True Jesus Church in Taiwan - Evangelising The Eastern and Central Mountain Regions

Evangelising The Eastern and Central Mountain Regions

There was one major population that had not yet been reached by True Jesus evangelists - the mountain people. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the church tried to reach out to these non-Chinese people. There was one formidable obstacle - the Japanese Colonial government. During the Japanese occupation period, the indigenous Taiwanese aborigines had no religious freedom. Its officials tried to keep the Chinese and mountain people apart, going so far as to set up zones or reservations for the tribal people and erecting a long fence of electrified barbed wire to separate the two populations.

The True Jesus evangelists settled for working with those mountain people who had already been Sinified and lived among the plains people.

Hualien district

The first convert they made was a man named Tian Sando. He had been in a sanatorium, suffering from the effects of tuberculosis. The doctors were unable to find a remedy and declined to give him surgical treatment so Tian Sando had no choice but to return back home and rest. He then came into contact with church evangelists. A certain TJC member from port of Hualien named Wu Shi-lian testified to him about Jesus, telling him that the power of God was with the TJC, that illnesses could be cured and demons could be cast out, and there was also the ability to bring people from death to life. Tian Sando listened intently and felt very happy in his heart – he immediately believed. Aided by his wife, Sando secretly came to the TJC at Hualien harbour to hear the sermons. However he was discovered by the Japanese police and this constituted a breach of the laws so he was arrested. However while he was placed in custody, his tuberculosis was miraculously healed, and he showed gratitude towards God's mercy. After his release, Tian Sando spread the word regarding his recent experiences to his family and kin and, as a result, many of them believed.

Not long afterwards, the Japanese discovered that they refused to abandon their faith in Jesus, so a group of Japanese policemen started using brutal methods by forcing a group of Fushi village brethren to place themselves in cold water during the winter season. They also persecuted the church members on Sanli Mountain, threatening them with swords and guns, telling them not to believe in Jesus. Some presbyterian members became timid and left the faith whereas the TJC members chose to resist such instructions and would rather die than discard the faith. They constantly prayed and sang hymns.

The Japanese policemen, seeing that they still held on to the faith, started losing their patience and began using unscrupulous methods such as the confiscation of their cooking pots, bowls and other items so that they were no longer able to cook. So they chose to undertake fasting sessions and continued resisting pressures on them to deny the faith.

Tian Sando also began spreading the gospel regarding salvation to other mountain villages and testifying to them. One a certain day, while he and three other mountain people secretly crept into the TJC in Hualien to attend a church service, they were discovered by the police and so the four of them including four Taiwanese members were arrested, and placed in detention under supervision. There they suffered beatings and other methods of torture inflicted upon them; nevertheless they did not bear any grudge at all. Once they were released, they continued to secretly spread the gospel to other mountain villages, accompanied by a Taiwanese evangelist named Liu Rong-shu.

Later on, the Preachers Sheng-Gong Chen and John Yang would often secretly enter the mountains and hold church services in the midst of night to avoid persecution from authorities. This continued until the end of World War II.

Taitung district

After the Retrocession of Taiwan, the Taiwanese aborigines were now subject to the Nationalist Government's laws and statutes which also applied to their Taiwanese compatriots. Therefore they now gained Freedom of religion.

The TJC brethren preached to the Mei and Ami tribe youth. The coordination board sent Yong-Sheng Wang Yu-Lin Wang, Jian-Xin Zhu and Sheng-Ming Tsai to pastor and take care of the believers.

However the TJC Ami brethren were persecuted by their own tribesfolk since they no longer participated the annual harvest dance in order to appease their gods. But through patience, long-suffering and forbearance they eventually won over the hearts of their tribesmen through doing what is good and not tolerating evil, by keeping a firm and deeply rooted faith, changing their behaviour, following the Lord's teachings. Many miraculous events occurred and the church their prospered.

Ilan district

After religious freedom was allowed, the mountain tribesmen began spreading the gospel to the villages in Ilan area. John Yang held evangelical services.

However, the village chiefs and portions of the youths in Nan-ao and Xingang, Jiali, and Doulan had already been deeply indoctrinated with Japanese customs, values and religious practices. They disregarded the new laws of the Guomindang and continued following the examples of the previous Japanese authorities by not allowing their fellow villagers to have freedom of faith. They repeatedly beat up and expelled the missionaries and believers. The new local Police of the Guomindang turned a blind eye to these unlawful acts committed by those people and some of them even joined in the persecution and placed some converts in prison.

In December 1945 at Nan-ao village, around twenty to thirty local youths, who claimed that they supported the Three Principles Doctrine, surrounded the brethren and beat them up several times. The Bibles and hymn book were incinerated. Although some families were expelled from their homes several times, they did not retaliate and instead prayed for their persecutors.

The evangelists also faced opposition from the Thao tribe. In August 1947, a village chief and policemen severely beat up the TJC members, forced them to perform hard labour, and locked them up in prison until August 19. Amongst them were two female church members, one with the name of Fu Tian-jing whose head had been seriously bruised during the beatings and died three days after her release from prison. In this way, she waas the first martyr of the TJC in Taiwan.

It was not until 1951 when law and order was finally restored to the area in which they could truly obtain religious freedom and hold services in peace. During this period, many tribesfolk who had illnesses were miraculously healed during their prayers so the number of believers grew.

1950 - Shanli church established. 1953 - Nantou and Chiayi County churches formed. 1955 - Hsinchu district church founded. 1959 - Taoyuan district church formed. 1961 - Pingtung County church established. 1962 - Kaohsiung region church formed.

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