Happy Passover!
Passover greetings from Taichung!
Warm weather has returned to Taiwan! And our ministry has continued to break forth in new life as God has made connections and opened doors for us! Not only did we start the new English language church service that we mentioned in last month’s newsletter, but a new opportunity to teach Bible at the graduate level has opened up. We also celebrated a Passover Meal with our church group, which was a great experience. For all the exciting details, read on…
The first opportunity to preach at our new church came the week after Easter. I was surprised to learn from Joshua (who translates for me at the Bible college, and introduced us to the church) that he would not be translating for me, but that Pastor Peter had arranged for another translator. As it turned out, that translator was Ruth Chang, a good friend and excellent translator that we worked with in some of our past visits to Taiwan. In fact, the last time I was in Taiwan to do seminars, her brother Stephen hosted me at a prayer mountain in southern Taiwan.
Ruth and Stephen had not known we were back in the country. So they invited us out to lunch at a cute, traditional-style Chinese tea house. These tea houses look like something out of the pages of Chinese history, complete with a pool in the center with colorful, foot-and-a-half long goldfish that children love to feed. We first met Ruth and Stephen years ago when Stephen had returned to Taiwan from studying abroad in Germany and in Israel. At that time, he was just getting involved in pastoral ministry, and seeking God’s direction for his life. Now he leads an inner healing ministry that has him travelling all over the country. He’s booked for a full year in advance.
At church, in the morning Chinese service, I shared our message about prophecy being fulfilled in Israel—a quick overview of the incredible history of modern Israel. The people seemed to be quite interested, and Ruth did an excellent job translating, as always. The pastor and his wife were very encouraging. They invited us to stay for a meal after the service. This we especially enjoyed because it reminded us so much of the “food fellowship” at our church in the Philippines.
The next week we started the new English service, which meets on Sunday afternoon. We had no idea how many people would come—if any! But we would have been happy if it was just our family there praising God. We were so much looking forward to worshiping God in the more interactive style of worship we have come to enjoy over the years, and being able to dig into the Word from an “Israel” perspective again.
We were pleasantly surprised when about 20 people showed up at the service. This included a group of students from my Hebrew class at the Bible college. Ruth translated the message, in which we looked at the horrible effects of anti-Semitism on the Church over the years, and its effect on Christian teaching. For centuries the Church blamed the Jews for killing Jesus, and used this to justify the murder of thousands and thousands of Jewish people through the years. But in fact, the Bible says that it was Roman soldiers that did the deed, under the direction of a Roman governor (Pontius Pilate). We also talked about the negative attitude toward God’s Law still taught in many places today, and how this deep-rooted misunderstanding often leads to misinterpretation of God’s Word and neglect of the New Testament’s “Law of the Messiah” (Rom. 8:2, 1 Cor. 9:21, Gal. 6:2, etc.): the instructions that Jesus gave us for walking in God’s light.
After the service, my Hebrew students took us out to eat. We ended up at a Greek restaurant together with some of the others that had attended the service. This was a fun opportunity to talk about the food in Israel, which is quite similar to Greek food. For some unknown reason, the chef took a special interest in our group, and came out and talked with us for practically the whole time we were there. He even brought out his guitar and played for us! For the price of our original orders, he substituted a much larger, multi-course feast, which turned out to be way more than we could eat. What an unexpected blessing! He even gave a guitar lesson to our son David. (Be sure to see the pictures on our web site at http://www.photoblog.com/totheends.)
At the next week’s service, we had a similar attendance. This time, Joshua translated. I continued to speak about the New Law of Messiah (the New Testament) and its relationship to the Law of Moses: that they are not opposites, but in complete harmony with one another. Both are a revelation of God’s will to us, even though we as Gentile Christians are not (and never were) under the Law of Moses. Yet even for Gentile Christians, the Law of Moses reveals God’s plan and is a pattern pointing to and fulfilled in the Messiah.
At the end of the service, we asked if anyone was interested in celebrating Passover with us by joining us for a Passover Meal (the Seder meal) the next Saturday evening. Almost everyone raised their hands! We decided to do it pot-luck style, and encouraged them to invite their friends.
About 35 people showed up for the meal. Our Passover Meal booklets had already been translated into Chinese several years ago, so we were able to celebrate the meal in Chinese. For some of them, this was their first time to celebrate Passover. The meal was a real blessing and a lot of fun! (Be sure to see the pictures on our web site at http://www.photoblog.com/totheends.)
