Macau Takes Hold

Jana Hoobler (below) returned to Macau on December 9 with a new title: Macau Mission Director (she had been "interim" director). Before leaving, she sat down to talk about Chinese culture, the Chinese mindset, our two UB churches in Macau, the evolving English Language Program, and the exciting ways the Chinese Christians are pursuing the Great Commission on their own.

You’ve been in Macau long enough to understand Chinese culture and ways of thinking. Give us some insights. What are some differences between the typical Chinese family and American family?

One main difference is that Chinese parents don’t encourage their children to be nearly as independent. Even through high school, there’s a lot more control over the kids. The kids accept that, and there’s not as much rebellion—it’s just part of the way things are.

One time, I asked a group of high school seniors, "If you were principal, would you make kids wear school uniforms, or would you let them wear whatever they want?" They all said they would wear uniforms. One senior told me, "If we didn’t wear uniforms, the people on the street wouldn’t know we’re still children." In the States, no high schooler wants to be considered a child.

Typically, people live with their parents until they get married. In our churches, we have a lot of single people in their 20s or 30s, and most of them still live with their parents. They call when they won’t be home for dinner, and are very involved in their family’s life. In the States, though, you graduate from high school, move into your own apartment, and carry on a life independent of your parents.

The four Chinese workers in the Macau mission (l-r): Annie Ho (part-time
secretary for the Macau UB Association), Karis Vong (pastor of Living Water Church),
Connie Sung (pastor of Living Word), and Carey Loi (secretary for the ELP).

In Chinese culture, this carries into how they treat parents. When they start earning a living, they give part of every paycheck to their parents—that is expected. And if their parents get to the point where they need care, then they always take them into their own home. You would be considered a bad child if you didn’t care for your parents yourself.

Kids still in high school don’t work or hold part-time jobs. Parents want kids to spend all their time studying—which is necessary, since school is so demanding. So, even into college, most of the financing comes from their families, and they start paying them back when they begin making money on their own.

What about the role of mother and father?

The father is the worker and the provider—that’s his role. You don’t see fathers spending much time with their kids, though there’s probably more of that in younger families.

The mother pretty much takes care of everything in the home. She takes the kids to school, picks them up, brings them home for lunch, takes them back, and helps them every night with their homework.

How does "teen rebellion" play in Macau?

It exists in the context of their culture, but it might be things that we would consider normal high school behavior. You are not supposed to date while in high school, so if people notice a boy and a girl dating, they are considered rebellious. And if they hold hands on the street, that ’s really rebellious.

A lot of "rebellion" probably comes through in studying. They are expected to spend all of their time studying, and if they don’t or if they are poor students, that’s really bad; they’re not doing what they are supposed to do. Parents measure their kids by their schoolwork.

In the US, a motivation in life is to get ahead. Are the Chinese in Macau money-oriented?

Very much so. A big goal young adults work toward is to buy their own apartment. Then you want a bigger apartment, and a car. I think that’s partly why the English Language Program has been so successful. They are driven to improve themselves. After work, they might take our classes two nights a week, and study Portuguese or accounting or something else the other nights. They are always trying to learn more, do more, get ahead. Very driven.

Are they also pleasure-driven?

Not as much. I think that is a result of growing up in a demanding educational system. Here, children come home from school and go watch TV or play. But in Macau, you come home from school and meet with your tutor for a couple hours, and then your mom goes over all your homework with you. Then you go to bed, get up, and go to school again. That’s what good students do, and I think it carries into adulthood. They are always doing something, and don’t spend much time relaxing.

Some of it is probably related to their living conditions. Multiple generations live in these tiny apartments, with very little privacy. In the States, home is a place where we can kick back, relax, be alone, and work in the yard. But in Macau, home tends to be noisy, with people in and out, and a lot going on in a really small space. And there is no yard. Many of our church members are college students, and a lot of them come to the church to study, because it ’s quiet.

How does church fit into the family picture?

Very few of our church members have another family member who is a Christian; they don’t come to church with a sibling. Many experience some rejection at home. And so, church becomes a kind of family for them.

After church, they will stay and talk for an hour, go to lunch together, and maybe go back to the church to spend more time together. In the States, we enjoy being together at church, but then we go home and have Sunday dinner with our families. For our members in Macau, all of their Christian contact is at church.

Parents can get upset if a kid spends too much time at church, because they are expected to be there for meals. We try to keep a balance to make sure we are not demanding too much time away from their parents.

In America, we don’t schedule anything on Christmas Day, because people want to be with their families. But in Macau, many churches schedule big, all-day Christmas events. Since families there don’t celebrate Christmas, the Christians come together at the church and spend the day together.

There must be tension when you’re the only Christian in a Buddhist family.

Especially on Chinese holidays, and especially the first year that people are Christians and they start breaking traditions that are considered not only Buddhist traditions, but family traditions. There are certain holidays where you worship your ancestors; everyone goes to the grave to burn incense and food for your ancestors. So when somebody becomes a Christian and won’t do that anymore, it’s taken as, "You don’t respect your family or your ancestors." You’re rejecting your family.

When I went to Macau, everyone in church was a young Christian. On the Sunday before one of those holidays, the pastor might encourage them to go to the graveyard with their family and maybe take flowers like we would in the States, but to not perform the acts of worship—burning incense and other things. Encourage them to do what they can, to show they aren’t rejecting the family, without crossing the line into what the Bible forbids.

