Dear Brothers and sisters, peace to you all!
Thank God for leading us triumphantly in Christ from the beginning of the year to the end of the year! Through your prayers and encouragement, CWC coworkers are empowered by God to lead people to Christ in various areas and camps, and to equip many young students to be the Lord’s disciples.
For the past two years, I had the opportunity to serve in China’s campuses. Of all the college towns that I visited, I discovered that only 0.2%-0.5% students were believers, yet statistics indicate that the population of Christians in China is around 5% – 10%. That means the population of Christian students is relatively low. I observe that the reasons behind might possibly be the following: 1) The moral climate among students is rather low. According to the study reported by the Chinese education sector, 50% of Chinese college students live together or in and out of hotel frequently. If men often addict to the pleasures of sin, it is difficult for the Gospel to enter their hearts. 2) They are under the bondage of electronic games. They turn day and night upside down and abandon their studies. Of course, they are not interested in spiritual matters. 3) They do not have Christ-centered living. Those students who are good in their studies, they devote their efforts fully to prepare for graduate school during their junior and senior years. Using studies as the reason, these students do not seek the Lord nor serve Him. When they could be built up spiritually and be Christian leaders on campuses, they leave bad examples for lower classmen. When continued in this way year after year, how can we expect campus ministry be built up? If young students do not come to the Lord when in school, what is the future hope of the church?
In the campus environment of China, the opportunity is actually very slim for people to believe in God, to become the Lord’s disciples, and to be equipped to serve the Lord. But our God is full of wisdom and His work is wonderful. He had chosen large number of young students and scholars in China, to leave the society that is closed up to faith and to receive education in North America where there is religious freedom. Some come to study for their “future” or for “money”; some come because of obeying their parents’ will without any goal. But God’s thoughts are higher than man. When they come to the US, they can freely listen to the Gospel, and receive new life from God. They not only can seek earthly education on one hand, they can also establish their spiritual foundation on the other hand, so that they can be elites in the society as well as fine soldiers in God’s kingdom.
We can see from modern church history that God often times used student ministry in thriving churches, reviving campus work, building church coworkers, and in sending many missionaries. For example, during the time of Hudson Taylor, the rise of campus ministry in England brought out many British students to become missionaries all over the world, and expanded God’s kingdom. Of the missionaries, many were world-renowned and had beautiful witnesses; e.g., Hudson Tayler, Livingston, William Carey etc. Moody’s revival movement also brought out revival among students. Many young students dedicated their lives to mission work and there were hundreds of thousands of missionaries sent out; God’s kingdom and His church were established world-wide. During this end times, we often talk about spreading the Gospel from China back to Jerusalem, but Chinese campus ministry needs greater revival. The Lord will bring out Chinese students who will dedicate their lives to be fine soldiers. During the middle of last century, God had used His servants Rev David Chao and Rev Moses Yu etc to bring about revival among college students in China. Many students repented and accepted Christ, dedicating their whole lives to be used by the Lord. Among them were Rev Philip Teng and Rev Stephen Chan etc. They had influenced the building of the church during the second half of the last century, and had geminated the mission calling in the hearts of young people at that era. They not only spread the Gospel to Xinjiang etc in the west, but also determined to spread the Gospel back to Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, such prosperity in campus ministry was short-lived like fading flowers. When the student movement started to thrive on the occasion, religious freedom was restricted due to the change of political power in mainland China with the rise of communism. Not only did the aspiration to spread the Gospel back to Jerusalem was eliminated, the ministry of campus evangelism was restrained and was not completely recovered even half a century later.
The mission movement in the West began with revival among students. Chinese mission should also start with students. Missionaries greatly used by God usually dedicated their lives when they were young, and then joined mission work, offering their whole lives in foreign countries. Until now, we do yet have great missionaries like brother Hudson Taylor etc raised up among Chinese. Maybe Chinese campus ministry has not yet flourished up till this moment. Chinese campus ministry is an important link in thriving Chinese church and Chinese mission work. Chinese campus ministry really needs earnest prayer and support from brothers and sisters in all churches.
Since God raised us CWC in the mid-west, let us present our petition before God: to be used by Him in equipping more young students to be the Lord’s servants. Those brothers and sisters who come to study in the mid-west are comparatively more simple and open-minded towards God. They are more receptive to the Gospel and are more willing to receive discipleship training. We do not want and are not willing to use various activities, “icebreakers”, games, outings etc to attract students in attending meetings. Despite of that, students in the mid-west have been enthusiastic in participating discipleship training and Bible camps that are not activity based. We need prayer support of more brothers and sisters so that we can win more students to Christ; to build them up as fine soldiers in God’s kingdom so that they will fight the good fight at the end times. Please pray for us as follows:
1. Pray for the Lord’s revival spirit be upon each coworker—let each coworker be spirit filled; has the grace upon grace and strength upon strength to bring more students fully to the Lord.
2. Pray for the students in all areas—let the Lord’s revival spirit roam freely on all campuses, so that people will come before God with humbling hearts, with thirsting spirit for righteousness, and with longing for God’s word; thus building up firm foundation spiritually.
3. Pray for the brothers and sisters who serve on campuses—may the Lord help them not only to eagerly seek and grow in the Lord, but also to be good and faithful witness for the Lord, to quickly spread the Gospel, and to train people as disciples.
4. Pray for CWC’s new building project of a hostel with 16 rooms—ask the Lord to provide the needed funding of $250,000. As of now, we thank the Lord for providing us with $45,000. We are still quite a distance from the target, but please pray for us that the construction will complete smoothly so that we can accommodate more people for training.
5. The mid-west winter conference will be held on Dec 21 evening through Dec 25 noon. The location is Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center (formerly Hyatt Regency). You can now download registration form and begin invitation. Online registration has already started. Each person has to register online. Due to the large number of participants and the information to be processed is huge, there is a strict registration deadline of Dec 16 at 4pm in the afternoon (central time). We will not accept any registration after the deadline. Thank God for providing us with speakers: Brother Yunbo Bian, Rev. Johann Lai, Elder Chien Li, Rev. Edwin Su, Dr William Ho, Dr Esther Su; and 4 local speakers: Rev. Puong Lau, Rev. Jerry Jing, Rev. Vincent Choi, Brother Henry Lee etc. Speakers for youth and college English meetings are: Pastor Brian Leong from Mountain View, California, Pastor Dat Trieu from St Louis, Missouri, and Pastor Steve Tan from Shawnee, Kansas. Please go online for more information. Please also pray for the heavy workload of CWC coworkers and volunteers, for God’s salvation be upon Gospel seekers in the meetings, and for revival spirit be upon each child of God.
6. The discipleship training camp will be held on Dec 25 evening through Dec 30 noon at the CWC retreat site in Warsaw, MO. Speakers include Rev. Johann Lai and Elder Chien Li from Taiwan. The camp has a strict registration deadline of Dec 16 at 11:59pm. Thank God that He has already touched over 150 people registered to attend the camp. Discipleship training is very effective in changing lives and in preparing people to serve Him. May the Lord prepare their hearts to receive training. Registration form and detailed information are all online.
7. The January Bible camp will be held from Dec 30 evening to January 5 noon at CWC. We will study Acts and Paul’s life. May the Lord use this study to bring about revival on campuses. Speakers are Pastor Stephen Chang and Sister Grace Li. Please pray for the meeting and speakers. The registration deadline for the camp was passed. If you miss the opportunity to attend this time, please do not miss the August Bible camp.
Thank you for your faithful prayer. I look forward to seeing you in the various meetings held in the winter. God’s blessings be with you!
In Christ,
Pastor Billy Ko
Dec 2012