A New Year’s Message — Am I Willing?

Thursday, February 24th was actually DAY ONE of the Chinese New Year and we started it off with a worship celebration filled with songs of praise and a message from God’s Word.  Hok-Tek is just one of many churches that we connect with, but is our home church.

The subject was “Are You Willing?”  Willing to do what? —– Well the Bible story shared was the story of the man who was healed at the Pool of Bethesda.  Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?  The man had his excuses but his answer was YES.  So our Chinese New Year message also asked us . . . in this NEW YEAR do WE want to grow, change, get rid of bad habits —– WHATEVER!  Are we willing?  It was a great time to celebrate together, but we ask you to join us in prayer so that during 2015 we will continue to hear God’s voice and follow HIM in every area of our lives.

Pray for the Hok-Tek Baptist Church and for churches all across Taiwan, East Asia, Southeast Asia and beyond to live in the Lord Jesus Christ and live out his message of love, grace and salvation.  Here’s a peek at our church family.  Have a blessed NEW YEAR!

 

 

————HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR ————

HAPPY NEW YEAR. Wednesday evening is New Year’s Eve when  many Chinese families gather around the table to share a family feast together.  This is a precious time for sure. This is also a time when culture that is rich in tradition reveals much about the family. There are Christian families and also many Buddhist, Taoist and other religions represented as well.

Last week some of our missionaries once again had the opportunity to hear Dr. Stephen Liau share about Taiwan culture as related to their historical background, tradition and folk religion.  Chinese New Year is definitely a time for celebrating the new year, but it is also a time when families worship their ancestors.  Out of a spirit of love and appreciation the families want to continue to revere their ancestors, and they often take actions that are quite foreign to our Christian way of thinking.

As we walked through the market last week, Dr. Liau pointed out Mahjong games, cigarettes, credit cards, plane tickets, travel vouchers, passports and anything that you could imagine that could be “burned” and “sent” to ancestors in “hell” so that they could enjoy themselves and pass the time well.  Some might wonder how they could play a game such as Mahjong, and Dr. Liau shared that paper figures of people could also be “burned” to provide companions for them.

 These actions are done with sincere hearts and a lot of money is spent to continue to provide care for ancestors who have passed away.

As you think of those Chinese and others around the world who have this or similar
“mental maps” and religious beliefs, pray that their eyes would be opened so that they would have a desire for the TRUTH —- 100% TRUTH —- with no mixture of error.  Pray with us that at the beginning of this NEW YEAR, many would come to know Jesus Christ as their Prince of Peace and Savior. May God’s grace and peace abide with you all at this 2015 Chinese Year of the sheep.

Church . . . a part of the journey

Well, if you asked people to describe CHURCH and especially a new church I’m sure you would get a LOT different responses. If our goal is just to set up a building and reach some people for a worship time, then actually that can often be done pretty quickly.  However, the CHURCH is the people of God, right? And consequently, the lives of people are pretty complex.  We’re talking about spiritual, mental, emotional, physical — We’re talking about children, youth, young adults, median adults, senior adults — singles, families, divorcees, widows . . . Well it’s complicated as the saying goes.  Our churches often are busy with worship preparations, conferences, training, etc., but don’t always take time to just PLAY together.  SOOO . . . last weekend we had that purpose in mind and we did just that AND had a great time.  Following our Sunday morning worship, we took a bus, train, and shuttle bus for about a five hour trip up to Alishan, a mountain in south central Taiwan.

In about a 24 hour period of time, we hiked our socks off, and traveled up and down those trails to see God’s beautiful creation and ate some great food along the way.  Now, was it cold?  Oh yea, and no heat either.  So we tried to bundle up — it actually got down to -2 Celsius before we left.  We have traveled all over this world in many places, but I have to say, this is the most beautifully cared for and designed park that I have ever seen.  It is breathtaking.  It was badly damaged following the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan. However following that disaster, the restoration and additions that have been made to the park are absolutely gorgeous.

We are grateful for this time spent with our church family.  Our hats go off to these precious friends — for us they are FAMILY! — whom we love and adore. Those on the trip are not perfect, but they’re on a journey.  Pray for this church as they continue to reach out in their community and beyond.  So enjoy some of these photos and videos of our time together.  The journey is not easy, but indeed precious.

Click on the links below to view videos as well:

We rode the train from the south to south central Taiwan:  Click here.

A dedicated group of young adult leaders knows how to have a good time.  Click here.

Asia is crowded and this quick view of the Alishan train shows that.  Click here.

A short bird’s eye view of crowds of people on this mountain journey.  Click here.