Tastes of Homeland

"Uh, Glenn, I bet those noodles must be very good.  Just look at the line of people over there!"

My friend Willis and I marveled at the crowd in front of the noodle stand as we strolled along a popular shopping area in Taipei, Taiwan.  I happened to be in Taipei for a conference, and made it a priority to visit Willis, his wife Jocelyn, and daughter Phoebe on my first day there.  Jocelyn and Phoebe were going to meet us later in the evening, and Willis suggested that we first scout out the area for good places to eat.  Willis was clearly drawn in by the smell of boiled pig intestines, vinegar, lard-fried shallots and pungent ground white peppercorns that saturated the crowded standing-room only area (i.e., the street - there was no chair in sight).  The stuff was not for the faint of stomach, but for someone like me who spent his formative years in Taiwan, this was supposed to be food heaven.

Unfortunately, I was a bit weak in the gut, having recently endured a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles, a midnight hotel check-in and an 8-hour jet lag.  Moments later I stood with Willis and his family as they happily slurped down gloppy, heavily seasoned bowls of thin rice noodle soup with pig intestines while I slowly consumed my own bowl of the concoction, trying my best to hide my nausea and bloating.  The trip to Taiwan wasn't quite off to a good start.

It took a couple more days before my innards became well adjusted to being in Taiwan, and once that happened I was on a gustatory mission to make up for lost time.  I ate everywhere - in food courts underneath train stations and department stores, at roadside stands, and in night markets.  I ran two hours every morning to burn off some calories so that I could eat some more.  Pig intestines?  Bring it on.  I was hungering for good old hometown cuisine, and there wasn't a lot of time.

The following Sunday morning I joined Willis, Jocelyn and a few other friends for worship at a local church in Taipei.  As the service began, a pastor led us in prayer for the service, the worship leaders, the speaker, the message, and for our hearts to be receptive to God's word.  The worship leader and musicians led us in several songs of praise to God.  The pastor then led the congregation in responsive reading of the Bible verses for the day, and the senior pastor gave an expository sermon from the book of Hebrews.  As I participated in the service, I was awash in joy and gratitude, and a hint of tears appeared in my eyes.  The week of eating, running, meeting with friends and relatives, attending the conference, and shopping for friends and family back home left me with little time to spend with God, and by the end of the week I was spiritually parched and starving.  For those of us who claim to worship God and call on Jesus as both Lord and Savior, time spent at a worship service should be like having a taste of home cooking, since our citizenship is in heaven.  We hunger and thirst for that which only God can satisfy.

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.  (Psalm 42:1)

After the service, my friends and I met at Willis and Jocelyn's apartment, where we eagerly engulfed a mountain of food purchased from the various street vendors we encountered on the way back from church.  The feasting continued.

Opening Cacophony

The banquet hall at the Taipei International Conference Center was nearly full with several hundred delegates who arrived for the opening ceremony of an international medical conference.  The official name of the conference was "The 4th World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition", but it's unlikely that anyone in attendance could actually remember all that.  I milled around stiffly around the food tables, not quite feeling comfortable in my striped dress shirt, tie and brand new slacks that I just bought.  I rarely paid as much attention to my clothes unless someone is getting married or buried, but as I scanned the room, I noticed that all the men from the Taiwanese contingent wore dark business suits, and the Taiwanese women also were seriously attired as if they were having job interviews.  The Japanese delegates also looked quite sharp, though their business suits showed a bit more variety.  Most Europeans and North Americans dressed a bit less formally, and not everyone wore a jacket.  The most casual appearing ones were from Latin American nations, with some of the men wearing open collared shirts and blue jeans, while their female delegates were either dressed to party or to go shopping.  Only a few came from Africa, but they represented their nations well in ethnic garb.  It was quite an inhomogeneous crowd, with all sorts of sizes, faces, personalities, interests, origins, and attire.

And languages.

As I walked around the crowded hall, I heard conversations in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Scandinavian languages, African languages, and a smattering of English with various regional accents representing the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.  The sights and sounds brought to memory the description of the "great multitude" that the apostle John wrote in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  (Revelation 7:9)

The opening ceremony started with official words of welcome from the conference organizer, followed by the presidents of each of the participating medical societies.  I did my best to demonstrate respect to these prominent leaders in medicine by listening to their carefully chosen words, but I could not help but hear something else...I heard conversations in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and tongues representing all tribes and nations.  No one was really listening.  The conversations throughout the room would continue until the reception got under way, when mouths would then be used for eating instead.

Clearly, the comparison between the doctors at a banquet hall and "a great multitude...standing before the throne and before the Lamb" turns out to be very poor indeed.  How wonderful and contrasting is the sight and sound of that great multitude before the Lamb, for while they are each diverse and unique in innumerable ways, they are yet united in the purpose of giving God all the glory, and cried out to God in "one" voice - intelligible, beautiful, and harmonious.

and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  (Revelation 7:10)