If you visit the Columban parish spread among the aboriginal mountain villages of Taiwan, you will meet a woman who will introduce herself as “Vinai.” If you are new to Taiwan, this name may seem ordinary. But here in the Atayal tribe her name is considered an important symbol of her evolving life.

That’s because Vinai is an Atayal name, yet this woman, known for most of her life as Lin Tz In, is not an aborigine. She is Hakka, one of the Chinese ethnic groups in Taiwan. But to us Columbans and to the Atayals, she is Vinai, and she is becoming more and more one of their own.

Fr. Yaki Iwan (right) gave Vinai her aboriginal name, which means “healthy” in Atayal.

Surgery was not possible, but Vinai remembers her parents’ sacrifices to give her the best food and medicines they could manage.

Outwardly, Vinai looked healthy, but she was not strong enough to play active games with other children. She spent long hours alone, passing the time by painting and sketching.

Her parents sacrificed even more to send her to a Catholic junior high school. They knew the school would be more nurturing than Taiwan’s high-pressure public schools. The Catholic faith was strange to Vinai. She was so afraid of the stern, severe-looking priests that she hid from them.

The Sisters, although strict, were kind to the students and gave Vinai special attention because of her illness. They encouraged Vinai to develop her artistic skills.

Vinai’s academics fell further and further behind her peers during her teen-age years. Her grades faltered, and Vinai became depressed and angry at how her own body prevented
her from joining her classmates’ activities.

Vinai dreamt of becoming a grade school teacher, but after graduating from high school, she needed to work instead of immediately starting university studies. She taught at a nursery school and took college preparatory classes at night.

But her heart condition worsened. This left her continually tired and short of breath.

At age 23, she finally had heart surgery. She recuperated at home for several months then found a job as a substitute teacher in a small Atayal village. It was her first real exposure to aboriginal life.

Big City Life
After a year in the village, Vinai took the college entrance exam, but fell just two points short of qualifying for the teachers’ college. She decided instead to put her artistic skills to use in interior design.

After graduating she began working in Taiwan’s capital city as an interior designer. Vinai hated the stress and competitiveness of the trade. But most of all, she hated being far from people in need.

Design work occupied Vinai’s life for several years until her health again interfered. She was hospitalized for a month with a serious infection. She was far from her home and friends, so she rarely had visitors.

But the solitude allowed Vinai to consider the preciousness of life. She realized her unhappiness in her job, and realized that she had been most happy teaching in the mountains. When Vinai recovered she knew she had been given a new chance at life. She returned to the mountains.

A New Life & Name
Vinai found a job as a social worker helping teach Atayal children in Elephant Trunk village. She lived and worked in the activity center of the village’s Catholic church. When she learned she would be sharing a kitchen with a Catholic priest from the United States, she remembered her unpleasant experiences with priests in junior high school.

When she saw a tall foreigner wearing shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops, she was incredulous. It was Columban Father Tom Browning. Could this smiling man really be a priest? With him as a new friend, she knew she would survive in her new surroundings.

That same day, Vinai met an elderly woman named Yaki Iwan, who liked Vinai and invited her into her home. Fr. Browning asked Iwan if she would become the friend and godmother of the new social worker. Iwan decided that her goddaughter needed an Atayal name. She called her Vinai.

Although Vinai had not told anyone about her heart condition, the name Iwan chose—curiously enough—means “healthy.” The godmother explained that she hoped Vinai would be healthy and happy in her new home. That evening, Fr. Browning asked Vinai if she wanted to come to a house prayer service in another village. Vinai had no idea what a house prayer service was, but she agreed.

When Fr. Browning and Vinai arrived at the home of the parishioners in Heavenly Dog village, everyone was speaking Atayal. “Am I still in Taiwan or some other country?” she thought. Vinai then realized the implications of entering another culture, and she decided that night to learn as much about the Atayals as she could.

As a social worker, Vinai quickly found no lack of work tutoring children, helping villagers get medical care, settling land disputes and many other tasks. The children and parents adore Vinai, and she is known to all the village kids as Aunt Vinai.

Vinai recognized the importance of preserving aboriginal traditions, especially the language, and had locals help her add cultural activities and classes in the Atayal language to her curriculum. Now the adults joke about how Vinai can speak more Atayal than their children.

Growing In Wisdom
In addition to her social work Vinai became just as involved in our parish. She was impressed that the Catholic Church showed its concern for those in need, and was moved by the personal commitment of Fr. Browning and others to better the lives of the Atayal people.

Vinai's understanding of the Church grew, and she was struck by Catholicism’s emphasis on action as well as prayer and worship. Vinai’s godmother rarely spoke of spirituality, but Vinai knew her continual willingness to help others revealed a deep faith.

Vinai formally joined the Church last year, and Iwan served as her sponsor at baptism.

Vinai has now left her social work; she has joined our team of Columbans in our aboriginal ministry. She still teaches the local children, blending catechism into her lessons.

She also leads prayer services, serves as church secretary and lends her artistic talent in designing church decorations with aboriginal themes.

Does Vinai consider herself a missionary? Vinai says she thinks of herself a child beginning to learn Christian spirituality and the skills of ministry. Vinai hopes her wisdom will continue to grow in wisdom. It’s a wisdom nourished by her new faith, friends, work and culture.

Leanne Hester is a Columban lay missionary from Longview, Texas, who has been in Taiwan since 2001.