Around the World on a Mission: Taiwan

Having left Hong Kong behind us, we arrived in Taipei, Taiwan in mid-afternoon. While we arrived in the capital city, we were not going to stay there long. We would be going south to the city of Kaohsiung for most of our time in Taiwan.

Following a meal at the church in Taipei, we participated in a church service that evening. When the service was over, we headed to the train station. We would be traveling by train to the southern tip of the country.

As we were walking to the train station, we were accompanied by some of the members of the church. One young man came along side me and offered to carry my luggage for me. I assured him I was fine, but he insisted so I gave it to him. I remember being very humbled by this exchange. He seemed to treat me as someone important when I just thought of myself as an ordinary person. He seemed honored just to carry my luggage. It seemed to be such an act of service on his part. Simple acts of kindness can have a definite impact on us.

Our trip on the train was a notable experience. I had never ridden a train before, and this was a sleeper car as we were traveling overnight. One of the unique features was that in each of our sleeping compartments was a cup of green tea. Green tea is very common in the US now, but in 1971 it was pretty rare. We were all rather tentative about drinking this exotic drink. I can’t say I liked it. I did sleep on the train ride down, but it wasn’t the most comfortable bed I had slept in.

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It was about this time that I began hearing comments from the other team members about their excitement of going home. They talked about how it would be good to sleep in their own beds and be around familiar things. They were looking forward to seeing family and friends. The odd thing was I didn’t feel that way at all. I was enjoying meeting the various people and experiencing the various cultures so I didn’t really want to go home. I wanted to keep traveling and seeing what else there was to experience.

As I said in my first post about this trip, it changed my life. I had felt for some time that I wanted to be a missionary. However, I remember my mom saying that I would never survive as a missionary. She based her comment on knowing that I didn’t like snakes, and I wasn’t a big “rough it” type of person. But on this trip I discovered that I liked learning and experiencing other cultures. I have a real curiosity about how and why people live the way they do. I would soon be finishing this trip, but I knew that this was not the end of my travels.

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However, first we needed to complete our ministry in Taiwan. Today the southern city of Kaohsiung is a modern city of nearly 2.8 million people. In 1971 it did not seem like a very large city. Certainly compared to Hong Kong it seemed quite small. For some reason this is the place I remember the least. Perhaps all the other experiences overshadow it or maybe its cultural similarity to Hong Kong doesn’t make it stand out in my mind.

One of the experiences we had here was visiting a children’s hospital. The children here had a specific illness they were being treated for, but I don’t remember what. They were all so sweet all dressed in similar pajamas. It was a fun encounter.

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One thing that many people don’t always think about is the fact that there are indigenous people in Taiwan. When many Chinese escaped the mainland and moved to Taiwan as communism took over, there were already people there. One of our experiences was to go to churches out in the rural areas where there were more of the indigenous people. We again participated in the services by singing and sharing testimonies.

Of course we were also learning about the religious life. In Taiwan there are Buddhist temples, but often the emphasis is on the honoring of ancestors.

We also had a unique food experience here. One of the popular food restaurant trends that developed in the US about twenty years ago is known as Mongolian grill. I actually had my first experience with that in Taiwan where it apparently originated. We went to a rooftop restaurant and had the experience of them cooking on a metal grill in a manner very similar to what we see here in the US. I remember them referring to it as Mongolian barbecue. Back then it was a rather exotic experience.

We were in Taiwan about four days. We flew out of Kaohsiung which turned out to be a memorable moment. As the plane started up all of a sudden white steam came out of a number of places. We were all startled and afraid that it was smoke from a fire or something. Most likely it was just a fog created by the cold air entering the warm, humid air of the plane. However, the unexpected steam sent our hearts racing for a moment.

While it was not part of the original itinerary, The leaders decided that a good way to end our trip was a stopover in Honolulu, Hawaii. We arrived in the morning and took a bus down to Waikiki Beach. We had a chance to spend a day on the beach there. I remember how I was able to keep walking out into the water as it remained shallow so far out. It was a nice treat at the end of our month.

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In the evening we boarded the plane for our flight to San Francisco. There the Fortunes and I would leave the rest of the team as we headed for Portland while the rest returned to Chicago. Portland would be the final link for our round-the-world trip. Beginning and ending at the same airport was important for our flight costs.

One would think that the adventure ended here, but there was one more unfortunate adventure ahead. My mom and younger sister had driven up from our home in Roseburg, Oregon to pick me up at the airport. My mom was a nurse and worked nights. She had worked that night so she was tired. We discussed who would drive the three hour trip home. My sister had her permit, but Mom didn’t want her driving on the freeway. I assured her I was fine so I drove.

We made a stop in Salem to have a quick visit with my aunt and uncle. When we got back on the freeway my lack of sleep began to catch up with me. As we approached Albany, I nodded off, and the car began to drift to the right. Mom realized we were headed right and yelled at me. Startled awake I yanked the steering wheel to the left. The next thing I knew we were upside down in the medium of the freeway. I still remember thinking to myself, “How do you stop a car when it’s traveling upside down?”

Fortunately we were all wearing seat belts, and we had no serious injuries. A tow truck came to get the car and dropped us off at the hospital as Mom wanted us all checked out. Then we found a motel and waited until my dad was able to drive up and pick us up to take us home. I worried he would be really angry with me for wrecking the car. I was relieved when he didn’t say much.

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And thus ended my around-the-world mission trip. It was not the ending I had anticipated, but it certainly added to the memories of this trip. Forty-nine years later I have forgotten many of the details of my trip, but others remain vivid in my mind. But above all else this trip had opened the world up to me, and it was calling me to come and see what else it had to offer. I would need to get my suitcase packed and get going.