The Ex-pat Experience

It's wet here!

Yes, we just went through our second typhoon. Fortunately, this one is supposed to be the last of the typhoon season. Meaning the weather should be cooling down (a relative term) and the rainy season is coming to a close.

A couple of weekends ago I was invited to attend the English congregation service at Good Shepherd Episcopal and join them for their monthly fellowship luncheon. Since Elizabeth had youth responsibilities, I went out to Shilin alone.

The priest for the English congregation is also an Episcopal missionary. Rev. Diane Wong is a long-term missionary completing her second year of service in Taiwan. She is from the Diocese of Massachusetts and has been a wonderful source of communication and English speaking over these couple of months. Somehow she thought inviting us to an English service would be appealing. . . and after two months of Chinese only services, she couldn't have been more right!

The service at Good Shepherd was the first time I have had a large scale and direct interaction with the adult ex-pat community in Taiwan. All of the non-Taiwanese I have met previously have been students or short term visitors. When researching the service time for the English service, I found the Sunday bulletin. In addition to the readings for the day, it included two announcements: 1 - the fellowship luncheon 2 - there is a wedding following the service, please stick around.

As it turns out, this is pretty much par for the course in terms of the ex-pat community. The English congregation is largely made up of teachers at international schools. The rest of the members include the South African diplomat (unofficially) and his wife, a college professor who has lived in Taiwan for 20 years but is still married to a woman in the U.S. (they talk every day), a retired U.S. Air Force officer, an engineer, and the second in command of the American Institute in Taiwan (our unofficial version of an embassy in Taiwan). This group was by far the most unlikely collection of people I have ever seen enjoying wedding cake for a couple they had just met an hour ago. . . when they attended their wedding and witnessed their marriage vows.

I also had the joy of meeting one of the two head stewards for the Lambeth Conference this year. The stewards were a group of young people, one of whom was from Taiwan, responsible for playing tour guide, security, running errands, applying first aid, smiling, and making life comfortable for all of the Bishops and Bishop's spouses during the conference. Erin, the head steward I met at Good Shepherd, has been living in Taiwan for the past 7 years teaching French at an international school. She gave the sermon, a reflection on the conference and her experience being a steward. I hope to post the reflection soon. It was wonderful to hear a reflection that did not just revolve around who was there and who was excluded.

Overall, I was incredibly thrilled to attend a service in English. I miss very much saying the prayers in unison instead of saying them in English and guessing how to time it so I finish at the same time as the Chinese. However, I feel somehow especially called to serve within the Chinese congregation. Unlike the last young adult missionaries to Taiwan, we do not have any particular assignments within the English congregation or ex-pat communities. I believe this will continue to bring challenges but also, slowly, enable us to better integrate into the Taiwanese culture and religious customs. We will always still be Americans, white, and really bad at Chinese, but I feel like we will have the opportunity to witness authentic expressions of Christianity as developed by the Taiwanese/Chinese culture.

May you be blessed throughout this new month,

Seth

This is easily one of the world's smallest dogs. Note that I am not the only giant in the picture, the three year old is downright huge in comparison as well.

Picture #2 is tea with the Bishop a few weeks ago. He is a true tea fanatic. He would fit right in on Wednesday morning. No word on his preference for toast or bagels.