Taiwan Church News

3393 Edition

3 - 12 March, 2017

Headline News

Taiwan's First 228 Monument Engraved With God's Words And Buried Deep With The Bible Due To Re-locate

Reported by Chen Yi-fan

Taiwan's first 228 monument, a historical crack of dawn on KMT's political taboos and authoritarian rulings of Taiwan, erecting upat Mi-twor road in Chiayi City and overlooking the running Pa-chian brook, had brought forth indescribable peace and unprecedented comforts to the victims and families of the 228 massacre since its establishment at 1989.

Now, due to a road-broadening engineering of Mi-twor road and the fractures found at some pigeons emblemsaround this 228 monument, the Chiayi City Government decided to relocate this Taiwan's first 28 monument, which was the first monument engraved with Bible verses and buried deep with the Bible at its foundation base, to the 228 Memorial Park in the eastern district of Chiayi City.

"He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away / they shall beat theirswords into plowshares, and their spares into pruning hooks; / nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; / but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid" (Micah 4:3 -4), and "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God"(Matthew 5:9) are two inspiring verses placed at the foundation of 228 monument in Chiayi City. These two verses also witnessed PCT's strong commitment and incessant effort to play a peacemaker within Taiwan society.

Rev Hwang Chih-hong, pastor of Ming-hsiung Presbyterian Church, told the story how the idea of burying a Bible atthe 228 monument's foundation came to him, when he was a 36-years-old general affairs manager appointed to build that monument then in 1989. In his morning prayer on the day of opening service on this 228 monument, retrieved Rev Hwang, a voice in his mother tongue was clearly heard at his right ear: "Use the Bible as the foundation!", adding that these words no doubt meant to him: justice and peace should be built upon the words of God!

Thus, this spiritual experience at building the historically first 228 monument in Taiwan kept reminding Rev Hwang that theso-called "charismatic" faith should not limited to personal well-beings like wealth, health, and etc. "Who say that the church would not experience any the pneumatic or charismatic faith when social justice movement is engaged?", Rev Hwang challenged.

Rev Hwang thought the building of this historical 228 monument at Chiayi City as a meaningful and critical overcome ofthree curses haunting long in the soul of the Taiwanese: cowardice before the death, greed after the money, and boast of the face!

In the meantime, as this 228 monument at Chiayi City is the only one engraved with God's Words at its foundationand buried deep with the Bible across Taiwan island, this is exactly what "Proclaim the Kingdom of God" meant for the church ministry, Rev Hwang remarked, as so many powers of the people were connected one by one like precious pearl through the thread of the church's reconciliation and peace-making.

This 228 monument at Chiayi City is aesthetically designed by Mr Jan San-yuan, technically drawn by Mr Chang Ray-hsiung, and concretely built up by Mr Chang Ker-ping. In the opening service of building this 228 monument in 1989, as Taiwan's social milieu was still very skeptic and even hostile to establish such 228 monument, less than 10 people attended this historical ceremony, including Rev Young Chi-so(then PCT General Assembly Moderator), Mr Chen Sien-ming, Mr Chang Hsien-juei, Mr Lin Pei-song, Mr Kang Wen-siang, Mr Dai Kuang-chan, Mr Hwang Seh-wei, and Rev Hwang Chih-hong.

Noteworthy was Rev Lu Jun-yi, then editor-in-chief of Taiwan Church News, did a great support to report this storyof opening ceremony of erecting the first ever 228 monument at Chiayi City and hence wake up Taiwan society from slumber to care for 228 event through this weekly church newspaper.

Translated by Peter Wolfe