Despite what lay ahead on the Sunday both my mum and I slept well which was a relief.  We had breakfast with the minister’s wife at Donutes a local bakery run by a church member. Despite the name they didn’t only do doughnuts but lots of nice bread-like cakes which were very tasty – wish they were available over here!  The rest of the morning was taken up with the Easter Sunday service, during which we were introduced to the congregation who clapped us in welcome.  As is the tradition, everyone got given hard boiled eggs wrapped in cellophane with a message such as ‘Christ has Risen’ on – unfortunately mine didn’t really survive the rest of my trip! Lunch was had with the congregation in the hall behind the church and consisted of a bowl containing soup, rice, chicken, pork, shrimp, and veg at the very least so we were definitely full after that!  We also had bell fruit which was a bit like a pear in taste.

[BTW Apparently this church was built by a missionary from the UK and was heavily based on a church from either London or Scotland.  The minister of the Pingtung church would like to know which church this might be so that they could potentially forge links with them.  If you have any ideas which church this might be, let me know!]

In the afternoon, the memorial service took place for my brother.  My mum and I were provided with headsets through which we got an English Translation done (as at the funeral 20 years ago) by David Alexander for which we were very grateful.  We reckon there were over 100 people there including the choir who sang a few items – it was good to see him so well remembered and had been so liked.  For one of the songs there was a soloist who was very very good, and she came to speak to us afterwards.  Apparently she is a professional opera singer now in Holland but happened to be back in Taiwan on holiday and heard about the memorial service and asked if she could take part as Jonathon taught her English!  How amazing is that!

As part of the service YiHsin had put together a montage of pictures that we’d sent, and also some images from 20 years ago.  If you want to see it you can see it HERE.  Both my mum and I said a few words (including some from my Dad who could not be there) for which David Alexander helpfully translated for the congregation (having had to dash from the back of the church to the front!).

After the service there was tea and cake in the hall behind the church which included cakes from the Donutes shop – I thought the green tea cake one was delicious! – and bell fruit.  They had a video playing at the back of the hall which included some bits from the funeral 20 years ago – oh how different we all looked then.  They also had photos up that we’d sent through as well as some of Jonathon’s things that we’d brought or they already had.  Everything was very nicely displayed and everyone seemed very interested in seeing them and talking to us.  We felt so looked after and that he was still so appreciated that it made what could’ve been a really hard day a joyful celebration rather than a tearful sad day.

That evening we were taken out as honoured guests to a Japanese restaurant with many people including Maurice, Mei-Li, the Alexanders, people who had taken part in the service and people that we’d met 20 years ago – unfortunately I cannot remember all their names due to my terrible memory!  There were so many dishes, and I even tried Wasabi for the first time though it was a bit too spicy for me!  Having had a photo taken of everyone together and a few speeches we then went back to the church and ended the day having bell fruit and tea with the Pastor and his wife.  As well as helping with all the church stuff, his wife also sews, knits, paints, appliqués and teaches as well as the two of them looking after a 2 acre garden outside of town – wow!!

I’ve written up the rest of our trip in my next blog post, but you can see some photos from the day here.  We were slightly too busy during the day to take pictures ourselves!

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By the way, you can find all the photos in these posts and others that we took on the trip on Flickr here.