June 2012 Video Newsletter

June 2012 Newsletter Transcript

Dear Family in Lord,

The past six months have been full of victories and challenges. To start out with, I would like to report that Janine’s small group has been steadily growing.  Her prayer and counseling ministry has also blossomed, with many people from other small groups and Muyi church branches asking her for appointments.  Janine (ministering in Mandarin Chinese) has seen the Holy Spirit work in situations that some might consider impossible.  Praise the Lord, the spiritual prisoners are released and the brokenhearted are healed and set free!  In addition to her own small group, Janine also has oversight responsibility for four other small groups. 


I (this is Barth speaking) serve as the Muyi Church director of worship and also as a staff pastor. My responsibilities include traditional pastoral ministry as well as some non-traditional work.  I preach and teach regularly in the branch churches.  This Christmas, I performed two saxophone concerts, one in conjunction with our Chongming Branch in which over 200 people made commitments to follow the Lord. My worship-band training classes have been going well.  I train worship bands how to work together with different rhythm patterns to produce anointed praise music. In my church piano classes, I teach classically trained pianists how to play contemporary Christian music, including contemporary rhythm styles, improvisation and new chord progressions.

In the last few months, we have become more involved with the Huwei branch church located an hour’s drive from Taichung. The majority of the Huwei church members are college students. Since Christmas we have baptized two students, Brother Guorui and Sister Yingyuan. Both of these young people came out of extreme darkness and were touched by the kindness of the other Christian college students in the church. Thank God that they have decided to follow Jesus! Please pray that God will keep them safe from the Enemy.

Last of all, we would like to share with you some scenes from our 17 year anniversary service. Praise the Lord with us that He is doing all these wonderful things in Taiwan.

God bless you all!

Barth and Janine Chapman

October 2011 News

Evangelistic Concert during Ghost Month

Taiwan’s Ghost Month is now over. For those of you not familiar with this observance, Ghost Month (鬼月) or Hungry Ghost Month is the seventh lunar month when traditional Chinese believe that ghosts, including the spirits of the dead, rise from the lower depths and haunt the earth. Throughout the island, rituals are held to appease these spirits through offerings of ancestor money, clothing, food and worship. Wikipedia contains a more detailed discussion of Ghost Festival at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Festival. Our website video “Who are the Hakka Chinese” http://barthandjanine.blogspot.com/2007/07/who-are-hakka-chinese.html at 2:22-3:50 shows Ghost Month observances in the City of Toufen, Taiwan.

This year many Christians in Taiwan from various churches throughout the island fasted during Ghost Month as a form of spiritual warfare against the powers of darkness. God heard our prayers! Our church evangelistic band “TMT” held an outdoor concert at market area in Taichung City where 30 people gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus. We thank God for sweet presence of the Holy Spirit at the concert, a welcome relief from the evil oppression surrounding us. Barth performed on the saxophone at the concert. Here is a link to short segment of his performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khA0u8dfUvU

Continuing on by the Grace of God

Barth continues to preach regularly on Sunday mornings and at special meetings. He also recently assumed the position of Director of Worship for the Muyi churches. As part of his work, Barth conducts seminars on the Biblical Principles of Praise and Worship at various locations in the Taichung area. He also provides musical training in contemporary worship techniques for church bands and piano players.

We are precious in the sight of God

Janine continues to lead her Bible Study small group and do personal and family counseling. She is also a special speaker at the Women’s Retreats. Janine says, “I thank God for the growth I’m seeing in the people I minister to. People here are often afraid to step out and be used by God. This is due years of being told they were worthless and no good by society and their families. The situation is especially serious among women. Many of the women I minister to were given away to other families when they were young, because they were not boys. Unfortunately these girls often faced mistreatment and abuse in their adoptive homes. It’s sad but the preference for boys still prevails today in many families. Thank the Lord, through a clear understanding that we are all made in the image of God, fully accepted and loved by Him, we are seeing women and men become the joyful, confident and mature people that God always intended them to be.”

January 2011 News

Hope you are all doing well. It was great to see some of you, although only briefly, while we were in the States this Summer. Our church in Taichung City, Taiwan which is experiencing revival is keeping us busier than ever. It seems like there are unlimited opportunities to preach the gospel, do discipleship training and minister to people and families. Here is a picture of the youth group performing during our 2010 Christmas Meeting which was held outside to attract shoppers in the surrounding business district (To see more pictures of the Christmas meeting, click here.)

