5 Questions With...Elder Alan Fiol
Peter Brown
Elder Alan Fiol
1. How did you first get involved with Friendship Presbyterian? Fifteen or so years ago, when my wife and I were serving at Christ's College in Guandu, we drove out to Friendship for worship. It was a bit far to drive, so after about a year we switched to a closer church. In 2011, when we moved to Taipei, we got back into FPC right away. We're so blessed to be here!
2. What do you do when you're not working for the church? I teach music lessons and help my wife, who is a full-time Chinese teacher, on the home front with cooking and boring things like that. Actually, not boring. For the most part, I enjoy it! Also, when I'm not so busy with church work, I write music material for my teaching, as well as arrange and compose music.
3. What is something people might be surprised to know about you? Having grown up in the Himalayan mountains, I sometimes yearn for camping and hiking (even though I seldom actually get out in nature). Maybe this is not such a "surprising" thing to hear, but I surprise myself sometimes when I remember this desire that is "sleeping" most of the time.
4. What do you find most challenging about being a Christian today? As a Christian parent, it is daunting navigating the pitfalls of modern society and knowing how to guide my children in this wide open and spiritually/intellectually void and confusing world. For myself in my walk with Christ, I can too easily fall back to relying on myself rather than God. I need constant reminding to go to the Lord in prayer and feast on His Word more, instead of depending on my ability to think my way through life.
5. What is your favorite book of the Bible? I guess it depends on what I'm reading at the moment. I'm currently in Matthew, and am drawn by the beauty, truth, and strength of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Each time I come back to Romans, I feel like a thirsty man coming back to the bottomless well of life, limitless in its message of grace. When I've been away from Genesis for a while, I begin feeling the pull back to this exciting beginnings-book of the Bible.