The Hanna family (Matt, Marla, Luke, Rose, and Beth) have served with Baptist Mid-Missions as missionaries to the island nation of Taiwan since 1987. Explore the links at the top of this page to learn about our family, field, and ministry.
Taiwan, the Forgotten China of Contemporary Missions
The People’s Republic of China has become the new destination of choice for thousands of missionary workers intent on carrying the gospel to a nation finally awakening from its communist slumber. But there is another China which has been all but forgotten by today’s missions strategists. The Republic of China, also called Taiwan, claims a place of strategic importance to the greater cause of Chinese missions. [... read more]
Featured Post
A Morton Salt Ministry: When It Rains, It Pours
The sight of a cylindrical, indigo blue box of Morton salt always turns my heart back to my mother’s and grandmother’s kitchen during the days of my childhood. The famous Morton Umbrella Girl, which today is one of the most widely recognized consumer product symbols in America, was created . . . [read more]
Did You Know?
...that Kaohsiung Harbor is the third largest container
shipping port in the world?
...that Kaohsiung's Tuntex Sky Tower is ranked 15th tallest building in the world?
...that Taiwan is the 2nd most densely populated country in the world after Bangladesh?
...that Taipei
101 was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 2004 and is currently ranked 2nd tallest?
By Matthew Hanna, Thu, 12/22/2011, at 10:50 am | Category: Prayer & Praise
Click on the image for more pictures
This year the Lord opened the door for us to enter two different elementary schools to present the Christmas story. In all, we sowed the gospel seed in the hearts of about 450 students in 15 different classes. It was also a training opportunity for many of our people. About 10 different individuals from our church congregation came at different times with Matt and Marla to help with song leading, question and answer time, and distributing the gift packets to the students.
This year’s opportunity came through an American teacher who attends our Sunday evening English fellowship service. She was able to introduce us to the Chinese teachers with whom she co-teaches to get us an invitation into her classrooms. We are thankful for the open door that this provided for us. Because of the religious nature of our presentation, we carefully inform the teachers beforehand about the content that will be presented and the materials distributed to the kids. There was still one complaint from an outside supervisory teacher about the materials in the gift packet, but it was not enough to stop or hinder our work.
What does Christmas look like for missionaries in Taiwan? Although Christmas is a busy time of year for churches everywhere, it is especially so for us in Taiwan. Here Christmas provides us with unique opportunities to evangelize our community and offers local Christians a chance to celebrate Christ’s birth in the midst of a culture in which Christmas is not an observed or recognized holiday. We thought you might find it interesting to consider what is spread on our Christmas platter this year. Actually, these activities began at the beginning of December, and please don’t hold me to the exact numbers in every case, but you get the idea!
On the Twelve Days of Christmas there were . . .
12 Classes in 2 different public elementary schools in which to teach the Christmas story,
11 Sermons (or Bible School classes) to prepare (for regular and special church events),
10 Days of Homeschool Classes to supervise (Marla) and complete (Beth) in the midst of all the other activities (actually its more like 20 days of classes in December!),
9 Personal Conferences for planning, organizing, counselling, discipling, etc. (in reality who could count them all),
8 Nations containing 100+ churches, friends, or family members to whom to write personal Christmas cards and greetings,
7 Choir Practices (or program practices) to attend,
6 Floors and 3 Christmas trees to decorate in our church and home,
5 Family Members, 2 of which are on the opposite side of the globe, for whom to buy, wrap, and send Christmas gifts,
4 Christmas Fellowships, Parties, or Pot-luck Meals to plan for, prepare for, and/or participate in (lots of baking, gifts to exchange, and cleaning up),
3 Days of Christmas Celebrations (Saturday- Christmas Eve church program; Sunday- Christmas worship service and activities continuing through the evening; Monday- our own home celebration with family and friends),
2 Cultures to balance, each practicing differing Christmas customs and traditions,
1 Savior who is the reason for it all and who makes all the activities worthwhile and meaningful.
In the midst of it all we wish to say, from our family to yours:
By Matthew Hanna, Wed, 11/23/2011, at 6:03 pm | Category: Prayer & Praise
After the baptismal service in September in which several people were baptized, and because many others in our congregation have never received any basic instruction in the Christian life, we recently started up a new Sunday School class to provide discipleship training. As we meet together each Sunday morning to study, we attempt to impart both critical information and practical skills which will equip these new or untaught believers for spiritual life, stability, growth, and usefulness. Although this type of teaching is much more effective when carried out in a private setting with an individual or couple, it is not always possible to do it this way. We are still trying to train and equip more of our mature Christians to take a larger role in this area of discipleship training.
