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

Most updated news:

Recently Pastor Ko found out he lost appetite and his weight had dropped. On June 2, he went to the hospital to check his stomach and colon. The doctors found a tumor at his stomach and surrounding area. Even now the result has not been confirmed and needs further checking. But the preliminary diagnosis is there is a tumor at his stomach. After the CT scan and MRI check, the doctors will decide the healing method. Please pray for this. May God’s will be done and His perfect will be shown. Let us look up the Lord with faith. Please pray for Pastor Ko.

Thank you for your love and care. Pastor Ko’s health situation will be updated on the CWC website as it becomes known. Thank you for your prayer and care. Current plans are that Pastor Ko will go through treatment at University Hospital at Columbia, MO. Pray the Lord to give doctors wisdom for diagnosis and treatment. Please also pray for Mrs. Ko’s thyroid healing and the recovery from her blood cell counts. May the Lord show His mighty healing power.

Other news as below:

Thanks to be the Lord! With the prayers of all saints and wise practices, the rates of coronavirus losses have diminished. We are truly grateful for the Lord that so far we haven’t heard any CWC brothers or sisters in the Midwest infected. It is indeed a great mercy from the Lord to us Chinese. There remains much to do to control this pandemic. Many states have started to reopen gradually. Churches are gradually opening too. There are many changes in society and churches during the pandemic and eventually as it wanes. We should prepare ourselves to be better witnesses for the Lord now and in the post-pandemic era.

Reformation after the pandemic

By God’s mercy, this pandemic is diminishing. New infection and death counts generally decrease each week. Some states have already begun phases of reopening. Covid-19 has brought significant loss throughout the world. No country can avoid it. Not long after SARS—also a corona virus—ran its course in 2003, people went back quickly to their old world, old life. No changes for relationships between countries were seen. But we all can see from just three months that Covid-19 will have a lasting influence on the world. In order to reopen, many things must be rearranged. Governments not only give people new guidelines for everyday living, but also adjust aspects of the economy, industry, business, education, military, and international relationships to adapt to the change of the new era and new needs. The pandemic of course presents new challenges to churches and believers. As a result, we need to make wise adjustments in many ways in order to stand firm ourselves and also lead others to the Lord in this post-pandemic era.

Paul remind us,” I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2) By God’s mercy on us, we have survived. Most Christians I know still have their jobs, receiving salaries as before. Not all are so blessed. What amazing grace the Lord has bestowed on us! Knowing that the Lord saved us from the pestilence, we should once again offer ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice to live for the Lord and used by Him. We also need to renew ourselves, readjust ourselves, so that we can become usable and pleasing vessels to the Lord. And also make us the good soldiers in this post-pandemic era. The following points can reform us:

A.Reforming our spiritual eyesight

1. Do not fix eyes on the constantly changing and bustling world. The US economy was unprecedented prosperous before Covid-19 with historically low unemployed rates, prospering economy, flourishing of restaurants and tourism. But when the pandemic hit, the whole world became empty. Factories, offices, restaurants, and airports all became empty. Economic recession came. In order to preserve their own lives and others lives, everyone stayed home. The prosperity that our eyes saw suddenly vanished. God will preserve the gains from those who laid up treasures in heaven (Psalm 16).
2. Seek after inner peace. In order to avoid the virus, everyone hides in their home. In the midst of the four walls, our bodies are saved. But spiritual life may not be saved. During the days of home quarantine, many people were trapped in depression and anxiety. The number of suicide cases apparently was about the same as the death number from Covid-19. That was one of the reasons some states wanted to open up sooner. People need not only peace for their physical bodies, but also peace in their minds and hearts. The peace in the heart is based on spiritual peace. If people are willing to cast all their worries to the Lord, have normal relationship with the Lord, they will have peace in their spirit and live peacefully and joyfully in quarantine. Only in experiencing the presence of the Lord that we can have peace in our hearts.

B.Reform the church’s eyesight. In the past many people held the concept that church was a cross-hanging building and worship could only be held in this building with the cross. When the pandemic came, we had to stay home. At once home became the place of worship and the place we met with God. This helped us experience the condition of the house churches in China. We worship daily in our house or apartment. It reminds us: home is God’s house. We live in God’s house daily. Day by day we live at God’s house, and day by day we need to live well in God’s home. In God’s sanctuary, we should live godly lives each day. The pandemic reminds us: Christian faith is not limited to the church building. Our faith and worship is present in our daily lives. Covid-19 makes us to move churches to our homes, allowing us to unify our faith and life.

C.Reform our attitude of worship. During the pandemic, our worship lives have had significant changes. After two to three months of online worship, people are accustomed to this format of fellowship. There’s been no need to travel or dress up. Even healthy people can lie on their beds to worship. We hit “mute” and can sing loudly. For some, worship has become even more passive, more like watching TV. The heart for sincere worship has slowly vanished. Returning to worship in a church building thus may feel burdensome. People may not stay with their home churches for online worship. Instead they turn to online worship from renowned preachers far away, perhaps a new one every week. After a few months, will they lose their spiritual homes? After church reopens, they will not know where to go? We need adjustment on worship. If still incorporate online worship with a sizable gathering, we should not slack respect for the Lord and one another. Dress modestly, respectfully sit upright to worship God, bring your children and worship together, and focus on your local church. When churches open up, we should go back to church worship sooner not later. Presuming society safely returns to restaurants, theaters, and sporting events, don’t be afraid to go back to church to worship.

