February 3, 2008

Emmanuel—God among us

Dear Friends,

Every day we are bombarded by TV, newspapers, Web sites, and even reports from our PC(USA) that tell us about the troubled state of world. We live in a time when wars, pandemics, and natural disasters are commonplace. These difficult realities cause us fear, pain, and strife. In the midst of this, we are reminded of the good news of Emmanuel—God among us—which gives us hope, healing, justice, and love.

After the Christmas worship service finished we celebrated Christmas together.

The theme of our mission center for 2008 is “Emmanuel.” Last year, our theme was “Focus on Jesus,” because that’s what we wanted our students to do in their lives. Through our Sunday worships, our summer, fall, and winter retreats, and our other activities, we saw a noticeable transformation in their attitudes. Attendance in worship increased from 20 to 40 students even though most students have to drive a long distance by motorcycle to get to our center.

Leaders of the Christmas worship service pray together before the service begins.

Due to the bad economy in the aboriginal community (many parents lost their jobs), many students have to earn their own living by working part-time jobs in convenience stores or other similar places. The price of gas has increased a lot, which makes students think twice about whether to come to our center. But we thank God that the students’ faith has also increased a lot, so they still come to participate in our programs. With “Emmanuel” as our theme, we hope the students will continue to grow spiritually, and we hope to equip them to overcome all the difficulties they may face in 2008.

Chinese New Year begins in a couple of days. We have to prepare for noisy nights due to the firecrackers. This year is the year of the rat. The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each animal represents one year in a 12-year cycle. As a new lunar cycle begins, babies born during a rat year are said to be hardworking to the point of meticulous, eloquent, and charming—and are also occasionally manipulative and stubborn. Yen Hee and I belong to ox. Ox people are said to have stability and conservatism in their financial and personal lives. It is a nice to know what will happen to us in this year, even we don’t believe it completely, but we do respect their traditions and culture.

Your ongoing support of us through your prayers, emails, letters, Christmas cards, and contributions is vitally important to us. Your support makes a real difference to us and to our ministry, because you help us to provide the resources to equip our students for the challenging and necessary work to which God is calling them.

Again, thank you for your financial gifts to us to help mend the world’s broken relationship with God, especially to aboriginal people in Taiwan.

We wish you a blessed New Year!

God with us,

Yen Hee and Choon Lim from Hualien, Taiwan

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 108