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.

騎樓的一角，一大群「菜菜小志工」圍繞著臺灣中壢真理堂¹ 蔡碧真區牧，嘰嘰喳喳，興奮詢問：「老師！可以開始賣了嗎？」「柳丁一袋要賣多少？」「有人付了一千塊錢²，誰有零錢可以找啊？」……。負責舉辦教會「菜菜小志工」創舉活動的總協調蔡碧真在這頭一邊盤點菜農送來的有機蔬菜與水果，一邊琢磨著臺秤的刻度用法，而那頭蔬果還沒有整理上架，就有顧客開始購買了。碧真形容開工的場面：「超忙、超亂、超刺激！」她心中不住禱告，力持鎮定，卻仍然不改親和的招牌笑容。

▲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.

臺灣中壢真理堂以贏得M世代（1980至1999年間出生），全力培育年輕基督徒成為神國CEO³ 聞名遐邇。2014年聖誕時節，中壢真理堂鼓勵教會的孩子們過一個不一樣聖誕節─「不祈求獲得禮物，而是祈求帶給人們歡樂」，幾經思考與探索，聯手策劃了結合M世代與Z世代（2000年後出生）的「菜菜小志工」活動，將耶穌的愛化為動詞，走入人群，支持弱勢菜農。他們於2月7日、8日兩天，從早上十點到下午五點促銷有機蔬果，連結「好人會館」發起人黃榮敦理事長，一起為臺灣農民加油打氣！

"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.

行人還沒接近騎樓，就有倆倆結夥的菜菜小志工迎來，手裡舉著一袋水果，揚起水晶般清脆的叫賣聲：「叔叔，幫助弱勢菜農，買一袋柳丁吧！才五十塊喲！」「阿姨，買一顆好吃的栗子南瓜吧！每斤⁴ 才六十塊喲！」……；客人走入「墊腳石」騎樓，看見另一群可愛的孩子隨著擴音器「帶動唱」，跳出志工姊姊楊慧文創作的《幸福菜菜歌》，還有他們平日最愛的歌曲；其間，不時齊聲呼喊：「一把蔬菜、一把新鮮；一份綠意、一份香甜。我們是菜菜小志工；為了公益向前衝！」兩個小時卯足了勁，熱情宣傳，讓人動容。蔡碧真也讚賞愛鄰舍協會另一志工隊，他們不辭辛勞，去車站延攬、帶來顧客，忠心堅持、承接挑戰，沒有人叫苦喊累，反而樂此不疲，捨不得回家。

▲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.