Thanksgiving 2011
This week for a field trip, our students (ages 2-6 years: about 30 of them) went to a place called Bethany Home. It is a home for the disfigured and mentally ill here in Taiwan and it sits on an animal farm of sorts with ostriches, goats, a cow roaming freely eating grass from the pathway with no regard for human presence, ducks, geese, peacocks, a few turtles, and a few beautiful Koi ponds.
The residents were all wearing red T-shirts saying, in English, “Outreach Taiwan Jesus Loves You.”
It was a special American Thanksgiving themed program as inside residents were wearing various costumes, wigs, make-up and being led by the volunteers in various Christian Praise songs. I found myself quite unprepared for my emotional response to the very touching scene that played itself out. I clapped and sang along (as much as could in what I can only describe as my own awkward “Paul Benz prefers traditional Lutheran Liturgy sort of way”) in Praise of my God- joined by residents who were being cared for in His Name and in the name of kindness, decency and compassion. They had a program with skits, a magic show, and our kids even preformed a few of their own songs they had been preparing for their parents later in the week.
There is not yet enough distance from the event to get too eloquent or insightful: all I know is that it was a morning I was very proud to say that I am a Christian.
With priests molesting children, Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps and many like them who spread so much hatred and division in the name of Christ I often am on the defensive with my Faith, calmly explaining that, “No, I’m not that kind of Christian.” But that morning I was so proud to say, “Yes, members of my Faith do things like this. They are helping ‘the least of these’ in the Name of the God I Worship and Love.
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