May 2005 Newsletter

Our church baptized two more people since our last newsletter. Baptism here is a real sign of commitment to Christ. We thank God for His work! Brother Liao started to attend church six months ago. He is the relative of one of our elders. Sister Zhen was led in a salvation prayer by Barth during an altar call. She has been attending the church for about a year.


We are also happy to report that on April 16th the church sponsored a gospel concert called, “打，唱，彈”(da, chang, tan. translation: play (drums), sing, play (piano)). The concert featured an ensemble consisting of Francis Kam, Dumile Dlamini and Barth. The church rented a school auditorium for this special event.

Our guest musicians are from other cities in Taiwan. Francis, from Taichung, began his musical career as a classical cellist, but now focuses on the drums. A lot could be said about Francis, but let it suffice to say he is a sincere Christian and an extremely entertaining drummer. We distributed a video of Francis playing the drums before the concert. His presence drew in many young people, especially boys. Dumile, from Kaohsuing, is a college student from Swaziland, a dedicated Christian with a fantastic voice. Francis and Dumile gave testimonies and Barth preached the gospel message.

Barth continues to lead worship and shares preaching and leadership responsibilities at the church. He also leads the chorale ensemble at the Ming Dao Bible School. Janine still teaches English as an evangelistic outreach of the church. Her students are mostly adult, unsaved women. “I use testimonies from ‘Guideposts’ magazine for my lesson materials. We laugh a lot and sometimes cry. They seem to really enjoy the class even though it’s held at 7:45 on Sunday mornings. One of my students drives 30 minutes from the city of Zhudong to attend.”

We have seen substantial growth in the numbers of kids attending our youth group and youth activities. Many of these teens are not from Christian homes. Virtually every week, we preach a gospel message. Most of the young people who attend the youth group have raised their hands or come forward to receive Christ. They respectfully listen to our preaching, read the Bible with us and pray with us. Some ask questions. Some invite friends to attend the meetings. We rejoice that God has given us this wonderful opportunity to influence young people. However if you ask how many of them are truly converted, we would have to say that we are not in a position to count them as Christian converts. Most have not been baptized. At this point, we’re just grateful their parents permit them to attend the meetings. We hope that the Christian message will make a lasting impact on their lives.

This summer the Lord has opened the door for two of the college students from the church to come home and help with the youth ministry. Xueying is a brilliant student of Chinese literature who struggled until recently with philosophical objections to Christianity. Last summer, he was dramatically converted. He is now on fire for God. Yuzhong was the most faithful member of our youth group before moving to Kaohsuing to attend college. We believe they will both be real assets to our group over the summer.

Having Xueying and Yuzhong with us this summer will enable Janine to take two months off to attend an intensive Chinese course at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. Most missionaries to Taiwan spend their first two years in full-time Chinese study. Since the time she arrived, Janine has been engaged in full-time ministry. She has made significant progress in speaking, listening comprehension and reading with the help of a teacher and through self-study. However she still feels the need for a time of uninterrupted study. Right now she is planning to commute everyday by a combination of bicycle, bus and subway. The commute time is at least two hours each way, four hours a day. She is hoping to study on the bus.

We were recently asked to talk a little about the other Christian churches in the Toufen area. The Christian community here is very small, perhaps 300-400 people in a city of 100,000. There are several churches among the Hakkas in our area. At about eighty people, our church is perhaps the largest Hakkanese congregation in Taiwan. We maintain excellent relationships with all of the other Toufen churches. A new church planting in the tiny neighboring town of Sanwan was started by a Korean missionary named Pastor Park. Our church has provided financial support and held joint activities with the Sanwan church. Another group called the House Church consists of six small cell groups. Our chief elder’s wife cares for the child of one of its members while she works. Finish missionaries founded a church here a number of years ago that numbers about 25 people. Members of the Finish church attended Barth’s seminars on praise and worship. Its piano player sings in Barth’s choral group and will take piano lessons this summer from Barth. There is also a small Presbyterian church. We are currently discussing the possibility of conducting joint evangelistic programs with the local Presbyterian church and the House Church.

******PRAYER REQUESTS******

1) A new building for our church. We have outgrown our existing location.
2) That God would continue to work in the lives of young people in the Toufen area.
3) Wisdom for Barth, Francis and Dumile in discerning God’s will for future musical performances.
4) That Janine’s Chinese studies will be fruitful and that she will be able to handle the long commute.
God bless you all,
Barth and Janine