3149 Edition
July 2-8, 2012
Headline News

Reported by Chen Wei-chien

Written by Lydia Ma

More than 30 staff from Taiwan Church Press participated in an evangelistic outreach event in partnership with various local churches in Hsinchu area on the afternoon of Saturday, June 30, 2012. Joined by 14 local churches and more than 100 members from these churches, they covered some of the busiest streets of Hsinchu city to distribute evangelistic brochures. Some teams were sent to rural areas in Hsinchu County, such as Guanxi Township, where they had the opportunity to distribute brochures in one of the oldest parts of the town.

This two-day event was organized in preparation for July 15, also known as Communication Ministries Sunday among PCT churches. Taiwan Church Press staff and volunteers were sent in groups of two or three people to various local churches in Hsinchu area to participate in this outreach event on Saturday and then give a brief introduction of the organization’s ministries on Sunday during each church’s worship service to garner support and raise funds. According to Taiwan Church Press President Joseph Chen, Keng-Sin, the evangelistic brochure used during this outreach, was first published in 1996 and its distribution size at the time was merely 5,000 copies per week. Now, the flyer’s distribution size has grown to 190,000 copies per week and has helped lead many people to church and to Christ. Keng-Sin brochure’s format is quite simple, consisting simply of a few touching stories and testimonies. It has become popular among many churches in Taiwan in the past few years.

Chen added that the reason Taiwan Church Press chose to partner with local churches in Hsinchu area in distributing Keng-Sin is because Hsinchu has the least number of Keng-Sin mini-racks. It has less mini-racks than Taitung and Hualien, which are far more remote than Hsinchu. Chen hopes that this event will help local churches in their evangelistic ministries as well as provide an opportunity for local pastors and congregations to get to know Taiwan Church Press. Taiwan Church Press’s goal is to have at least 1,688 mini-racks in place across Taiwan. These mini-racks are usually displayed at local stores, clinics, restaurants, etc. There are currently 1,383 mini-racks across Taiwan.

Hsinchu Presbyterian Church’s pastor Rev. Cheng Wen-jen praised this event as an important and useful means for local churches to share the Gospel. He added that distributing these evangelistic brochures does not require much training and anyone who is willing set aside a little bit of time can do it. “However, someone needs to write these stories in order for us to have something to distribute. For this reason, I encourage people in my congregation to write and submit their own testimonies to Taiwan Church Press,” he said.

One lady from Hsinchu church who participated in this event said that she volunteers at Mackay Memorial Hospital and usually distributes approximately 20 brochures every week at the hospital. She later commented that distributing evangelistic brochures at the hospital and on the street are very different experiences. She explained that because she wears a hospital staff vest when she distributes at Mackay Hospital, people are more receptive as they trust hospital volunteers. However, people are more guarded when encountering strangers distributing flyers on the street. Nevertheless, she encouraged everyone to take courage and distribute as much as possible because God can use these stories to speak to people’s hearts.