D.Reforming our offering. During the pandemic many brothers and sisters not only failed to worship God solemnly, they slacked also in offerings, even if their incomes were unchanged. Especially if they were virtually church-hopping, they did not give appropriate portions to God. This is what we owe God. God has protected us from the virus and preserved our job, but we do not perform our duty to give God out of gratitude. May the Lord help us quickly repay what we owe God.

E.Deepen prayers. At the beginning of the pandemic, many brothers and sisters were eager to attend prayer meeting. We prayed with one accord. As the pandemic slowly seems to have diminished, so did that sense of urgency before God. The need to pray decreased. Those willing to pray earnestly diminished. Many people’s attitude is this: when there is serious disaster, then we begin to seek God. But when there is no need to bother God, we put God aside. We let God down. A second and third wave of sickness and death could rise anytime as happened in 1918 and with other pandemics. May the Lord help us continue to stay awake as watchmen, to pray over the pandemic. Not only ought we pray for the sick, but also pray for people’s souls, asking God to heal both the body and soul together that people will turn to God and God’s kingdom will revive. We also pray that God will widen the scope of prayer, not just for our own families, our own churches, but also for the whole world God’s kingdom. Covid-19 may have spread from China to the world then returned to China. Let us see that the world’s people are connected together. One country’s suffering will affect other countries. It will cause our scope to be widen. We cannot only care for our own matters, but care for the multitude and the nations. Most importantly we need to care more about God’s kingdom. Don’t just for our church, but also pray for local churches and the missions everywhere. During post-pandemic era, we ask God not only allows more people to come to prayer meeting, but also deepens our prayers to edify ourselves and widen our prayer to let God’s kingdom expand. More people will be blessed.

F.Be faithful in evangelism. Evangelism has been greatly affected during the pandemic. On one hand there is no opportunity to invite others to church or visit non-believers. The effectiveness of phone calls and online visits is limited. On the other hand, people generally have more time and interest to hear our encouragement. When the pandemic slowly wanes, people’s hearts will take time to recover. I think Chinese and students will need even longer, given a sense of making up for lost time in business and study. In the near future, inviting believers to church will not be easy, and inviting non-believers will be even harder because people will say, “do not go to the crowded places.” During this time, let us be reminded by the Great Commission to GO, make disciples of all nations. Evangelism is no longer inviting people to COME to church. We need to spend more effort to GO to places where non-believers are and to care for them. We should put more emphasis on personal evangelism after the pandemic and encourage more brothers and sisters to see this mission to care for non-believers, to bring them to turn to the Lord. It is not the job for just the pastor or the church coworkers or long-distance Zoom evangelism meetings. It needs the whole churches be mobilized in all ways to do the evangelism.

May the Lord use the pandemic not just to keep us and heal us, but also to let His Spirit enlighten us, to renew our minds, and to transform us to become a person after God’s own heart. Let God’s will fulfill on earth through us. Bless our whole family. God’s church will thrive. Attract more people to come to the Lord.

May Disciple and Coworker Training Camp

Due to the pandemic, May disciple training camp was held virtually. This is a new venture. With many technical difficulties, our coworkers were all learning and trying. By the grace of God, it went well. Even though it is a virtual camp, we still followed our disciple training camp requirements. Discipleship Training is a practice of the commitment to Christ. Virtual camp required commitment to Christ too. Full-time attendance, video on, no multitasking or sleeping, concentration on each class, morning and night prayer meetings were required to participate. They were trained to pray aloud, to memorize scriptures, and to turn in homework. Praise the Lord! Even with the strict requirements, we had record-setting attendance of 170 participants. The Lord used Rev. Morley Lee, Rev. Tsu-Kung Chuang, Elder Eric Wu’s messages to shake brothers and sisters’ hearts. They all studied attentively and learned a lot. Praise the Lord!

Lay-Minister Disciple Training Camp

God blessed us greatly in the Memorial Day weekend training camp. About 210 brothers and sisters who are full time working people attended. Many were from East and West Coasts and a few were even from mainland China. Everyone put down their work responsibilities to attend, asking others to watch their children, so they could focus on the training camp. We were touched. There were more than ten brothers and sisters from Mainland China attending both camps. They had to sleep during the day and stay up at night for over a week to attend the trainings and be on time. It was indeed not easy. We praise God for them who are thirsty and hunger for the truth. There was a worldwide Zoom disruption on Sunday morning of May 17. That troubled some churches, and the Disciple Training started that evening. Many brothers and sisters were concerned that we had so many people joining our Zoom camp and people were requested to turn on video. The internet connection might overload. Praise the Lord! With God’s mighty power, it went smoothly without any problem. God’s grace is indeed amazing. All three speakers’ messages satisfied brothers and sisters’ spiritual need. We were all very grateful to the Lord that we had this chance to build up ourselves during this severe pestilence.

