Upcoming Events

Happy Easter! Open up your calendars and make sure you have these important dates and events in them...

• Commissioning of Michelle Ko – March 25th. We are commissioning Michelle Ko as our missionary to Africa. This is her second term of service. Following the worship service on the 25th, you may greet Michelle and receive her prayer card regarding her return to Africa as a missionary. You may also give her a special financial offering, and join her for lunch at the church apartment at 1:15 pm. Bring your own lunch. Drinks will be provided. If you need a receipt for your gift, please place your gift in a church giving envelope with your e-mail and phone number.

• Celebrating Judy Chang’s Return – March 25th. We will be having cake downstairs today in the fellowship hall immediately after the service to celebrate the return to health of former elder Bill Chang’s daughter Judy Chang. Come and join us.

• G2C (student ministry group) Picnic – March 25th. Bring your lunch and join us! Meet in the fellowship hall at 1:00pm.  

• Monthly Prayer Group – March 27th, 7:30-9:15pm. Come join us at “The Engine Room,” FPC’s monthly prayer group, for an evening of kingdom-centered prayer. We gather at the church apartment at 7:30pm and go into prayer from 8:00 to 9:15. All are welcome. Contact Peter Brown for the address (pb2059@gmail.com).

• Easter Announcements:

Good Friday Tenebrae Service – Friday, March 30th, 7:30-8:30pm. The purpose of the Tenebrae service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story. The tone is meant to be somber because the occasion is somber. It is a service that lets the accent fall on the darkness of the crucifixion of Christ. The music will be led by Alan Fiol and our orchestra, and includes readings from the crucifixion story, the lighting and the extinguishing of candles, and the return of the Christ candle at the end looking forward to his resurrection. It will include cross nailing and the Lord’s Supper.

Easter Sunday Service – Sunday, April 1st. The children will be presenting on this day during the worship service.

• G2C (student ministry group) Retreat, April 4th-6th. We will be holding our first-ever retreat in Wulai. Spots are limited, so sign up quickly. You can either LINE-message “uscby,” or use this QR code.

• Offering Tax Receipts. The 2017 tax offering receipts are at the office. If you would like to receive your receipt, please visit Anna. The receipts will be held through the month of April, but will no longer be available after that. Make sure you pick yours up.

• Baptism Class – April 8th, 1:30–2:30pm. There will be a Sunday School class for adults on the topic of baptism. The class will be held in room 801 of the building at 261 Roosevelt Road. All are welcome.

• Fit Kids Club Outreach – April 21st, 9:00am – 2:00pm.  Our next Fit Kids event will be at the Ban Qiao 435 Art Zone. On April 21st, Jackie Zuiderhof and her team will be leading us in lots of fun, games, and art activities! Details of how to get there and the scheduled plan of activities will be handed out during Sunday school closer to the time. Fit Kids is an outreach ministry, so take this opportunity to invite along some friends. 

• Church Membership Class – April 28th & 29th.  Get it on your calendar. Details to follow.

Pastoral Reflections

by Pastor Dennis Brown

So much has happened in these last weeks that it is hard to know where to start, but let me try.

Peter Kim's election as next Pastor.  I cannot fully express my gratitude to the search team and to Alan Fiol who led us with such professionalism, and then to Peter and Polly Kim who agreed to have Peter succeed me in September. It was a long, arduous process, but I do believe that of all the candidates we looked at, Peter was the most qualified. He fits us from both a theological and a missional perspective. I will be working with him in these months to do all I can to prep him so that he can build on what we have built together and take it to an even better place.

Embers to a Flame Conference with Dr. Harry Reeder.  What a rich experience to have Dr. Harry Reeder with us last week in the pulpit. Even better was the opportunity that the leaders had to attend the Embers to a Flame Conference at Christ's College last week. I do believe it will serve the church for years to come as it was a primer, a reminder of what things are most important for church health. Along with Peter Kim, the elders, and the deacons, we hope to debrief and apply all we can to the life and health of the church.

Good Friday and Easter.  Do join us on Good Friday, March 30th, from 7:30 to 8:30pm in the fourth floor chapel for our annual Tenebrae Good Friday Service. We attempt to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story. The tone is meant to be somber because the occasion is somber. It is a service that lets the accent fall on the darkness of the crucifixion of Christ. There will be music performed by our orchestra led by Alan Fiol, as well as readings from the crucifixion story, the lighting and extinguishing of the candles, a cross nailing, the Lord’s Supper, and the return of the Christ candle at the end looking forward to the resurrection.

