A Letter from John McCall, mission co-worker serving in Taiwan
Winter 2024
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Dear friends,
One of the joys of my mission work in Taiwan is encouraging, accompanying, and equipping future and current church leaders. Every week and every month there are a variety of ways in which I do this. On Thursdays, different pastor groups meet at my home for Bible study, prayer, and mutual sharing and encouragement. At the seminaries where I teach, I have the privilege of accompanying future leaders and helping them to develop God’s vision for their ministries. I lead a variety of conferences and retreats for pastors.
This fall, I led a conference for the fourth time where Taiwanese, African, and U.S. pastors spent time in community at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina. The name of the conference was “Sowing Seeds of Understanding: Being Renewed for Ministry in a Changing Global World.”
Almost all of the Presbyterian pastors in Taiwan live in the church building where they serve. They are expected to be on call 24 hours a day and church members often stop by the pastor’s residence to ask questions or just to chat. In the busy life of serving and also of parenting children, these pastors can often become tired both spiritually and physically. Our time in Montreat was a beautiful opportunity to be renewed by God’s Spirit in community.
I would like to share about three of the creative leaders who joined us for these 10 days. They all serve in very different contexts, but all have a rich vision for how God can use them and their communities to change our world.
Pastor Syat is an Indigenous Taiwanese from the Tyral tribe. His church is located in the mountains in the northeast part of Taiwan. As I’ve gotten to know Syat, I have learned that he possesses a beautiful combination of traditional Indigenous wisdom married with deep wisdom from the Bible. He knows clearly who he is as an Indigenous pastor and is amazingly creative as he leads his church in changing the lives of those who live in his village. He does a wonderful job of melding the Christian faith with the customs of his Tyral tribe. He nurtures two associate pastors and the elders and deacons of his church to see the opportunities that God has given them to help others grow in love for God and love for their neighbors. They have begun a bank to give their young members interest-free loans as they seek to begin businesses. They run after-school programs for village children who come to the church and get help with their homework and have dinner together before returning home. Syat is constantly praying and asking God how the church he serves can allow God’s Kingdom to come into their village.
Pastor Divan is from the Bunun tribe of Taiwan’s Indigenous people. For 19 years she has been a missionary from the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan to the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan. She works with the Ainu Indigenous people there. It is difficult to be considered an Indigenous person in Japan since homogeneity has been stressed for centuries. The Ainu people were only recognized by the Japanese government in 2008. Divan works with the Ainu churches to help the people claim both their identities as Christians and as Indigenous people. Christians are less than 1% of the population in Japan, so both identities are considered somewhat unusual. But Divan, as an Indigenous woman pastor who identifies closely with her Christian and Indigenous roots, is the perfect person to accompany the Ainu people. She practices a ministry of hospitality and listening, as she lives among these marginalized folks.
Pastor Shan Nan has served a Taiwanese/American Presbyterian church in San Diego, California for 20 years. Both of his sons were born and grew up in the United States. Many of the members of the Taiwanese/American churches had to leave Taiwan in the 1980s during the time of the White Terror. Under martial law, many of these folks were blacklisted and were unable to return to their homeland. Many became doctors, professors, and business folks and started Taiwanese churches throughout the U.S.
Shang Nan has a wonderful gift of bringing people of different generations together. Many of the younger members of his church may not speak fluent Taiwanese, so they have an English service for them. Once a month the whole church worships together, and a team of young adults translate Shang Nan’s sermons from Taiwanese into English. I have preached at the San Diego Taiwanese Church since they are a church that supports my ministry in Taiwan.
It was wonderful to have these three creative leaders with us in Montreat along with a number of other Taiwanese, Malawian, and U.S. pastors. We had a taste of heaven as we joined together in Bible Study and prayer, sharing stories and sharing meals, and learning how God is at work in such different settings.
Thank you for your prayers and support which allows me to accompany, equip and learn from these important leaders who are doing visionary ministry in these challenging times.
Gratefully,
John McCall
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