One day before the LNY dinner on 1-21-2017

It is one day before the big day of Lunar New Year party of the Taiwanese Association of American in St. Louis, TAA-STL.

While the inauguration of a new President of USA marks the beginning of a new era, normally with half of the population resisting, the TAA-STL also try to start a new era but with the old faces in the board of directors.

It appears to be a difficult challenge. The president, a caretaking role now, issues a chat about the dream of re-starting the non-profit organization for cultivating the Taiwanese American heritage and identify in St. Louis area. It is posted in Mandarin here.

If you need or "can offer" an English version please write or call.

謝謝董事們辛勞地籌備，讓台灣同鄉會的新春晚會再回人間聖路易。特別感謝謝昌宏董事，他挑起總策劃的重擔，雖然臨時有要事需要出國，仍然拼到最後一天。若有人願意代替他本來計畫要兼扮的財神爺，還有機會試看看。什麼話都不需要講，出現時間也自己決定，給大家、你、跟家人一個意外的驚奇。願意的人請私訊給我 (groh.hisam@gmail.com 或314-488-5150)

正式的宣告總是不好聽，我來試看看避免在餐會時煞風景，就在這裡聊聊同鄉會的某些話題。看看能不能激起些許漣漪，引發鄉親社區的前進。歡迎提出疑問或討論。

長話短說，我們需要找出繼續玩下去的理由、方法、與策略。其實最根本的是該談談我們在聖路易要怎麼活下去，要活出什麼來。

以前，旅居聖路易，想的都是如何發揮最大的生存效益，賺最多的錢、買最便宜的東西、存款繼續增加、謀取更多的福利、還有，該搬去那個較好的地方。

現在留下來的人好像心情不同了。新來的人也好像沒有以前那些負擔了。大家較關心什麼時候去哪裡旅遊、回台灣、吃哪家館子，不是嗎？

我們當中還有共同需求嗎？若沒有，那就幾乎沒有見面聚會的理由了。那只能提供見面聚會的同鄉會自然就會消風，沒有人想參加了。

用社會學觀點來想，應該有，不過需要去找，去談，去開發，去經營。

同是天涯移居人或寄居人，我們有什麼共同點跟共同需求呢？簡單說，就是共同的認同。不錯，有的人具有多樣認同的條件可以加入其他群體去取暖或收取福利，而不需被某一項認同綁住。

我們之間的共同點可以說是來自台灣，接受過現代台灣的滋潤與洗滌，帶著台灣氣質跟優缺點，跟住在聖路易地區，繼續活在台灣跟美國的大傘下面。

無論如何不可能完全變成其他族群。我們的喜怒哀樂只有在同鄉圈子裡才可能得到欣賞或體諒。當我們站在大社會裡，我們需要一個讓其他族群的人爭眼敬佩的共同理由。

如果我們曾經覺得某某族群的人了不得，就表示我們的族群也可能讓人另眼相看。這就是我們此後在聖路易可以努力、發揮的地方。也是因為這樣同鄉會早已把宗旨改為台美人文化傳統的發展與展現，而交誼活動變成「匯聚大家能量」的手段與過程。這跟早期同鄉會以交誼為主大不相同。

談到交誼也是有新的空間可發展。以前強調「跟老朋友見面」，現在需要強調「認識新朋友」、「拓展人脈」。

有了認同，有了平台之後，除了自我感覺良好之外，又怎樣？認同與認同感都是需要不斷經營、保養、維護的。因為事實是認同感也是競爭、打壓、霸凌的標的、藉口、或媒介。這是有些人不願意涉入的原因。尤其是夾在兩個互相排斥的認同感之間的人更覺為難。有人偏愛輕鬆地順流漂浮，有人選擇逆流而上。這也是自然現象。此外，真的沒有了嗎？

有一件事情就是靠「認同感」做基礎的。鄉親之間互相作伴、提攜、提供舞台、互相欣賞鼓勵、拌嘴。其實這很簡單。因為最古老也是最普及跟最通行的娛樂就是聊天。聊天不但可娛樂，還有調節身心、教育、訓練、跟拓展人脈的功用。這次，也可以說是今後，我們設計特別的聊天節目作為餐會的主題活動。不但每個人都可能受邀扮演名嘴當眾聊聊，也可能臨時扮演訪談者帶動大家。鄉親之間互相學習、互相鼓勵本來就是家常便飯，不必擔心出糗。

這是新方向、新氣象、新作風、新希望的第一步。2017年顯然是新時代的開始。我們也不例外。星期六下午見。

蘇希三 3:05 1/20/2017

  （這一篇想了好幾個月總是下不了筆。殘殘直接打字下去，竟然是全新的風貌。參加同鄉會就是有這種磨練的機會） 

recording the activities of a social organization

Nowadays, recording can be done with audio-only recorder or the video recorder that captures both sound and images.