There are 11 or 12 people attending this Sunday School class which is held in our own living room. It is an exhilarating experience to participate in the process of building up new believers. Their questions about the Bible and about life are a reminder that we are not dealing with abstract principles or theories, but with practical reality. It is a challenge to simplify truth without trivializing or minimizing it. And we are constantly challenged to relate doctrinal truth to the real life issues to which they apply. Please pray for these new believers–the future workers and leaders of the church–and for us as we teach.
For those interested in using our discipleship materials in English-Chinese format, go to our Disciples Sourcebook page on the drop-down menu under RESOURCES >> BIBLE STUDY MATERIALS.
See more photos of our baptismal service by clicking on the photo (above).
Sunday we had a special baptismal service in which five individuals received baptism and became new members of our congregation. Every one of these individuals had been attending our services regularly for many months (or in some cases, years) but had not yet followed the Lord in believer’s baptism. Three were teens who had made professions of faith in the past and were active participants in our youth fellowship. One adult came from a church which practiced sprinkling and asked to receive baptism by immersion on the basis of her testimony of faith. The other adult was a convert (her daughter was also baptized the same day) who was saved after beginning to attend our church with her two children more than a year ago.
We generally hold baptismal services as often as needed, but it had been many months since the last one was held. When it became known that one person was to be baptized, then suddenly many others also expressed interest. We hold our baptismal services on the roof of our church building, which we have found to be convenient and extremely suitable for this purpose. We thank the Lord for these who publicly testified in their baptism of their regeneration after faith, of their determination to follow the Lord in discipleship, and of their desire to serve as functioning members in our local church.
It is unfortunate that in the traditional Christianity which is practiced among “evangelical” Christians here in Taiwan, baptism is often misunderstood in its meaning and purpose. The popular conception is that one becomes a Christian through receiving baptism (this teaching is called baptismal regeneration and is a heresy). This false teaching is encouraged by the faulty translation of the word “baptism” in the Chinese Bible, which uses a word meaning “washing ceremony.” Also many denominations in Taiwan practice sprinkling as the mode of baptism or are indifferent as to whether they practice sprinkling or immersion. These facts add confusion and difficulty to our work as missionaries. We must strike a difficult balance between insisting on the necessity of the new birth as a pre-condition for baptism on the one hand and the requirement of baptism by immersion on the other. For these reasons, we take a little extra time teaching our converts about the meaning of baptism and never attempt to hurry them into the baptismal tank. After all, our goal is not to make converts or cultural Christians but to make disciples of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20)!
By Matthew Hanna, Wed, 07/27/2011, at 8:00 am | Category: Personal
During several long layovers in my recent travels, I had some time to work on a revision of one of my poems that is a personal favorite of mine: Infinitude. (All my poetry can be found on the drop-down menu under ABOUT US > OUR FAMILY > ABOUT MATT > ORIGINAL POETRY.) If you know me very well, you are aware that I have perfectionist tendencies and I’m never completely satisfied with my poetry. I am often revising pieces that I’ve written in the past to try to improve them. Some of them I’ll probably be trying to revise on my deathbed.
Since I had plenty of time on my hands with not much else to do, I made some minor improvements to Infinitude in three areas. First, I smoothed the grammar and word order in a few places where it was still a little rough. Second, I tried to clarify my intended meaning by changing some word choices. Finally, I’ve tried to enrich the meaning of the original text where possible by deepening it along the lines of my original intention for the poem. Hopefully, I’ve succeeded in improving it without overdoing things (another of my tendencies).
