He goes on to say, "You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." (I Thess. 1:5-6)
As the Chinese New Year comes closer Chinese families are going see each other and spend several days with festivities together. It is a time of meeting, eating and fun. However it is also a difficult time for those who are the sole Christian in a Holo - or Hakka folk religious, where ancestor and house god worship as part of the annual family ceremony is required. - For them it might not be such a great time! -
This time of the year as we can see is also one of great spiritual battles in strong need to be prayed for. People come out from their business, get some time to think about their lives and make more imporatant decisions. For many these days before the festivities are filled with the question: Will I still have a job after Chinese New Year? At the great annual dinner with the boss, the decision is revealed.- For not so few underneath the outside fun of the following festivities is much lonelyness in the hearts, sadness about absence of real peace in the families and uncertainty about the future - This is often compensated by eating a lot of food and filling the hole of their hearts with worldly pleasures. Some sadly decide for suizide. - PLEASE pray for the Taiwanese and pray for TAIWAN. - May the LORD use his people to confirm his testimony in all those traditional families who live in absence of knowing Jesus as their savior!
Also pray for the following items:
- Our Church is moving: We have regularly more than 400 attendees per week and need more space. Check the slide-representation for our chosen new place, where we want to establish a spiritual community center.- CCEA is moving too: We have to move out, but don't know where yet. We need a place with about 500 Ping space for not more than 70 mio NT$ in Taipei or close around!
- Family: We need to prepare for a time of 4 months "separtion", as Alain was called for home serve ministries this February already (for six month). Rita and Jonathan will follow in the midst of June.
- SEND Taiwan: We are looking for more church-planter missionaries. We have successfully completed the evaluation and assessment process, both of the places and the feasability with SEND's churchplanting oriented working philosophy, to draw a clear picture about the places we want to build church-planting teams with local support. (for those who would like the book with the compiled data please contact Alain!) - We were also visiting several places with Hakka,. Taiwan has more than 4,5 mio of them with not even a half percent Christians among them >more
- The SEND Taiwan Sending (Executive) Committee Ministry: We are happy to share, one of Alain's local translators was invited to take over the position of SENDs Sending Office (mission secretary). - This is also just in time. Lin Mei-shun will assist in administering to the Taipei mission prayer group for the time of Alain's absence. In the last month the number of people who wanted our Mandarin transaltion of "Intercede and SEND" steadily grew. - Pray for missionaries to apply at SEND to be sent from Taiwan to world mission!
- Rita succesfully completed her music studies and has fullfilled all the requirements to graduate. The recital in quality was a rare surprise for all participants. - Pray for her conducting and music teaching ministry to the church's kid choir.
- Also pray for the TECC ministry. Again just a paket full with Vietnamese and Indonesian gospel went out. May it be a blessing for its readers! - Also we need more money to pay the bill for the new BILINGUAL version (Indonesian-Mandarin) and enough churches/ misisons/ organizations to be interested in distributing them under the 128,000 Indonesian woman in Taiwan.
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