Tai-an Presbyterian Church

The reason for my trip to Taiwan starts with two great Presbyterian pastors. The first is Tony Lo from the Tai-an Presbyterian Church in Taipei and the other is Bill Meyer who was the former pastor at my home church, The Church of the Covenant, in Washington, PA. The story goes that Rev. Meyer's son was living in Taiwan when his father proposed that he find a church that would like to form an alliance and become sister churches. At that time Bill Meyer was serving a church in Sioux Falls and they become the first sister to the Tai-an church. When Bill moved to the Church of the Covenant, we continued the sisterhood.

Pastor Lo and Jenny Lo

In 2001, the Tai-an church sent a group of teenagers to Washington, PA to learn English as a second language. My family hosted a young girl by the name of Grace Chen. We never dreamed that summer that our friendship would grow so strong. Her brother, Albert, decided to follow in his sister's footsteps and set out for Pittsburgh and was due to arrive on 9-11-01. His plane was diverted to Canada, and after a few scary days and some logistics…Albert eventually landed in Pittsburgh and became the second Chen child to become part of our lives.

Albert went on to graduate from West Virginia University and Grace graduated from Penn State University. Both are working in the family business and I am so proud of how they have become successful, hard-working, young adults. 


Outside the Chen office and factory

Grace's desk!

We joke that I am their American Mama, but they have two wonderful parents (Edward and Victoria) back in Taiwan. So, the Chen family and the Tai-an Presbyterian Church are the reason for our trip to Taiwan.

The evening we arrived, Albert and Grace met us at the airport and drove us to the Grand Hyatt in Taipei where we met Mr. and Mrs. Chen and Pastor Lo for dinner. The Chens were extremely generous hosts for three days in Taiwan, feeding us, taking time off from work to drive us all over to Taipei and into the countryside, and even showing us some baseball. We also spent an afternoon touring their church and were the guests of the Tony and Jenny Lo at a local "hot pot" dinner.

Our last evening together, even Grandma Chen joined us for a family dinner held at a local restaurant where the Chens are business partners. The dinner was amazing!  I counted ten courses, and when I mentioned it… someone said that in their culture ten is the perfect number. I thought he was right…everything about the evening, and my time inTaiwan, had been absolutely perfect!