My Apologies for Not Remembering You Enough, Fagi…

Along the East Coast of Taiwan in the Taitung County, there are currently a total 12 TJC-run Elder Care Service Points. The programme was first initiated in 2014. Of the12 Service Points, 9 operate daily at churches and the other 3 operate in community centers. 99% of those that go to the Service Points held at churches and 85% of those that go to the community centers are members of the TJC. Each Service Point offers classes five days a week. Classes are wide-ranging, including These classes range from playing musical instruments to weaving, exercising, playing games, singing, dancing, and art and craftmaking. The programme currently serves around 300 elders, and is fully staffed and operated by church brothers and sisters. These include 24 full-time positions, 25 part-time positions, 16 volunteers, and 1 preacher counselor.

December 27, 2024. The plaza of the community center was already filled with festive energy and buzzing excitement when we arrived. Around eighty elders, who were regular attendees at four elder care service points gathered for their end-of-year presentation. The programme for the day consisted a lineup of performances in hymn singing, ukulele playing, ribbon dance, drama, and aerobic exercises, as well as presentation of awards and distribution of lunch and dinner. The elders sat in rows on three sides of the plaza, creating an empty space in the middle. Towards the entrance of the community center is a stage, there stood the MC, a preacher, and local officers who presided over the event. Throughout the presentation, I couldn’t but help smiling from time to time, seeing the effort the elders put into presenting their best work and their eagerness for receiving awards. 

As I wandered through the venue during break time, I chanced upon tables that displayed the handiworks of the elders. Handmade soaps, baskets, bags, bracelets, window drapes, small house models, and patch works. What caught my eyes were books of fabric montage made by the elders to document memorable events in their lives. As I flipped through the montage books, I saw repeated images of ships catching giant fish in the ocean. On the ships there were people processing the fish. 

For a split second, I was transported back to twenty years ago when I first came to Taitung as a graduate student to conduct my fieldwork. But it never occurred to me how hard it was to be away from home and be out at the sea. Anything could happen at the sea, piracy, mutiny, capsize, sickness, and storms. A fayi (honorific term for ‘auntie’ in Amis)* explained, her husband would usually be out at sea for six months each time. When he came home, he would mend his fishing net and return to the sea with his crews again for another six months. ‘He would spend more time at sea than on land, getting non-motion sickness every time he comes home,’ she joked. When break time was over, I returned to my seat feeling immensely grateful for every single fagi (honorific term for ‘uncle’ in Amis) who were present at the event. To live until old age is no easy task. To come home safely from the sea is no easy task. To be able to remain in God’s fold until we grow old and breathe our last is an even greater feat. No wonder when Jesus appeared to his disciples and fed them fish for breakfast, he requested Peter three times:

Feed my lambs…. (John 21: 15)

Take care of my sheep…(John 21: 16)

Feed my sheep…(John 21: 17)

At the end of His requests, Jesus made a final request for Peter to follow him till the end (John 21: 19). As God’s fold grows into a superaged fold, Jesus’s plea from 2000 years ago remains.

* Of the 16 officially recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan, the Amis are the largest, comprising around 37% of the indigenous population.