New Hope's Christmas outreach in downtown Taipei

After the worship service on Sunday, about fourteen members of the church including the guitar fellowship practiced playing and singing carols and then they went out into the neighborhood near where our church meets. Wherever they went, they would sing and also hand out chocolate candies and Gospel tracts with our church's contact info on them.

Our three oldest daughters joined the carolers while Judy and I took the younger two children home and hosted Judy's cousins who had visited the church for the first time.

Practicing after the worship service before heading out to the neighborhood to carol.

The group was very bold. You might be surprised at where they went: into a hair salon, into apartment buildings and even into a local precinct police station! The policemen got out their cell phones and recorded the caroling. Most people received it very well.

Please pray that God will bring some from the neighborhood to visit our church.
Please also pray that God will work in the hearts of the church members to continue to be bold in their witness for Christ.

We'll try to post more info and pictures when we get them.

Joyous Christmas

The text is in Taiwanese. It reads in English: "Mulu hugged his dad and said, 'Thank you Lord for hearing my prayer and causing my dad to believe in the Lord and be baptized. I am so moved!' "
In Mandarin it reads: Mulu抱爸爸說：感謝主聽見我的禱告，讓我的爸爸信主受洗，我好感動。

Mulu is 5 or 6 years old (I'll have to check).

This drawing was done by Carol, a member of New Hope Church. Carol grew up in a traditional Hakka family. After several years of prayer, her husband, Acer, professed his faith and was baptized at the Christmas Sunday worship service at New Hope. I baptized his son Mulu and his mom Carol back in 2009 when she professed her faith. Yesterday, I was privileged to baptize Acer and their second child, Jofee, whom they adopted last fall.

When we get the audio uploaded, I'll post Acer's testimony here.

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Our Christmas Sunday worship service was very packed. The Taiwanese language Bible study fellowship sang two verses of O Come All Ye Faithful (the second verse use language about Christ from the Nicene Creed.) The whole congregation joined in singing verses in English and Mandarin. (We'll have to track down a photo for this part.)

Then a little later, the guitar fellowship came up and played guitars to accompany the congregation in singing Joy to the World.

I gave a children's message on Isaiah 53:5-6, using a candy cane as an illustration.

After a young architect, Acer Lee, gave his testimony, we had three baptism including his own.

Finally the sermon was from Luke 1:26-38.

And we sang our closing hymn, Silent Night.

After the worship service, all the guests were given a Christmas gift. The gifts were calendars with photographs of Taiwan's mountains taken by a Christian photographer. On each photo was also printed a Bible verse.

The new visitors stayed to eat lunch with the church members.

Pray for Christmas Sunday worship service and gospel outreach

Please pray for our Christmas worship service tomorrow at New Hope Church in Taipei.

A young architect will be sharing his testimony. Then I will have the privilege of baptizing him. We expect many non-believers to be coming. We will have several special parts of the service and I will be preaching a gospel message from Luke 1:26-38.

Afterwards, we will probably be hosting members of Judy's extended family who will be visiting the worship service, but many of the church members will be heading out with the church guitar fellowship to go caroling and hand out gospel tracts in a nearby neighborhood.

There are some regular attenders who are not believers including a young computer software engineer.

Please also pray as many of the church members are trying to outreach to their non-Christian family members.

Love in Christ, Joel (for the Lintons)

Gospel Outreach in Another Island Nation

Though this video deals with housing projects, rural areas and townships in Taiwan need similar outreach.

Recent Worship service at New Hope Church, Taipei

Last Sunday I preached at New Hope on Luke 17:20-37 about the urgency of believing the Gospel and sharing the Gospel with others.

Below are short video clips of the service taken by the wife of one of the Taiwanese pastoral interns.

One of the hymns. We alternate singing one verse in English, one verse in Mandarin.