The sound recording can be monophonic or stereo. The cost of stereo recording is not any more than the mono ones. The stereo recording provide better sound quality for playing back.

The recording could be done in a studio-like environment where noise and interference can be managed and the undesirable result could be improved by doing them over, or in wherever the actions are going on and the environment might be out of control.

In the case of the live recording of an event, such as a public speech, the sound is the primary concern and the environment might be sacrificed bring the microphone as close to the source of sound as possible. This becomes a challenge when there is open discussion and the sound come from everywhere.

To maintain the quality of images it is better to place the camera firmly on something, such as a tripod.

If the speech and the content of the speech are the primary concern of the recording, minimize the scenes to maximize the lip movements that help the comprehension when listening. Of course where gestures or visual aids are important it is desirable to zoom out to capture the helpful images.

If the speaker tends to move around with gestures it is desirable to zoom out for a sufficient coverage, sacrificing the focus on lip-movements.

Avoid fast movement of the focus and the scope of view. When changing the direction is desired zoom out as the motion of changing direction is going on. Zoom in again after the changing of direction is settled. (16:16 2019/10/04)

How the Taiwanese Americans function in social organizations - a video documentation 01 introduction

Objectives:

1. Capture, preserve, and retell the stories of Taiwanese in USA. This is a historical obligation to many who are benefited from the cross-cultural experiences.
2. Gather, collect, and extend the value of the existing recording of the lives of Taiwanese Americans
3. Re-tell and make new senses of the stories through documentary films as well as the movies incorporating or inspired from the existing video clips.
4. Develop future professionals with Taiwanese American background and attributes to continue the contribution of the well beings of the Taiwanese Americans through video recording and film making.

Scopes and sub-fields:

1. Search for, gather, catalog, index, and interpret the existing recordings.
2. Re-organize the existing clips of video recording into documentary films that make educational senses
3. Record interviews of the related subjects and capture the interviews in new documentaries.
4. Derive ideas from the documentaries to form story lines for movie-making
5. Raise awareness of the value of documentaries and movies and raise funds to support continuous movie-making.
6. Utilize the products for developing future leaders of Taiwanese Americans in social organizations, communities, and the society at large.
7. The subjects could cover sub-topics such as The decisions to migrate and the mechanism of  migration; making a living; social lives; social organizations; advancing the career levels; balancing the multiple cultures involved, contributions to the society at large, etc.

By-products

1. Practicum for professional skills involved, including playwright, archiving, photographing and filming, film editing, movie directing, scheduling, equipment management; human resource management; financing; accounting; supervising; contract negotiating; sales of ideas and products;  ... etc.
2. Reference letters for all who are involved
3. Biography services using the skills acquired from the projects.   

21:48 2019/10/3 by Tony Su (as the draft to be further developed by Sarah Chang)

-----
The idea of documenting the lives of Taiwanese Americans must have been in the minds and the hearts of many Taiwanese Americans. There must have been many related video clips scattering around.

How could the pieces be strung together to form a big picture of how the Taiwanese survive and extend the value in the USA.

Meeting a young student majoring in cinema in college triggers the thoughts of actually merging the existing video clips and new filming to paint a big picture for extensive usages as well as serving as a practical field study that facilitate some young professionals' careers. (9:23 2019/10/3)

draft - Growing through TPCSTL - 20191001 - collecting the collectibles

2019/10/05

One of latest thinking that leads to a new practice is to compile the quotable quotes that we encounter at the church. Everybody is encouraged to capture them and send to this newsletter for sharing with others. We can share whatever you consider quotable whether they are copied from other sources, from the speaker's mind, or from the above on-the-fly.