Then, on Easter morning, along with the children’s choir, we hope to have a testimony and an Easter message from the end of Romans 8 that describes how Christians are actually “huper-nike”—Greek for “super conquerors”—through our resurrected Lord.

Michelle Ko Commissioning.  This Sunday, March 25th, we will commission Michelle Ko to her next assignment with Serving In Mission (SIM) in Africa. She is joining a team in Tanzania that seeks to strengthen local churches. She will also do children’s evangelism. What we know about Michelle is wherever she goes, she will be a blessing and is undaunted by anything. In her last tour, she built an AIDS orphanage for children.

After the service, you are invited to pick up her prayer card, and to give her a special gift of love. We support her out of our mission budget, but believe additional gifts are also appropriate. Pray that all of her support is reached. She is far from her goal and still needs to raise over 50% of her support. You are also invited to come to the church apartment afterward to visit with her personally. Bring your own lunch. Drinks will be provided. This starts at 1:15pm. If you don’t know your way, meet at the church main doors at 1:00 and someone will be there to walk with you.

Welcoming Back Judy Chang.  Bill Chang is one of our longest-serving members and a former elder. He always exhibits joy and good cheer whenever you meet him even though his family has often faced serious medical issues. He is also an amazing example of fatherhood, and you can see him each Sunday with his daughter, Judy, who was born with many physical challenges. Those challenges have been particularly acute in recent months. In reality, we could have lost Judy, but because of the Lord and great medical care, she is on the mend, and will be joining us this Sunday. Bill wanted to bring a cake for our post-service fellowship time so we could celebrate her return. Do greet and welcome both Bill and Judy this Sunday.

Mission Incredible

by Michelle Ko

Greetings from Taiwan. This will be my last newsletter from Taiwan as I am departing on April 8 to go to Tanzania via Kenya to begin a “Mission Impossible Journey.”

The decision to leave Australia and move to Tanzania as a frontline missionary again was one of hardest decisions I have ever made. Even though Africa had never left my heart and was in the back of my mind all the time, I still wrestled with God over the decision. But I had often pondered the question: “If you have only three months to live, where would you like to be and what would you like to do?” Only after agreeing with God that Africa was my answer did I find peace. As the apostle Paul said, “My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” God has placed Africa in my heart as the place to share His love and the Good News of salvation.

As I am counting down and winding up my final preparations in Taiwan, I have very mixed feelings. I am sad to leave my family, my church and my friends but excited to start an incredible mission journey with Jesus in Tanzania, East Africa. I will be involved in the children’s ministry with a small SIM team. More details about the ministry will be in future newsletters. I am very thankful for the last three months in Taiwan as I was able to reconnect with supporting churches and friends. I also recently taught in the Children’s Ministry at Friendship Presbyterian. (Please see photo below).

As a missionary I have chosen to live by faith, which means relying totally on God’s provision to raise 100% financial and prayer support. This has been my testimony since 1997 when I went to study at Singapore Bible College and became a missionary in Africa and Australia. In the past 20 years, God has faithfully provided all my needs through your partnership with me in missions. As I continue on this mission of faith, I invite you to journey with me by helping to support me financially and prayerfully.

Thank you for partnering with me on this next chapter of my life! To support me please see the details below.

He Is Able,

Michelle

Donations:

You can use the following donation information according to where you live to financially support me. When you make a donation, please indicate my name or number and email me to let me know if you are a first-time donor.

My Name: Michelle Ko #034642

Email: michelle.ko@sim.org

Australia: https://www.sim.org.au/ko

USA: https://www.simusa.org/get-involved/give/

Taiwan:  Bank Name: 中國信託商業銀行公館分行
Account Name: 中華基督教國際事工差會
Account Number: 347 540 105 827

Singapore:  Direct deposit into SIM DBS Bank Account
Account name: SIM East Asia Ltd
Account number: 025-011051-0
 

Prayers and Praises:

• Praise God for His faithfulness in every circumstance I am facing.
• Praise God for friends around the world who encouraged me to walk with Jesus.
• Pray for the last few days in Taiwan that I will be able to finish up all the remaining details.
• Pray for travel and transitional time from April 8 until I find a suitable place to settle in Tanzania.