A letter from John McCall serving in Taiwan
Autumn 2014 - Surprised by Joy
Dear Friends,
A number of years ago one of my aboriginal seminary students at the time asked me if I could go with him to visit a young man from his tribe who had been in a serious motorcycle accident. After preaching on a Sunday morning, my student picked me up and took me to the Veterans Hospital in northern Taipei. When we arrived and went to this young man’s room, his bed was empty. We later found him in a wheelchair in a park in front of the hospital under a big tree surrounded by his family and about 25 folks from his home village. They had come that day to encourage him and to pray with him. He is paralyzed from the waist down. I heard his story, and we then sang aboriginal praise songs with the members of his church who had gathered there at the hospital. I then prayed for this young man, whose name is Nga-yau, that God would use him to be a blessing to others.
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John with Nga-yau and Da-mee at Taiwan Seminary
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Amis city aboriginal pastors baptizing new believers
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The Cup of Life
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Nga-yau with his parents, his two brothers and their families in front of his church in Eastern Taiwan where I recently preached
Last year I was speaking at a presbytery training event for this same aboriginal tribe and met a pastor’s son who was undergoing chemo for aggressive leukemia. He asked me to pray for him, which I did, and then told him that I would put his name in my Bible and would pray for him each day.
In August of this year when I returned to Taiwan after seven months of interpretation in the U.S., I was walking on the campus of Taiwan Seminary, where I live, when I heard someone call the name that the Amis tribe has given to me. When I turned around to look, there was Nga-yau in his wheelchair coming toward me. He told me that he had been accepted at the seminary. I was delighted to see him and to know that he was beginning the journey of becoming a pastor. He has been accepted only for the first year and the faculty will decide at the end of the spring semester whether he can continue. I am sure that as far as he has come, God will open the door.
A few minutes later I heard my Amis name called again, and I saw Da-mee, the young man I had been praying for each day. He told me that he also was in the Master of Divinity program and had felt called to the ordained ministry. I was doubly blest that day to see these two young men who have faced such great challenges at a young age being willing to respond to God’s call.
This week I had the opportunity to talk with them both and to pray with them. I told them that I would share their prayer concerns with you. Nga-yau hopes to be accepted into the three-year graduate program and prays that one day he may be able to walk again. Da-mee asks for prayers for healing from his leukemia. Both men are an inspiration to me and to this campus. After I prayed for them, they asked how they could pray for me. So often those who face the biggest challenges are the ones whose hearts have been softened to see the needs of others. I know God is using them in a powerful way to be witnesses of resurrection hope.
The day before I prayed with Nga-yau and Da-mee, I was the preacher at their presbytery’s joint renewal service. About 800-1,000 people packed into a high school gym where I preached both a morning and an afternoon service. In the morning service about 25 adults were baptized. The pastors leading this service are my former students and are now pastoring city aboriginal churches. They join with me each month for a pastors’ spiritual formation group at my home. It was a thrill for me to see them baptizing and leading in communion. They are women and men pastors working together as spiritual friends to bless the community of faith. As they took the water in their hands to baptize and held up the bread and cups, I reflected how God uses ordinary things, including us, to do extraordinary work.
I am truly grateful to you all for your prayers and support, which allow me to accompany these pastors and seminary students. As is so true in God’s economy of grace, we receive so much more from those around us than we are able to give.
It is a tremendous privilege to walk with these Taiwanese saints. They face trial with hope and respond to challenges as a community with both joy and humor. As those who live on the margins of this high-tech society, they understand in the depths of their beings that God is with them and that they were put on this earth to be a blessing to others.
May God bless you in the same way.
Gratefully,
John McCall
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 240
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