Friends and family visiting rampage comes to an end. English camp begins.

It turns out to be just a family visiting rampage. Two cousins, two uncles and one aunt. It went like this:

Event One: Uncle and Two Cousins

I spent Saturday with my uncle (mom's older brother) driving to and back from Taichung (2.5 hour drive) to visit two cousins. On the car ride, we got to talk about future plans and my uncle shared a bunch of his own experiences with different people in different contexts: co-workers, wife, kids,... even telemarketers. Many times, when I talk with my relatives, I realize afterward that I could have responded or carried the conversation in a much less superficial way. This was one of those times.

Event Two: Aunt and Uncle

For the last two days, I was with the aunt and uncle I mentioned a few posts ago. It was an interesting time filled with... driving around. I must have hit my head 20 or 30 times dozing off in the backseat while the car went 'round curves in the mountains. Believe it or not, we hiked at a place called LALA MOUNTAIN where I saw...


a butterfly in the parking lot.


a fuzzy bee.


a mini forest on the ground.


a mini flower.


adventurous mushrooms on a rotting branch.


some thing on a thing.


The place was called "giant wood area."


My aunt and uncle are familiar with many of the touristy and local sightseeing areas. At night, we lived at a nice hostel and in the morning we went biking.

On Tuesday, I asked them about their future plans since they retired recently. They talked about their responsibility in raising their grandchildren and about pursuing hobbies. Then, my uncle mentioned something out of the blue: "I think it's good - when people become old - to have a faith." Needless to say, I had much to say about that. But I wanted to hear him out. It seems that, more than anything, he believes faith functions solely as a source of peace for the elderly.

I've tried to confront them with the problem of sin many times in many ways and received the same response: unbelief. Whenever I mention sin, my uncle talks about how religious leaders are very persuasive and manipulative people - even when I point out the stark contrast of the life of Jesus to that of all other "holy" men and so called gods of other religions. Jesus spoke offensively, he made huge crazy claims of deity, and he came to die for us. When I made this clear along with the uniqueness of salvation by faith and not works, my uncle plead not guilty by making it seem like Jesus had ulterior motives and that it is unlikely that he is God.

Subsequently, he started his spiel about how some things are just "unknown" to him to which I responded by explaining natural revelation through creation (this lead to a separate discussion on evolution) and moral laws (this lead to a separate discussion on the existence of absolutes).

In the end, as we were getting close to EBCT where I was supposed to be dropped off, I decided to talk about God's judgment. I never had the opportunity to bring it up in previous conversations, so I wanted to warn them at this point. My uncle brushed off the idea of heaven and hell and categorized them as "unknown." This is where we said our temporary (hopefully) goodbyes and parted ways. I told them that I hope we would have more opportunities to talk in the future and they were on their way after some handshakes and hugs.

My uncle and aunt are two, more or less, happy-go-lucky type people so, though there was a 3 hour long serious discussion, there was no real personal offense taken/given though I know the gospel offended them.

It's times like these that I feel - even more so than usual - that I don't deserve my salvation. Praise the Lord.


PS English camp is starting in 4 hours. Please pray for my personal devotion to the Lord during this time away from home. Pray for this extended period of time with all the teachers at my school - that perhaps I would have the opportunity to talk about non-superficial things, namely, eternal things. Teacher Jason in particular, claims to be in a pastoral role or leadership role for a youth group, but "Gary" from way long ago said that he felt Jason does not REALLY believe in what he says he believes. I'm curious and I want to find time to get to know Jason. Pray for humility and wisdom.