Dear brothers and sisters, peace to you in the Lord! 

By the time you read this letter, we have already started the Bible camp (August 1st to 7th) and the Disciple Training camp (August 8th to 14th).  Soon after, the CCIC-Sunnyvale short-term mission team will arrive to start the 10-day mission trip on 8/20.  Then, we will have three more teams coming from California and one from Texas (September 10th to 19th) to share the gospel on the Midwest campuses.  As you can foresee our busy schedule for next month and a half, please keep us in your prayers.  

Reopening the Temple II
2 Chronicles Chapter 29 

(continued from last newsletter) 

 

II Temple Re-repair 

After the doors opened, the Bible says King Hezekiah repaired the Temple before entering. What is the re-repairing? 

1. Re-repair of the people—King Hezekiah called the people, especially the priests and Levites, to the Temple as soon as he became king, saying, “Come, let us gather at the eastern spacious area to discuss how to reopen God’s Temple.” 
   1. Dealing with our own problem—”Now you must purify yourselves”. King Hezekiah said. Lots of time the reason we did not want to enter into God’s house was because there were some difficulties in our hearts that we need to purify ourselves  first. Once again, we need to go back to the Law of God. Repairing of the people is the most important task. When we do not go to God’s sanctuary to worship today, we also need to examine what the problem is. Let us ask God to help us to tackle the barrier in front of us, so we can truly go back to the house of God to worship Him. 
   2. Leave behind others’ mistake—King Hezekiah said, “We have been following our ancestors’ sin for a long period of time by closing the Temple. The lamp inside the Temple was lit, but we blew it out, not allowing people to enter God’s Temple. As a result, God’s Temple was dark and filled with spider webs. No one took care of it.” They did not go to worship God and went away from God, turning their face against God’s house. Their eyes were focusing on the world, looking at the other idols. They watched and pursued everything but God, without pursing God. Thus, they faced great difficulties. Jehovah’s fury had arrived at Judah and Jerusalem. 
   3. Leave God’s judgment—King Hezekiah said that our forefathers turned away from God, so we faced a lot of difficulties. Enemies pursued us, killed us, and took away our children. If we follow our forefathers to continue to sin and turn our backs on God, and not go to God’s house, God’s judgment will come upon us. During the pandemic, the government ordered us not to go to church. God might use Zoom to meet and bless us. Now the restriction has been lifted, we not only can enter, but also worship in God’s house unmasked, no longer keeping social distance. Therefore, we should not worry. We should go to worship God. Worshiping in the house of God is not only worshiping God together, but also can encourage each other. It is a very good thing. As a result, we should not stop going to the house of God to get closer to God, lest God’s judgment be upon us, or God’s blessing is not bestowed upon us because of us not going to the house of God to worship when we are able to. 
   4. Commit to follow God—We should learn from King Hezekiah that he was determined to follow God. He said, “Now I want to make a commitment in my heart with the Lord, the God of Israel.” He made the decision, even made a commitment with God saying “I must worship God. I must purify God’s Temple and encourage the Israelites to worship God”. He not only committed himself, but also hoped other Israelites making the same commitment with God, turning toward God. As a result, he not only made the commitment with Yahweh, but also made the commitment with Yahweh, the God of Israel. It means this God is not only my God, but also your God. Therefore, it is not just me committing myself. My hope is becoming your example to make the commitment, to walk with God, and worship God in the house of God together. May God help us commit as well, to return to the house of God to worship God, so that we can influence others and be examples of others to worship God. 
   5. Not to lax—Now, do not slack. King Hezekiah told the people not to be lazy. They needed to return to God’s Temple to worship God. What is the main reason for people not going to the house of God to worship? It is laziness. Many think that it is so nice to worship God at home. We do not need to spend time driving to church, changing clothes, wearing the makeup, or even combing our hair. We can wear our pajamas sitting at home in front of Zoom to worship God very relaxedly and doing whatever we want. How nice this is! But King Hezekiah told us not to be lazy now. Do not be too relaxed. We need to return to God, because God has chosen us who have believed in Him to serve Him and worship Him together. Not only go to the Temple, but also stand in front of Him to worship Him. When we worship on Zoom, when the worship leader told us to stand up to sing praises, we are too lazy to use our strength to stand up. May the Lord help us. Let us not slack. 
2. Repairing the Temple
   1. Consecrate spiritual filth—Consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and remove the filth from the Holy Place. Our forefathers have sinned. We also see that King Hezekiah mentioned not just to consecrate the people. After the consecration of people, the next is to consecrate the Temple. 
   2. Restore the holiness of the house of God—King Hezekiah said that you had to clean the things inside of the Temple, especially the unclean items: the idols, the spiritual filth. Some had painted the images of idols on the Temple walls or written words that worship idols. They needed to remove them completely to restore the holiness of the house of God. 
   3. Restore the function of the house of God—The priests had cleaned the altar, the table for the showbread and all its utensils. The Ark of the Covenant had been placed in its proper place. The lamp and showbread were placed at their proper location. Thus, they restored the function of the house of God. Now they could start worshiping God. 