One of the common sources of the quotes is the sermon. The others are the Sunday School classrooms,  the fellowship gathering, the meal table, etc.

We will join the whole world in sharing the Holy Communion on the first Sunday of October. 

Davitt S. Bell (the late Clerk of Session and church historian at Shadyside) recalled that Dr. Kerr first conceived the notion of World Communion Sunday during his year as moderator of the General Assembly (1930).  https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/special-days-and-emphases/world-communion-sunday/

F:\0TPCSTL\0 sermon\2019\201910

-----

2019/10/03
We are in an interim period. Because we have an interim pastor leading us. This means that we are trying new thinking and new practices continuously. We have to. This is the blessed period for growing. 我們正處在過渡期。因為有一位中繼牧師在領導我們。這表示我們正在不斷地嘗試新思考與新措施。我們必須這麼作。因為這是一個蒙恩的（受祝福的）成長時期

-----
Pastor Aline started the previous sermon with a quotable quote, "There are two streams of thought about Christianity in this country." This turns out to be an effective template for thinking and dealing with congregational life and congregational management. There are actually many types of the "two-stream" phenomena. While she pointed out the two opposite streams of "everything has to be right" versus "everything is acceptable", we can easily extend to find other "two-stream" issues such as "singing familiar songs" vs. "singing new song"; "chatting with good old buddies" vs. "chatting with new acquaintances"; "sitting at the seats of my favorite choice" vs. "sitting any place to meeting new faces", etc.
阿鄰牧師上週的講道一開就講出一句值得繼續傳講的「語錄級」的話：「在這個國家裡有兩股有關基督教的思考潮流。」這句話幾乎可以成為思考與處理「教會生活/事務」的有效範本。實際上，到處有很多「兩股潮流的現象」。她舉出「樣樣都需要正確」的律法主義思考與「 凡事想到都可接受」的包容主義思考。 我們可以很輕易地「唱老歌與唱新歌」、「找老友聊天跟找新人聊天」、「選坐在習慣的好座位與為了陪伴新人而找座位」，等等兩股逆流。
----------
We have many unique, one of a kind, practices of a congregation that make the participation a rare opportunity of growing. Translating the sermons is one that most of the congregations around the world could not provide. We have started a new group trying to share the opportunity and advance the processes.我們教會有許多獨特（沒人有）的措施，使的參加我們教會成唯一個特殊的成長機會。翻譯講道就是其中的一項在其他教會不見得會遇到的機會。我們剛啟動一個新的群組，想要一邊分擔負荷，一邊分享改進技術與步驟。
-----

Going through an interim period we are privileged to take risks. This is essential for us to prepare our minds for the next pastor-in-residence who is most likely to be beyond our imagination and expectation.


One of the special attributes and benefits of the interim period, having an interim pastor, is the continuous trying of new thinking and new practices. This is important because the interim pastor, by definition, is not open to serve as the next pastor in residence. In other words, he or she would not have the burden of worrying about how to continue the service by increasing the voting in favor of is or her term. This is important because the congregation would have the legitimate reasons to pick up new visions and try new practices without worrying about disturbing the vested interest.
-----
Pastor Aline started the previous sermon with a quotable quote, "There are two streams of thought about Christianity in this country." This turns out to be an effective template for thinking and dealing with congregational life and congregational management. There are actually many types of the "two-stream" phenomena. While she pointed out the two opposite streams of "everything has to be right" versus "everything is acceptable", we can easily extend to find other "two-stream" issues such as "singing familiar songs" vs. "singing new song"; "chatting with good old buddies" vs. "chatting with new acquaintances"; "sitting at the seats of my favorite choice" vs. "sitting any place to meeting new faces", etc.
-----
One of latest finding that leads to a new practice is to compile the quotable quotes that we receive at the church. Everybody is encouraged to capture them and send to this newsletter for sharing with others. We can share whatever you consider quotable whether they are copied from other sources, from the speaker's mind, or from the above on-the-fly.
-----
One of the functions or effects of an interim pastor is the opportunity to learn by practice the methods of assimilation, which is essential to a congregation that commits to embrace varieties that come along with new members and visitors.  Whenever a new face shows up at the church the congregation faces a challenge of "bringing him/her in" or not and "how could we make the new person feel at home and becomes one of us". The ability actually affects the success of receiving a new pastor, which is the mid-term anticipation of a congregation under the leadership of an interim pastor. The appearance of the interim pastor gives us the opportunity to try and develop new skills of breaking-in a new pastor. Remember the demanding days in the first three months on a new job? What do you hope and expect the existing co-workers to do to us might be what we need to try to help the interim pastor to break-in and function normally. What would you feel when nobody comes to greet you and introduce the new environment to you? I had that kind of experience and left the job that the company kept increasing the offer to entice me to give up another promised job,  after 6 months.
-----
We have many unique, one of a kind, practices of a congregation that make the participation a rare opportunity of growing. Translating the sermons is one that most of the congregations around the world could not provide.

