Never Let the Light Go Out

Jesus said, "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Faith is the force behind service to others but sometimes harsh reality can be discouraging. For 42-year-old Huang Tien-jen, leading a simple and modest life, most of his life has been concerned with others. Can he really and truly be so happy and content, taking pleasure in facing life's frustrations and challenges?

He says he is an ordinary person. Ten years ago when he was serving in Hukou, Hsinchu, there was a conservative elected representative unhappy with his wife's participation in church activities. One day this representative, arriving back early from work, discovered his wife was not home, that she had gone out "running around." It then happened that he met the minister's wife, Yang Yi-chieh, as she was taking his wife home. Before a friendly word could be exchanged, the enraged representative boxed Yang on the ear, shouting, "You and your damned Christianity!" he shouted. This was not enough. He followed her all the way back to the church, took a steel bar and smashed her car and windows, and even wanted to beat Huang Tien-jen.

"This incident disheartened me quite a lot." Huang asked himself: "Does doing good mean being bullied by others, even endangering the safety of one's family?" The idea of leaving the conservative Hakka village would not go away. In the end, after some devout prayer, however, he decided to stay.

"I'm very fortunate. I'm often surrounded by volunteers who want even less of a payback than I do. This gives me a chance to see the bright side of human nature. My teacher, Chang Kung-liang, served 30 years in Yangmei. He never gave up on kids no matter how much they failed to improve but rather exposed them to his silent, transforming influence. Children with violent, intractable characters gradually learned how to respect and appreciate themselves.

The first dropout Huang ever counseled is now a successful businessman in the Philippines with his own company. Another young person, whom Huang took to join in the rescue work after the 1999 earthquake, now has a steady job and on weekends and holidays gives back to society by being a volunteer fireman. Were it not for good intentions turning into good deeds at the very beginning, this child might now still be living a life of violence.

"To say selfless would be going too far. My goal has been 'participation.' I hope that where I have spent my own efforts, I can see clean streets, not a muddy mess. My children have grown up here... that's the only way I can feel happy, feel content. Perhaps I have not reached the level of a Gandhi or a Mother Theresa, but ordinary people also have their ideals, ideals that can be achieved," says Huang Tien-jen as he recounts his convictions with a look of firm resolution in his eyes. "You need just a few people to go and do things no-one else has thought of. They may have very little power, but we have never let the light go out."

Not long ago, Huang Tien-jen participated in an information meeting on "social enterprises" held by Hsinchu County NGO groups. Many people told him the student dropout counseling, the activity camps, the social work he organizes, and so on, "all has commercial value as well as significance in terms of social service." But Huang laughs and says if you really want to run it like a business or mechanize it, standardize it, then this would be out of sync with the original idea.

"I hope people who come to the Tien-jen Stone House, young or old, will be my guests. If a guest were to become a customer, my family would become employees. This would put the guest in the driver's seat. Society should be more encouraged to put service in the driver's seat, just like we do."

As a young person, Huang Tien-jen was an actor. He appeared in four films and almost got into the movie business. Cleaning a fish he just took from his family pond, Huang says "I have always thought of resting five days and working two. And I'll be satisfied if in that way I can still feed myself and the family. This way I can do three days of volunteer work and take two days to be with my friends.