March 5, 2003

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As the Lunar New Year begins on February 1, 2003, pregnant women rush to hospitals to give birth before the Year of the Goat, which is believed to bring life-long bad luck. Hospitals are reporting record birth rates, even a surge in demand for Caesarean sections. We don't believe people born in the Goat Year are ill fated, but Chinese people do. God created the heaven and earth and saw that it was good. I pray they also believe in the near future that every day, month, and year are good.

During the Chinese New Year, we don't want to stay in Taiwan because of the firecrackers. Daytime is OK to do it, but they do it at midnight. The reason for the firecrackers is to scare off ghosts and bring good fortune. As a result of their beliefs, we could not sleep well during the two weeks of the New Year celebration. (Around our house a lot of people believe in folk religion.) To solve this problem, we should reach out to them and make them believe in the power and love of Christ Jesus, or we could leave Taiwan for a nice two-week vacation.

For the aboriginal people the urgent problems now are high unemployment rates, low economic status, and a disadvantageous educational background. And these three issues are mutually reinforcing in a vicious cycle that keeps aborigines imprisoned at the bottom of the social ladder.

For example, with a low educational background they work as construction workers. With the sagging economy in recent years and the importation of foreign laborers, there is less opportunity for them. Furthermore, since fewer building projects are underway, they find themselves being the first to be fired.

We felt this critical problem in our programs. For example, when we prepared for a four-day winter retreat (January 24-27, 2003) at Ari Mountain, a lot of students registered for it, but as winter vacation drew near, they withdrew because of the registration fee and their winter jobs. We reduced the registration fee by half and also gave them scholarships. Still, several students couldn't join us because of their winter job. Through this experience we expect that this year students' financial problems will be more serious than last year. Please pray for their financial problems and our programs in 2003.

The Hualien Aboriginal Campus Ministry (HACM) coming events for the year of 2003 are:

• Winter HACM's retreat (January 24-27)
• Publishing our first newsletter (March 1)
• Praise night and worship at the Amis tribe's church (March 8-9)
• HACM's basketball tournament (April 26)
• HACM's officers training (May 3-4)
• Worship service for the graduating students (June 6)
• Moving to a new mission center (July 1)
• Summer aboriginal college students' retreat (August 11-14)
• Publishing our second newsletter (September 30)
• Special Thanksgiving worship service for the new mission center in conjunction with the new student welcoming party (October 11)
• Fall HACM's retreat (November 29-30)
• Praise night and worship at the Taroko tribe's church (December 6)
• Election of the HACM's new student committee members and Christmas party (December 12)

Please pray for the following:

• Our coming events as we have mentioned above.
• Our new HACM center in Hualien (July 1, 2003)
• Students' financial problems.
• A full?time worker who can help us in our new mission center.
• Safety from natural disasters, such as typhoon and earthquakes.
• Bible study training for the aboriginal ministers and elders.
• Improving our Mandarin language skills.

By your prayers and support, we have established a Christian group in all six colleges within three years. This is truly God's grace. Now we have to provide good programs to each group so that they can stand strong and firm in Christ. (The Christian population in Taiwan is only 3 percent.) We are deeply indebted to all of you for your continued support, love, and prayer. Thank you for being a part of building up the Kingdom of God in Taiwan, especially to aboriginal college students in Hualien.

Grace be with you all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.

In His Service,

Yen Hee and Choon Lim

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 181