mama in taipei! pt. 2

Since my mom was here for Palm Sunday, she was interested in going to a service in Taiwan. She had gotten a few suggestions for churches from family friend, Milo Thornberry, + couldn’t believe that the church she most wanted to go to was in my building!

gikong pres/taipei/march 2013

As seen on the plaque above, the church was founded by Lin Huan-Jun (林奐均), the eldest daughter of Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄).

Lin Yi-hsiung is one of Taiwan’s most known political figures partially because of the tragedy that befell his family on February 28, 1980. While Lin, who had been arrested for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident, was being visited by his wife, someone broke into their family home and stabbed his mother and twin 7-year-old daughters to death. Lin Huan-Jun, 9-years-old at the time, was stabbed 6 times but survived. Despite the fact that the home was under 24-hour surveillance, authorities said that they knew nothing of the attack. No one was arrested for the crime, which remains unsolved. Many believe that the government was behind it as a warning to those involved in the pro-democracy movement.

Given the history, it should have occurred to me that the service would be held in Taiwanese, but it was quite a surprise! The congregation was very warm + inclusive. A man sitting behind us helped us follow along with the songs, etc., by explaining the program + showing us where to find the songs in the song books. In general it was a very cool experience, even though we couldn’t understand the content.

We rounded out the day by doing some eating + shopping at Ximending + The Red House, one of my favorite places for made-in-Taiwan souvenirs.

Since school started again for me on Monday, my mom was on her own for the days + we would link up for dinner + sightseeing at night. She checked out the National Palace Museum on her own + spent a good deal of time at my fave spots: Da’an Park + Yaboo Cafe.

We saw Hedwig in Mandarin, ate at possibly the best beef noodle spot in Taipei + went to Taipei 101 (+ I forgot my camera!!!!!). But probably the most memorable night was Pingxi. By now y’all are probably Pingxi’ed-out, since I’ve already posted about it not once, but twice! Well, here’s the third installment of photos.

me, mama + lantern/pingxi/march 2013

ghost money for fuel/pingxi/march 2013

first step: spread out the paper/pingxi/march 2013

getting ready to send it up…/pingxi/march 2013

filling up/pingxi/march 2013

pingxi/march 2013

almost ready to go…/pingxi/march 2013

my mama’s beautiful calligraphic wish/pingxi/march 2013

up…/pingxi/march 2013

up!../pingxi/march 2013

and away!!/pingxi/march 2013

what a beauty!/pingxi/march 2013

Seeing as my dad hates flying, it’s doubtful that he’ll make it out to Taiwan to visit this time around. But it was so cool to get the chance to show my mom a little bit of what my life is like here!

Here’s to many more adventures!

xoxox

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A lantern’s not quite a star, but has the same sentiment. 🙂