Dear Brothers and Sister, Greetings in the Lord!
December is always the busiest season in the Christian Witness Center. Plus my health is not too good from last June. So, this time we combine January and February newsletter in one. Even we are delayed, but God’s works will never be delayed.
People who turn around the era II
This presidential election showed that the whole US society had fallen into dark sinfulness. The voter fraud was very obvious, but many local officials said there was no fraud. When dealing with these cases, local court houses stated that the fraud was not widespread, so there was no need to deal with it. This also showed that they knew about the fraud condition, but because it was not severe, they were not concerned about it. Federal court’s dealing on this issue was avoidance or wait till after January 20 new president’s inauguration. The society is fallen into dark sinfulness to the point that people can sin openly but do not worry about being caught. The election has fallen into such sinful dark condition. It is not difficult to imagine how the US society will become! In the future, many people may feel that cheating is not a problem since people cheated in the presidential election. We can do the same. Students cheat and companies cheat. This kind of thing will also become more common. Before the new president officially took office, he has already made announcement concerning gender equality. As a result, it is not appropriate to call mother and father. It should be called parents. No longer calling brothers and sisters, but siblings. Soon we may perceive that male and female are the same. One can choose to go to whichever bathroom one wants to. This is the deterioration of morality. This world is getting more and more corruptive and we will ask, “Do God’s eyes not see? Will God not do something about it?” God sees and He has done something. It is not God does not do anything, but in this last days He is looking for a group of witnesses who can stand firm to fight for the Lord and turn around the era. This is also the theme for 2020 Winter Conference—People who turn around the era.
(1) God seeks people that He can use
When we have trouble, we will find ways to see help or find other solution. But when God faces the problems of the world, He does not find ways to solve the problems, nor find someone to help His plan, but to seek people He can use. During the Judges era, when the Israelites called out to God out of troubles, God sook out people He could use who was called Judges. As a result, God is seeking people in this dark age. It is not because God cannot work if there is no worker, but God is Emmanuel God. He loves mankind and is pleased to abide with man, work with man, live with man, and even been glorified with man. God is pleased to share His deserved glory with other man, so that God wants the people He uses to experience His mighty power and take part in God’s victory and receive glory with God. This Emmanuel God wants man to work with Him, so that man can know Him better. The relationship between God and man can be edified. God also hope that man can influence others to turn towards God.
(2) God seeks people that can be changed/or turned around by Him
God wants to use man. But man’s sins and thoughts do not compatible with God. Thus, man cannot work with God. As a result, God must change man. God does the work of discipline and breaking down man, so that man can be built up after experiencing God’s modification. Therefore, what God wants to win are those who are willing to be changed by God. If we are not willing to be changed, still following our own ways to work, and not willing to learn the lessons God give us, we will not be able to be used by God. God will just put us aside because man needs to be broken down and rebuilt by God in order to do God’s work.
There are two sentences that are very important among ministers. One is “Life is the sermon.” How your life is and how the message you preach is. Your life is filled with God’s holiness, righteousness, love and wisdom and your sharing is righteousness, love, goodness these kinds of God’s attributes. If our inside is filled with things of the world, evilness, and old-self, then when we shared, we only can share those kind of non-edifying stuff to let others to stubble and fall into deep darkness. This is why God not hurrying to ask people to work but rather spend a lot of time to build them up. A person being used by God, he is God’s representative and he has to live God out, so God needs to first change him. His life is changed and edified and his ministry is not filled with man’s tackings and evilness but overflowing with God’s characters. This is not just for preachers, but every believer. If we live everyday in according to the flesh, but still wishing to witness for the Lord, our witness is not radiating God’s glory, but revealing the darkness of the world. Thus, if we want to be used by God, our lives needs to imitate after our Lord and be changed by the Lord in order to live out Christ. The second important sentence is “Life is the pulpit.” Sharing on the pulpit is very important, but when we have to witness in front of others via teaching or preaching, the listeners want to see our everyday living. Everyday living is the expression of life. We do not need to share major theory things. The attitude of our daily lives naturally reveals the life inside of us. One can hide himself temporarily, but under long term observation, people will know what kind of person he really is because time can clearly reveal one’s true character. This also tells us that the condition of life will manifest in the way we live. A person being used by the Lord does not strive after serving on the pulpit nor chances to lead Bible studies but showing off Christ in our lives. This is essential. Life and living need to be compatible. “Life is our sermon.” Life reveals it. Let’s see Daniel. He never preached in the synagogue nor sharing in front of a group of Israelites. But we can see him as one who turns around the era. Many emperors were luminated by Daniel’s light saying that he has the spirit of God in him. They knew that Daniel’s life was very good with God’s character within. Everyone looked up to him and respected him greatly from Babylon to Persian era, all the kings used him heavily despite the changes of kingdoms. The enemies of Daniel wanted to find trouble for him but could not find anything in Daniel’s life that was accusable. They found fault in his devotion to God and not allowing him to pray. Daniel did not only have good spirit, but also good witness in his life. That’s why he can become a person that can turn around the era. May the Lord help us to build up our life and living that we can be used by God more.
