Greetings from the Stellicks (Sarah,
Hannah and Kevin) of
Taichung, Taiwan!
Tony's English Class | And Heaven Cried- China
Airlines Crash |Roy is Baptized! | Trip to Okinawa
We are working on getting
over a round of coughs and colds. Hannah was out of school
Monday through Thursday of last week. Thankfully, we all
seem to be on the mend now.
On
Tuesday nights I have an English Bible Class. The
P.R. work for setting up this class was all done by a Chinese
friend, Tony Chen. Allow me to introduce you to Tony.
Tony had gone to college in the States and was befriended by a
woman from our WELS church in Findlay, Ohio. When Tony
returned to Taiwan to live and work, we made contact with each
other. Tony teaches English, is the English promoter for
one of the biggest English newspapers in Taiwan, and has a
English Radio clinic on the most popular Chinese radio station in
central Taiwan, 'Family Radio FM97.7', which has a listening
audience of over 1 million people. Sarah and I have both
taken our 'turn' being interviewed on Tony's English Radio Clinic
and even had a chance to plug our English Bible Classes which
helped bring in a few new students. I also assist Tony with
another English radio program called 'A Sentence a Day in
English'. One afternoon every 2 months we tape 2 months
worth of sentences. Three times a day Tony and I can be
heard in central Taiwan. Just to give you an idea about
this English program, a typical sentence might be, 'Today is
Christmas, the day Christians believe the Lord Jesus was
born.' With the exception of Christian holidays, the rest
of the sentences are just simple English sentences. If you
are in the neighborhood, tune us in at 9:20am, 2:20pm and 7:20pm
on 'Family Radio FM97.7'. ;-)
You
might be wondering why I am doing this radio thing with
Tony? As I mentioned earlier, Tony does all the P.R. for my
English Bible Class. He also provides me with a wonderful
classroom facilty for my use, all free of charge. This is
the second semester or second time I have taught this Bible Class
at Tony's facility. This past Tuesday I had class and saw
the results of Tony's P.R. and our 'A Sentence a Day in English'
program. When the 10 students introduced themselves some
mentioned that they heard about the Bible study because they
listen to 'A Sentence a Day in English' and had requested the
accompaning mailing which has the sentences written out in
English with a Chinese translation. In this mailing, Tony
also 'plugs' my Bible Class.
It
was also exciting to hear a few of the students express the fact
that they are happy to have the chance to learn more about what
the Bible teaches. Last Tuesday we studied the 'Prodigal
Son', and had opportunity to talk about 'sin' and 'unconditional
forgiveness' and 'the love of our Heavenly Father'. This
was the first time that any of these people had *EVER* heard this
Bible story and the Biblical concept of sin. What a
wonderful priviledge for me to be able to share these truths with
people who have *never* heard them before. At the same time
what a humbling thought it is that the Lord would give me this
opportunity. Almost everything we do in class is bilingual.
When we are working with a Bible text the student reads the text
out loud in both English and Mandarin, and in this way gets the
meaning of the text. If I am saying something, I usually
try to do it in simple English and then will translate what I
said into Mandarin both for the sake of those whose English
ability is 'not quite there' and so that I have the chance to
share the gospel in a language I know they will understand.
In
class this past Tuesday we also talked about 'life' and 'death'
and 'eternity'. This discussion was prompted because of CAL
Flight 676. On Monday night of this past week, at about 8pm
local Taiwan time, CAL Flight 676 was preparing for landing at
Chaing Kai Shek (CKS) International Airport in northern
Taiwan. For reasons which are yet unknown, the airplane
veared off course when it was within 2 miles of the landing
strip. Students in my class explained the horror they saw
on their TV's that Monday night. A charred human leg
hanging from an electrical wire, dismembered bodies strewn here
and there, fire all around. 203 people were killed, 196 on
the plane and 7 others on the ground including 2 who were
watching TV and a family of 5 who were in their car. Among
those on board were 5 Americans; 12 teachers who had taken a
group of 'advanced students' on a winter vacation; 13 members
from one family who had gone on winter vacation together, they
all died together. The newspaper on Wednesday morning
showed family members with a Taoist priest and the caption said
that they 'were praying in the *hopes* of guiding the souls of
the dead to heaven.'
The
media used the fact that it has been raining ever since the crash
to say that 'even the heavens are crying for the loss of lives on
Flight 676.' The Bible says that the 'angels in heaven
rejoice over one sinner who repents' and knowing the compassion
of our Lord I think it can be said that the heavens were crying
over the eternal loss of the souls of those aboard China Airlines
Flight 676.
