Taiwan Church News
3190 Edition
April 15-21, 2013
General Assembly News

Reported by Lin Yi-ying

Written by Lydia Ma

One of the main programs of this year’s PCT annual convention held at Mackay Memorial Hospital Auditorium was to introduce the work of various PCT social welfare organizations. These organizations are supervised by the PCT’s Peace Foundation and they include: Seamen’s and Fishermen’s Service Center in Kaohsiung, Taipei Women’s Development Center, Rainbow Project, Disabled Concern Center, Aboriginal Community Development Center, Labor Concern Center, Welfare and Service Center for the Disabled, and the PCT social welfare branch office in Penghu. These organizations reach out and help single mothers, foreign nurses, foreign manual workers, fishermen and their families, people with disabilities, and other people in the margins of society.

To make these ministry reports interesting and touching, some presentations included skits. For example, the organization reaching out to people with disabilities invited one disabled couple to do a dance presentation on their wheelchairs. Other organizations presented their own skits to give the audience some idea about the people they see and help on a daily basis. These presentations were very touching and received a warm applause from the audience.

PCT General Secretary Andrew Chang said that one of his goals since assuming office was to help more people become acquainted with all PCT ministries through gatherings such as the annual convention. For this reason, each annual convention in the past 8 years has focused on a ministry theme and included presentations from various PCT organizations. Chang underscored that he was confident that if every church could partner with these PCT affiliated social welfare organizations and contribute, PCT evangelistic outreach and the furthering of the gospel across Taiwan would improve exponentially and become much more effective.

One very important couple who attended this ministry report session was the former PCT General Secretary Rev. C.M. Kao and his wife Lee Li-chen. Mrs. Kao was the one who presented the ministry report for Taipei Women’s Development Center because she was its representative on behalf of the PCT.

Representatives from other organizations also presented their reports and many of them included well-rehearsed skits. One skit showed the mistreatment of a foreign worker by an employment agent. Another skit showed a foreign woman married to a Taiwanese fisherman who suffered domestic abuse under the hands of her husband. However, when the fisherman suffered a stroke later on due to his heavy drinking habits, his wife nevertheless took care of him. Tragically, being a caregiver under such circumstances also caused her to become clinically depressed. The woman finally got some help and support through the PCT’s social welfare branch office in Penghu.

Instead of a skit, the Disabled Concern Center in Kaohsiung used a clip to accompany their report. This clip showed how the center helped disabled children overcome disabilities. One segment of the clip showed a child who couldn’t walk but managed to learn to walk on his own with the help of the center. Another clip showed how the center helped a child who couldn’t speak to learn sign language. This child is now able to communicate and he was interviewed for the clip. At the end of this clip, the audience came away with a deeper understanding of what it means to “accompany someone with one’s own life and impact someone with one’s own life”.