autumn...and injustice

in case you don't know, summer and winter are the dominant seasons in taiwan. fall and spring are rarely mentioned when people discuss weather here, because summers are so stinking hot and winters are so cold. well, winter here feels cold to ME, anyway, since i'm a wussy southerner. but also because of (1) the humidty, and (2) it feels colder driving a scooter, and (3) i've just acclimatized.

so, yes. fall, my favorite season -- a time of football games (can't you just hear the marching band?), light jackets, bouquets of freshly sharpened back-to-school pencils and beautiful leaves -- has been something that i've missed out on the past few years. sad. especially since it's such a beautiful time in NC. and in case you don't believe me, here's a picture taken in the smoky mountains...

well, i'm acting as if fall doesn't exist here at all. it does. it's just really short. so all these ramblings just to let you know that....

i think fall has arrived.

P and i once talked about how we loved the day every year when we realized it was time to start wearing a jacket on our scooters. it's something you probably don't understand unless you've lived here. but summer can be so hot that you'll almost do anything to keep moving to have air blowing against you as you drive. and by almost anything i mean run red lights. which i have done plenty of times just because i could no longer stand sitting still on my scooter with other people's hot exhaust adding to the thickness and sweatiness of the day. so after many long months of overbearing summers, any scooter rider will tell you that the day you realize it's time to wear a jacket is a glorious one.

and for me, that day was today.

i was driving home tonight, and i was so thankful that i had brought my jean jacket. it felt so good. i'm going to relish the next few weeks of fall weather. bring it on. and i'm praying that wintertime in taipei won't be more than i can handle. i've heard bad things about it, folks. i may be begging for the mugginess of summer before it's over.

OK, time for a subject shift. so i had dinner tonight with a few friends, including a guy who's visiting a friend here in taipei. the visiting guy is doing language study in seoul, with his sights set on serving long-term (and by long-term, i mean the rest of his life) in a country north of seoul that shall remain nameless (which i will refer to as NK). although i know that this country's leader, you-know-who (who i will refer to as KJI) is a big meanie and that NK is a closed country with nuclear capabilities; after talking to this guy (who i will refer to as guy), i realized how little i knew about the country. he really opened my eyes to how oppressed NK is. oppressed isn't even the right word. i guess i kind of thought that it couldn't be that much worse than china, but i was so wrong. some shocking things i learned:

1) all cell phones are banned. when guy went for a visit to investigate "possible business opportunities," he had a to check his cell phone at the border.

2) they have no access to the internet. none. zip. nada. they have no clue about the outside world, though they are learning more through certain TV shows. guy said they probably suspect that their lives are pretty bad in comparison with the rest of the world, but they have no idea to what extent.

3) if you want to call outside of NK, you have to go to an "international communication center," which has about 10 phones. all conversations are taped.

4) the personality cult surrounding KJI and his father. if work has to be done on any of their images (which are found in many public places), the entire structure will be covered, so no one will ever see them "looking bad".

5) KJI's grandmother was apparently a presbyterian deacon, and therefore some "bible study" type methods have been incoporated into mandatory weekly meetings. but instead of learning the bible, of course, they study KJI's father's quotes and philosophies. at the end of the meetings, instead of encouraging each other like we might do in the west, they have to go around the group and point out each other's weaknesses or something that they each did wrong that week.

6) they just don't have enough food, natural resources, or anything that they need; and the government just doesn't seem to care. millions of people are believed to have died in famines in the late 1990s. guy said he saw an 18-year-old boy there who was so undernourished that he was the size of a 10-year-old.

in doing my own googling after dinner with guy, i found out that (now unsurprising) NK is reported as having some of the worst human rights conditions in the world. severe accounts of violation of freedom of speech, thought, conscience, and religion.

there's so much more i could write. and i know that some of you already knew all of these facts, plus more. but, blissful in my ignorance, i just didn't know.

but now my heart weeps for these people. folks, do we have any idea how good we have it?? when i consider some of the things that occupy my heart and mind, or when i consider some of my desires and how i react when i don't get what i hope for, i realize how extremely selfish and spoiled i am. thinking about these people in NK gives me a new appreciation to how truly blessed i am, and how silly i am for wanting more when i already have so much -- physically and spiritually. and considering that people there can get killed for sharing the gospel, it's a call to be even more active in evangelism where i am right now. taiwan is so open! why aren't we doing more?

guy said that up until 2 years ago that hardly anyone was talking about missionary activity in NK. but over the past couple years, people all over the world have been stirred up (surely no coincidence) and that teams are being assembled. he said the next big step may be mobilizing chinese christians along the border to go in, which is much easier since they don't need a visa like westerners do. but it's a much bigger risk...a chinese person would most likely be assasinated in open-air whereas an american would just be kicked out.

despite all these negative things that i've written...which have probably left most of you thinking that the guy we had dinner with must be out of his mind...i can't help but be totally moved by all of this, and to indulge myself in what-ifs. by that i mean wondering whether or not i have some place in it, physically. my heart in some little ways tonight was saying "here i am, Lord, send me". but it's probably just my curiosity about the idea of serving in a new place after being in taiwan so long, where nothing is new anymore.

anyway, i know some of you are thinking, duh, there are injustices and human rights violations all over the world, are you just now figuring this out? well, no. but i guess it came and slapped me in the face tonight. i know i should be more actively investigating the world's injustices and praying for the oppressed, but honestly, i must confess, i just haven't really cared. Lord, help me care more! melt our hardened hearts. give us your heart for justice and for people. give us your heart for the nations!

"is this not the fast which i choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him?

...and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness and your gloom will become like midday. and the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in the scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." --from isaiah 58

let's pray for NK and for the people who are working there. may God set the captives free.

if you read this far, i congratulate you. thanks for listening.