2023.07.08/09
From the Pastor’s Desk: Rev. Mark Liu
Dear brothers and sisters of RCAC. It is by God’s Grace that I can use this channel to share with you what I have experienced during this period of time.
As you may know, in the past two weeks, my family, a family of five, went back to Taiwan to visit my in-laws. During this journey, Fiona and I also visited our missionaries serving there. (Sorry, I can’t share their names here)
Chiayi Alliance Church has just started meeting at a new location. Fiona and I were very excited to see with our missionaries. The first came to my mind was why choosing Chiayi to set up a church? It turned out that the purpose of setting up the Chiayi Alliance Church is to reach out to a group of local farmers and those who are living in poverty, so that they can hear the gospel. I was very moved by this vision. Because to do so, our missionaries must first be a neighbor to these people, which means that the life of our missionaries is very simple. In addition to the subpar living conditions, our missionaries have to learn to use the local vocabulary. Although they can speak Mandarin, the vocabularies are very different from what they used to, as a result, they need to re-learn the vocabularies. In addition to these, our missionaries also learn to use motorcycles for transportation purpose. What they put on is not a little, but all, including the children who also need to learn to adapt in the new environment; however, they have joy. why? Because they know the purpose of being there.
During the worship service, one of the missionaries shared the view which illustrates this point – what they are called to do is to share the good news with the local people. This good news is the salvation of Jesus Christ. Because this is good news and they are called to share, they would not dwell too much on other matters. No matter how difficult the environment is, they are willing to spend their lives to communicate with the local people and share the good news without hesitation.
When we asked them if they need assistance, what they thought about was how can they use the facilities to connect with local people. For example, they hope to have a small area for the children to learn Bible Stories. What they think about is not their own needs, but how they can share the gospel in different ways.
How do we view the gospel? Is the gospel good news for us? How do we respond to this good news? We are all children of God because of this good news. Have we thought about how to pass this good news out? In the hearts of our missionaries, it is not how to make their children’s lives better or have a good education, but to make the Chiayi Alliance Church a channel for the gospel. Fiona and I are very willing to be their partners. I hope you will feel the same way. If you want to know how to assist the gospel ministry in Chiayi, please contact me or Fiona.
Thank you.
May God bless you all. May God bless RCAC.
His servant,
Rev. Mark Liu