Because we embrace people with different stages of Christian growth, background, including age, for interpreting the faith and the theology, cultural background,  languages in sharing the worship services we need to translate the sermons. By translating we gain extra layers of learning and extending what the preachers deliver to use. One of the exercises in translation is  to think about "how do I say it in my own words?" which is the foundation of "spreading the gospel". We have been changing the ways we translate over the years. We continue to explore and change the ways we handle translation. Everyone would have the opportunity to take a little piece of this particular ministry, which is also a rare opportunity to advance our career skills as well as Christian faith. Talk to Peggy Lin who volunteers to start a new system and coordinate the tasks and the volunteers. This means we will have the opportunity to observe how a professional manager works to make things happen, including how we "humbly follow Jesus".

draft - Growing through TPCSTL - 20190924 -first week of a new era

The first week of our interim pastor, Rev. Aline Russell.  

中繼牧師，（承先啟後的牧師）羅素阿鄰牧師的第一週。

The sermon last Sunday is entitled "An old-fashioned word". It was one step of interpreting the concept of "providence", which is difficult to find an equivalent  Chinese term. 上主日的講道題目是「一個舊式的詞彙」

Cambridge Dictionary an influence that is not human in origin and is thought to control people's lives 天意 (will of heaven)，天道 (law / road /way of heaven)，天命(command / determination of heaven) 。牛津英漢字典採用天意、天道、天命來說明這個字的意境。

-----

Google translate  「估哥」沒有提供中文翻譯

the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power.

Man's worship ascends upward, and the Divine providence descends thereby.

sysnonym:

fate / destiny / nemesis / kismet / God's will / divine intervention / predestination / predetermination / the stars / one's lot (in life) / one's portion

the capital of Rhode Island, a port near the mouth of the Providence River, on the Atlantic coast; population 171,557 (est. 2008). It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams (1604–83) as a haven for religious dissenters.

-----
The children-message, following the praise-n-worship, has been on-and-off several times.  This could be one of the attempt to mark a new era of our history. This is an opportunity for us to study the methods of handling children-message and learn it by trying it in the Sunday School classroom. Click here to find one tried last Sunday  Study this sermonaid and think about how you might do it differently. It was too difficult for those at the kindergarten level. Thanks to Meishi who ran around to help the young children participate in the children sermon on "growing continuosly". We all expect to see a successful execution of something and ignore the fact that we learn more from failures. 緊接在「敬拜讚美」之後的兒童講道已經試過很多次了。這也許可算是我們踏入新時代的嘗試之一。這也是讓我們「研究向兒童傳道的要領」的機會。點擊這裡好下載一篇上主日在兒童禮拜中使用的「講道助聽器」。研究這一篇好想看看你或許會用什麼樣的不同方式來怎麼處理。這一篇對幼稚園年記的兒童是太難了。謝謝玫曦姐繞場移動協助兒童參與這一場探討「不斷成長」的兒童講道。我們通常期待「成功的執行」，而忘了我們從失敗的經驗中學到更多。
-----
 Last Sunday a meeting started on the fly. It was initiated by Peggy and attended by Michael, George, and Tony for explore the forming of a collective ministry of “sermon translation”. They decided to keep inviting new heads to join the collaborative work of “sermon translation”, which is a special challenge and opportunity to a church of immigrants. This opportunity provides opportunity to elevate the language skills as well as the levels of “theology and faith” of the immigrants. A new mission was conceived out of the meeting for start compiling a dictionary of theological and congregational idioms. While this appears to be an unique requirements in our congregation to help the new hands of sermon-translation it might be useful worldwide.

