A handful of fruit on the altar

【M Generation Volunteer Group】

Interview compilation/Photo provided by Yi Wei/Lin Lizhen, Cai Bizhen

▲The young volunteers learned to use a platform scale (a scale used by Taiwanese folk) to weigh the weight of Lianwu.

That day was so exciting!

It is the twelfth lunar month of winter in Taiwan's treasure island in 2015. In about ten days it will be the Lunar New Year. It is originally a time when the wind is blowing and the air is frosty. On February 7, the sun was shining brightly, the air was clear and comfortable, and the atmosphere was refreshing. The front porch arcade of "Stepping Stone Book Plaza", the flagship store of the Taiwan-wide chain, has been filled with joyful and jumping notes since ten o'clock in the morning. From the loudspeaker, a singing voice full of local flavor and joy comes: "Come and buy. The food...Today's food is really delicious...Uncles, uncles, aunts, grandma, and grandpa come together to be good people...send love and bring happiness home..."

▲In order to care for the disadvantaged farmers, the young volunteer overcame his shyness, mustered up the courage to go to the crowd, and actively shouted and hawked.

In the corner of the arcade, a large group of "Vegetarian Cai Cai" surrounded Pastor Cai Bizhen of Zhongli Hall of Truth 1 in Taiwan, chattering excitedly and asking: "Teacher! Can we start selling?" "How much does a bag of Liuding cost?" “Someone paid a thousand yuan2, who has change to give?”…. Cai Bizhen, the general coordinator in charge of organizing the church's "Cai Cai Little Volunteer" initiative, was taking stock of the organic vegetables and fruits sent by the vegetable farmers here, while thinking about how to use the scales. On the other side, before the fruits and vegetables were sorted and put on the shelves, there were customers Started buying. Bi Zhen described the scene at the start of work: "It's super busy, super chaotic, and super exciting!" She kept praying in her heart and tried to stay calm, but she still kept her friendly and friendly smile.

▲Brothers and sisters of the M generation enthusiastically lead young volunteers to sell vegetables.

Come on, Taiwanese farmers!

For people who "want to eat vegetarian and eat locally", Taiwan is undoubtedly a food paradise. Even in winter, vegetables are abundant, fruits are harvested, and there are a variety of choices. This is thanks to farmers who work hard all year round. However, due to various factors, Agricultural products often remain unsaleable and prices plummet, resulting in all the money lost. Farmers can only watch with heartache and helplessness as their hard-working crops are abandoned and turned into compost.

Taiwan’s Zhongli Truth Church is famous for winning Generation M (born between 1980 and 1999) and making every effort to train young Christians to become CEOs of the Kingdom of God3. During the 2014 Christmas season, Zhongli Truth Church encouraged the children of the church to have a different Christmas - "Don't pray for gifts, but pray to bring joy to people." After much thought and exploration, they jointly planned a plan to combine Generation M and Generation Z. (born after 2000)’s “Little Vegetable Volunteer” activity turns the love of Jesus into a verb and goes among the crowd to support disadvantaged vegetable farmers. They will be promoting organic fruits and vegetables from 10 am to 5 pm on February 7th and 8th. They will connect with Chairman Huang Rongdun, the founder of "Good People Club", to cheer for Taiwanese farmers together!

"Taoyuan City Love Neighbors Association" is a consortium registered with the government by Zhongli Truth Church. The most popular thing about the "Love Neighbor Association" is its connection with the local community. The community provides an activity center as the venue, and the church provides volunteers to design classes for disadvantaged children, after-school tutoring classes, youth talent classes, etc. Almost every child or teenager who comes in will be cared for by an M-generation big brother or sister. Over the past ten years, it has served at least 1 million children and teenagers.

Love your neighbor and move forward!

▲The M generation that has been built up by the church not only possesses the beautiful character of obedience, but also has an incomparable passion for commitment.

For the first time, "Cai Cai Little Volunteers" mobilized students and teachers from disadvantaged children's accompanying classes, as well as 30 students from the "Experimental Primary and Secondary Schools" applied for establishment by the Neighborhood Association in 2013, forming a huge force of nearly 500 volunteers. The team was divided into two teams under the leadership of the eight district pastors of Zhongli Truth Church, and started the ministry of supporting farmers with love on the first floor of "Stepping Stone" and "Love Neighbor Association".

Each district pastor forms a family of his own and is responsible for two hours of down-to-earth work. Each family had properly allocated the publicity, venue management and cashier work earlier, and when they arrived at the venue, they were all in place and performing their duties. The largest group of volunteers are children and teenagers aged seven to fourteen, with more than 400 people. Truth Hall uses the "win-win thinking" taught in the character course to help disadvantaged farmers with sincerity, and also cultivates the courage of children to overcome shyness and go to the crowd when sending love. According to Cai Bizhen's description, their performance is remarkable, and people really cannot underestimate their youth.

Before the pedestrians even approached the arcade, two small volunteers from Cai Cai came to greet them. They held a bag of fruit in their hands and shouted in a crystal-clear voice: "Uncle, help disadvantaged vegetable farmers, buy a bag of willow dices." "It's only fifty yuan!" "Auntie, buy a delicious chestnut pumpkin! It's only sixty yuan per catty!"... The guest walked into the "Stepping Stone" arcade and saw another group of cute children following him. The loudspeaker "led the singing" and played "Happy Vegetable Song" composed by volunteer sister Yang Huiwen, as well as their favorite songs. During this period, they shouted in unison from time to time: "A handful of vegetables, a handful of freshness; A portion of greenery, a portion of sweetness. We are volunteers of Caicai; we are moving forward for charity!" We worked hard for two hours, and the enthusiastic promotion was touching. Cai Bizhen also praised another volunteer team of the Love Neighbor Association. They worked tirelessly to recruit and bring customers to the station. They persisted faithfully and took on the challenge. No one complained about being tired, but they enjoyed it and were reluctant to go home.