When God uses us, we need to pay attention to two things: FIRST, what we do is not to fulfill our own plan, but to do God’s will. When one has been used by God for a period of time, he can easily become prideful or even forget God’s mighty work. What he is doing is not longer following God’s will, but his own planning. We serve God if following our own plan will not please God. God may not approve of it. Like Saul, when he was persecuting the early churches, he thought he was doing it for the Lord but following his own will and planning. It was not pleasing God. Then God showed himself in his glory and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul then knew what he had done in the past was completely following man’s will, not according to God’s will and the result did not please God and he became one who attacked God. May God help us not just plan on our own but watch for God’s will to follow His leading. Then we can walk in God’s will. May God help us. When we serve, maybe sometimes in people’s eyes, we have a little bit success, at this moment, we especially need to humble ourselves. We need to come in front of God and ask God’s shining and guidance, so that we can do according to God’s will to do God’s works, not doing our own wills. SECOND, “Serving God should be faithful to the Lord’s calling.” When we serve, we will face great difficulties. Sometimes the difficulty is so great that we cannot handle. We need to ask God to help us to faithfully stand firm to trust on God amid difficulties. Knowing that God gives us this mission. We cannot avoid it but to complete it by trusting on God faithfully. The difficulty is great, but as long as we are faithful, it will past and become our blessing. It is because we can see God’s grace and blessing during the difficulties. Many people think that it is a painful task to be faithful to the Lord. In fact, it is not. It may be hard at the beginning. But the more you are faithful, the bitterness will turn to more sweet. When you are faithfully standing on the place you are serving, you will see more and more the Lord’s grace. Many ministers serving in the church for two to three years and start to face the difficulties, then they change to another church to serve. When they are at other churches and face the same difficulties, then they switch to other churches again. In every church, they will discover that it seems there are no coworkers, and the difficulties are many and long lasting. They are trapped in this downward spiral of difficulties. Our lesson is: faithfully serve the Lord and laying down all the hardship in front of the Lord, we can be victorious by trusting on the Lord. If we face people that we cannot work with, try to reconcile with them by depending on the Lord to convert the enemy to coworker. If you do it more often, you will find out that you can continue to serve in that position and see God’s blessings. Many churches are not thriving. One of the reason is that the minister cannot trust on God to be victorious when facing difficulties, they chose to run away and shifted to other churches. Sometimes it also happens to the brothers or sisters who are serving at the churches or leading the Bible studies. When they meet hardship, they just quit. Those all will influences us not being able to be edified by the Lord. Only if when we can faithfully trust on God to beat difficulty, beat the problem of personnel, we will see that the road of serving is easier and easier and we will have more and more coworkers and more joy filled. A minister who can build up a church may not be eloquence, but he must be a faithful servant. He can rely on God to overcome difficulties. He will be serving in one church not just for 5 or 10 years, but 20, 30, even 40 years. God’s blessing will be upon the minister and the churches. Thanks be to the Lord! I have served in CWC for 40 years and 30 years in the church in Columbia Missouri. Some people asked me, “what is it like serving for that long?” I always replied, “Thank God! Serving God is the longer the sweeter.” May the Lord help us to be faithful, not struggling in the bitterness, but being built up in the difficulties and entering into the sweetness of serving. When we can do that, God will use us to turn around the era and having long lasting influence to the church and society. May the Lord help us to be faithful witnesses in this generation and continue to shine the light for the Lord in this ever darkening time. We can continue to influence people around us and our churches to follow the Lord well.
