This is my story - Hong Kong/Taiwan 76

76 – Miracles in Taiwan

In chapter 60 I mentioned about our work in Taiwan which came under the supervision of Hong Kong Headquarters. My wife and I visited the Division or Region regularly to conduct inspections, have fellowship with the officers and comrades, hold meetings and conduct church services. Leadership in this Region was always a challenge because of cultural and political differences and the shortage of staff. However, we did have a small but good team of dedicated officers.

During our term of office, we saw several changes of leadership. When we first arrived Captain and Mrs. James Lau were the Divisional Leaders. We had to move them before their son Michael turned twelve; otherwise the latter would have to do national service plus reservist training. So they were transferred to Hong Kong.

They were succeeded by Captain and Mrs. Alfred Tsang. The Tsangs did not stay long either for they faced the same problem – because of their eldest son’s age. Unfortunately we had no one in Hong Kong whom we could appoint to be the leaders in Taiwan.

I had to appeal to International Headquarters for reinforcement officers. Major and Mrs. Graeme Kearns (Graeme is a New Zealander and Ethel an Australian) who had been serving in Indonesia for many years and spoke fluent Indonesian were appointed to succeed the Tsangs.

When their term was up, Major and Mrs. Keith Sharp whom we had worked together in Singapore and Malaysia were appointed by IHQ to succeed them. In fact their first overseas appointment was to Kuching Boys’ Home to succeed us in 1965. Keith spoke Hokkien so that was useful in Taiwan. They served only one term before returning to United Kingdom.

In Taiwan most of the Corps were on rented property. That posed a lot of challenges for us for we were at the mercy of landlords who would raise the rent at their whims and fancies. When they saw our work prospering they would up the rents. In Tainan the Corps moved six times in ten years. This was very disruptive to the work.

The Salvation Army bought a piece of land with money donated by American Salvation Army. We paid for the land, but somehow we seemed to encounter a lot of problems with the architect along the way. The Corps officer (pastor) at time may have contributed to some of the problems. He resigned and Captain and Mrs. Arthur Chen both Taiwanese were appointed to succeed them. Later they were to become the Regional Commanders.

In the meantime estimated costs for building the hall and quarters at Tainan had gone up and we just did not have the money to put up the building. The Lord opened up the way for us to sell the land at a hundred per cent profit! This was sufficient for us to purchase two adjacent three storeyed shop houses – the basement to be used as YP Hall and social services, the ground floor for the church which could seat 70 people comfortably and upstairs as officers’ quarters!  We paid for the renovation and had the new premises for Church and community centre debt free! When we do the will of God, He opens up the way for us.

The Lord worked a miracle. When Captain and Mrs. Chen took up their appointment the church had four people in his congregation and five dollars in the kitty. The Chens had vision and put in plenty of hard work and the church was revived. New people were attracted to the meetings and former Salvationists returned. A year or so later the Church became self supporting! The Lord worked miracles when His servants are truly committed. Major and Mrs. Arthur Chen are now retired and spent their time helping their daughter Jenny and son-in-law Jonah in their ministry at Puli.

For a long time Regional Headquarters was held in the basement of the Taipei Central Corps. With help from America The Army was able to purchase the present Regional Headquarters at Tun Hwa South Street, Taipei. The work is hard and even today there are only five churches and community centres and three social centres.

In 1997 just prior to Hong Kong being returned to China, Taiwan became a separate Region and came under the direct supervision of International Headquarters.

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