What does God’s love look like?

Talk about transformation in the lives of Christian families cannot be separated from the fact that God is love. This week, one our home visits was with a Hokkien family in Southeast Asia.  The elderly couple have a son, now middle aged, who was critically injured in a traffic accident a little over two years ago.  We observed this touching visit.  The members hugged the family members and brought a few food items to share with them.  They interacted with the mother, father and son.  When the accident occured, the son was in a coma and non-responsive.  BUT this church family has loved them and continually encouraged them and brought hope and love into their lives.  With regular visits to encourage this family, this is definitely love in action.

The family now lives in a community that is located about one hour from the church facility.  They ride a motorcycle to worship services!  Because of transportation issues, the son is not currently able to attend. The pastor suggested that for their convenience that they might want to find a church in their community.  However, they love their church family and the church family loves them too and this family does not want to change churches.

Two years after the accident, this son understands and can answer — a major miracle.  He has a really warm smile to share with all who visit. His head injuries were severe and he is faced with many challenges.  The elderly parents lift and carry him in and out of the bedroom.  They are very challenged, but the love shown by this family and church family is absolutely amazing.  Friends from the church visit them all the time and share a time of worship with songs and devotion.  Tears were flowing as God touched all of our hearts.  The pastor with a team of volunteers puts a lot of miles on the church van reaching out to Hokkien families such as this. Pray for the PB Church as they share God’s love with their community.

AMAZING GRACE!

Last Sunday was another one of those special days.  One of our Hokkien singers gave a music concert and shared her heart and five people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.  God has gifted her — no training or music background—to share HIS love with Hokkien people and beyond. She grew up in a home where her mother served as a spiritual medium, piercing her body until it bled and following demonic practices.  From this background, our loving merciful God called Joanne to Himself.  To check out her website, click here.  Here is just a taste of her music, click here.

The last of this month Joanne will also be sharing in an event with a large group of people in a large Hokkien area. Pray for God’s grace to speak into the hearts of the people.  Pray for an outpouring of HIS love to surround the people, their families and their community.

Pray for Ng Chu-Un (Joanne) as she continues to share the love of Jesus with Hokkien people and beyond!!!

Real Heroes!!!

Life often has little special times along the way.  One of those special times for us often comes in the evenings following a little outdoor exercise.  We look forward to watching Pastor Lau Sam’s story time on Good TV.  This 30 minute program is an indigenous presentation of the Gospel with all kinds of creative venues such as puppets, stories of Christian heroes in Taiwan, comedy as well as special presentations about current topics relating to our lives.  This week, the spotlight was on Dr. Sam Noordhoff.  He and his wife Lucy came as missionaries to Taiwan in 1960 and later retired to the US after spending 40 years in medical missions.

The Noordhoff’s have devoted much of their efforts to improving the lives of people born with cleft palates and other facial disfigurements. Dr. Noordhoff, an internationally recognized plastic surgeon, began his work at Mackay Memorial Hospital （馬偕紀念醫院） in Taipei. After 16 years, in which he served as hospital superintendent for Mackay, he moved to Chang Gung Hospital （長庚醫院） where he became chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery.  He and his wife helped established the Noordhoff Foundation, which aids patients in need of facial plastic surgery. ”

After “retiring” for the first time, he was instrumental in organizing teams of people trained under his leadership to take this ministry into other countries where the needs are very great.  The Noordhoffs are two beautiful people.  They have given so much in Taiwan including helping to fund support for families who have no money for needed surgeries.  Now these trained co-workers have the opportunity to share and pass along their training as well.  That’s the GOSPEL!  God calls us to share HIS love, and we use our gifts in so many different ways to pass that love along to others.  We’re so grateful for Dr. and Mrs. Noordhoff and other people like them who are real heroes in the faith.

A broken heart

God calls us to GO, and reaching out to our community is not an option.  It’s a command isn’t it. However, loving people around us may not be an easy job.  Instead, it may be filled with many challenges.

Last Sunday my heart was broken as I saw four children walk into our church?  Why was my heart broken? , , , Because this family is struggling to survive.  Some time ago this family of six was active in our church.  Their family had a lot of needs socially and financially, but they were involved in church; however, the parents made some very unwise decisions and eventually discontinued coming to church.  Believe it or not, recently, both parents have deserted the children and gone their separate ways.  The oldest of these four children is only in Junior High School, and has been doing her best to take care of her three sisters.  House payment, food, and living expenses.were all her responsibility to oversee.  But we all know that there is no way for a child this age to really provide for the needs of her family.

Fortunately, word about the family was passed along to the church, and the church has responded.  As I looked into the faces of those children, they seemed to be relieved that the church came to rescue them.  You could tell that they trusted the church leaders who surrounded to them with love.

Recently, a pastor and his wife also shared with me about a similar situation in another community.  In a family located near the church, the father died, and the mother left that area to go to another city to make money.  She left her Junior High School daughter by herself in that rural community.  These are difficult times, but offer a precious opportunity for us to respond with love.

Throughout the world many families are in crisis.  Pray for Hokkien church leaders as they seek to understand their community and find ways to appropriately respond.