Pete & Miriam Williams: We are a family of four living in Taipei, Taiwan, on mission for God. We enjoy good food, being in the mountains, and our 2 girls love playing in parks. We are very thankful that Taipei has all of these in abundance.
We are Weak, but He is Strong
Living in Taiwan, we often feel very weak. No matter how long we live here, we know that Chinese will always be our second language. We frequently make mistakes – one of our favourites is when I asked for prayer for my students who kept farting (“fangpi”) in class, when what I really wanted was prayer because they kept messing around in class (they were “tiaopi”). We can’t express ourselves very eloquently – we forget words and get our sentences muddled. It’s frustrating and humbling.
Learning New Things
We live in a different culture; people think and do things differently. We’ve had to learn to be flexible with timings, to eat parts of animals that seem strange to us, and to read between the lines (“sense the air”) in our communication with Taiwanese friends. We’re learning to take gifts and snacks when we go out with friends, and to share a lot more!
Taiwan is a tropical island, with a very different climate to what we’re used to. We’ve learnt how to be earthquake-safe, how to tell if snakes or frogs are poisonous, and what to do when we encounter wild dogs and monkeys. Food is very different. We eat a lot more pork here and Mim has become a lot more familiar with different parts of a pig as she orders meat from the market. We’ve learnt to freeze rice when we buy it and use a rice cooker most days (and not just for cooking rice!)
This is the nature of cross-cultural life. There are lots of opportunities to develop humility and expose our hidden pride. But why? Is it just us? Are we doing something wrong? Is this just part of training for cross-cultural ministry, and then after a while we’ll ‘get it’? Or is there something deeper at work here?
I believe that the Bible sheds light on these questions and helps us to understand the bigger picture, giving us faith for what God is doing in and through us.
Going Throughout the Earth as Part of God’s Plan For Humanity
These days it goes without saying that language and culture are inextricably linked. The Bible dates the beginning of different languages to the tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11. Some theologians point to this as the last episode in the unravelling of creation following the fall in Genesis 3. At Babel, humanity gathers to make a name for itself and to prevent being dispersed across the earth.
Ironically, this is the exact opposite of the mission God had given to Adam and Eve: to go, i.e spread, and fill the earth.
The actions of humanity – gathering and self-glorification – are in opposition to God’s plan, and God responds by confusing their language, which causes division and scattering. Notice the key ideas in this account: self-glorification or pride, which through God’s intervention leads to confusion, division, and scattering.
Now keeping those ideas in mind, let’s move to the final episode in Christ’s redeeming work in history. Namely, Pentecost, the pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh after Christ’s glorification. The pouring out of the Spirit on ‘all flesh’ was a promise which the Jews had been waiting for and represents God again dwelling with his people.
In Acts Chapter 2, we read, “there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.” As the Spirit is poured out, people are empowered to communicate in many languages, and their speech is of “the mighty works of God,” not men. Peter stands to explain the events, and the passage ends with thousands being added to the church.
Notice how the interventions of God in Acts 2 parallel those at the Tower of Babel, but in reverse. At Babel we saw confusion of language, division, and scattering because of self-glorification. At Pentecost we see communication across languages, explaining and joining together because of Christ’s glorification. I believe that at Pentecost, the final episode in the historical redeeming work of Christ, we are seeing the reversal of God’s judgment on humanity’s sins at Babel, the final episode in the unravelling of creation following the fall.
But how does this help us with cross-cultural mission today?
Well, notice the motivations of each. The essence of Babel was pride, self-glorification, and self-confidence. The essence of Pentecost is Christ’s glorification and God’s empowering of His people, or confidence in God and not “me”. Now that certainly fits with our experience of cross-cultural mission, and I’m fairly sure we’re not alone. The Apostle Paul, one of the first Christian cross-cultural workers, quotes what Jesus’ had said to him: “my power is made perfect in weakness”.
Back to us in Taiwan:
We are regularly reminded that our abilities are not enough. These experiences are slowly, and sometimes painfully, shifting our confidence from our own abilities, ideas, and plans to God’s. The fruit of this in our lives is greater peace and awareness of our union with Christ. The fruit of this around us is that God is drawing others to Himself and breaking down the barriers that divide us, whether they be linguistic, social or cultural.
Not long ago, I went through a tough time at work. I found that my abilities were not as strong as I had thought and I knew I couldn’t simply rely on my own hard work to push through. I didn’t like the feelings of weakness and inadequacy that I was facing each day at work. As I shared these experiences with a Taiwanese non-Christian friend, they resonated with him.
We talked about how as humans we need to find our value and confidence in something outside of ourselves and what we can do. My source of confidence was in God as revealed through the Bible. My friend didn’t have one, so we prayed and asked Jesus to help.
We’re so thankful that God’s grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in weakness. We are so weak, but God is so strong, and we’re so grateful it’s that way round!
