Our first meeting was 12/14/12 (Friday evening); it was the bible study, ministry school, & service meeting. The congregation's name is 萬華 Wànhúa.
The above photos is the entrance to our Kingdom Hall. Take a close look, there is no sign indicating that this is the Kingdom Hall. This is because property is extremely expensive & limited in Taipei; as a result the brothers & sisters do not have the privilege of building their own facility ( like we do in America). Instead, they rent space in an office or residential building.
The space is small, but suited well for meetings. The are about 70 publishers & and 100 in attendance on Sundays. Wànhúa has at least one Special Pioneer & there is a missionary couple that have been in Taiwan for 14+ years. There are many bible studies that attend regularly. Also, we got to see a few publishers give their first ministry school assignments. One who gave her first part ever (she is an unbaptized publisher); others who gave their first assignment in Chinese. There are many 外国人们 Wàiguó rénmen (foreigners); some of which are from Korea, Japan, Spain, Mexico, & America.
很可爱 Hěn kě'ài (very cute)
Every brother & sister is so helpful. No matter how hard we struggle to speak they are never impatient! Also, I appreciate that they allow us to use our bad Chinese; many can speak English, but they don't switch to English on us as if to say, "It will be easier for you, Wàiguó rén, if we use English". By, the way, this sister is helping Sam learn the characters for his new Chinese given name, which is 人杰 Rénjié. It means outstanding personality or hero & yes someone else actually gave him this name. He didn't choose it for himself.
The Kingdom Hall is also shared with a sign language congregation. Here are a few of the friends who attend. They wanted to know our names, but neither of us know sign language. The sister on the right had a great idea for us to simply write down our names, but...sad to say...neither of us can write in Chinese...well the characters we know are not our names...lol. Then we remembered we have bible names! Sam whipped out his Chinese bible & quickly pointed to our names. We were all extremely happy to meet & communicate with yet more of our Christian brothers & sisters :)
The Field Service arrangements are posted on the information board weekly. The friends do not meet at the Hall; they meet directly in the territory, sometimes at a home, but usually on the corner of two streets. Our Taiwanese brothers & sisters waste no time getting started!
No comments:
Post a Comment