III. Restore Worship 

1. Restoring the prayer and fellowship with God—King Hezekiah has repaired the Temple. And the hearts of the people were also well prepared.  Now the Israelites could worship God together, restoring the worship to God. They came in front of God to worship Him by burning incense, offering the sin offering, offering the blood of the ram, sprinkling the blood of the lamb on the altar to atone for their own sins. It means that we need to leave our sins behind and ask God to forgive our sins. We have willing hearts to return to God’s presence and restore fellowship with God. Once again to return to the holy place to pray and worship God. Draw closer to God and rebuild our fellowship and prayers with Him.  
2. Restoring the praise and worship of God-vv. 27-30, after the sin offering, they offered the burnt offering. Burnt offering is to tell God on one hand we want to give ourselves completely to God, and on the other hand we want to exalt and praise God. They once again use the psalms of David to worship and praise God. Blowing the trumpets was to remind the people now is the time to worship God and to bow before God. The Bible also says that they praised the Lord with joy and bowed their heads to worship. During virtual worship, we need to mute on Zoom if we are to open our mouths to sing hymns. Some thought it is nice because  no one can hear me, so I just do not sing. Some worship leaders even just share the YouTube songs for people to listen, which lacks congregation singing the praises in one accord. Some people even turn off the video camera and use the time to do other things. King Hezekiah said, “We should worship God together, especially more people singing praises to God, and be closer to God”. This is a grand and very thankful matter. I often listen to the recording of congregation singing during the Winter Conference and the Discipleship Training camp. It is very touching to hear over a thousand people singing praises and the grandeur of the loud voices of brothers and sisters worshiping God together in the past. We should hurry to restore worship. 
3. Restoring the offering to God (29:31) King Hezekiah said that you not only offered up your songs, but also offered up yourself and your time. You should bring your offering before God. It represents that they want to be a cheerful giver to God, bringing their livestock and property into the presence of God. Today we also should restore our offerings to God. Many feel the “best” part of the Zoom meeting is that there is no need to give an offering. May the Lord help us to re-establish our offering to God because offering is a part of worship. During this period of Zoom meetings, we did not sing praises to God; we did not give our offerings, we did not listen to the sermon very well. Now may the Lord help us return to the house of God to restore our praise and worship, to restore our prayers, and to re-establish our habit of offerings to the Lord, so that we can truly give glory to God.  

