Even before preacher Lin Ching-tai (林慶台) took over the ministry of Fushan Church (福山教會) in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來), he knew that he faced an uphill struggle — a decreasing number of villagers and a church with huge holes in its roof.
“The state of the church shocked me,” Lin told the Taipei Times while standing in front of the two-story structure and pointing to a large piece of tarpaulin that covers the roof’s most serious leak.
“It’s too small and was leaking everywhere,” Lin, who had a role in the movie Seediq Bale (賽德克.巴萊), added.
Photo: Tang Hsiang-yi, Taipei Times
The idea to repair the church then emerged. But Lin wanted to do more than just fix the roof. The preacher said that by restoring and expanding the church, he hopes to create a positive educational space for Atayal children, who have to study elsewhere after elementary school because there isn’t a junior high school in the village.
“They only come back for summer and winter breaks, until they finish high school or college … After six to ten years of separation, they’ve lost touch with their Atayal roots,” Lin said.
Lin said it is a problem that is compounded by the fact that many returning teenagers have dropped out of school and have developed bad habits such as smoking, drinking and drugs. A new lease on the church’s life, he hopes, would translate into a more positive environment for children who seemingly have little hope.
Photo courtesy of Wooyo
But Lin’s plan requires money, manpower and architectural expertise, none of which he had ready access to. So he turned to the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families’ (家扶基金會), which connected him to FlyingV, a company that specializes in crowd funding.
CROWD FUNDING
A relatively new way to raise money in Taiwan, crowd funding gathers donations from individuals who support endeavors initiated by other people, usually via the Internet. Recent start ups include Opusgogo, Zeczec (嘖嘖) and Limitestyle.
Photo: Tang Hsiang-yi, Taipei Times
FlyingV began operations in March of 2012 and has since become Taiwan’s most successful crowd funding platform by dollars raised, project numbers and membership. It brought in NT$8.6 million for 27 projects in its first year, and more than NT$41 million for 110 projects last year.
Lin Ta-han (林大涵), FlyingV’s product director, cites Attack on Flour (太白粉的進擊) as a successful example. A parody of the Color Run, in which runners are showered with colored powder, Attack on Flour showered runners with corn starch.
“If the power of crowd funding could make this event happen, perhaps it can also build a church, and perhaps a hospital or a school,” Lin Ta-han said.
Photo courtesy of Wooyo
According to its Web site, FlyingV charges an 8 percent administrative fee. If the project doesn’t reach its monetary target, no fees will be charged, and all donations are returned to supporters. All projects have a set period of time, and supporters can donate until the time is up, even after the project has reached its fiscal goal.
“As long as the project has a clear goal, a target audience and some attractive qualities, it is a good fit for crowd funding,” Lin Ta-han said.
THE ARK PROJECT
Photo courtesy of Wooyo
Launched online last October with a goal of raising NT$7.7 million by April 30, the project has already received NT$700,000 in donations as of Saturday.
Hom Liou (劉冠宏), founder of Wooyo (無有), an architecture firm, leads the restoration effort. He says he plans to double the church’s current space with an arch-shaped roof supported by wooden crosses, which will bring in natural ventilation and light to minimize electricity bills.
Liou said the idea for the arched roof is taken from an Atayal myth, which tells of a “rainbow bridge” that leads to the spirits of their ancestors.
Computer simulations of the church show a structure resembling an ark, hence the project’s name: The Ark Project (方舟計畫), an obvious reference to the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark.
“In the Bible, Noah built an ark to save lives. My church seeks to do the same,” Lin Ching-tai said.
For more information, visit the Ark Project’s main page at www.flyingv.cc/project/1612.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and