She gave me joy; but I forgot her name--My first Christianity Experience

The year was about 1953. I was eight years old. Taiwan at the time was a typical 3rd-world country. Even in a very tough time, I met an angel. She gave me many joy. Unfortunately, I don't remember her name. I will call her Miss. Wu. She was about the same age as mine.

She and I grew up together in the same neighborhood of Chang-Hua, the most impoverished neighborhood of the city. The neighborhood did not have sewer systems; nor garbage pick-up. No asphalt road, only the dirt roads. There were 30-40 families clustering together; ignored, neglected or forgotten by the rest of the Chang-Hua city. Every family was struggling from one meal to the next meal. Yes, I had experienced those hard days in my early childhood life. So did she.

Summer days were hot and long. Because none of the family could afford the electric fans, we usually left our door open to catch some breeze. Once the doors were open, we all knew each other very well; especially our religion. In the folk religion, each family would put ancestors and other gods' images on the altar in the first room of the house. For a very long time, Miss. Wu's family was just like any other families, they also had ancestor and Buddha's images.

Then one day, those images and the altar were all gone from Miss Wu's family. Ms. Wu's family became a Christian family. That did not catch much of my attention until I noticed that she was helping her parent distributing flour, bread and butter to our neighborhood. What's a God-sent gift to all of us in the neighborhood for the bread and butter. They are the calories everybody needed. Apparently, her church had worked with American churches to distribute food reliefs to the needed Taiwanese families. That was the first experience we had with the charity and generosity of American churches and American people. Everyone in the neighborhood was deeply appreciated. During that time, she had also asked me to help her and her parent. I did , and I was very happy to do that. From time to time, she also invited me to attend children sessions of her church service. I did; I was specially motivated because the minister of the church would give us beautiful cards to keep if we could recite bible phrases in the sessions. I have gotten many cards and I had kept those cards for a long time. Those are the joyful times I had with my childhood.

Then suddenly there was an epidemic swept through Taiwan like a hurricane. It was the Diphtheria 白帿 epidemic which stroke very hard on the children under 15 years old especially in the neighborhood that had no money to afford the basic medical care. Schools and churches were closed for a while and I did not see her since then.

One night, I had seen a group of people gathering together at her house singing hymes. Other than that, I did not notice anything unusual.

The epidemic was over after three-week; school and church re-opened again. After that epidemic, she was not seen in the school; nor in the church. She was gone. The Diphtheria has taken her life away. That happened approximately 50 years ago.

She had given me joy in my childhood; but I cannot remember her name. I will call her, Miss Wu.

Surrendering to the High Power of God--My Personal Reflection After Reading Hamlet

My brother had given a talk on one of the Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet". This is a great story about 'surrendering to the Higher Power or God. I don't know if you had known the story of "Hamlet" or not. But, I will give you a synopsis of the story and explain why 'surrendering' is the best strategy for Hamlet maybe for us too.

Prince Hamlet was in a great mental agony for several reasons. His father, King Hamlet, was murdered by King's brother, Claudius, His mother, Gertrude, remarried to Claudius just 2 weeks after King's funnel, and Ghost King Hamlet told Prince Hamlet that Claudius was the true murderer of his death, and he also uncovered the true murderer through the observation of Claudius' reaction to the revise show of The Murder of Gonzago in which the play displayed the exact details as the ghost had told the prince how the king was murdered. However, as he tried to follow Claudius to avenge the murder, he found that Claudius knelt in a chapel saying prayer. The prince hesitated thinking he revenge during the time Claudius repented over his sin, he would send Claudius to Heaven instead of the Hell. The Prince went directly to his mother Gertrude to whom he despised. During a verbal quarreling, the Prince noticed some one came to her mother's bedroom. The Prince thought it was Claudius. In a great hurry, he used his sword killed the 'intruder', who was actually Polonius who was the father of his childhood buddy, Laertes, and the father of his 'lover' , Ophelia. I have a quotation mark over the 'lover' because even Opelia fell in love with the Prince, the Prince showed no interest and no respect for her. The Prince even insulted Ophelia, telling her she was a prostitute.