Praise God - 211 baptized in 2010! In 2010, our church, Muyi Church (Desiring Righteousness Church), baptized 211 people. For Taiwan, an area known to be very resistant to the gospel, where the percentage of Christians in the general population has hovered around 3% for many years, this represents a great victory. This is God’s work and His answer to your prayers. But the battle here is by no means over. The vast majority of people in Taiwan are still in grips of darkness, idolatry, ancestor worship, fortune-telling, sexual immorality, gambling and other bondages. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Our Work. Barth continues to preach regularly on Sunday and in special meetings. He is a regular speaker on forgiveness and overcoming temptation in the deliverance retreat held for new believers. He also holds classes on the biblical foundations for praise and worship and a practicum on piano techniques. Janine is a small group leader, teaches on Old Testament subjects and heads a creative ministry team. She is also a regular speaker at the women's deliverance retreat. (Here is a picture of Barth preaching at a recently established church in the town of Caotun.)

Christmas Music Video. During the Christmas program, Barth performed a set on the saxophone and led a band. Here are two videos of Barth's saxophone performance. (Click here to hear Barth perform "Jazz Jingle Bells".) Barth also performed a song entitled "There is a Gift" with an interactive music video. The video, mostly in Chinese, says that if someone gives you a gift and you don’t accept it, you will never know what’s inside, and that Jesus is the greatest gift we could ever receive. (Click here to see the "Gift" performance.)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year filled with God’s love and the surrounded by family and friends. Jesus truly is the most precious gift we can ever receive.

July 2010 News and Links

At the end of 2009, we moved to Taichung to work with the Muyi Church (translated: the Desiring Righteousness Church). Here are five (5) new embedded YouTube videos showing the spiritual situation in Taiwan, our church, our ministy and the testimony of Yiying Lai. We hope you enjoy watching them!

1) A brief introduction to Taiwan



2) A few excerpts from a recent Praise Concert



3) A brief introduction to Muyi Church



4) The testimony of Yiying Lai



5) The Chapmans' ministry at Muyi Church

Should Missionaries Fear a Bad Economy?

Here is a great article posted on June 19, 2010 by Wesley L. Handy on his "a mission driven life" blog about trusting God in hard economic times. It focuses on Southern Baptist missionaries, but the message applies to us all.

Should Missionaries Fear a Bad Economy?

In the past three years, the global recession has severely impacted the financial contributions of individuals to non-profit organizations. Also, the increased inflation in costs of living combined with the deflation in the value of currencies has made those contributions even less profitable for international organizations, such as missions agencies. Among Southern Baptists, even with large contributions to the International Mission Board, missionary forces may face major reductions. This is not the first time the international missionary force has suffered from economic downturns.

The Great Depression depleted both missions funding and missions forces in the early 1930s. The FMB of the Southern Baptist Convention was prevented from deploying new missionaries and even from returning furloughed missionaries to their stations. Dr. T. B. Ray, Corresponding Secretary, took a voluntary 16% reduction in pay, missions on the field were asked to reduce their allocations significantly. What made the matter worse for the SBC in the 1930s, compared to today, is that the SBC agencies had a combined debt of around $6.5 million (or approx. $107 million in 2010 dollars). In North China, the missionaries were forced to cut the pay of their national workers. They began to supplement the costs of the work from their own salaries. Frank H. Connely was one such missionary.

Stationed in Tsining, Shantung, China, Frank Connely had been witnessing the great Shantung Revival even during perilous economic times. In 1934, the FMB began asking their “poor missionaries” to join with other Southern Baptists in the Hundred Thousand Club. The Hundred Thousand Club was a plea by the Convention for one hundred thousand Southern Baptists to give one dollar a month above and beyond their regular tithes. Frank Connely was up to the challenge:

Letter to Miss Coleman from Frank H. Connely, Nov. 6. 1934, Tsining, Shantung, China