Meanwhile, Ruth was busy making contact for us with the Faith Bible Seminary here in Taichung. The school is an extension of a graduate-level seminary in New York that draws students from the Chinese community. There is another extension in Taipei. The Dean (Elder Susan) invited me out to lunch, with Ruth translating. She invited me to teach two classes, though unfortunately, I am only able to fit one in my schedule this semester. Hopefully, I’ll be able to free up more time next semester.
This is an exciting new opportunity to teach Bible! The class I’m teaching is Old Testament History. Ruth is the translator. There are about 15 students in the class, several with good English skills—a couple of them have worked as translators before.
In the first class, we talked about the battle for the Bible, and especially the Evolution-Creation debate, as well as the tremendous contributions of archeology to understanding the Bible. This is an exciting class to teach, for which I’ve got a full Powerpoint presentation ready to go. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the semester.
Karen is busy as always at Jackson Five. She’s enjoying the work, although she has challenges with a couple of her kids from time to time, for which she would appreciate your prayers.
David had some big changes this month: he finally got braces, and we bought him a guitar. He also got a job! The braces are currently just on the top teeth, although the bottom will follow, perhaps next month. He’s already doing quite well on the guitar: maybe he’ll be able to play in our services soon. His job is at Jackson Five, where Karen teaches. He helps watch the kids after school while they’re waiting for their parents to pick them up. It started out as a temporary position, but now it looks like it will continue a couple of days a week.
Johnny is busy with homeschool as always. Recently, he started going with David to work, so he can play with the kids at the school. This is a great opportunity for them to interact with local kids—and a real answer to prayer!
Tammie is wrapping up her first year at Emory, and will be flying here to join us soon! She’ll be stopping by on her way to a summer abroad program in Beijing, which should be quite exciting with the Olympics in town this year. The focus of her studies is Chinese language, which she’ll also be able to practice during her visit here in Taiwan. Right now she’s considering doing a semester here in Taiwan before returning to Emory, to enhance her Chinese skills. Pray for God’s leading as she makes these important decisions.
Thanks again for your prayers. The giving to our general ministry fund has gone down quite a bit this year compared to last year. We hope you won’t forget us, as this giving makes our ministry trips to the Philippines possible. Our next scheduled trip is for the entire month of July, which is already almost fully booked with seminars. Thank you for considering an investment in this wide-open door for ministry!
By the way, if you’re in Taichung, please come join us for our services at the Foursquare Church at 36 Gong Yuan Rd., near Taichung Park, from 2-4:00 pm on Sundays.
All the best in Messiah Jesus,
Jeff & Karen Harrison
and David and John
Please pray with us:
1) Praise for the new doors of ministry that have opened to us! Pray that God will build up our English language service and minister to Jeff’s new students at the Faith Bible Seminary.
2) Pray for wisdom and energy for Jeff in his ongoing classes at Glad Tidings. Midterms are over and the sprint to the end of the school year has begun. Please continue to pray for opportunities to share the gospel, and open hearts to receive it!
3) Pray for continued strength and creativity for Karen at Jackson Five. She, too, asks prayer for opportunities to share the gospel, and for the power of God’s love to change young hearts and minds.
4) Pray for the boys in homeschool, and that they will make some good friends at Jackson Five.
5) Pray for God's continued leading as we interact with people in Taiwan, that we might understand them better and learn effective ways to minister God's Word.
6) Pray for health and safety. Karen has been a little sick again with a cough, and stayed home one day from school. Pray, too, for safety as we ride our scooters through the busy streets.
7) Pray for us to make rapid progress in the Chinese language.
Thanks for your
prayers!
Contact and Support Information:
Thanks so much to those who have been led to support us financially. You can make donations to our ministry on-line or by check. Checks should be made out to “To The Ends Of
The Earth Ministries” and sent to:
To The Ends Of The Earth Ministries
c/o Paul Hartmann
27603 - 398th Ave.
Armour, SD 57313-5527
On-line support can be made using either your PayPal account
or your credit card. Visit the Support page on our web site at http://www.totheends.com/page14.html
and scroll down the page until you see
the box labeled, “I want to support your work with a financial gift.” Press the “Donate” button and follow the
instructions. A “Donate” button is also
located on the home page of our web site.
For correspondence, please contact us by e-mail at: Jeff@totheends.com or by postal mail at:
Jeff and Karen Harrison
c/o Glad Tidings Bible College
P.O. Box 105
17 Chieng Chung St.
Taichung City 401
TAIWAN (R.O.C.)
Please do not send any money to us in Taiwan. Use the U.S. address above instead. Thanks!
