Philippines ~~~ to ~~~~.....Taiwan

Voyage from Batangas, Philippines to Kaohsiung, March 6th-9th
The voyage was reported to be the worst for over a year, with waves of 3-4 metres. The majority of the crew, including us, suffered from seasickness! Our cabin is very close to the front of the ship, and therefore moves considerably! We therefore spent as little time as possible in the cabin; the girls slept in the lounge at night, in the centre of the ship.

On the way to Kaohsiung we were given orientation into Taiwanese culture, by someone who has lived and worked here for a while. The orientation included an introduction to Taiwanese tea, cold with “black pearls” in, practice in using chopsticks, some language, and instructions on which way to approach a toilet!

Taiwanese culture is steeped in ancestor worship and the church is weak with less than 3% Christians. This is in marked contrast to the Philippines where there was an ease of communication and great warmth to the good news. 22million people live here in the 2nd most densely populated on earth.

Kaohsiung – Taiwan’s 2nd city
Keith is very excited to be here as it is the only country we will be visiting on this trip that he hasn’t been to before! Less English is spoken here in Taiwan than in the Philippines, so meetings are translated into Mandarin. It is amazing how much can be communicated with little common language, and there are enough Mandarin speakers, including the local volunteers who come to help for the duration of the port, to help out when we get into difficulty! We can walk into the city from the ship, which we are enjoying after being dependent on public transport in the last port. The bookshop is quite quiet during weekdays until early evening, but much busier at weekends. The first weekend 18,000 people came on board and this weekend people have had to wait in line for several hours to get on the ship.


Crowds waiting in line to get on board

Keith and Ruth were on the national tv news for a few minutes when the shot some footage of the ship arriving.

The city is just like a western level of affluence but people work very hard and all the signs are in Chinese characters. The political situation is very difficult for the Taiwanese and they are quick to point out that they are Taiwanese not Chinese.

Lantern Festival


During our first weekend we had the opportunity to visit the “Lantern festival”, as Chinese New Year was still being celebrated. We, along with hundreds of other visitors, walked through a tunnel lined with lanterns made by elementary and high school pupils, and students, from recyclable materials. The lanterns were amazingly complex; many were pigs for the year of the pig. We met some students who answered our questions, and had kits for the children (quite a few of the families were with us) to make their own lanterns. The students seemed to really enjoy meeting so many foreign children.

It is evident that the advertising for the ship has been very effective and many people recognise us as coming from Doulos. It makes it very easy to invite them to visit

Night Market
One member of the A-team (land based team) from the Philippines, Solomon, is from Taiwan. Our team spent an evening at the night market with him as our guide. It was great to have him around to explain some of the culture, and to encourage us to try food that we would otherwise have avoided. The night market was lined with stalls selling food and trinkets, and was a hive of activity. We avoided the duck’s head and pig’s intestines, but enjoyed our noodles, dumplings and fruit drinks.

Ministry Opportunities
The people are very open and keen to practice their English – Keith has been subjected to numerous photo sessions with young Taiwanese girls who want a picture alongside his good looks in the bookshop.
On the first weekend he had an opportunity to preach in a local church and encourage the believers. It was a privilege to be part of their service and the meal afterwards had loads of different types of fish.
It is amazing how much you can communicate even with out language skills. Dawn has made friends with a lady called Mavis who has visited 4 times bringing gifts and clearly wants to strike up a friendship.


Ruth plucked up the courage to perform tap for the crowds one evening!


The crew engage with the crowds

Our further travels
Please pray for us as we leave the ship in a weeks time – our time draws to a close very quickly. On 27th March we head to Hong Kong then on to Sydney to spend time connecting with the present Financial Officer and start some actual work. Thereafter we travel on to the USA to connect with the Mallon clan before heading home at the end of April to Carlisle. Pray the kids will adapt to what is another huge wrench, pray we will end well and say our goodbyes again well. We thank God for a wonderful time, Keith is preaching at the ship’s Sunday service 25th March. Also our house in Carlisle is not yet exchanged so we could do with some reassurance for that!

What happened on our adventure into the interior...

A-team report

Our team: Katharina Reikoff (TL), Jonathan Chereau (ATL), Solomon Tang, Keith Mallon, Dawn Mallon, Ruth Mallon (14), Tessa Mallon (12), Isabel Mallon (10)

Location:

Near Lucena, Philippines, while the Doulos was in Batangas

We were in a rural area with paddy fields surrounding us. Their housing was wooden or concrete structures with corrugated iron roofs, and had usually one or two rooms. There was no running water and few had toilets. Drinking water needed to be bought but was not purified. The irrigation channel for the paddy fields was used for washing clothes, crockery, and for sewage.

Hosts:

Our hosts were Sonia Beraňa, the Director of EHMI, and Susan Sanchez, who works alongside her. EHMI is a holistic ministry. As well as running the church which was planted 3 years ago they provide counselling and spiritual direction, and run retreats for groups and individuals. They reach out to the community using a sponsorship programme for school children and students, micro lending livelihood projects.


The team and our hosts

Accommodation:

 We stayed in the church, which was comfortable with good facilities. The garden surrounding the church was a real haven, as it was designed for hosting retreats.

Tessa relaxing

Izzy in character

Food:

Food was cooked in the adjacent house, and we were very well fed. We were all very humbled to realise that people from the area were bringing food contributions of rice, vegetables, eggs and fish for us, despite having so little themselves.

Local makeshift transport on the redundant railway line

Rice harvest in front of the church

Some of the team tried Balut, a cooked egg containing a chick, a favourite food in the Philippines.

Language:

The language spoken in the area is Tagalot. A few people spoke good English. Some people spoke a little English but were very self conscious about using it until later in the week. We tried to learn some Tagalot phrases, which the Filipinos really seemed to appreciate.

Ruth taking it easy

 Ministry:

Adults: We made some visits to homes to encourage and pray for people, and attended and lead Bible studies in homes. We were touched by the way that we were welcomed to their homes and that they were willing to share deeply about themselves, though an interpreter!. The theme for the church in March is mission and the leaders are hoping to help their congregation to recognise other needs in the world.  We were able to help them in this by using the weekly prayer meetings to focus on our own countries and by using mission, in the context of God thinking we are all special and wanting to use us, as a theme in the Sunday.

Time for mime

Children and youth: We introduced some songs and games to the children in Sunday school and kids club, told them stories and showed dramas. The children were very eager and excited, and loved it when we showed an interest in them. One evening we lead the youth meeting, challenging them to seek God for His call on their lives. There were 2 opportunities for us to teach some of our skills; in a Bible study group at the University, and at the weekend when we ran a seminar for the youth, teaching drama, mime,  ballooning and how to share a testimony. The day was challenging to many of them as they were very shy, and for one of them it was the first time she had been willing to join in anything like that, but several of them expressed their appreciation. Some of them performed the mime in church on Sunday. The children on our team were able to participate in these programmes.

Retreat:

The team at the church encouraged us to spend a morning in silent retreat. We all really appreciated that time, and their focus on ministry being a result of our relationship with God.

Our contribution:

We had a time of feedback with the congregation at the end of our time. The overriding feeling seemed to be that they felt valued by us. We think this may have been our most important contribution as many of them had such low self esteem. They also commented on how good it was to have a family amongst the group; few men attend the church and many families have broken and strained relationships. The youth felt that they had some new skills as a result of the workshops. We all felt that we had made some worthwhile relationships, and had mixed feelings about leaving.