By the way, I’ve been working on a new poem for about two years now which is only about half to two-thirds complete; it will be the longest poem I’ve ever attempted when finished. Given the constraints of time available for me to devote to this type of project and my perfectionist tendencies, don’t expect it to appear here any time soon. It’s title is I Abraham; the personal motivation for me to persevere in completing this project has come from the devotional benefits and Scriptural insights I’ve gained as I’ve reflected on the life of Abraham as a missionary and fellow pilgrim. My current plan for the project calls for 9 chapters of 4 stanzas each (36 stanzas total). Chapters 1-5 are essentially complete except for minor revisions, and 6 is partially complete. Chapter One is entitled “Canaan”; here is the first stanza of Chapter One to whet your appetite:
I ABRAHAM
1. Canaan
The LORD said, “Go!” My course I never shall repent:
My country, gods, and kindred I forsook; I went
To seek a land to me unknown and did not rate
My loss a poor exchange, nor count the cost too great,
By Matthew Hanna, Tue, 07/26/2011, at 5:23 pm | Category: Prayer & Praise
I’ve just returned from a one week teaching trip and I’m now trying to get reacquainted with my office! All told, I’ve been away from home for one and a half months. Our family left on June 7 for a long visit in the U.S. and returned on July 8. Summer youth camp ran from July 11-14. Then I left for another week of teaching immediately after that. Now I’m trying to attack the mountain of chores that have accumulated during my absence.
One of the first things necessary for me clear away is communication with our supporters. Here is a brief update which will be followed in a few weeks by a regular prayer letter:
We enjoyed visits both with Matt’s parents in California and Marla’s mother in Michigan. Although we had previously announced that Marla and Rose would be going to the U.S. so that Rose could get settled for college, we were secretly planning for all four of us to go along and surprise my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary. The surprise was complete; we thoroughly enjoyed the visit with Art and Marian and with my brother Nathan and his family, who also came down for the occasion. Nathan and family took a break from his pastorate of a native-American church in a remote portion of Alaska. He and I were able to do quite a bit of work around the property, which was important, since my dad (who is 91) is in declining health. We killed four rattlesnakes and a scorpion during our stay—an unusually high number of critters not seen for many years. [FACT: Did you know that when a rattlesnake coils to strike, with just one chop of the hoe you can cut it six pieces?]
From California we went to Michigan and stayed with Marla’s mother for two weeks. First, Rose and Marla flew to Greenville, SC for a weekend to participate in Rose’s summer orientation at Bob Jones University. This program allowed her to pre-register for classes, get her student ID, spend a night in the dorm, apply for a job on campus, and other things, which helped a lot toward relieving some of Rose’s apprehensions about college. In Michigan we also met up with Luke who is staying with his grandmother for the summer and doing an internship at Hope Baptist Church. Like in California, our visit was a working visit with several projects around the house checked off while we were there. Rose will be spending the rest of the summer with her grandmother and her brother in Michigan until time for school to begin in the fall.
We plunged right back into ministry as soon as we arrived home in Taiwan. Our summer youth camp was well attended and we know of at least one salvation decision that was made by an individual from another church. Cornerstone Baptist Church was represented by 13 campers or leaders, three of whom made important decisions regarding their Christian walk. Although there was a lot of rain, it did not dampen the spirits of the campers.
After camp I left Taiwan again for a week-long teaching ministry focused on the book of Revelation. I returned home exhausted and exhilarated by the opportunity. This should be the last trip for me for a while, at least. Now I need to turn my focus back toward the ministries and needs of our own congregation. There is much that needs attention.
Other pictures of our recent activities have been posted to our Picassa site for viewing (see the left sidebar, or click on a photo above).
By Matthew Hanna, Sun, 06/05/2011, at 3:29 pm | Category: Missions
I found an intriguing book review on the Global China Center website about Taiwanese immigrants in America. I hope to order the book, but the article alone is very helpful in identifying and explaining a phenomenon which missionaries here in Taiwan have long recognized: Taiwanese are much easier to reach with the gospel when outside of their own culture. You can read this book review here. If you are working with Chinese Christians in America you should read this article and maybe—like me—you should order the book too.
The book is called Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience by Cathy Chen. Be aware that although it deals with evangelical Christianity, it appears that the book is written from a secular, sociological viewpoint.
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What does Christmas look like for missionaries in Taiwan? Although Christmas is a busy time of year for churches everywhere, it is especially so for us in Taiwan. Here Christmas provides us with unique opportunities to evangelize our community and offers local Christians a chance to celebrate Christ’s birth in the midst of a culture in which Christmas is not an observed or recognized holiday. We thought you might find it interesting to consider what is spread on our Christmas platter this year. Actually, these activities began at the beginning of December, and please don’t hold me to the exact numbers in every case, but you get the idea!
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