I can’t believe that it’s already been one month since I’ve landed in Taiwan.
Any expectations I had were completely gone even before I left the quarantine hotel.
After two weeks in the hotel, I thought I would be able to explore Taipei. I was excited to experience life in the “before times”, before COVID-19. Everybody had looked to Taiwan as a place where COVID never took hold. There were plans on going to night markets, KTV, and making new friends. I was excited to finally meet the people I’d be working with at the Aroma. I was ready to experience life on mission in Taiwan.
By the second week, any possibility of experiencing those things started to fade away. There was a sharp increase in cases of COVID. By the start of the week, we had entered Level 2 (out of 4) of alert in Taiwan. At the end of the week, we had entered Level 3. Level 3 is pretty much similar to the “stay at home” order that we experienced back in March of 2020 (Level 4 would be a lockdown with harsher travel restrictions, aka a lot more government tracking). Taiwan had never entered Level 2 or Level 3 before this. It was set to end at May 28. It has been extended now until June 18. With the current situation, it is expected that Level 3 will be extended even further. Just like in the US, vaccines seem to be the best solution. However, vaccination rates are extremely low, and there has been a big search for other countries to provide vaccines. It will take a few months before shipments arrive, or locally-made vaccines are able to be distributed.
It all feels like deja vu. We have had to work remotely from home. We’ve set up a Discord server for the staff, and pivot a lot of church and outreach activities to Zoom. We’re trying to keep communication up over the Discord server. We made time to have lunch together:
We’ve also have been experimenting with different ways to hold church services online. Instead of just streaming a video over Youtube, we decided to hold service over Zoom. It may not be as polished, but Zoom has allowed us to see each other and to react in real time. We’ve been able to use the breakout rooms to pray for each other during services.
One of the big projects I’ve been able to work on is our online English classes. Usually the cafe holds “Coffee Talks” every Friday night. People from all over the city gather at the cafe, pay a fee for drinks and a lesson, and practice conversing in English. We’ve had to recreate that same atmosphere online. I’ve been able to develop and teach some lessons. I’ve also been able to create pricing models for the online classes. With the expansion of online classes, it has become a new revenue stream for Aroma. Since the cafe has shut down, we’ve been looking for ways to make up revenue.
We still need a lot of prayer. Please pray for:
-the country of Taiwan, especially as it experiences hardship because of COVID
-the vaccine supply, so that Taiwan could finally move past this like the US
-the Aroma Cafe/Church, to be able to build community and relationships online
-my Chinese learning, it has been a long process. I want to be able to learn quickly, because I’ve been feeling very helpless. I feel clueless while trying to live in a new city.
-my personal relationships with people in Taiwan. It feels impossible to develop new relationships with people I’ve never met. The language barrier has not helped at all. I may be the only person at Aroma who doesn’t know any Mandarin