Taiwan Church News
3186 Edition
March 18-24, 2013
Church Ministry News

Reported by Simon Lin

Written by Lydia Ma

Liuqiu is a small offshore island under the jurisdiction Pingtung County. This little island used to have 2 churches in the past, but a recent land ownership dispute led to the demolition of the Mandarin-speaking church on the island. As result, Pingtung Presbytery’s Liuqiu Church has become the sole church in Liuqiu overnight. The Mandarin-speaking Church has long been a good ministry partner of the PCT church in this “spiritually dark” area, said Liuqiu Presbyterian Church’s pastor, Rev. Huang Li-en. He explained that there are hundreds of shrines and temples in this tiny island that can be traversed from one end to the other within I hour.

Most of the residents in Liuqiu Island are children under 18-years of age or seniors. The church has historically maintained good, friendly relations with local residents, who are sincere and honest folks. However, Huang underscored that these folks are not receptive to the Gospel though they are very approachable. He remains optimistic despite this and believes that a time will come when the local gods will cease to be of any help and the church will have plenty of opportunities then to win the locals to Christ. Hence, Christians in the area only need to continue sharing the Gospel and maintaining good relations,

According to Huang, though the younger generation typically leaves Liuqiu when they are older, they are also more receptive to the Gospel and do not mind attending church sponsored events, such as ukulele and calligraphy lessons. For this reason, the church has been working hard on finding ways to help the younger generation understand Christianity and come to church more often. Its efforts have paid off as more and more children are taking part in the Sunday School choir now.

Huang said that a college fellowship from the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology used to help the church every year during its summer camps. However, because students come and go, there have been times when there was no one available to help out. For this reason, the church has sensed the need to train its own staff while it has the ability to do so. In terms of foreseeable future projects, the church hopes to start a summer weekend camp for children and then move on to other, more long-term projects.