We eat lunch together and then after lunch there are two fellowship groups that meet. One is a guitar fellowship where they practice playing hymns. The other is a Taiwanese - Language Bible Study Fellowship where 1. we learn a Taiwanese hymn, 2. we read a section in Taiwanese from the Gospel of John, 3. we hear a testimony in Taiwanese from one of the members, and 4. We close in prayer. This fellowship is designed to give Christians practice in sharing the Gospel to older generation Taiwanese who do not necessarily speak Mandarin very well.

Eric sharing his testimony. Eric is a graduate of Christ's College in KuanDu.

Praising Christ through the Centuries

An Advent Poem -- Attributed to 9th Century A.D. poet Cynewulf (from The Christ, Part 1 - Section 10, Lines 348-377) translated from Anglo-Saxon by Burton Raffel

Oh Holy Lord of Heaven, You
and Your Father lived in that noble place,
Ruled together, before time began.
None of your angels existed, then,
None of the mighty Hosts of Heaven
Who guard and keep Your Kingdom, Your glorious
Home and Your Father's, when You worked Your wonders
You and He, making world
And stars and all this great creation.
In You, and in Your Father, rests
The joy of the Holy Ghost. Now
Your creatures join in a humble prayer,
Lord and Savior and God, beg You
To hear Your servants' voices. Our souls
Are tormented by our own wild longings.
Here in our miserable exile devils
And damned souls twist their savage
Chains around us. Our only safety
Is in You, eternal Lord: help
These sorrowful prisoners of sin, let
Your Coming comfort our misery, despite,
Oh Christ, our bitter lusts and our crimes
Against You. Pardon us, remember our misfortunes,
Our stumbling steps, our feeble hearts,
Remember our helplessness. Come, King
Of men, come now, bring us Your love
And Your mercy; deliver our souls, grant us
Salvation, God, so that in all we do,
Now and forever, our days on earth
Will work Your holy will among men.

====================

Original Anglo Saxon:

Ēalā þū hālga heofona Dryhten,
þū mid Fæder þinne gefyrn wǣre
efenwesende in þām æþelan hām.
Næs ǣnig þā giet engel geworden,
nē þæs miclan mægenþrymmes nān
ðe in roderum ūp rice biwitigað,
þēodnes þrȳðgesteald ond his þegnunga,
þā þū ǣrest wǣre mid þone ēcan Frēan
sylf settende þās sidan gesceaft,
brāde brytengrundas. Bǣm inc is gemǣne
Hēahgǣst hlēofæst. Wē þē, Hǣlend Crist,
þurh ēaðmēdu ealle biddað
þæt þū gehȳre hæfta stefne
þīnra niedþiowa, nergende God,-
hū wē sind geswencte þurh ūre sylfra gewill.
Habbað wræcmæcgas wērgan gǣstas,
het[e]l[a]n helsceaþa[n], hearde genyrwad,
gebunden bealorāpum. Is sēo bōt gelong
eall æt þē ānum, ēce Dryhten.
Hrēowcearigum help, þæt þin hidercyme
āfrēfre fēasceafte, þēah wē fǣhþo wið þec
þurh firena lust gefremed hæbben.
Āra nū onbehtum, ond ūsse yrmþa geþenc,-
hū wē tea1trigað tȳdran mōde,
hwearfiað hēanlīce. Cym nū, hæleþa Cyning;
ne lata tõ lange. Ūs is lissa þearf,-
þæt þū ūs āhredde, ond ūs hǣlogiefe
sōðfæst sylle, þæt wē siþþan forð
þā sēllan þing symle mōten
geþēon on þēode, þīnne willan.

Please keep praying for parents of members of New Hope. Many of them are not yet Christians. We visited one mom last Sunday in a countryside area near Taipei to share the Gospel with her. We hope to do more of these visits. Almost all of our conversations over an hour were in the Taiwanese language.

One other thing you might enjoy watching:

The following is a video made by OMF. You can get a little bit of a feel for how a foreigner adjusts to living in Taiwan. You get little glimpses of what Taiwan is like.

LEARN - Taiwan from OMF Taiwan on Vimeo.

Would you like to come visit on a short-term mission trip? Or become a long-term missionary to Taiwan?