Another story I would like to share is what God has been doing at YingGe. Last year, one of our partner organizations had asked us to help them run a camp in a location where they were attempting to establish a church plant. They had been looking for a way to break into the community and had plans to establish a church there after a year, but God had other plans. The camp we ran was tremendously successful and was openly received by the community. So much so, that the organization was able to accelerate their plans and established a church in the area the following month! This year we’re excited to be going back and being a part of the great work he is doing there.
My last story is about what God is doing with the South Taichung church that we have visited the last two years. It is our belief that short term missions provides a unique opportunity to reach people with the gospel but that it has a very short, limited effect. That is why it has always been our goal to strengthen local churches and to teach, rebuke, correct, and train them in what it looks like to evangelize. Our mission has always been directed at helping the local churches answer the call to evangelize. This ideal is best embodied by the South Taichung church. This year the church is partnering with us and spearheading our trip to Huwei. It’s their desire to help revive a struggling church there and have committed to give their time, manpower, and finances to help restore another part of the local church body. This type of transformation and obedience is what we believe will change Taiwan.
As you can see, God has taken us a long way from our first year where we ran one camp with a team of 8 and has helped us GROW to 10 camps with a team of over 25 individuals. Our theme for this year is GROW. This was inspired by the growth that we have seen God do in our own lives and ministry and as a mission team, we want to help the local churches and their communities see that true growth only comes from being rooted in Christ. Our four themes/stories for this year are: Grow Right (Joseph), Grow Strong (David), Grow Wise (Daniel), Grow Up (Peter).
About half our camps this year are in new areas and new locations, while the other half are old places. We also have a very interesting group of kids going with us this year. Half of our team consists of seasoned veterans who have gone with us at least 3 years, while the other half is the new generation of our church youth group. A lot of these new members are from the high school freshmen class, which I had the privilege of teaching last fall. At the time. I had challenged them to find out what it meant to trust God and many of them responded by taking a step of faith and joining us on this missions trip.
As always, we need the assistance of our global church body and ask that you continue to support us through prayer and financially. We are excited to see what God has in store for us and would like to welcome you to join us on this journey to fulfill the call in Isaiah to “be a covenant for the people, and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
Sincerely,
Elijah Chiang