IV. Regain the Temple’s blessings

When we return to the house of God to worship, God’s blessing will be once again bestowed upon us. King Hezekiah did not procrastinate, but quickly cleansed the Temple and prepared the Israelites to sing praises together in the presence of God. The Bible says people were filled with joy. It was because these were prepared by God for them. In the house of God, God has prepared many blessings for us. Why do we tarry? What are we waiting for? Very soon, all the schools will resume in person in September. The schools will not use Zoom or use less of it. We should now start in person worship to prepare our hearts for in-person lives. We have hidden in our homes for over a year. Now we should come out to church to worship. Let us hurry to start and not procrastinate. Don’t wait until after summer break and still want to meet on Zoom. I hope that churches can stop virtual meetings to allow us to return to church for in-person worship because God has prepared a lot of blessings in the house of God such as peace, joy, God’s love, God’s wonderful fellowship and sweetness. They are waiting for us to receive them. I hope that we should learn from the Israelites to do it quickly, so that God’s blessings can come upon us quickly. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for using this passage to remind us to return to the house of God to worship you quickly. Please give us willing hearts to draw closer to God, to behold God’s beauty and glory, to receive God’s blessings, and rejoice in the Lord.  What a blessing it is! May the Lord help us, strengthen our faith, and give courage to do it quickly for it is pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name, Amen! 

 

(The ministry report below was written by Sister Cindy Chiang) 

August Bible Camp (August 1-7) 

This time we are going to study “the Books of Major Prophets.”   Praise the Lord that more than 80 brothers and sisters, coworkers, together with their 18 children came.  Many of them have been preparing their homework since January.  Among them, nearly half of them are full time working people. They set aside one week off from their works for the purpose of studying the Word of God with other brothers and sisters. From God’s promise, their hungry and thirsty hearts will be satisfied. Although the Books of Major Prophets are very hard to understand, we pray the Holy Spirit to teach us through the main theme sharing from our speaker, Pastor Samuel Ho, the coworkers’ “Book Survey” and “Bible study Method” and the topic sharing presented by the brothers and sisters. We believe the Lord will bless each participant.  If you have missed this Bible Camp, you can start to prepare for the “Books of Minor Prophets” held next January. You can learn from this January Bible Camp also.   

August Disciple Training Camp (August 8-14) 

After more than one and a half years of virtual or hybrid studying in the universities, high schools, and elementary schools, most of the schools have decided to resume in-person classes.  Many churches and Bible study groups have also resumed in-person meetings.   From May, the United States also started to resume issuing students’ visas. After “resting” one and a half years, Christians, are you ready to serve the Lord? The August Discipleship Training is a perfect opportunity to be equipped spiritually before the fall semester.  Thanks be to the Lord, for He has prepared Elder Daniel Luan and Rev. William Sun to teach in the camp.  Elder Luan will teach “Learn how to serve from the book of First Timothy”, “Taking my life”.  Rev. Sun will teach “The Bible characters in the Old Testament Historical books”, “Christians’ Church lives”, and “The Hope of God’s people from the book of Malachi”. If you have missed the August Bible camp, please grab this opportunity to attend this August Discipleship Training. As long as you have a willing heart to set aside one week and be equipped in the presence of God, you will definitely be spiritually revived in knowing the Word of God, getting new insight and power in serving.  The registration forms have been posted on the CWC’s website. Please download and register for the upcoming camps. 

August and September Short-term Mission Teams 

Last year even during the pandemic—facing many difficulties—we still sent out short-term mission teams in August and September to fulfill the Lord’s Great Commission. Now the churches have opened in person. And we can see new students will come to campuses. We ought to share the gospel to them eagerly.  We will have short-term mission teams this year again to share the gospel. The August mission teams will be in the timeframe of August 20-30 (one week after the August Discipleship Training camp and around the beginning of the fall semester).  The September mission teams will be in the timeframe of September 10-19 (five days after the Labor Day weekend).  In August, the mission team will go to “closer” states such as Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, etc.  In September, they will go to “further” states, such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Dakota, North Dakota, and other places.  

Now, the short-term mission teams leaders are contacting the local churches and the fellowships for the meetings’ programs.  So far, we have three short-term mission teams from California and one from Texas. They are now actively getting themselves trained and prepared for this mission. Please keep them in your prayers for their preparation.  

