Since three months Joshua Miechels works as an English teacher at Kuang Jen Catholic High School in the Banqiao City region, south-west across the river to Taipei City. His specific subject is English Conversation.

"Some readers might be tempted to ask - as I have been! - if there is not a better way to use my time in Taipei. Surely there are poor people – materially, physically handicapped – who are much more deserving of my time and energy – and love? Would not one's time be better spent spending time with the 'real poor' in the streets of Taipei? My first three months have taught me that this kind of thinking is not only a trap but a temptation. The question really is: do I really want to go to the poor – or do I want the glory of choosing my own mission. Do I decide my charge, do I decide which poor I serve? Or do I humbly accept the inglamourous, relatively humdrum life of the humble school teacher, with some humble hours (8 hours of teaching a week, just under half those of a regular schoolteacher). Will I turn up my nose (without seeming to, of course) and, being shown 'my' poor say: “These poor, they do not merit my help. Look over there, there are some poor people who deserve my help much more.”?

I was not on the terrain before I came, I do not know the people, I have not had, nor have I, the job of nurturing and searching for the good of each of these little ones. I need to trust those - yes an exercise in trust! - who have been here far longer than I, and humbly let them choose – and not I – which mission is the most important. This, I can attest, is not so easy – not at all as easy as it might sound. Yet if I don't, I have not been sent, I am not on mission (the English word “mission” comes from the Latin missio of mittere: “to send”) - I am simply a smartarse Westerner who before he even arrives, or just after 3 weeks – or 3 months – thinks he knows, he can see better, than those who have been caring for these people before I was even born.

I can't straight away see the positive effects of my teaching – I might never. My children are not weeping for joy at seeing their Engl-elic salvation, clutching my feet, thanking me for coming to bring light to their dark corner, for saving their lives, or even their careers. But is this a necessary part of the mission – or is it a feel-good-and-important trip?"

From Mission report Joshua Miechels 1, December 2009

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