'King' Claudius sent the Prince exile to England for additional education. Before the journey, the King sealed a letter in an envelope and asking Prince's companions to deliver to the King of England. In the letter, King Claudius requested King of England to execute the Prince immediately. The Prince absolutely had no idea about the content of the letter.

On the trip to England from Denmark, the ship was hijacked by the Viking. The Prince thought that was the end of his fate because the Viking was notorious about how they treated the prisoner. Besides, the Viking were Norwegians whose king was just murdered by King Hamlet not long ago. To the contrary of what he had expected from the Viking, the Viking treated him with respect after the Viking searched through the Prince' belonging including the letter. The Viking gave the Prince the letter that Claudius wrote.

From that moment, the Prince had an epiphany. God knows everything. Surrendering to God, and follow God's direction. God will tell him what to do. The Prince went back to Denmark.

Meanwhile, Prince's 'lover' Ophelia committed suicide by drowning herself due to mistreatment of the Prince. The Prince's childhood buddy, Laeters was furious over the death of his father Polonius, and his sister Ophelia. Laeters challenged the Prince for a duel. King Claudius would witness the duel. Claudius knew that the Prince would win the duel easily, so he told Laeters to put poison in Laeter's sword. So, even a small cut on Prince Hamlet's body, the Prince would die.

When we judge, a flower becomes a weed.

On the green grass either in the lawn in front of the suburban residential home or in the park, or on the side of a walking trail, when they are decorated with yellow flowers, these flowers with the green background are very pretty (Figure 1). Even if those flowers are matured and become white-fluffy ball, they also decorated the green trail with a surreal appeal (Figure 2). Chinese medicine regards this type of plants with the root having therapeutic activity for liver ailment.

The name of the flower is dandelion. American homeowners had spent million of dollars trying to remove these flowers from their green lawn.

Under the judgmental mind of American suburban culture, a flower becomes a weed; unfortunately, the pretty beautiful dandelion becomes the weed doomed to be for mass destruction.

The Old Kentucky Home

The year was 1852 in an old Kentucky cottage. Annie was a servant working as a nanny to Mrs. Stevens' young infant. Annie was actually an African slave; but as long as Annie did not cross the master-slavery boundary, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens treated her kindly.

Annie was a gifted a musician. Mrs. Stevens gave her a banjo that Annie often played the banjo and sang lullabies to Mrs. Stevens' infant girl. Annie worked very hard tending all household chores. But as long as the Stevens treated her kindly, Annie was very content with her life.

There was an economic recession in Kentucky as Mr. Stevens went through grave economic hardship. As the Stevens' debt mounted, the Stevens had to sell their last possessions, the African slaves including Annie to a new master in Louisiana who had a sugar plantation.

The Stevens told Annie about this in a summer night. The masters of sugar can plantation were often notoriously ruthless. The slaves often worked in a very harsh conditions enduring all the abuse of white masters.

Sadly, Annie sang the following song, which is known today as the old Kentucky Hume. The lyrics is:

he sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home.
'Tis summer, the darkies are gay,
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,
All merry, all happy and bright.
By 'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night.

Weep no more my lady, oh! weep no more today!
We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home,
For the old Kentucky home far away.

They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon,
On the meadow, the hill and the shore,
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,
On the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part,
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!

p.s. The lyrics and music were actually written by Stephan Foster, a great American composer. The tune was from African-American. The song was an anti-slavery song portraying the inhuman part of the slavery in America before the Civil War.

Amazing Grace

John Newton was a notorious ruthless slave captain. He owned a ship that shipped slaves from west Africa to America for profit. He had no God; and he yielded to no one.

While he was sailing the same slave-trade route to America in 1748, his ship encountered a violent storm so violent that he thought that was the end of his life and everything.

During the storm, he heard a soothing voice came from some of his African slaves, a native tune for West African people. Hurriedly, on the back of an envelop, he scrambled the following words:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

When the storm was over, he sailed back to West Africa and released all his slaves. He later became a strong advocate of anti-slavery in America.

Here is the photo of John Newton.