(The following ministry report was written by Sister Cindy Chiang)
Winter Conference—Kansas City Mayor issued an order on November 16, 2020 to restrict indoor gathering within city limit to be ten people or less. So Winter Conference had to be held virtually. Even so, there were still over 400 attendees including 20 plus non-believers. Short-term mission teams from Chinse Grace Bible Church in Sacramento, CA, Dallas Chinese Fellowship Church in TX, and BCTC Church in NJ devoted all their efforts to share the Gospel with the non-believers and led us in praise and worship during the meetings. During the first night, Rev. Tsu Kung Chuang quoted John Wesley’s prayer as the introduction of the conference theme “People who turn around the era”. He said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God … such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth…do not require to be a big number, but the choicest who are willing to devote to the Lord; love nothing but God…!” Even though it was a virtual meeting, we still emphasized coming to class on time and seriously pursue God. We saw more people willing to pray publicly during gathering. Without worrying about food and hotel arrangement, and other tedious administrative issues, I was able to attend each class, listening to the rich sharing from the speakers, and being filled with the presence of Holy Spirit during the whole conference. It was very fruitful. Glory and praise belong to the Lord!
December Disciple and Coworker Training Camp—Winter Conference finished around noon and our three CWC coworkers started to prepare for the coming in person Discipleship Training camp (Dec 27-Jan2). Even though this year we did not need to spend tons of man power to move back a lot of supplies we brought to the Winter Conference held in Kansas City hotel like the past years, our coworkers were still very busy. There were over sixty brothers and sisters and their over ten children attending the camp. Rev. Xiao Yuan encouraged brothers and sisters to be willing to pay the price and be faithful to the Lord from the Book of Acts. CWC coworkers shared from James and 1 Corinthians on problems in churches and the basic but essential Christian theology. In order to hold in person gathering during the pandemic, we followed government regulations: one person per room as much as possible, appropriate social distance in dining room and classrooms, and measuring body temperature twice daily. Thanks be to the Lord that past years many people had flu during December training camp, this year no one had any fever or flu including children and babies during Disciple Training camp and the following Bible Camp, no not one. We were surprised. We know that this was the Lord’s amazing grace. As long as we are not afraid of the pandemic, walking out of the self-enclosed zone, God will specially watch over us. This is a huge encouragement to our coworkers. We praise the Lord’s grace once again.
Bible Camp—The next day following the Discipleship Training Camp, there were over fifty brothers and sisters plus their over ten children enthusiastically continue to study the book of Revelations in this third camp (January 3-9). Besides students, half of the attendees were working brothers and sisters who took a week of vacation off to attend the camp. They paid a big price because they felt that here there is God’s Words. They not only learned the Word, but also equipped to be the outpour of God’s Words to lead Bible study and share God’s Words in their churches in the future. The Lord used Rev. Chihhao Shen and Mrs. Juanna Wu’s teaching to light up the hearts of brothers and sisters to love the Lord and God’s Words. At the conclusion of the camp, we already had many brothers and sisters turned in the application for August’s Bible Camp on the Major Prophets. They can start to study the difficult books of Major Prophet from January. Great thanks to the Lord to put this desire in the hearts of brothers and sisters. We have posted the application, syllabus and study guide of Major Prophets on the website. Please download them. The deadline for registration is June 15.
