2022.11.26/27
From the Pastor’s Desk: Rev. Mark Liu
Hello brothers and sisters of RCAC. It is by God’s Grace that I can share with you some of my recent thoughts.
Mark 16:15 (ESV)
15And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Here, Mark, the author of this Gospel, clearly captured the command of Jesus Christ, which is to share the gospel. We need to pay particular attention to the verb used because the verb shows to us that it is Jesus’ command, not a suggestion. To be able to command is because one has authority. Lately we’ve been thinking about Jesus Christ as our return King, and this provides the reason for Jesus Christ’s authority.
Jesus commanded us to evangelize. The name “Christian & Missionary Alliance” of our denomination clearly indicated this command. In a nutshell, we take mission as our primary job. Every time we tell the world the name of our denomination, we are telling the world and reminding ourselves that missions (evangelism) is in our core DNA.
Many of the ministries of RCAC are carried out because of this direction. We have praise dance, Chinese and Western food classes, for example. These activities are set up to respond to Jesus’ command. Besides inviting people to come to join these activities, which is about inviting people to come to RCAC, we also need to go out. This is the reason we have started a ministry in Tsawwassen.
We started a Bible study class in Tsawwassen in mid-July this year. Every Saturday afternoon, my wife Fiona, my daughter Myra and I serve there. We are like missionaries, except that instead of going to another country, we go to a place where is 20 minutes away from us. The purpose is to bring the Gospel to the local Chinese. Thank God, at the beginning, we had five brothers and sisters participating, all living in the Tsawwassen area. Thanks to God’s provision, we have new friends joining us almost every week, usually one or two, not too many. My wife said it well, God is very kind to us because if He brings in many new friends at one time, we may find a hard time to cope with.
In September, we started a Chinese Bible class for kids. The program is set up so that the parents can leave the kids to learn Chinese while they stay for the Bible Study. These Chinese Bible Class helps kids to learn the Bible and Chinese at the same time. Thank God for giving us Jaco and Yvonne Cheung, who have been serving there every week since mid-September. We even participated in a leaflet distribution activity, around the community of Tsawwassen, with the brothers and sisters of Tsawwassen Alliance Church. I think this is what the universal church should look like – working together to advance the gospel.
In the past weekend, as the Bible Study class turns to its 4-month anniversary, we have 26 brothers, sisters and friends participating, in which 22 of them live in Tsawwassen area. The number of children joining the Chinese class has reached around 10. On the one hand, we are grateful, on the other hand, we need to explore what God’s will is. This is the reason, under the leadership of our District, we formed a small discerning community including the two elders of RCAC (Gary Wong and Eddie Yu). We look forward to discerning God’s Will together for this ministry. However, one thing is for sure, that RCAC is responding to the command of Jesus Christ.
May God bless you all.
His servant,
Rev. Mark Liu