The Lites Blog

As I became more proficient in communicating in Mandarin, more doors for ministry opened up for me. Most of the members of the choir at Ren Ai Baptist Church were college students, and some were members of another singing group. Rev. Lin Jr Ping and his wife Jang Shao Feng, were very involved with students, using the arts to reach out to the college community. The group was called “Christian Arts Fellowship.” Each fall they would collaborate to produce a drama, sometimes based on Chinese historical events or legends. Mrs. Lin (Chang) was the playwright, Mr Lin the director, and the students served as actors, stage hands, etc. The purpose of the dramas were to raise questions about life (often theological in nature) that had religious implications, questions which many students and intellectuals would appreciate. Following the presentations, discussion sessions were held for all who were interested, to provide a forum to deal with the questions raised in the course of the drama. Rev Lin and his wife would provide Christian answers to these issues, thus offering an opportunity to present the truth of the gospel message.
In the Spring, Rev Lin and the students would form a singing group, giving concerts in churches and concert halls throughout the island. Through my contact with the Ren Ai church choir, I was introduced to Rev. Lin, who invited me to direct the group. In my first experience directing this Fellowship choir, the first performance included “The Crucifixion” by Stainer. The second year, we did “Calvary’s Mountain,” by Allen with narration added by Mrs. Lin.
At this time, Calvary Baptist Church, an expat church on Grass Mountain, Taipei was without a pastor. One of our missionaries was serving as interim pastor, and he requested my assistance with the music. Naturally, I wanted to be of service, but I was involved with the Ren Ai choir on Sunday morning. However, the Youth Choir at Calvary sang on Sunday evenings, when many missionaries attended, so I agreed to work with them. Most of the young people were MK’s (missionary kids) and had fairly good voices. Christian folk musicals were very popular during this time, and it seemed like a good idea to include one of them in the repertoire of the choir. The Young People sang very well, and performed the musical to a packed auditorium at Calvary.
Rev and Mrs.Lin had also opened a “coffee house” in Taipei, another attempt to reach the younger generation of Chinese. When I shared with them about the musical the Calvary Young People had performed at the church, they invited the group to come sing for the patrons at the coffee house. We gladly accepted, and while the audience was much smaller, and the language was English, the reaction was one of sincere interest. Mrs. Lin (Jang Shau Feng) who was a playwright, and wrote most of the plays the Fellowship performed,  was very impressed with the contemporary version of English. A day or two later, she presented to me a dozen or so short verses, written in contemporary Chinese expression, all addressing concerns and needs of Chinese young people. She said that this was the first poetry of its kind, written in a free style that represented the kind of expression that most Chinese youth could understand and relate to. She asked if I would try to set some of them to music, a daunting task to say the least.
One of the poems that appealed to me was entitled “I’m always waiting. (Wo dzungshr dzai deng).” The text addressed at least one of the challenges Chinese young people face–waiting. The form was in ABA form (two parts with the first part repeated.) In the first part, the text indicates that they were always waiting–they wait for busses, they wait ;to grow up, they wait for someone to come and express love for them. Day after day, year after year, season after season, they always wait. The second part shares the truth that Jesus is also waiting, waiting for them to come home.
Here is a copy of the text in Chinese. (Note that the author is Ms Jang, and the composer is Lai Ming De–my Chinese name)

In a short time, the melodies came to me and I jotted them down. As our Radio-TV studio was preparing a television program to be broadcast over one of Taiwan’s three television stations, I asked if we could include this song. Permission was granted, and it seemed proper for the presentation to include an Erhu (Chinese two-stringed fiddle )  二胡  as a part of the accompaniment. Here is a picture of one.

 

