June 30, 2008

Trusting God for the future

Dear Friends,

Last week we loaded up three vans with students and luggage and headed for Taiwan’s east coast. The day before had been the graduation ceremony at the seminary, and the next day I was joining our aboriginal fellowship group for their annual mission trip. Each year they serve in a different tribe’s village, and this year we were going to the Bunun tribe. The Bunun people tend to be short, with very thick legs, but they can really jump on a basketball court.

The village is surrounded by rice fields and beautiful mountains.

We drove for about seven hours along the coast and arrived in the village where one of our female graduates is the pastor of the local church. The Christmas wreath was still hanging below the cross on the front of the church. The village is surrounded by rice fields and beautiful mountains.

Tribal folks gathered at the funeral.

We learned that one of the men of the village had had routine surgery the day before, but had died on the operating table. His funeral was to be the next day. So the next morning we all walked to the man’s home where a large tent was set up to protect the worshippers from the hot sun. We joined the rest of the mourners and sat on plastic stools. There was a picture of the deceased man, and his body was lying in an open casket. It was about 90 degrees. A church elder was the liturgist for the service, and the young pastor preached. The family sat next to the casket on the ground. Taiwanese aboriginals tend to have a much shorter life expectancy than other Taiwanese. As I looked at the deceased man’s brothers, I wondered how long they would live. His youngest brother stood to speak. He left the village when a young man and now works in Taipei. He encouraged his family to return to the Lord.

As I sat among these aboriginal folks, I thought how vulnerable they are in this society. If one of our family members had died unexpectedly on the operating table, many questions would be asked. But the aboriginals tend to be hesitant to ask questions. I looked at our aboriginal students seated around me and thought about the challenges they will face when they graduate and go to similar villages to serve these vulnerable folks. We are helping them to think not just about ministering to individuals, but also about how to change the systems that oppress the aboriginals. Jesus stood for justice, and he also calls us to stand on the side of justice for the oppressed.

The students had bought bags of rice to give to the older folks in the village, and after lunch we visited in different homes. Many of the older folks had serious health problems, but were lying in low beds in dark rooms. These were not very cheery places to spend the last days of your life. But other folks appeared to be healthy and told our students how they had met Christ. We always sang a song together and then prayed for the person we were visiting.

The tribal pastor (woman with hands folded) at the second church I visited, leads us in prayer before eating lunch after church.  Her husband is seated to her right.

That evening our students led a workshop for parents on how to grow a healthy child. Because many of the parents have had to go to the cities to find work, grandparents are raising many of the children in that village. So many of the participants were raising a second generation of children. The students did a skit of conflict in a family and then divided everyone into small groups to discuss the skit. The discussion was very animated. Mosquitoes buzzed around us as we talked in the small groups. Most children have bites on their legs. Again, I saw their vulnerability in the face of challenges.

After spending four days with our students, I left them to visit another tribe where I had been asked to speak twice on Saturday afternoon, to the youth on Saturday evening, to preach Sunday morning, and then to do elder/deacon training on Sunday afternoon. It was very hot in the church, but folks didn’t seem to mind. The pastor is also a former student, who with her husband, is doing a beautiful job at that church. One elder stood to ask a question. Her 2-year-old granddaughter had died suddenly two weeks before after a high spiking fever, and her husband had been killed in an auto accident a year before. But she said, “I still serve the Lord knowing that God is with me.”

The privilege for me in serving with these folks is that I learn from them how to trust God when we have little control over our futures. Though we cannot control our futures, perhaps we have more things that convince us that we can. Christ always walks with the vulnerable and also calls us to walk with them. Christ always calls us to learn from them. Often they may understand in a deeper way what it means to live in faith into an uncertain future.

After our sessions on Saturday, one of the church elders asked me to sing a song for them. Instead I asked them to sing a song for me. They gathered at the front of the church, clasped hands, and sang in beautiful harmony of God’s love for them. They danced as they sang.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Last week in the mountains of Taiwan, the vulnerable ones of this earth brought good news to me. May that good news also strengthen you to face the future in faith!

Warmest blessings,

John McCall

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 108