February 18, 2007

Fix on Jesus

Today is Chinese New Year. For the Taiwanese people, this is a very important five-day holiday, but for a missionary, it’s a good day to write a mission report.

People here traditionally begin celebrating the New Year on the eve of the big day with a dinner customarily attended by all members of the family. Before New Year’s Eve, people are encouraged to clean the entire house to get rid of any ill-fortune associated with the past year and make room for incoming good luck. On New Year’s Eve, besides the big meal with the family, the Chinese usually pay their respects to ancestors and set off firecrackers at midnight to send out the old year and welcome the new. On New Year’s Day, it is a common practice to give red envelopes with money in them to children and unmarried people. During New Year, there are things people should not do to ensure good fortune for the year to come, such as cleaning the house or sweeping the floor (as good luck can be swept away) or using knives and scissors (an accident may cut one’s good fortune). We don’t believe in these practices, but they believe in them and practice them in their daily life.

Our theme of the year of 2007 is “Fix on Jesus.” We made a poster and put the theme on all our 2007 activities. This year’s goal is to train our students and make them disciples of Jesus, not just reach out to them to get them to attend our activities. To do that, it is important that we fix our eyes on Jesus. In Matthew 4:25-31, Peter was able to get out of the boat and start walking toward Jesus because he kept his eyes firmly fixed on Jesus. As soon as Peter became aware of other things—the wind and the stormy waves—his attention wavered, and he looked away from Jesus. Then Peter began to sink immediately and begged Jesus to save him. Jesus put out his hand and saved him.

This story tells us the importance of focus. Our students’ lives are full of things that can distract them from following Christ. But the story also tells us that if they keep their eyes on Jesus, he will help them stay close to him, and the wind and waves will not cause them to sink. So please pray for them so that they can keep their eyes fixed on Jesus in their daily life.

We have some good news. Last December we went to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, by a rented bus. We went to participate in the National College Gospel Song Contest at the National Taiwan Technical University. Seven universities and eight college Christian groups participated in the gospel-singing contest. Since we go to a mountain village church and hold a special praise night twice a year, our praise team was well prepared for it, we got first prize. Hallelujah! Choon told the praise team (30 students) before the contest not to be afraid because we are instruments to help the participants to praise God. “Our audience is our dear God,” he told them, “so don’t be afraid and praise God.” Surely, they took that advice.

We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers and support throughout last year. Without your support, we couldn’t serve our aboriginal students. Now, our PC(USA) has a problem supporting missionary salaries, which have always been paid out of basic mission support. Since more people are now designating their support, the PC(USA) is asking its missionaries to ask friends and churches to designate support for us. Please continue to support us so that the Kingdom of God can be expanded in Taiwan, with the help of the grace of God.

Faithfully in mission,

Yen Hee and Choon Lim from Hualien, Taiwan