Taiwan Baptist Mission family

For the past decade (maybe more) the Taiwan Baptist mission (TBM) family has held a bi-annual reunion. I'm not sure who decided to try and arrange the first such event but would guess some Raleys were involved. Harry and Francis Raley were Southern Baptist (SB) missionaries in Taiwan for many years and have several children and grandchildren. Their son David was in charge of this year's reunion and he and the committee did a great job of organizing and arranging both facilities and program events. It was held at the 4-H facility in central Arkansas.

My mission family back in the day included about 100 missionaries and their children (MKs). SB missionary families lived all over the island of Taiwan (Taipei in the North, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taitung and even Hualien).

Their work included church work with local pastors and churches, Chinese college student ministries, Morrison Academy (MK school) ministries, Taiwan Baptist seminary ministries, and even language study before moving to other Asian cities to work with Chinese living in places other than Taiwan.

Well, this weekend I was privileged to spend almost 72 hours with my uncles, aunts, and cousins in an incredible time of fellowship, worship, and revelry. We started on Friday with the requisite site check-in and unloading of bags and suitcases. Those who drove had plenty of help bringing our bags in and a local church provided bus shuttle service (thanks to David Raley and his friends) from the airport for those who flew in. The facility is pretty nice and is very wheelchair accessible. There are a couple of us who use wheelchairs so that was a nice feature. We then had dinner later that afternoon with a time of worship and fellowship that evening. We have the luxury of having numerous great pastors, incredible singers, and talented musicians in the group so we can pick and choose who ministers at each event.

Of course many of us stayed up entirely too late Friday night catching up on current jobs, family changes, life's issues and of course tons of "remember the time ..." that always come up. One of the true joys of these bi-annual events has been my opportunity to really get to know more intimately my family members. As a kid I loved each of them but I was never really as concerned with them and their lives as I was with me and my life. Now I love to hear their stories and have been encouraged and my faith strengthened by their lives of sacrifice and service to our Lord and Savior. As they share times of trial on the mission field followed by stories of God's faithfulness and grace through these same trials my faith is strengthened and my heart rejoices. These men and women (of which my dad and mom are a part) have lived lives of courage and sacrifice and yet none would choose a different path. They all surrendered to the call of their Father to "go and make disciples" and they all said "where ever You lead I'll go".

Here is a picture of one of the winning Dragon Boats. On Saturday afternoon we had about 6 boats with teams in place for the first annual dragon boat races. David R was going to stand in the front of a boat in his boxers with sweat rag in place (in honor of all those brave dragon boat captains of old) but decided not to at the last minute.



The highlights of these weekends for me are times of sharing by uncles and aunts as they share thoughts on their time in Taiwan and other countries they have served. Several of the Taiwan missionaries also served in Vietnam before the US - Vietnam war. Most were there during the war and had to leave "their country" in 1975 when Saigon fell. Even today they mourn the loss of that time (from 1975 to the present) and opportunity to share with the Vietnamese people of Christ's love and grace. Several served in Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, the Philippines, and countries in Africa before or after their time in Taiwan. Their stories of nomadic existence only reinforces their testimonies of faithfulness and their commitment to go "where ever You lead God".

Here are a couple of small group pictures from the weekend.







My prayer is that I too can be faithful to live out my faith and be the salt in a bland and taste deprived world. What an incredible responsibility He has given us as His gospel message to those we meet.