Gospel Camp—The next camp will be Gospel Camp on March 12-15. Our speakers are Rev. Zhijun Wang and Rev. Puong Ong Lau. Since February of last year, Chinese students have had difficulty obtaining visa due to the pandemic. Many visiting scholars gradually left US during the following months. In addition, many churches are doing virtual gathering. Nonbelievers from all the churches have mostly vanished. Please pray earnestly for this year’s Gospel Camp. May the Lord let us not only find the non-believers who have been hidden everywhere, but also gain more souls during this Gospel Camp! Especially during this chaotic time, believing and accepting the Gospel is the only way out for humans. Some people think that Gospel Camp is only for non-believers, so believers have no need to come. This is wrong because if believers do not come, non-believers will not come either. Brothers and sisters need to decide to come first, then they can invite nonbelievers to come. We have special revival messages for believers to build them up. Let us register early and pray for the Gospel camp. Let us start inviting others to come with our faith and love.
Pastor Ko’s Update–he had surgery to remove cancer at Barns-Jewish Hospital St. Louis, MO on November 17. The doctors were satisfied with the surgery result. But his stomach was completely removed, there were many subsequent treatments in the past two months. Now they temporarily reside in an apartment close to the hospital. Thanks be to the Lord that it was only ten minutes drive from the hospital. Every day, there are physical therapist and nurses come visit him. Brothers and sisters from St. Louis have a meal train allowing his family (Mrs. Ko, Pastor Ko’s sister and daughter Sarah) filled with their love. We are also grateful for many brothers and sisters praying for Pastor Ko for this long period of time, without ceasing in person and in church. There are weekly updates posted on CWC webpage on Pastor Ko’s health situation on weekends (except last three weeks due to camps that was suspended.) Please continue to pray for Pastor Ko. If you want to see him, you are welcome to join our online prayer meeting and Bible study every Sunday at 6:30pm (central time). Zoom meeting ID is 8110999917. Please text Pastor Ko at 573-999-6235 for password. Please join us.
Prayer requests
- We thank God for the three meetings finishing smoothly.
- We are grateful that CWC coworkers can complete the heavy workload during the three meetings trusting on the Lord. Pray for their recovery after the meetings.
- Pray for the following up work for those who believed in the Lord during Winter Conference. May the Lord give strength to coworkers everywhere to follow up them.
- Pray that after the camps, brothers and sisters can faithfully serve God as they return to their campuses and churches and disciple others.
- Pray for the upcoming March Gospel Camp’s invitation work. May the Lord prepare the attendees’ hearts. Also pray for the speakers.
- Please pray for the health of Mrs. Ko. Thanks be to the Lord that her health is improving. Still, due to the thyroid problem, she tires very easily. Recently Mrs. Ko, sister Ko and daughter Sarah take care of Pastor Ko long term. Please specially remember their family in your prayers.
- Pray for Brother Qing-Long Liang’s ministry in Columbia and Kirksville, MO. His burden is heavier as Pastor Ko being sick and another American coworker in Columbia Church retiring this year. May the Lord not only give him wisdom and power as he preaches, but also bless his whole family.
- Rev. Charles Huang‘s wife and three children will fly from Taiwan to US during mid-February. They will move to Champaign, IL on March 1st. May the Lord bless their move and adjustment to the new place and they can partner well with local coworkers.
- Pray for Cindy Chiang’s busy works on administration, accounting, and tax reports. May the Lord give her wisdom and strength to finish these complicated annual tasks.
- Pray for maintenance coworker Scott and his family. May the Lord bless the work of his hand.
- Pray for the construction of children activity center. Only Pastor Shull is working on it with Scott’s occasional help. May the Lord keep his servant safe and keep up the progress.
- Pray for the monthly expense of CWC. May the Lord increase people who care and support CWC’s ministry.
- May the Lord touch the hearts of more believers to join CWC’s ministry that the various local ministers in the Midwest will be greatly revived.
During this new year, may the Lord keep you, strengthen you, be gracious to you. Despite the pandemic and unsettling world, you will still fix your eyes on the Lord and equip yourself to serve the Lord faithfully!
Serving with you in the Lord,
Pastor Billy Ko