Sunday July 28
After breakfast, we left 7:45 to go to sing at a Presbyterian Church north of Hualien. The church has a large beautiful sanctuary on the second floor of their building with a high ceiling and excellent acoustics. The service is conducted in Mandarin and a local aboriginal language, Taruko. We warmed up after we got there at 8:30, then listened to their choir practice "How Great Thou Art". They sang quite well in harmony and we were told their people group loves to sing. Before service started at 9:30, their leaders led all the congregation in almost 10 minutes of dance and praise, which also had the effect of stretching us physically. Otherwise, the worship service was quite traditional with the exception of asking all those who had birthdays in July to come forward at the end of the service and the congregation sing the birthday song in Mandarin and Taruko. This tradition would probably not be accepted in the U.S. as each birthday person had to tell the congregation their birthdate and their AGE! Before the sermon, we sang for 20 minutes, beginning with Ceaseless Praise, John 14:6, Majesty and Glory, Holy, Holy, Holy, and In His Time. Rev. Wesley Hsu was a replacement speaker, as their own pastor was leading their young people on a mission trip. Rev. Hsu and his wife (who played piano for the worship service) both sang with ORTV's Heavenly Melodies for 30 plus years, and knows Rev. Stanley Tang and Chris Chen (FECG's first Mandarin Pastor beginning in 1967 and church administrator, respectively), and of course, Lily Lau. We ate box lunches provided by the church and cooled off until our bus came at 12:30 to drive us to the Filipino service at 2 PM.
The service started at 2 with worship but only a handful of people were there. By 2:30, when we started singing, there were about as many of the congregation as us. About 25 were there when we finished, but don't let the numbers fool you. The worship was enthusiastic and spirit-filled even though most of their songs were a decade or two old. Eugene led the entire service, starting with He's Calling My Name, Shut de Do' followed by Gabbie giving a wonderful testimony. The men then sang Find Us Faithful and we concluded with In His Time sung in English. Pastor Obet, a Filipino pastor who heads the International Church of Taipei and coordinated much of our second week's ministry with Josh Yeh, preached a powerful message from the book of Jonah. Pastor Obet and his wife started a Filipino church plant here 3 years ago, meeting monthly, but 2 months ago started the weekly service here in Hualien. This is the church we attended so even though it is a young church, it is growing and we could sense God's presence and power. After the message, 6 came up for prayer, about 25% of the congregation! At the close of service, Pastor Obet asked Vision to come forward so they could pray for us, we then responded by singing The Lord Bless You and Keep You to bless the congregation. At the end of service, we took a group photo, then a joyous jam session broke out as their worship leader began singing and we all joined in, Rachel on the cahone and someone handed Tricia a maracas. After several songs, we finally stopped so we can enjoy some ice cream, cookies and drinks. We left the church about 5 PM to return to the hostel, ate a boxed dinner, did our devotions, and debriefed our long day.
Vision with Taiwanese Presbyterian Church leaders after lunch
Filipino Church - Pastor Obet is standing next to Jennifer. Queen 5 Hostel owners, Grace and her husband are directly in front of Marshall
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