上個主日有一場臨時形成的小小會議，由佩芬姐號召討論讓「翻譯講道」形成一個「集體協作」的體系。建誠兄、榮輝兄、與希三兄回應參與。決定繼續努力增加參與這個自創的「獨特事工」的人數。翻譯講道是移民教會特有的挑戰與機會。這樣的機會無形中提升大家的語言能力與神學水準。會議中產生一項新的事工，就是要編篡「神學/教會慣用語」字典給新手做參考。這雖是我們自己的需求，應該也是普世所需。

Gardeners of Hope

(Beginning this draft on 2019/8/23 at 15:30 for Rev. Aline Russell of Taiwanese Presbyterian Church of Greater St. Louis)

Derived and extended from my experiences in serving the Garden of Hope Foundation, the idea of the Gardeners of Hope is an extension of the Garden of Hope Foundation, which focuses on providing shelters to women and girls who have gone through trama.

While shelters provide places and facilities for safe living that is a foundation for those being protected to breath normally and start new lives the Gardeners of Hope is to provide manpower as well as the system of developing manpower to help people with their new lives.

The basic concepts:

1. Human beings exist, live, and work on the foundation of hope.
2. The human energy is utilized based on hope.
3. While the people are endowed with hope by nature, or so-called "by the creator God" the hope might be easily lost, deprived, or stop growing and losing the function.
4. One of the key factors in Christianity is hope and the Christians are supposed to live with hope and helping one another with hope and cultivating hope.

The basic applications of hope:

1. People need the ability and the methods of identifying hope, the source of hope, and the roads to having, maintaining, and growing hope.
2. People can help one another dealing with hope.
3. Nurturing and nourishing hope is a foundation of all kinds of helping.
4. By helping with the nourishment of hope the helpers would gain the perspectives, the strength, and the methods of dealing with his or her own hope and challenges.
5. The Gardeners of Hope Foundation as a non-profit organization exists to study, promote, train, accompany, and cultivate the growth of hope for those in need of help by guiding them to play the roles of the gardeners of hope.
6. The Gardeners of Hope movement invents and utilizes all kinds of methods to facilitate companionship which is essential to everyone's existence, growth,  and problem-solving.
7. The Gardeners of Hope Foundation might raise funds to provide mechanisms that are helpful but not in existence, such as a simple acquisition/provision system for people to have some taste of managing activities and visualize the potentials both in benefits and in deficiency.
8. Chat with individuals or groups to participate in the development of some careers.
9. The basic actions of a gardener include 1) listening to or reading of others ideas or plan 2) raising questions to help expanding or deepening the thinking of others 3) providing sentences of encouragement, without judgment such as "good", by utilizing "I message" 4) providing ideas to help stretching the thinking 5) providing words or letters of recommendation with a special methods, using the methods of "lab report", to be disclosed in this blog.

Race between a Hare and a Tortoise 歸兔競賽

It was 2019 in Taiwan. A hare jumped up and down telling the media that he was the best and the only racer to beat the tortoise who won the world-face face or presidency of a nation that would not claim to be an independent nation. But he refused to participate in the race for nomination in his camp. He was recruited to run the race against the tortoise for the once in four year event.

Actually there was a fox that challenged the nomination by obtaining a special honorary membership of that camp and got enrolled in the race for nomination. The fox lost the race and tried to find another way to race against the tortoise for presidency ruling all species of the animals.

 The hare, mocking as a foolish fish, was feverishly campaigning with large trend-setting show in many places before the race for nomination and continue after winning the nomination and before actual enrollment for the final race against the tortoise.

The whole nation was immersed in the speculative news and talk-shows around the racers and the race. The fish and the fox, and later a white senile hare stormed the news with their joking remarks, premature judgments, and misleading gestures. The tortoise did not participate in the eye- and ear-catching news-making except continuing to announce, quietly, new policies made and new plans for leading the nation forward.

It would be a new way of testifying the theories in the stories of racing between the hare and the tortoise.

-----

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.

"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

The race is not always to the swift.

 A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

“Do you ever get anywhere?” he asked with a mocking laugh.

“Yes,” replied the Tortoise, “and I get there sooner than you think. I’ll run you a race and prove it.”

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

Moral

The race is not always to the swift.