November 14, 2005
Friends in mission,
In the October 2005 issue of Presbyterians
Today (page 10 of the Mission Report 2005, a 16-page
supplement) is an article that describes our work in Hualien,
Taiwan. It is well-written and summarizes well our nine years
of work here. We use it here for our last mission report in 2005.
Molding Leaders in Taiwan
Choon Shik and Yen Hee Lim are molding future leaders for Taiwanese
congregations through their collegiate ministry in Hualien,
a port city on Taiwan’s east coast.
PC(USA) missionaries since 1991 and in Taiwan since 1999, the
Lims work primarily with aboriginal Taiwanese who attend six
colleges and universities in Hualien. Aboriginal people are
the most impoverished group in Taiwan and the least educated.
Those who received post-secondary training promise to be future
leaders of their villages and churches.
Aboriginal Taiwanese comprise only two percent of the nation’s
population, but 65-70 percent of them are Christian. About three
percent of Taiwan’s total population is Christian.
The Lims seek to reach young people who have drifted away from
the church, keep active churchgoers focused on their faith during
their college years and offer witness to students who are not
Christians. “When we do this kind of campus ministry,
we help the village churches,” says Choon, a former pastor
in Illinois.
Yen Hee, a registered nurse, continues her medical service
at a handicapped children’s center in Hualien and in a
mobile clinic that serves remote mountain villages.
A mission center with a view of the ocean is the base of operation
for the collegiate ministry. Students eat meals, participate
in social events and attend Bible study in the building. Some
events exceed the center’s capacity, forcing students
to sit on the floor and outside the doorways.
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