This past weekend, I went to visit a friend in another city here in Taiwan. She didn't know of any nearby Christian churches, so I went to the local temple with her. I just walked around with her as she did what she felt needed to do. As I watched my dear friend pray to a man-made statue (Bhudda) and other carved statue gods, my heart was internally weeping heavily for her. It was one of the hardest things for me to watch. The famous one-worded question continually ran through my head: "Why??" All I could do was pray to our God that she may turn away from these false gods and seek Him instead.

As I was observing my friends in the temple, these were the main thoughts that went through my head:
I'm so glad that I pray to a God who will meet my every need...I don't need to pray to many different gods for a variety of specific needs. I'm also blessed hat I don't have to go to a special place (ie. temple) to pray to my God; I have the freedom to pray whenever and wherever I want. But most importantly, I have the priviledge to pray to a God who is alive and real! He hears my prayers and He answers them. He knows what's best for me more than I know myself. Glory to God!

Nonetheless, going to the temple was a good learning experience to gain more awareness of one of Taiwan's main religions, the other being Daoism. It was also...I don't really know how to put it...a "re-burdening," if you will, of the heart....a deeper burdening for the people of Taiwan. I felt like my heart was literally in pain.

A few things I learned:
When most people think of Bhuddism, they think of a group of people only worshipping Bhudda. I myself also had this misconception. But it's more than that. They are also worshipping many other gods: one for luck, one for wealth, one for good studying habits, etc, etc.

When the people want to ask a statue a question, they will throw 2 rocks to obtain an answer. The position of how the rocks land determines what their answer is. So, it's just luck, like throwing a pair of dice. I couldn't really comprehend that aspect.

Thank you, God, for the gift of knowing you!!!