▲The cute children sang along with the loudspeaker and danced to the "Happy Cai Cai Song" composed by volunteer sister Yang Huiwen.

Awesome, so good at selling!

The organic fruit and vegetable snacks launched this time include: willow dices, lotus mist, dark green chestnut pumpkin, orange Dongsheng pumpkin, precious tree tomatoes, and ugly oranges, which are gray with black spots but sweet and juicy. Guests who have tried it all praised: "It's so delicious!" There are also jackfruit cookies baked by the aborigines. The biggest sale was 1,000 kilos of cabbage from Jianshi Township. Teacher Huang Rongdun peeled off a piece and gave it to Cai Bizhen to try. She was surprised to find: "The frosted cabbage from the high mountains is cool and refreshing, and tastes better than Iceberg lettuce." .

Teacher Huang revealed on Facebook that this batch of high-quality cabbage was part of the 2,000 kilos harvested by aboriginal vegetable farmers at the first light of dawn three days ago. They organized and packed the baskets until about three o'clock in the afternoon; two hard-working young farmers He drove an old truck down the mountain without stopping, arriving at the beginning of the lights in Taipei. It was not until nearly ten o'clock that he finished unloading the huge amount of cabbage. He sighed: "Who knows the hard work of farmers?" Because he was not sure about the "cai cai small" "Volunteers" strength, "Haoren Club" will initially provide one thousand kilograms for trial sale. On the first day, four teachers from the "Good People Club" also helped at the "Stepping Stone". Seeing the church mobilizing such a large team, their eyes were filled with gratitude. Seeing the grand scene of customers rushing to buy, I kept praising: "It's amazing! You are so good at selling!"

The trading was so strong that I actually lost nearly 5,000 yuan on the first day of settlement! Bizhen was puzzled. Liu Ding checked the child's scale. How could he weigh two pounds and have such a big bag? Ouch! They read the scale wrong and put in four pounds! Even so, you won’t lose so much. Does anyone remind Bizhen whether the inventory is correct when receiving the goods? Count the empty baskets again, alas! After counting the extra five baskets of cabbage, each basket costs 950 yuan. No wonder! The next day, we will adjust the vegetable prices, correct the number of baskets, and keep up the good work! Many customers were happy to participate in this meaningful activity and left change. When they checked out, they received NT$47,615, a profit of NT$12,000. The results were brilliant, defeat was turned into victory, and it ended successfully! thank God!

▲Volunteers lined up under the "Stepping Stone" arcade, turning the love of Jesus into verbs to support disadvantaged farmers.

Passionate M generation!

The “Vegetarian Cai Cai Volunteers” are led by nearly 80 millennials aged between 15 and 34 years old. General Officer Cai Bizhen, who is in charge of the overall situation and belongs to the M generation himself, greatly admires and praises them. They not only have a beautiful character of obedience, but also are flexible, highly mobile, have excellent physical strength, and have an incomparable enthusiasm for dedication.

How did this group of extremely powerful M-generation elite soldiers from the Kingdom of God come about, led by the elders and passed down by love? They are Pastor Lin Xiongjian and Mrs. Yang Ruojun of Zhongli Truth Church, who put down their careers in the United States, took a step of faith, returned to Taiwan, and devoted a quarter of a century of their lives, from junior college youth ministry to children's ministry, according to God's The mind, shepherded, pruned, adjusted and renewed over the years, is the generation won by the Lord!

The "Little Volunteer Cai Cai" who takes action for the first time is the first fruits offered on the altar by Taiwan's Zhongli Hall of Truth!

▲Cai Bizhen (right), general secretary of the "Love Neighbor Association", connected with Huang Rongdun, chairman of the "Good People Association", to cheer for Taiwanese farmers together!

Notes
1. For the touching story of Zhongli Truth Church in Taoyuan City, which cultivated the M generation to become the main force of the church, please read Liao Meihui, "Bringing up the young and passing on the love", "Kingdom of God Magazine" Issue 33 (September, 2013): 77 to page 80.
2. The currency system in this article is New Taiwan Dollar, and one U.S. dollar is approximately equal to NT$31.
3. Outstanding young people with character, leadership, and problem-solving abilities.
4. The measurements in this article are all in taijin, and one jin is 600 grams.

Cai Bizhen, born in December 1979
Growing up in a Taiwanese family with folk beliefs, I was admitted to Chung Yuan University in 1998 and took the "Religious Philosophy" class taught by Pastor Lin Xiongjian. My first encounter with the Christian faith wonderfully touched the soft corner of my heart and led me to step into the church to see what is going on. curious.
At that time, Bizhen suffered from severe skin allergies on her face. The girl was shy and struggled with inferiority. She prayed to God: "If you are the true God, heal me." The stubborn disease was actually cured!

I am in a family of four children, but I feel alienated from my parents and siblings. The love and warmth of Christ filled the church, which soothed her loneliness and pain. In 1999, she was baptized, her body and mind were renewed, and she embarked on the path of blessing.