August Bible Camp (July 26-August 1)

As soon as the May training camps ended, we began full strength preparing for the August Bible Camp and the August Discipleship Training. Besides continuing to invite others to attend, we need to send out assigned topics to the brothers and sisters and then guide them to write the topic reports. These tasks required a lot of time and energy from our coworkers. Please remember us in your prayers. This time we will study the books of Wisdom. Our speakers are Rev. Chih-Hao Shen and Mrs. Juanna Wu, among others. The strict due date is June 15. Please don’t miss out. Under the shadow of pandemic, studying these five books of Wisdom will allow us to receive provision from the Father and fill our hearts with peace and joy. We can then share this joy and peace from God with others. Participants of Bible Camp not only have been through disciple training, but also need to attend at least once of our disciple training camps within two years. We are praying that the pandemic will quiet down in July and August so we can hold the camp in person. Please pray earnestly.

August Disciple and Coworker Training Camp (August 2-8)

The second evening after the Bible Camp will be Disciple and Coworker Training Camp in CWC. One of our speakers is Rev. James Ip, the vice chair president of Christian Witness Theological seminary in California. The other speaker is Rev. Andrew Lin who has served many years in the West Coast, and also in edifying ministry overseas. This is a great opportunity to equip brothers and sisters and student coworkers to undertake the more challenging campus ministry in the new semester. We have not decided whether to hold it in person or virtually yet. Depending on the progression of pandemic we will decide by the end of June. Please visit our CWC website for updating.

July East Coast Disciple and Coworker Training Camp (July 1-4)

Due to the pandemic, July East Coast Training Camp will be held virtually, taught by Rev. Minghuei Liu, Rev. Albert Lam and other ministers. It is a great chance to equip ourselves to do greater work for the Lord after the pandemic. Disciple training requires commitment to Christ. Though it is online, attendees must commit to register on time, participate full time, and attend each class on time. For details please email Sister Zhang at TrainingEC@gmail.com.

August and September Midwest Short-term Mission (August 21-30, September 11-20)

Our prayer is that the Lord will allow churches to resume physical meetings in August and schools to resume physical classes. Our plans will consider whether there are such commitments to physical meetings. It is not easy to coordinate two short-term mission teams in August and September. We are still in the planning phase. We believe that people realize their need for the gospel even more at this time. Please pray for new semester campus ministry and short-term mission teams.

Prayers and Study during the Pandemic

Every Sunday evening Pastor Ko will lead the Bible study and prayers with the brothers and sisters. We are studying the Bible characters to learn “the characteristics of God’s servants”. We will also spend time praying to allow God’s Words to establish us that we can be molded as the useful vessels for the Lord. And we can be good servants for our Lord in this post-pandemic era, please join our online prayer and Bible study time (Sundays 6:30pm central time, Zoom ID:8110999917). If you need the password, please text me at 573-999-6235.

Prayer requests:

1. We thank God for the two training camps in May. Even though it is a new venture for us, God’s grace is sufficient. Brothers and sisters were greatly edified. May God help these 300 plus people to become witnesses for the Lord during this pestilence.
2. Pray for those who have registered for August Bible Camp that the Lord will help them to finish reading the books of Wisdom twice within two months and complete the assignment and topical study. May God give the heart of wisdom to let the participants experience the sweetness of reading God’s Words.
3. Pray that God will make the pandemic permanently quiet down in August that people can resume normal schools and worship by the end of August, and so brothers and sisters can come to CWC Camp in person for August Bible Camp and August Disciple Training Camp.
4. Pray for speakers of August Bible Camp, Rev. Chih-Hao Shen and Mrs. Juanna Wu. May God use them to establish our hearts to love God’s Words.
5. Pray for speakers for August Disciple Training Camp: Rev. James Ip and Rev. Andrew Lam. May God use this camp to equip new coworkers for the fall semester.
6. Pray for August and September short-term mission teams. May God open the way for them in this challenging days that they will be prepared and will be greatly used by God at the gospel field in the Midwest.
7. Pray for Cindy Chiang’s ministry. May God give her strength during weekdays to prepare for all the camps and administration and be the output of God’s Word on weekends that she will be a blessing to others.
8. Pray for Qing-Long Liang to bear good fruit as he serves in Columbia and other churches. May God bless his whole family. Also pray for his R-1 job visa application. May God guide and lead the way.
9. May the Lord help Pastor Ko during the pandemic that he can trust in the Lord and experience God’s grace and might while serving, so he will gain more souls and coworkers for the Lord. Pray for Mrs. Ko’s thyroid surgery. May God keep her and heal her.
10. Pray for the maintenance and building American coworkers. God still use them during the pandemic to make our CWC camp more complete. May God bless their families.
11. Pray for the post-pandemic student ministry, that not only can we gain new students but also build up student coworkers despite possible decreasing new student numbers.
12. Pray for the operation fund for the CWC. May God touch more brothers and sisters to support our ministry by prayers and offerings.May the Lord help us to hide in Him day by day in the midst of the pandemic to experience more of His love. May God teach us, edify us, so that we can be more like Christ to glorify Him!

In Him,
Pastor Billy Ko