The Bible talks a lot about idolatry, and eating food that has been offered to idols. In the States, pastors apply that to TV or money. But in Chinese culture, it’s a very real issue. I’ve been in homes, especially on holidays, where they put food before idols first and then bring it to the table. Is it okay to eat that food?

What do you do?

It depends on the situation for me. Sometimes they’ll say, "This food has been offered to idols, so you can’t eat it, since you are a Christian." In that case, I just eat the things that haven’t been offered to idols, because I don’t want to give them the idea that this doesn’t matter to me at all. I don’t want to be a stumbling block. But if they don’t say anything about it, and I don’t think they are going to associate that with me being a Christian or not being a Christian, then I’ll eat it.

There are a lot of situations which you never think about until confronted with it for the first time. Is it okay to go into a Buddhist temple? What if I’m in the temple and one of my students sees me there, and assumes I’m there to worship? All kinds of issues come up.

Karis Vong and Connie Sung are the pastors of the two UB churches. What is their status in Chinese culture?

There are distinct terms in Chinese for ordained and un-ordained pastors. The title for ordained pastors is Muhk Si (moke see)and it carries high respect and expectations. There is a spirit, an aura, about them, and people accept what they say. Pastors usually wait until they are older to become ordained, usually their late 30s and 40s. They don’t become ordained in their 20s, like they do in the States.

Karis and Connie have four years of seminary, but neither of them are ordained in the UB church. Their title identifies them as an "unordained pastor."

Before deciding to become a Muhk Si, a pastor thinks and prays about it carefully. Am I ready to take on that title? Am I old enough? Can I meet the expecations of a Muhk Si? Can I command the respect that goes with being a Muhk Si? They take it very seriously.

How important is music in Chinese churches?

It’s very important. They tend to be ten years behind American churches, so the songs popular now were big in the 1980s in American churches—the same songs, but translated into Chinese. Translating works better for some songs than others.

But now, people are starting to write a lot of original Chinese Christian music. This just started in the last few years, and it is having a big influence in churches. A group called Streams of Praise—they are based in California, but the members are from Taiwan—does evangelistic crusades each year in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. They write all of their own music. That has exploded in the churches. Living Water uses their stuff all the time. So do other churches in Macau, especially if they have younger congregations. You can see the difference when they sing original Chinese music, as opposed to translated music.

Also, in Chinese churches, the music isn’t nearly as performance oriented as in the States. Here, to attract younger generations, churches try to be very professional; they have a worship band with good musicians and singers.

In Macau, the church is still at a young stage. If anybody knows how to play the piano at all, they can play for a service. They put up with the starts and stops.

I learned a good lesson a couple years ago. We changed the worship time at the Living Word church, so that the service was at the same time as the service at Living Water. Before, we missionaries attended services at both churches every Sunday morning, and we did most of the piano playing. But after the switch, we primarily attended Living Word church.

As a result, Living Water didn’t have anyone to play the piano. But all of a sudden, they had five or six people rotating to play the piano for services. I think these people were so intimidated by us that they were afraid to try. We had to get out of the way before they felt free to make mistakes and fumble their way through services.

As a missionary, you always hear that your role is to work yourself out of a job, and that you shouldn’t do things that the national people can do. For me, piano playing was a vivid example. When the time came for us to leave, they began doing what we had been doing. If we had stayed, they would have the ability, but they wouldn’t be using it.

The church members are leading the church now. No missionaries go to the Living Water church board, which they call the standing committee. They have people they can go to for advice, help, or input, but the church members are making the decisions about the church. That ’s been neat to see.

What is the status of the ELP at this point?

We still have classes at Living Water and Living Word. We have a lot more students at Living Water, which is located in a more central area of town. Living Word would be considered lower middle class, and the ELP tends to attract middle- or upper-middle class people.

There is more and more competition from other English-teaching schools in Macau. They fall into two categories. There are serious English schools, with exams and intense study and a lot of homework. And then there are more laid-back programs. We’re in that category. Most of our students come because they just want to improve their English, not because they must learn English for some reason.

They also tend to be people who want to enjoy learning. Most haven’t had an educational experience that was so relaxed and people-oriented. We get acquainted with the students and make classes fun and enjoyable, not just memory work. It’s a new kind of learning to many of them. They wouldn’t stay if they didn’t feel it was quality English education, but at the same time, they enjoy the social side of it.

However, the ELP isn’t really needed at Living Water anymore. The ELP began as a way to build relationships with Chinese people, lead them to Christ, and from them develop a church. Now the church is doing well, and the members are organizing their own evangelistic programs. In the ELP, we simply invite our students to attend those events.

The ELP will never cease to have ministry value; we’re doing it well and reaching people for Christ. But the whole idea was to get a church going. Now that that has happened, and the Chinese church is reaching out on its own, maybe we should put our energies somewhere else.

So, we’re hoping that in the next year or so, we can get something started in a new place, on the island of Taipa.

Living Water has started talking about planting a sister church—it is their idea, not something that originated with missionaries, as was the case with Living Word. One of their church members, Eve Tang, will be attending seminary in Singapore for the next three years. She plans to come back and work in the UB churches in Macau. So Living Water would like to have another church started by then, so she can step in there as pastor.

I met with the standing committee at Living Water church and talked with them about the possibility of them cooperating with the missionaries on a church plant on Taipa. They were real positive about that. So, in the next year or so, we would like to discontinue the ELP classes at Living Water, and start an ELP teaching center on Taipa. So that’s where we’re hoping to head in the near future.

An Interview with Jana Hoobler