Tainan, Taiwan – Sunday, October 25, 2015 – Dressed in their traditional colours, indigenous people by the hundreds walked joyfully into the stadium at Chang-rung High School carrying baskets of millet, fruit and vegetables as thank offerings to God and gifts to be shared with one another. Thus began the final day of several 150th mission anniversary celebrations of The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), celebrations which had started in Taipei on Easter Sunday (see my earlier blog, Easter Sunday April 5, 2015. The PCT’s 150th Mission Anniversary Thanksgiving Worship Service), then continued with smaller regional thanksgiving services in June.

This was the first time that congregations from every indigenous group within the PCT had gathered together to worship God. (At annual General Assemblies only ministers and elders meet.) On this special Sunday morning, Bunun congregations praised the Lord “Sasbinazdihanin” by singing an anthem in their traditional 8-part harmony. Amis Christians danced while they sang and glorified “Kawas” our Creator and Saviour. PCT General Secretary, Rev Lyim Hong-tiong, preached from Deuteronomy 33:2-4, 26-29 and Hebrews 11:1 on the theme: “O Taiwan, you are so blessed, you are a country saved by the Lord.” Choirs from Drekay, Paiwan, Tayal, Tsou, Sediq and Siraya churches each took their turn from around the stadium and raised their voices to thank “God” (whom they call “Twaumase,” “Cemas,” “Utux Kayal,” “Hamo” or “Utux Baro”) for blessing upon blessing—from the Pacific east coast of Taiwan, through the high central mountains, to the western plains.

At the end of the two-hour open-air worship service, all the indigenous churches and overseas guests filled the green playing field where we joined hand-in-hand to dance before the Lord and give thanks for his steadfast love and faithfulness. Guests had come from PCT partner churches in England, Wales, Switzerland, Germany, India, Korea, Japan, the USA, New Zealand and Canada. One in Christ, we joined together on that hot sunny Sunday morning to praise God and give thanks for the many ways God has blessed mission work in Taiwan over the past 150 years.

In 1865 missionaries from the English Presbyterian Church landed in southern Taiwan where they began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, heal the sick, establish Christian hospitals, set up a theological seminary, and build Christian schools which today offer courses in every subject of a modern curriculum. In 1872 George Leslie MacKay from the Canada Presbyterian Church landed in northern Taiwan where over the next 30 years he and the first generation of Formosan Christians in the north laid a solid foundation for the PCT’s holistic mission of evangelism, healing, teaching and social concern. By the grace of God over the past 150 years, as Hok-lo and Hakka families and as entire indigenous villages came to faith in Jesus Christ, the PCT has grown into a strong international partner church with over 1,200 congregations and 230,000 members. A fact often under-recognized is that 500 of these congregations and 40% of all PCT members are indigenous (the same as our Aboriginal peoples in Canada).

At the closing 150th anniversary events in Tainan, we in The Presbyterian Church in Canada showed our support in the person of current missionary staff, plus my son Peter. It was a joy for me and it seemed fitting to have Peter join me for this memorable occasion. He was actually born in Taiwan at the PCT’s Changhua Christian Hospital, then baptized as an infant at the PCT’s Hakka church in rural Kung-kon near Miaoli. He was 11 years old when our family moved from Taiwan back to Canada. In 2010 Peter rode his bicycle nearly 9,000 kilometres across Canada to help raise money for the Hakka Bible (published in 2012). This was his first visit back to Taiwan in 20 years. Peter and I spent the October 23-25 weekend in Tainan so we could participate in the 150th celebrations. We stayed on the campus of Tainan Theological Seminary in the home of dear friend Rev John Chen Chhong-fat who is professor of New Testament and my former coworker on the Hakka Bible. We also enjoyed a good visit at the nearby home of PCC volunteers-in-mission, Ted and Betty Siverns who teach at the seminary. Betty was able to join us and other overseas guests at the Saturday evening banquet hosted by the Moderator of the PCT. However, Ted needed to stay home where he was recovering from a recent bout of dengue fever; he has been improving daily.

The PCT called this October anniversary weekend 台南教會日—福氣歸台灣 “Tainan Church Days—Blessings Return to Taiwan.” To get a pictorial sense of the many blessings which Peter and I experienced that weekend, you can go to the PCT’s Facebook page then scroll down to entry: 台灣基督長老教會【福氣歸台灣 台南教會日】(陳義明牧師攝) (posted on October 26 at 7:07am). There you can browse through over 400 photos from all the events held on Saturday and Sunday October 24-25 including:

• Saturday morning opening worship service at Tainan Theological Seminary with a Tsou Choir and guest preacher Dr Mathews George Chunakara (General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia)
• Saturday afternoon exhibitions of PCT congregations and organizations, indigenous cultural displays, plus final games from the PCT’s own nation-wide basketball, volleyball and ping-pong tournaments
• Saturday evening’s banquet, then a night at a Taiwanese opera about the life of George Leslie MacKay
• Sunday morning worship service at Chang-rung High School with combined indigenous congregations (around 10,000 people in total)
• Sunday afternoon parade/march through Tainan to the city’s sports stadium
• Sunday afternoon final “Sending Worship and Passing the Torch”

The closing worship service can be found in its entirety on YouTube. It includes beautiful indigenous singing, Luke 4:16-30 read in 8 different languages which are used each Sunday across the PCT, a sermon “Sent in the Spirit: The Church in Mission” by Rev Chris Ferguson (General Secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches), greetings from overseas guests and Taiwan presidential candidate Tsai Ying-wen, indigenous chanting and dancing (around the 1:46 minute mark), plus a closing ceremony of lighting and passing on the Gospel torch by the Moderators of seven indigenous and one non-indigenous presbyteries. May God keep leading the Church forward in Christ’s mission in Taiwan and beyond.

One final note: The wooden cross you can see on the stage was carried up 4000-metre-high Yu-Shan (Jade Mountain), Taiwan’s highest peak, two weeks previous on October 7. At the summit, 38 PCT leaders gave thanks to God for the past 150 years of Christian mission in Taiwan. You can see this group rejoicing after their long climb and praying from the top of Yu-Shan for all the people of Taiwan.