Support Letter

To my Faithful Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I would like to thank you for your support over the last 9 years. Your prayers and financial support last year brought to life countless miracles and incredible growth in many churches. Before I share with you what we will be doing this year, I would like to share some testimonies of what happened last year for you to see how God has been working in Taiwan this last year.

Last year, due to some last minute changes, I had the opportunity of leading my first high school camp. The moment I arrived, the school administrator asked for a contingency plan for the impending typhoon that was about to hit Taiwan. In faith, I explained to him that there was nothing to worry about because God would take care of it. This came up multiple times the following day with different school administrators, students, and coworkers. I explained to our team that God has moved 3 out of the 4 hurricanes we faced in the past and the one time he didn't God came through and we were able to still host our closing ceremony. So the day before it hit, the school administrators told me that they were not going to open the school and I asked for permission to continue the camp at the church we were staying at, to which he approved if the weather was permitting. I felt God tell me to take all the food that we had at school and bring it back to the church that night. After the day had concluded, we returned back to the church and I ended up having a strong disagreement with the pastor as he was concerned for safety and liability for hosting the camp at the church but after much discussion his wife promised to talk to him again in the morning.

That night, our team got down and prayed for God to move the hurricane at around 10:45 PM and began preparing for the next day fully believing that God would move the hurricane. The next morning, I got up extra early and saw bright sunshine outside. Immediately, I checked the weather report and found that God had indeed moved the hurricane and that it was going to miss us in northern Taiwan and our other team in the middle of Taiwan. The time that it moved? 11:14 PM. The storm took a sharp turn south at this exact time. Approximately 80% of our campers ended up coming to church that day and many came to accept Christ the following day due to the testament of faith that we had proclaimed to them from the beginning about the hurricane. The youth group at this church grew from one high schooler to over 30 after our camp due to God's faithfulness.

Another story I would like to share is what God has been doing these last two years. God has been really shifting the path of thei42 from running camps to planting new children ministries and youth groups. Over the last two years, God has used our camps to establish: a new church in YingGe, a new church in BuHe, a new children's ministry in Huwei, and a new youth group at Luodong, This year, we have the opportunity to help establish a new Junior High youth group at WuLun and YingGe, a children's minsitry in TaiNan, and continue to help jumpstart additional children programs at North Taichung, Huwei, and NanHaiLu. It's a tremendously exciting time for us as a ministry as we see God shaping our ministry and the potential future path that we might take as a long-term ministry.

However, we are also facing many challenges this year, even before we get to Taiwan. The political climate in Taiwan is rapidly changing and the rise of liberalism has also led to as strong rise in the LBGT movement. This has led many school administrators and parents to use this opportunity to apply pressure and attack Christianity on many fronts. The Christian Club in Luodong (where we helped start a new youth group) has been under constant fire and pressure to the point where it is deciding whether to disband or move off campus. The pressure on the new believers here has also led many to disassociate themselves from the church or stop attending the clubs and the church programs. Locally, we got off to a late start with fundraising and as there are many other teams heading out at the same time as our team, we are really, REALLY behind in our financial support this year.

Nevertheless, we will keep running the race faithfully. God has provided us with some amazing opportunities this year but at the same time many great risks in what we are doing this year. This will be the first year where we aren't primarily running elementary school camps but have the privilege of running 2 junior high and 2 senior high school camps this year. Though the risks may be great, we believe that with faith, God will reap a great harvest. For the elementary school children, we hope to teach them to Run into God, Run after God, and Run with God, in order to Run well. For our junior high and high school students, our goal is to show them that life is more than just their past mistakes and their current troubles. We want to infuse the idea that God provides a way for them to Believe Again, Hope Again, Love Again, and most importantly, be Born/Live Again.

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.”

If you are interested in donating, you can donate through Venmo me using your phone @echiang12 (no receipt/no fee), paypal (no receipt/fee) using the link on our webpage at thei42project.org, or you can send a check (receipts available by GPCCC)to:

1911 E Citation Lane

Tempe AZ 85284

Pay to the order: GPCCC

Memo: Thei42 TW STM

Sincerely,

Elijah Chiang