Taiwan Church News 3292 Edition March 30 - April 5, 2015 Church Ministry Delayed Development Children And Their Parents Parade In Easter To Proclaim Jesus' Resurrection Reported by Hwang Yi-lek To share the good news of Jesus' resurrection with community inhabitants, Eden Social Welfare Foundation(ESWF) cooperated with local churches of PCT and other denominations in Lin-yuan and Ren-wu district of Kaohsiung City holding an Easter parade on March 21 & 28 respectively. About 300 adults and delayed developments children took part in the parade sharing the Easter egg, joyful balloons and evangelical invitation cards on the streets in Lin-yuan district. "We sincerely hope such Easter parade in Lin-yuan could become an annual event to proclaim the gospel into every house!", said Rev. Chen Su-an of Lin-yuan Presbyterian Church. "Even though many children had delayed development inside the community, most of them were just kept in the house daring not to step outside," said the parents of delayed development children at Lin-yuan area. But this scenario changed, since ESWF set up a school named "Little Fisherman Academy" helping more delayed developed children to receive early intervention. Parents also start to have opportunity to connect, speak out their stories and encourage each other to stand up and step out from the past shadow. "Today the smiles on everybody's face is so bright like the sun!", said the parents. Easter parade in Ren-wu district launched from Ren-ho Park, gathering about 200 children and adults. Ten local churches and institutes, from So-san Pesbytery, Kaohsiung Presbytery and other denominations, jubilantly shared 1,000 Easter eggs, balloons and evangelical pamphlets along the streets. Ms Zeng Ya-ling, Director of ESWF Lin-yuan Workshop, expressed that the resources of early intervention for delayed development children is still very limited at Lin-yuan and Ren-wu area. As local churches are the best working partner, able to support and supply the first-aid to the marginalized families, Ms Zeng wish there would a positive long term cooperation between ESWF and local churches to offer integrative care to those delayed development children and their parents. Translated by Peter Wolfe |