so he could make the pilgrimage with us to Taize. I told Tahus that it was really nice of him to offer, but that I didn’t think that Linas needed money.

The next morning Tahus told me that he had prayed about it, and he wanted to give Linas 10 euros, which is a lot of money for him. I could tell that he felt led by God to help Linas, so I told him I would also give 10 euros. We wrote a card and found a time to meet with Linas. As Tahus used Mandarin to tell Linas that he wanted to give him a gift, I had a difficult time translating into English. I choked up several times.

At first Linas didn’t want to receive the gift. He knew that Tahus does not have much. But I told Linas that Tahus was doing this because that’s how the Taiwanese aboriginals act. If you stay the night at an aboriginal home, they bring out all the food they have to welcome the guest and don’t worry about what they will eat the next day. Tahus told Linas that while it wasn’t much money, the money represented God’s love and Tahus’ love for Linas.

I could tell that Linas was very moved by Tahus’ action. As the three of us went to the large chapel to sit on the floor to worship, I looked at these two young men from very different places with very different histories. But I saw the bond that Christ had knit between them. As we sang a song in Lithuanian in worship Tahus put his hand on Linas’ shoulder.

Jesus says the kingdom of God has come near. At that moment, I saw the kingdom of God right in front of me.

Faithfully,

John McCall
Taipei

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 256