Taiwan Church News

3307 Edition

July 13 - 19, 2015

Headline News

Celebrating PCT 150, Kiau Church Pledges To Bring The Blessings To Her Community

Reported by Hwang Yi-lek

Being the first evangelical church established in Taiwan, Kiau church of the Kaohsiung presbytery held her 150thanniversary memorial service on July 12. Except commemorating the missionary enthusiasm of Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell and the generous offer of the Elder Chou Ray, Rev. Yu I-fon, pastor of Kiau church, encouraged the congregation forgetting the past glory and rushing forward to become a church rooted for the community.

Instead of a luxuary and showy thanksgiving service, the 150th anniversary memorial service in Kiau church maintained her naive and simple style as usual. "What kind of stuff can be left after a two hours' gorgeous service?", asked the practical Rev. Yu in a sceptical tone. Therefore, for the ministry of the juvenile, the children and the evangelical vehicles, the offerings collected in the memorial service were transferred into the account of mission foundation of the Kiau church.

During his sermon, Rev. Yu encouraged the congregation to keep a refreshing mind in faith and work without being constrained bygood old days' glory. "We can become an influential, attractive and inspirational church", urged Rev. Yu to his audience.

"God gave Kiau church two precious gifts", said Rev. Yu. The first gift was the gospel preached to Taiwan by Dr.James Laidlaw Maxwell in 1865; the second gift was the generous offer by Elder Chou Ray. In 1916, due to the construction for Tainan Sin Lau Hospital, the council of Tainan Missionaries decided to sell the land of current Kiau church to meet the financial demand of that engineering. It was fortunately, through the offering by Elder Chou, that the land of current Kiau church could be kept intact.

Based on the scriptures of Genesis 12, the story of God's calling of Abraham, and John 6, the story of feeding thefive thousand with five barley loaves and two fish, Rev. Yu inspired the congregation to become the blessings of the community and share what the church have with our neighbors.

Kidin, a small fishing village with many temples, is the community where Kiau church locates. Many local residents stillfeared to step into church, due to some taboos from their folk religions, yet amazingly they would send their children into the church to attend Sunday school or summer camps activities. Now the children attending Kiau church's activities have reached about 100 kids. Rev. Yu expected the children could top 100 in the coming school's opening season.

Four youth from Synod Mizoram of Presbyterian Church of India, under the project of EYEP-PCI, attended and witnessed this 150th anniversary memorial service of Kiau church with the other two Taiwanese volunteer co-workers. They also visited the memorial hall of Elder Chou Ray to learn more about the missionary history in Taiwan.

Translated by Peter Wolfe