I think
most of you remember Roy Pahn, our Chinese friend
and now brother in Christ. After studying Scripture with us
for 4 years, Roy asked to be baptized into Christ. Roy is
one of the chief mechanics who work on the Taiwan IDF (Indigenous
Fighter Jet). A year ago, the co-pilot on CAL 676 had been
a co-worker of Roy's. It seems that this, the biggest air
disaster in Taiwan history, has touched lives all over
Taiwan. Mrs. Hwang, our neighbor from across the street,
came to worship last night for the first time ever. After
the worship service, while we were talking and snacking, she
shared her husband's recent experiences of having to comb through
the twisted wreckage and rotting bodies in an effort to recover
the dead. Pray that the Lord can use this horrible crash as
a way to bring others into His fold where they can find the sure
and eternal hope and peace that Jesus so desires to grant.
On
Wednesday morning of this week, I had to get on a plane at CKS en
route to Okinawa, Japan for our regular worship/ministry outing
with our WELS families there. When I arrived at the CKS
International Airport I was surprised to see the lines of people
waiting to buy 'life insurance.' After an hour flight I
landed safely in Japan and met my host family, the Jarvais' (Ted
& Tamela, thanks for hosting me again!). The highlight
of the trip was seeing ministry in action among the
members. Other than 6 or 7 visits a year from our Taiwan
missionaries, the WELS members on Okinawa work together to
minister to one another. Gene Wempner and Ted Jarvais take
turns leading the 'live' Sunday service, preparing the readings
and hymns. Miriam Kugler has been able to 'brush up' on her piano
skills and willingly leads the hymns with the piano. The
group uses the video taped sermons from 'WELS Special Ministries'
for the sermon each week. It seems to be working out
well. 
Gene
is also leading another serviceman, Bjorn, through a Bible
Information Class and God willing, on our April visit Bjorn will
be brought into the membership of the Holy Christian Church
through adult confirmation along with one of our youth
confirmands. After our worship and fellowship time on
Thursday evening in Okinawa, Ted invited over a young married
couple, Mike & Jennifer. Ted works in the same building
as Mike and has had opportunity to share his faith. That
evening we had the chance to invite them into our group and
explain a bit about why we believe what we believe. Mike
and Jennifer also expressed the desire to attend a Bible
Information Class so that they can be better grounded in the
basics truths of Scripture. For now, Mike and Jennifer are
looking forward to joining the Sunday worship opportunities and
learning more about Jesus, the Bible, WELS Lutherans and our
Okinawa WELS family, 'Living Hope of Okinawa.' Pray for
Bjorn and Mike and Jennifer as well as for the other WELS members
who are ministering to one
another.
On
Saturday evening we had house worship in our living room with 10
in atendance. It was an interesting group. We had one
new comer, Mrs Hwang (whom I mentioned earlier). The others
who came this week were some of our regulars although none of
them were able to be here the week before and ironically, those
who did come last week were unable to come this week!
This
morning at 8:45am Sarah, Hannah and I drove down the street and
picked up Roy Pahn and his daughter Joy and they went with us to
worship at the church in rural Lukang, 'Everlasting Happiness
Church.' A traffic jam made us arrive at the church at
about 10:15am. They started at 10am. To our surprise
Mr. Lin, the evangelist at the village church, was leading the
worship service. It was surprising because we thought that
he had already left for Mainland China and his continued work
there with the bicycle factory that his boss asked him to
supervise. Because Mr. Lin will be gone to Mainland China
we are working to cover the Sunday worship services when he is
gone. He was suppose to leave for China last week but
because he was sick he changed his flight to leave this Monday,
tomorrow the 23rd.
At
any rate, I had gone to Lukang to preach and when we saw that Mr.
Lin was there we didn't know what would be happening; 'Is Mr Lin
going to preach today or am I?' We joined in the hymn which
was being sung and when we came to the sermon hymn, I pulled Mr.
Lin aside to find out if he wanted to preach or if he wanted to
translate what I had prepared to preach. Apparently he was
expecting us to arrive and so I preached and Mr. Lin
translated. It was my longest sermon ever, 40
minutes! If you factor in the fact that it all had to be
translated into Taiwanese after I preached in Mandarin then you
can divide the 40 by 2 and it really wasn't that long. At
any rate, no one slept! ;-) There were 20 people at
worship and it was uplifting to see so many gathered to hear the
Word. We are also especially happy that Roy, knowing he
could not come to worship on Saturday evening at our house, asked
if he could go to Lukang and worship with us. It was
a great experience for Roy to worship with another group of
Christians in another setting.
Other
than that, things have been kind of quiet around here.
Thanks for your prayers for all those with whom we share
Christ. Please take a minute to jot us a note.
It is always uplifting for us to hear from you!!
God
bless and keep you in His care!
Love,
Kevin, Sarah, Hannah and Snowy