The sad face behind the beautiful veil

Poverty in rural areas that you don’t know [Pastor’s Chapter]

Picture/Wang Lisa

▲Keelung’s landscapes and food are unforgettable, but there is a lot of melancholy behind the beautiful scenery.

I am the first Christian in my family. My parents trained me to study music since I was a child. When I grew up, I became a music teacher. In addition to teaching piano, I also served God and brothers and sisters through music. At a camp, I met the pastor who served together. Thanks to God’s guidance, we got married. After getting married, he served in the church with his husband and was sent to pastor a church in Keelung, northern Taiwan.

Behind the beautiful scenery

Keelung City, with a population of approximately 369,000, is known as the "natural harbor". Due to its rainy climate, it is also known as "Rain Harbor" or "Rain City". Although it is a "rain city", when the sky is clear, beautiful white clouds float in the blue sky, and the turquoise water is blown by the sea breeze. There are also unforgettable night market snacks, delicious pastries and various seasonal fruits.

But behind Keelung's beautiful veil, there are unknown sadness and tears. High unemployment, high divorce rate, intergenerational upbringing, alcoholism, drug abuse and other problems are among the "most serious" in Taiwan. Because Keelung is composed of the largest commercial port in northern Taiwan and countless small fishing ports. Due to the severe impact of the economic recession and a significant reduction in export trade, the job opportunities in Keelung Port have gradually decreased. Coupled with the hard work and meager income in ports and fishing ports, most young people moved to nearby Taipei to work, and those who stayed in Keelung were almost all elderly people and children.

This situation creates more problems. For example, if the earning power is low, or working in other places for a long time, the husband and wife are separated by two places, the children lack education and companionship, or there is a serious problem of intergenerational upbringing... the home gradually loses its original appearance and functions given by God.

Many children have nowhere to go after leaving school and wander around. Many children are even wandering on the streets at 11 o'clock in the evening.

We couldn't bear to see our children grow up in this situation, so we co-organized the Starlight Classroom ministry with the "Seed Charity Association of the Republic of China" to provide after-school tutoring for local children and offer various talent and character learning courses. Then serve hot dinner to the children.

Challenges and new fruits of leading the flock for the first time

God led us to a small place like Keelung Nuannuan, giving us the opportunity to accompany the children here. The church we serve is very small, with only about 20 to 30 members, and almost all of them are old people and children. The oldest is 97 years old, and 1/3 of the members are between 60 and 80 years old. Although brothers and sisters love the Lord very much, pray for the church and preachers every day, and are grateful for everything God has given them, they live in poverty and have endless family problems due to finances, illness, etc. that cannot be solved, which makes us feel powerless.

The church's donation income is low, so it cannot make ends meet every month. The pastor only gets half salary, and the teacher's wife has no salary (half of the pastor's thank you gift must be used for rent, water, electricity, gas, phone, Internet fees... etc.) Despite this, we still It is completely impossible to have any savings, let alone any ideas for financial planning, if you devote yourself wholeheartedly to church service and community ministry.

▲The teacher’s wife and the pastor run after-school tutoring classes to provide a place for young people who are wandering around.

New Fruit 1 Xiaoqing

Xiaoqing is the first child we accompany. She is a child of a single-parent family with intergenerational education.

After Xiaoqing was born, her mother left her and ran away from home, never to return. Xiaoqing's father raised her by himself, but later he was imprisoned for drug abuse. Xiaoqing's support naturally fell on her grandma. Grandma was an old man who was unable to work, so she had to take Xiaoqing to live with her aunt. Xiaoqing's aunt also has her own family pressure and often asks: "Why should I help my brother raise Xiaoqing?"

Because of family and financial reasons, Xiaoqing was kicked around in different families like a ball. How pitiful! But because of our care over the years, Xiaoqing's self-image has gradually improved, and her academic performance has also improved. We are still together today, without interruption.

Xinguo 2 Xiwa

Xiwa's father suffered from severe depression after his grandfather passed away suddenly. He did not want to go out to work or have contact with anyone. Xiwa's mother had no choice but to go out to work. Xiwa's mother has low education, poor work ability and few opportunities. She also has to take care of her sick husband and raise three underage children. Because he and his family relatives share a dilapidated hut, they are unable to apply for any low-income subsidies even if the family is in financial distress.