The study of the Chinese language in Taiwan in the early ’70s involved learning Mandarin with a heavy dose of “Pekingese.” The influence of the once-official language on the mainland of China was understandable because some of the teachers or their families had come from there. Characteristically, some of the words in Mandarin that ended with a vowel sound ended with a “burr” in the Peking dialect.  Of course, this dialect was rarely heard on the street, if ever. Conversely, some of the local inhabitants had their own accents when speaking Mandarin, and would often modify an “sh” sound to an “s” sound in initial consonants. An example would be the Mandarin word for yes, or “shr” with a curled tongue. People from the Southern part of the US in speaking English often drop the final consonant “g” in words like “going” and “doing.” If we spent much time around these local Chinese, we would naturally begin to imitate them by dropping the “h” sound also, to the horror of our teachers when we returned to class.
Somewhere I had been introduced to a principle of learning a new language. The rule was that when you heard a new word, if you used it in a sentence three times, it would be yours. This technique proved to be very valuable to me as I encountered many young people who were becoming quite creative in the use of their native language.
As I progressed in language learning, opportunities begin to open up for me to begin ministering in the Chinese churches. I had expected to be asked to participate in worship by singing a solo or two, since that was a forte of mine. To my surprise, I was informed that solos were rare in the Chinese worship services. When I asked why, I was informed that they preferred a choir, so that no one person would stand out and perhaps become proud. In my state of innocence, I asked “then why do you only have one sermon?” I received no answer, but the look I got told me that this conversation would go no further.
But to my surprise, I was asked to preach in various churches. Prior to leaving the US I had been ordained at Mt Zion Baptist Church, near Many, La., my home church, so it would be expected that preaching would be a part of my ministry. It took many hours of preparation, and most of my preaching was simply reading what I had prepared with the aid of a Chinese tutor. I am sure that the congregation endured my sermons rather than being inspired by them, but they were kind. It was not long however, before I was invited to attend the rehearsals of numerous choirs to provide vocal and choral training. The choirs that provided music for the worship services in most of the Baptist churches in Taiwan were composed of college students. Some of the members participated in Summer Music Camps held at the Baptist Seminary. It was my privilege to serve on the faculty of the Camps, and thus get a feel for the music level of the churches.
Nannette was also on the faculty of these music camps and clinics, sharing about children’s choirs.
Here are some photos from these training sessions

 

As previously mentioned, the Studio choir sang some of the traditional Chinese hymns, one of which became a favorite of mine. “Golden Breaks the Dawn” sung here by a church choir in Hong Kong
(Click to play)
Golden Breaks the Dawn
Here is the English text to the first verse
“Golden breaks the dawn,
Comes the eastern sun,
Over lake and lawn
Set his course to run.
Birds above us fly,
Flowers bloom below,
Through the earth and sky
God’s great mercies flow.”
(Full text can be found here: Golden Breaks the Dawn)

The response to these hymns was very encouraging, so I made sure that when I selected the music some of these treasures were included. 

The Scripture verse for today is a promise from the lips of Jesus Himself. Little did I know when I was studying about missions and missionaries as a Royal Ambassador in our little country church at Mt  Zion that one day I would be serving the Lord as a missionary in a Chinese setting. Here is the promise, and I pray that it will inspire you to great or greater service for the Master:

Matthew 19:26  But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God  all things are possible.

 2 Timothy 2:15

As we waited for the beginning of language school, we took a brief but memorable “orientation” tour of the island, staying in the homes of our missionaries,  enjoying getting to know them and their families, seeing the sights and becoming acquainted with some of the work in which our mission was involved. Taiwan had two airlines at that time FAT (Far Eastern Air Transport) and CATS (China Air Transport Service.) I have suspicions that the American military, who had various bases on the island, had a hand in naming the airlines. (Fat Cats)
The first leg of our trip down-island was aboard one the FAT planes, a short flight from Taipei to Kaohsiung. During the flight, there appeared to be smoke emanating from the air vents, and we were a bit uneasy until we were assured that it was simply air condensation, nothing to worry about. So we arrived in Kaohsiung, the southern-most port city and enjoyed visiting with the Hogues, a missionary family with three boys. On Sunday, I traveled with Leroy to a mission point, and heard my first sermon in Mandarin. I was thrilled to be able to understand at least one word of his sermon, and afterwards asked why he spoke so much of “woman.” To my chagrin, he explained that the word which sounds like woman in English, is in fact the Chinese word for “us,” or “we.” I was to discover that learning the Chinese language was not that easy.
We worked our way back to Taipei via train, from Kaohsiung to Tainan, where we met Bob Beard, and in addition to getting acquainted with his wife Nell and three girls, we were privileged to view first hand his “beach” ministry, gaining a nice tan in the process.
From Tainan, we entrained and traveled to Taichung, where we met a number of missionaries, including the Ricketsons, our soon-to-be neighbors and the same couple who had transported us from Keelung to Taipei. This would be the beginning of a long and profitable relationship, Soon, we boarded the train again, and returned to Taipei, where we began the process of moving into our home, a two-story duplex that was almost new. Our belongings were delivered via truck, and as the crates were unloaded and opened it was almost like Christmas, re discovering the items which had been packed so many months ago. It was then that I learned my second expression in Chinese “Meiyou gwansyi.” We heard that expression several times as the workers dropped a heavy crate. Nannette asked a missionary what it meant, and after some urging the missionary replied “It means ‘never mind'” We would hear that word many times during our career in Taiwan, and often, it did really matter.
Thus we began our informal study of the Mandarin language, a difficult but not impossible task. Not long after moving in, language school officially started, and we began the daunting task of learning to communicate in another language. The Scripture verse for today expresses so clearly what the challenge was for us as foreigners. “Study to show yourselves  approved unto God”. However it was as important that we show ourselves approved unto the Chinese people we had come to serve by speaking to them intelligently and in words that they could understand and that conveyed our thoughts accurately.