How can Missionaries afford to join the Hundred Thousand Club? you ask. It’s the easiest thing in the world, for we Missionaries are rich. We are not poor as some poor deluded folks at home are inclined to think. We have many advantages over some rich folks in America too. They have to worry about where to invest their money to make it safe and draw dividends. Then ofttimes their banks bust and the businesses fail and their capital and interest are gone. We Missionaries are rich, yet we have no such worries. Closing banks and failing businesses which eat up our capital and starve out our interest, are the least of our worries. We invest our capital and have a real Guarantor that our capital won’t be lost or wasted. Who, but our Father. We are His sons and all the wealth of the world is His. We have all we want to eat and all we want to wear and all the houses we need to live in. Truly we are taken care of in every physical way and then are paid the highest interest rate on our money of any people in the world, in spiritual gifts.

Do we missionaries have to make a sacrifice in order to join the Hundred Thousand Club? By no means. Our Father has given us sufficient for this and above. It’s the easiest thing in the world, for our bank account is in His hands and thus it makes it simple to write out a check for that small sum.

So please don’t talk about poor Missionaries, but talk about a lot of Poor Christians in the churches at home. They are a lot worse off that some of the Land Poor Banks we read of at home. Praise the Lord, our assets aren’t frozen, and because of Christ’s mercy, neither are our hearts in that condition. Every need is satisfied and every check is honored by the Great President of our Bank.

Yes, Many thanks for the privilege of joining with the other 99,999 to wipe out the debts.

Most Sincerely,

Frank H. Connely

Do you live the American dream and fear losing your possessions and wealth? Then you might have a heart frozen over! Trust in God, not your possessions, then you can give all and lose all and still possess all–God Himself!

November 2009 News and Links

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lam 3:22-23 (NIV)

We are happy to report than since our last newsletter we have continued to enjoy excellent attendance in the church services and seven new converts were baptized.

Among these new believers is a woman named YueJiao whose family members are spirit mediums. Spirit mediums (called "Jitongs" in Chinese) play an important role in the ancestor worship so widely practiced among traditional Chinese. We praise God for this amazing deliverance from the powers of darkness. Here is a picture of YueJiao receiving a bouquet of flowers at the time of her baptism. As we have expressed before, the existence of a viable and growing congregation of Christian believers in the midst of the pervasive idolatry and ancestor worship of the Toufen area is truly a miracle of God.

Gospel Team Visits Toufen Church
In August, our church was privileged to host a gospel team from the Palisades Park First Presbyterian Church. The team included Pastor Peng, his wife Melody and their co-workers. The purpose of their trip was to conduct children’s and youth crusades in Taipei, Taoyuan, Tainan and elsewhere on the island. They found time in their busy schedule to visit our church and hold a special meeting. In our church, the team members performed to special music. Then Pastor Peng preached an evangelistic message pointing out the similarities between Chinese New Year and the Jewish Passover. We thought his message was excellent and regret not having taped it.

Toufen Praise and Preaching
We took a video of our worship service a few weeks ago. Click here to see the video. The musicians are mostly young people whom Barth has trained to serve in the church. The song we are singing is a popular Chinese praise song entitled "Stream of Praise". We also one of taped Barth's recent sermons: "God Can Help You to Overcome Depression". Click here to hear his message.

Important Announcement
After serving in the Toufen church for over six years, we believe God is leading us to make a move. A new door of service has opened for us in the Taichung area. As of January 2010, we will be working together with a church in the Taichung area called the MuYi Church (literally: the Desiring Righteousness Church). Moving to a larger city provides us with new evangelistic opportunities, including a more densely populated area and proximity to the large college campuses in the area. The MuYi Church is a growing church with a vision for evangelism. We believe that together with our brothers and sisters in our new church we can effectively reach out to the surrounding community.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Transition is a time of the joy of making new acquaintances and sadness of leaving old friends behind. Please pray that God will continue to uphold our brothers and sisters in the Toufen Church as they prepare for our departure and afterwards. Also please pray for us as we physically move our belongings and prepare our hearts for our future ministry.

如何認識上帝

如何認識上帝 from Barth and Janine Chapman on Vimeo.

乩童的太太受洗了。 Wife of Spirit Medium is Baptized.

(Dear Friends, This is a Mandarin soundtrack - sorry no English subtitles are available at this time)

Who are the Hakka Chinese?