2023.05.20/21

From the Pastor’s Desk:Rev. Francis Chan

Dear brothers and sisters of RCAC,

The first AYAYA Youth Worship was held on January 12, 2019, in Room 200. At that time, there were less than 30 participants. The main attendees were members of John Fellowship, their mentors, and a few members of David Fellowship. The mentors had three children and a serving couple had one child. In order to take care of the four children, Auntie Winnie began the joyful journey of AYAYA KIDS. Due to the lack of serving people, we could only have worship twice a month. Thanks to their love for our young people, brothers and sisters regularly attending our Saturday and Sunday Cantonese worships would join us from time to time to show their support.  After a year, brothers and sisters got used to serving in AYAYA, and their sense of belonging to AYAYA had also grown. Our numbers continued to increase. We gathered on the second and fourth Saturday evenings. On the fourth Saturday before the service, we would have dinner together. We called it AYAYA HAPPY MEAL. Several adorable brothers and sisters who loved our young people would cook delicious dinners for us. This is a beautiful memory cherished by all of us who have participated in the HAPPY MEALs.

Encouraged by the senior pastor at the time, we started to have worship every Saturday evening in January 2020. To be honest, I was a little nervous at that time. Going from worshiping twice a month to worshiping every week more than doubled the demands on manpower and worship preparation. Thanks be to God, our co-workers were full of anticipation and with commitment, they took on the new arrangement. That is how we started having worship every Saturday evening. At that time, our average attendance had reached over 50 people, with over 80 people at the most.

However, good times did not last. COVID-19 arrived unexpectedly and disrupted our plans. Physical worship every week turned into online worship. In the new normal, every hymn was recorded by the worship teams at home, and every sermon was recorded by the pastors at home, then edited by our gifted editors, and finally played on YouTube. Without noticing, we did our worship online for 18 months.

On September 18, 2021, we resumed physical worship. Unexpectedly, more than 90 brothers and sisters signed up to participate. Because of this, we had to move to the sanctuary. From that time on, our numbers continued to increase, mainly due to the arrival of many new young families and young people from Hong Kong. From the beginning of 2023 until now, AYAYA Worship, AYAYA KIDS, and AYAYA TEENS, have an average weekly attendance of 220 people. As the number of congregants increases, so do the needs within our congregation, and the need for manpower. At the moment, we are still adjusting. We are thankful to God because we are facing happy problems. We are thankful to God because He loves and trusts the RCAC Family when He gives us brothers, sisters, and seekers of the faith in abundance. In our thankfulness, do we see the work that God is doing among us? Are we willing to participate in God’s work, and to work with him?

Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Francis Chan