Taiwan & Thailand
So my trip is over and I sucked at blogging. However, right now, as I wait at EWR to get picked up and now back at school, I reflect on what happened and what I was. Let me describe to you.
Taiwan:
Some of you have been to Taiwan and might be even more familiar with Taipei than me. I’ve been there twice to Ximen Ding square. The best way to describe Ximen to me is to picture Times Square with shorter buildings and a fourth of the tourists. It is the place to go if you are looking for entertainment. With mostly a young crowd Ximen is full of restaurants and brand stores. There are novelty restaurants and there is also your hole in the wall Taiwanese food place, even street vendors, bars, clubs, and movie theaters. It was awesome to see what God is doing there. The high level of “worldliness” has deemed the area “unreachable” to several religious institutions in Taiwan; however, right now CMA workers, missionaries, and interns are working hard to establish a church in this area. In the last five years awesome people have decided to invest on the average Ximen regular with hopes of speaking and showing people God’s love. Hopefully this year there will be enough funds to rent out or buy a place in Ximen so that “The Church” can meet and more can experience community in Christ. The work in Ximen is truly the epitome of intentional relationships and showing God’s love and care through the building of legitimate relationships for the expansion of the kingdom.
I forgot my camera this trip. (Don’t remind me). But, if you are wondering what Ximen Ding Square looks like I these online pictures depict the vibe really well.
Thailand
Since the airport I knew that Thailand was going to have a different vibe than Taiwan. The massive airport and immigration line showed tourists from literally all parts of the world: India, UK, Germany, Denmark, China, Japan, and U.S.A., Spain… everywhere. When we hopped into our “drive on the right” van and started looking at the developed infrastructure of highway systems. I was impressed. 45 minutes later we arrived at the CMA guesthouse, which was on Pradhipaht Soy Sim Sam (probably spelled that wrong phonetically). Basically it was the Pradhipaht Street and Soy is the smaller street. Sim Sam means 13. So 13th street off of Pradhipat. Amazingly, that was enough for the driver to know where to go. Tall buildings, big financial districts were what met us in Bangkok. Of course, there were your typical street vendors and souvenir and trinket vendors on the side of the street. We went to Siam square which was the area in which we were planning on starting a ministry similar to that in Taiwan. And boy, is this the perfect place to start such a ministry. The missionaries there were super kind, we got to hang out with them: Steve Strong and Jim Sapia. They gave us a tour of the area and we saw that this was the place to be. When we returned later at night we were reassured. There were young kids everywhere it is the place to shop and hang out after school until you catch a bus home. Surrounded by tons of Thai stores, Hard Rock Café, Outback and other restaurants the place is hopping’. What is incredible is that every single person in that square the same as in Taiwan, the same in NYC for that matter, needs Christ. They need to know Christ. In front of almost every building there is a spirit house were the Thai Buddhists pray and offer incense and other offerings to the spirits as they walk by. This truly breaks my heart. I love to be in places where there are tons of people, but to know that everyone is lost truly is like someone is squeezing the blood out of my heart.
Later in the week we went to one of the slums in Thailand and if nothing impacts you, the dichotomy of only a few train stations’ difference will blow you away. I have had the opportunity to travel a little bit and I have seen slums in different countries and I would have to say that these were possibly the worst living conditions that I had ever seen. Steve Strong walk us through while saying “Swahdee Cup” which means hello from a male to the people in the slums. We were able to stop a couple of times and just have conversations with the inhabitants. These are not adequate living conditions. Man o man, there is poverty and despair in these slums. It blew my mind. Also, meeting a mother who could not have been more than 22 or 23 years old with four beautiful daughters one recently born makes you wonder about their situation. I mean, these were the cutest girls we had seen and all the statistics of prostitution and poverty are against them. Something needs to be done.
In our time there I realized that there is a crucial marriage between ministries in Siam Square and ministries in the slums. First of all, people from the slums do hang out at Siam Square as well. Reaching the people in the square might be more strategic and might make more sense as to the impact done. I mean, the slums were indeed overwhelming. The one that we went to were over 5 square Km. However, there is something to learn and to do in spending time there. In other words, I think Jesus was on to something when he hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. He did hang out with upper class people as well, but he cared deeply about those in need and gave a voice to those who didn’t have one.
All in all, we were able to get a feel for what to do in Thailand for the next couple of years. If you are interested in going, let me know. I would love to hook you up. Also, it was great to talk to the missionaries currently there and talking about the possibility of finding people willing to start the work there for a new church and to be a light in the middle of the darkness that surrounds Bangkok.
Below I will post pictures, not mine but from online. (Remember, no camera L)
Ximen Ding
Siam Square
