The Chinese-Taiwanese Christian congregation in Jerusalem

Some seemed genuinely happy, some seemed very suspicious but all were utterly surprised at what I believe was their first western looking non-Chinese non-Taiwanese guest in their Saturday Christian mass.

It was by coincidence that I briefly saw Taiwanese Kui when she came to say "Hi" to some of my Chinese friends. Asking about her, I learned that she’s a female-priest from Taiwan who came here to study Hebrew and who’s very active with the Christian Chinese-Taiwanese community in Jerusalem. I’ve always figured there must be some Chinese foreign workers in Jerusalem, and that some of them are probably Christian, but I thought they might be blending in with the endless Christian communities available in Jerusalem. Once I learned that the Chinese-Taiwanese hold their own ceremony in Chinese somewhere downtown, I thought it might be nice to go and visit them, take some part in their life in Israel.

Arriving there was the first time that I met Kui and so there was a little confusion as what I was doing there and whom I was referring to, but once I found Kui she turned out to be a wonderful host, making me feel very welcome. Communications was a bit difficult, but a mixture of her basic English and my extremely lame Chinese did the trick. The hall was almost packed with people, most of them males, almost of them Chinese, and I think the few women that were there were there were Taiwanese. In front of every seat rested the bible with the old and new Testament in Chinese, and the prayer was mainly performed by doing KTV to Chinese religious songs displayed on the wall by a projector. Surprisingly enough, I was able to read about 20% of the characters and was even able to understand some of the meaning and figure out the equivalent prayer I remembered from my previous rare visits to a church. The priest’s wife accompanied the songs on the piano, and the whole community sang together. After the singing and some Chinese preaching by the Taiwanese priest, we split up into two small groups to learn a new song that they’ll be singing in the upcoming Chinese New Years from the 23rd Psalm "The Lord is my Shepherd" (I think :$) :

I’m not Christian, and the visit wasn’t about Christianity or religion. It was the only way that I could think of to get to know the Chinese people in my home-town. I do wish that my communication skills in Chinese were better, but either way – it was a very unique heartwarming experience.