One Hundred Years of Good News in the Mountains

A Letter from John McCall, serving in Taiwan

Fall 2023

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Dear friends,

My favorite place in Taiwan is Taroko National Park on Taiwan’s east coast. It is a deep gorge with marble walls jutting down into a roaring river. The park is named after the Taroko people who have lived in that area for thousands of years.

One hundred years ago there was a Taroko woman named Chi Wang who at the age of 18 married a non-indigenous man. Only three months after their wedding, he was murdered. She then married another non-indigenous man and together they began a successful business of selling a variety of items. At this time, the Japanese began their occupation of Taiwan, and the Taroko people fiercely fought against them occupying their land. The Japanese asked Chi Wang to be a mediator between her people and the Japanese police. She effectively served in this role for eight years. During this time, her second husband left her. She married a third non-indigenous man, but he was a gambler and had another secret wife and family on the west side of Taiwan. Eventually, they divorced, and her husband’s creditors took all of the earnings that Chi Wang had made from her business and her job as a mediator.

Taroko Gorge National Park

Hopeless and alone, she started attending the Presbyterian Church in the nearby city of Hualien. She was baptized and became an enthusiastic Christian. One day a Canadian missionary, Jim Dickson, came from Taipei to Hualien and asked Chi Wang’s pastor how they could share the good news of God’s love with the indigenous people. The Japanese forbade non-indigenous Taiwanese and foreigners from entering the tribal lands. They also forbade any preaching of the Christian gospel. They wanted the indigenous people to worship the Japanese emperor through the Shinto religion.

John with some Taroko Christians at the One Hundredth Thanksgiving Service

Pastor Liu suggested to Jim Dickson that Chi Wang might be the perfect person. So, Dickson suggested to Chi Wang that she come to the Girls’ School in Tamsui near Taipei to learn about the Bible. At first Chi Wang resisted. She said, “I am already 56 years old and have the traditional indigenous tattoos on my face. I’m too old, and I wouldn’t fit in with the young people who are studying at your school.” But her pastor and Jim Dickson continued to encourage her, and finally, she went north to the school where she studied for eight months.

When she returned to her home village, she began teaching her family and neighbors about the Christian faith. The Japanese were always watching to make sure no evangelism was happening, so young men carried Chi Wang to the different villages to teach in a sack with sweet potato leaves on top to hide her. Because the Taroko people had been moved by the Japanese from their high mountain villages to the foothills where they could be better controlled, at that time, they were asking questions about their identity and were hungry for meaning in their lives.

With the boys I baptized, Wani and SheeDa

Many of the Taroko people believed in Christ and began to hold worship services in caves and high up in the mountains at night. They would bury their Bibles and hymnals high up in the mountains and then carry their farming tools up the mountains as if they were going to work so the Japanese would not be suspicious. Many of these new believers were persecuted for their faith, being beaten and some even put in cages by the Japanese. But they did not forsake their faith.

This past weekend, the Taroko Presbytery had a One Hundred Years of the Gospel Coming to Their People Thanksgiving Service and asked me to preach at the service. I had assumed that my sermon would be 20-30 minutes long but found out that they wanted me to preach twice for  70 minutes each. So, I found some Taroko youth to act out the story of Moses from the Bible and to act out the story of Chi Wang. Indigenous youth are often very willing to jump in and sing and act, so they did a great job. During my second sermon, I had one of the Taroko choirs sing two praise songs.

It was a wonderful day of celebration. I said how fortunate they were to have their first missionary as one of their own, and a woman with such wisdom and ability. Many of their grandparents knew Chi Wang and were her first converts.

I stayed with a good friend of mine who is a pastor in the Taroko Presbytery. I baptized his two sons a few years ago. It was good to listen to Pastor Cihaw and his wife, Shee-byek, and see the impact they are having among the Taroko people today. When Pastor Cihaw graduated from Taiwan Seminary where I teach, I went with him to the east coast to pray for him as he began his ministry. We prayed at Chi Wang’s grave, that Cihaw would have the same spirit of love which motivated Chi Wang to lead her people to new life.

Thank you for your prayers and support which allow me to accompany the people of this beautiful land.

Gratefully,

John McCall

Please read this important message from Director of World Mission Rev. Mienda Uriarte

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Matthew 25: 34-36

Dear friends,

Great things are happening in World Mission! As you know from the letters you’ve been receiving, our mission co-workers are at the forefront of showing us what Matthew 25 looks like in the U.S. and in the wider world. They are addressing issues related to eradicating systemic poverty, building congregational vitality and dismantling structural racism. Together with our partners, mission co-workers are engaged in life-transforming ministries in 80 countries around the world. Here are just a few examples:

As an education consultant in the Democratic Republic of Congo, José Jones assists the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) education department in the development, implementation and evaluation of strategic plans to strengthen the church’s primary and secondary education programs for more than 350 schools.

Based in Manila, Rev. Cathy Chang works closely with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and other partners in ministry to engage programs and networks across Asia that advocate for people vulnerable to forced migration and human trafficking.

Nadia Ayoub works alongside our Greek partners as they faithfully hold to the biblical call to welcome the stranger. Nadia serves with Perichoresis, a ministry of the Evangelical Church of Greece that provides housing and support to refugees; most of whom have come to Greece from Arabic-speaking countries.

Joseph Russ strengthens and supports a network of partners working in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to address migration issues in the Northern Triangle. Based on the needs people on the ground identify, Joseph empowers U.S. congregations to engage in advocacy related to Central America and immigration reform.

Revs. Drs. Noah Park and Esther Shin serve as professors at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC). ETSC graduates work toward revitalizing congregational ministries in Egypt and work with refugee and peace ministries in various countries in the Middle East.

Please consider giving an extra gift this year to support our mission co-workers as they walk alongside our partners and help shape a more life-giving, equitable and hopeful world!

Prayerfully,

Rev. Mienda Uriarte, Director of World Mission
Presbyterian Mission Agency
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

To give online, visit https://bit.ly/23MC-YE.

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