Taiwan Church News
3330 Edition
December 21 – 27, 2015
Headline News
Vietnamese Migrant Workers Celebrate 2015 Christmas In Taiwan
Reported by Simon Lin from Taichung
On December 20, accompanied by the coworkers of Taiwan Industrial Evangelical Fellowship(TIEF), an assembly of about 30 Vietnamese migrant workers and their families celebrated Christmas at Tanzi Evangelical Center(TEC) in Taichung. Through hymnals, praises and dances, these Vietnamese Christians expressed their pious pursuit of the Christian faith and great joy to meet one another in this hilarious celebration. Taking this assembly as a formal and jubilant social event, some female youths were even dressed up in Vietnamese traditional costumes, specially rented from the costume stores, in order to show the elegance and beauty of the Vietnamese culture.
In the Vietnamese version of the hymnals, like
Ms. Kuam Ching-hsien, another missionary of SEND International and a Vietnam-born Chinese forced to exile into Canada in 1970s due to an anti-Chinese riot in Vietnam, shared her difficult experiences as a migrant worker in Canada and encouraged the Vietnamese compatriots in Taiwan to learn more about Jesus’ love.
According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior, till the end of 2015, there are 550 thousand migrant workers working in Taiwan. Among them, 150 thousand workers from Vietnam are the second largest populace among all migrant workers’ countries. TEC, now maintained by three female septuagenarian missionaries, is listed as one of several existent Christian charity institute which continues to care for Vietnam migrant workers in Taichung area. In the past 5 years, through the cooperation with TEC’s Rev. Chen Shu-yin in some out-reaching ministries like languages/talents teaching, dormitory visits and outdoor activities, over 750 Vietnam migrant workers were received with care and love from these septuagenarian missionaries.
As most Vietnam migrant workers possessed a high school degree, they usually could find a better job in Taiwan with higher wages than that in their own home country, reported TEC. Yet, according to the experiences of Ms Nguyen Thi Tam, a female Vietnam migrant worker who has worked 2 years in Taiwan, an amount of big money between US$ 5,000 ~ US$ 6,000 has to be paid in advance to intermediary agency by their compatriots at the very beginning of their jobs here. Ms Nguyen said she was just fortunate enough that she could afford to pay this big money, because she works in a big company with fair and stable wages. Some of her Vietnam compatriots were not so lucky: their wages could not even reach Taiwan’s legal minimum wages and did not know where they can find help when they were treated unfair?
In order to learn more about these Vietnam migrant workers and give more substantial help and care, TIEF urges brothers and sisters of Taiwan churches who felt being called to serve these Vietnamese migrant workers could contact them to arrange a further visit or short-term evangelical ministry at TEC.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
About 30 Vietnamese migrant workers and their families celebrated 2015 Christmas at Tanzi Evangelical Center(TEC) in Taichung.
Photo by Simon Lin