Pastor Ko’s update (written by Pastor Ko) 

Thanks to the Lord for His exceptional grace for a speedy recovery, and I was able to spend last month in a very meaningful way. After a long year of separation, I finally returned to the Center at the end of May.  There is so much comfort and joy in my heart; how beautiful it is to pursue the Lord with my brothers and sisters again. This is truly the Lord’s special grace that I could share the same food with brother and sisters during the camp without having to prepare special meals.   

In June, I also joined the week-long Youth Camp with 60 plus youths.   I felt tremendously grateful especially during this pandemic year. After the Youth Camp, I went to St. Louis to preach on Sunday worship.  In the afternoon, I flew to the North Carolina East Coast Training Camp. It’s a new camp site prepared by God.   Many brothers and sisters on the east coast have trusted the Lord to get out of the bondage of the pandemic and participated in the camp. I really give thanks to the Lord! 

After flying back to St. Louis in early July, I went back to the hospital for a minor operation as planned to check for cancer cells.  Praise the Lord! The report showed that I am cancer free.  I only need to follow up after three months.  It was the grace of the Lord that allowed me to resume my ministry in the camp.  After more than a month of serving Him, He still gave me a healthy body.  Thanks to my wife, Sylvia, who was by my side all the time to take care of my needs in all aspects. 

Please feel free to attend the online Bible reading and prayer meeting at 6:30 pm (Central Time) every Sunday. We will use Zoom. The login ID is 8110999917 and the passcode is 737903. Join us in reading the Bible and praying together. 

CWC Maintenance Work: 

Our co-worker, Scott, is always very diligent in doing the center’s maintenance work.  A week after the youth camp during his routine checking, he found a loose part of the water pipe under a sink on the 3rd floor bedroom in Mark Hall.  The water spouted over the weekend causing the 2nd and 1st floor ceiling to fall off and the carpets all soaking wet.  Seeing this scene, I comforted him: “Don’t be discouraged.  God’s Word is right. A small rudder can turn a big ship; a small flame can set a whole forest on fire (James 3:4-5), God has already known this.” He and his wife worked very hard to clean up for three days.  The estimated loss is about a few thousand. This is a small accident. We made a special post for this accident to ask you to remember them in your prayers.  Our maintenance worker and his family have always served faithfully and work quietly behind the scenes. Please also pray for God’s protection over all our facilities day and night.  

 

Coming Meetings: 

1. December Midwest Winter Conference
   This Conference will be held at Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center from December 22nd to December 26th, 2021.  The speakers are Rev. Caleb Huang, Rev. Tsu-Kung Chuang, Rev. Johann Lai, Mrs. Esther Lai, Rev. Peter Chin, Elder Eric Wu, and Albert Yip, etc.  Please start to save the time and prepare yourself to attend. 
2. December Disciple and Coworker Training Camp: 
   This camp will take place at CWC from December 26th, 2021, to January 1st, 2022. The speakers are Rev Larry Wong, Mrs. Alice Chin. Partial contents will be “The Gospel shared by Jesus—the Book of Mark” and “God’s pleasing Worshiping life—the first 4 Commandments from the 10 Commandments”. Please start to save the time and prepare yourself to attend.  
3. January Bible Camp:
   The Bible camp will take place at CWC from January 2nd to 8th, 2022. The speakers are Rev. David and Mrs. Lois Su. We will study the Books of the Minor Prophets.  Please start to save the time and prepare yourself to attend. 
   
4. Holy Land Study Trip – Theme: Exodus of Egypt to Canaan, The Footprint of Jesus (6/20 – 6/29/2022)
   For so many years, brothers and sisters love to attend the Bible Camp to study the Word of God. If we can physically visit those places, it will give us deep impressions. For this reason, every other 3 years, we will hold the “The Holy Land Study Tour”. We will study the Pentateuch in our next August Bible Camp. So, the Holy Land Study Tour held in June will be very meaningful.  Let’s make an advance notice now. Please reserve time to join us. We will take the route of the Israelites out of Egypt, enter into the Kingdom of Jordan, cross the Jordan River into Jerusalem, travel the desert of Judia, then Samaria (very few tour groups will arrange this route), enter Galilee and fly back to the United States from Joppa (now Tel Aviv).  