Xiwa has been attending the supplementary class since she was in the third grade of elementary school. She is very smart, sensible and well-behaved. The pastor taught her swimming and I taught her piano. Xiwa has a strong learning ability and has excellent grades in school. After graduating from junior high school, Xiwa was admitted to the best girls' high school in Taiwan - Beiyi Girls' High School. In Taipei, Xiwa has to commute every day. The commuting cost is insignificant in the eyes of ordinary people, but it is an unaffordable expense for Xiwa's family. Xiwa reluctantly gave up studying at Beijing No. 1 Girls' High School and chose a school near Keelung. Even so, Xiwa was admitted to the medical school of the National University with excellent results after graduating from high school.

New Fruit 3 Fangfang

The new resident Fangfang is a member of the church. She is from China. After divorcing her husband, she worked as a cleaner and raised two children by herself. She goes out to work at 6:00 every morning and doesn't come home until 8:00 in the evening. Because I am worried about my future life and children's education, I hope to do some financial planning. But Fangfang didn't know how to manage money. With no way to ask for help, she had to turn to the only teacher she trusted.

When Fangfang asked me to accompany her on financial planning, I suddenly realized that as a teacher’s wife, I knew nothing about financial management, let alone being Fangfang’s help. After that, Fangfang found someone else to do financial planning, but was deceived and lost a lot of money. After Fangfang’s incident, I became even more alert to the lack of financial knowledge among rural families and pastors.

The shepherd collapsed from exhaustion

In 2019, the pastor suffered a stroke and half of his body was paralyzed. I spent most of my time with him and took care of his daily life. Going to and from the hospital for rehabilitation treatment every day has greatly affected my life and ministry. From the intensive care unit to the general ward, the expensive nursing fees (NT$2,500 per day) made it unbearable for us who were already unable to make ends meet. Although the pastor and I also had insurance plans, we did not get the compensation we deserved due to improper planning.

Because the pastor suffered a stroke, our service in the church was also interrupted, and the salary given to us by the church was also relatively reduced. But thank God, the loving donations of brothers, sisters and others have alleviated a lot of financial pressure. Although we still owe nearly 80,000 yuan in medical and rehabilitation expenses, we still pray to God constantly, asking God to prepare everything we need for medical treatment and daily life!

Rural pastors still need financial education

In fact, many pastors face similar situations to us, but few bring it up for open discussion. For many pastors of small churches, their lives are difficult due to insufficient church contributions. They have been in a state of financial distress for a long time and feel that they are unable to do what they do.

After experiencing my husband's illness, I realized that pastors of small churches may not have enough money to buy a house or make basic medical insurance plans in their lifetime, let alone other savings plans, retirement plans, etc. When small church pastors get sick and retire, a series of financial problems arise. Thank God, even though the pastors live a hard life, they still do not forget to spread the gospel and give alms to others, so that God’s love can come to these people who do not know Jesus yet.

Taiwan's rural areas have gathered a large number of new residents (called foreign spouses before the name change, most of whom are from mainland China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc.) and aboriginal families. Most of them have low educational levels, low self-image, and very low incomes. Unstable and can only do rough work, cleaning and other tasks. They all live at the bottom of society and are unable to educate and accompany their children. They do not consider how to solve financial difficulties at all, and they cannot even talk about contributing to gatherings and ministries.

Martin Ruth once said: "A man can have money, but he must be good at managing it and be the master of it."

St. Francis shared his life experience of embracing poverty: "The less you support yourself, the more you help others, the more joy and spiritual blessings you will have in your heart." John Wesley's concept of financial management is: "Earn as much as you can, earn as much as you can, Save the land and give as much as you can.”

In the process of pastoring, we have received God’s wisdom and words, and we are determined to live out God’s calling and an enviable and abundant life! God’s grace indeed enables us to use money correctly, safely, and appropriately in emergencies to solve unexpected changes. However, this does not happen overnight, but requires learning and training.

Extreme material scarcity does not reflect the glory of God. Especially this time after my husband’s stroke and the financial constraints of the brothers and sisters in the church, I can’t help but think about whether practical biblical financial courses, financial planning courses, insurance management planning and other courses can be included in the seminary courses and teachings to help us effectively Use it in real life. In this way, in addition to helping pastors know how to make risk and financial planning, they can also teach church brothers and sisters to serve and glorify God by becoming faithful, kind and knowledgeable stewards.

We practice what is described in Proverbs 21:5: "Whoever plans diligently will have plenty, but whoever acts hastily will have want." to manage and plan our own finances to prepare for what happens when "accidental necessity" comes. Money needed.

Mrs. Wang Lisa, the wife of Xincheng Church and the starlight class teacher of "Seed Charity Association of the Republic of China".