 

Prayer Requests 

1. For Meetings
   
   • August Bible Camp: Pray for the 80 plus participants and their 18 children.  Ask the Lord to bless their studies. Pray for the coworkers, for they need to prepare the messages, counsel brothers and sisters, and also serve in the kitchen.  
     • Also pray for speaker, Pastor Samuel Ho, and the teachers of the children. 
   • August Disciple Training Camp: Pray for these brothers and sisters who are willing to equip themselves before the Lord and ask God to let them all have rich learning.  
     • Also pray for Elder Luan, Paster Sun, as well as all the coworkers to serve strong physically and for the second week.  
2. For CWC Coworkers 
   • Pastor Ko and Mrs. Ko: Pray God will continue to show grace to them, that cancer cells will no longer relapse.  Ask the Lord to give Pastor Ko a healthy body to complete the work entrusted to him by the Lord in the two camps.  Pray that God will help him to resume the local campus ministry in the coming semester. Continue to pray for Paster Ko’s eldest sister in Hongkong that she will experience God’s peace and healing thru chemotherapy for her lung cancer.   
   • Sister Cindy Chiang: Pray as she prepares for the August camps and short-term mission teams. May the Lord not only give her Words from above to share in the meetings, but also give her wisdom and strength to serve in the kitchen. 
   • Brother Qing-Long Liang: Pray that he can balance his life among family, churches, and the CWC campus ministry.  Pray his wife has wisdom to care for 3 children and the children develop obedient hearts for the Lord.  Pray for his ministry in Columbia, MO, Kirksville, MO, and Fayetteville, AR.  May the Lord use him to preach the truth faithfully and lead people to follow God’s Words.  Pray for his ministry in two CWC August camps and his evangelistic ministry with the August short-term mission team in Missouri. 
   • Rev. Charles Huang: Pray for his ministry in Champaign, IL.  May the Lord give him wisdom to work with the local Chinese church in preaching, Sunday school, disciple training, and with effective strategies to share the gospel on campus.  It was estimated that a few hundred new Chinese students will come to Champaign. It is a great opportunity to know them, share the Gospel to them and lead them to be the Lord’s disciples. Also pray for his co-work with the August and September short-term mission teams, August Bible Camp and the Discipleship Training held at the CWC. May he get the wisdom and physical strength from the Lord to complete the Lord’s work. Pray that God helps his children with their English learning and adaptation to the US culture and the schools in this new environment. 
   • American coworker Scott Jerome: Pray for the maintenance coworker and his family. May the Lord bless his work. 
3. For the expansion project  
   • Pray for the construction of the children’s activity center.   
   • May the Lord watch over Pastor Harold Shull’s safety at work, the progress of the project, and his health. Now we need to install sheetrock and need more hands to help.  Pray for the Lord to provide us with faithful and right workers. 
4. For financial need: 
   • Pray for the monthly financial need for CWC. May the Lord show His abundant provision and let more people experience the blessing of giving. 
5. For CWC 
   • May the Lord touch and lead more new coworkers to join CWC’s ministry so that various ministries in the Midwest may thrive. 
6. For churches in the Midwest during the pandemic 
   • More and more brothers and sisters have been vaccinated and we see more and more churches have started in-person meetings. May the Lord strengthen His flocks during the pandemic. Let them be brave and serve Him diligently in church, resume the evangelical fellowship, and share the Gospel with non-believers. May the Lord use the vaccines to effectively control the pandemic all over the world. May the Lord heal those who are infected, not only physically, but also set free their heavy hearts. By the name of Jesus, let us walk the path of victory. 

Emmanuel! 

      In Him, 

      Billy Ko (Director)