Taiwan Church News

3338 Edition

February 15 - 21, 2016

Church Ministry

Chan-San Urban Aboriginal Church Carries On Proclaiming The Gospel By Establishing A Cleaning Service Company

According to the 2011 statistics of Ministry of the Interior, though the population of the urban original had reached 240 thousands people, which was already over one second of the total aboriginal population, the long-term structural problems such as low employment and meager wages still awaits a proper solution from the church or even the government.

Rev. Chen Jien-liang, pastor of Chang-san Presbyterian Church in Changhua Presbytery, recollected his mostly asked question, "Dear Evangelist! Since you say God loves me, why I do not have any job!", when he was just graduated from the theological seminary and assigned to serve Chang-san church 20 years ago. As Chen was deeply sympathetic to his church fellows, who were poor and seldom employed then, he launched a cleaning service company to improve the economics of his church members.

And now, after 20 years of church ministry, this special missio dei cooperating with cleaning service not only becomes an important instrument helping more aboriginal churches free from poverty, but also restore their capability to share the resources more efficiently and cherish their own cultural values more consciously.

Church members of Chang-san church spans across different aboriginal peoples, like Amis, Rukai and Pai-wan etc. Twenty years ago, when these poor aboriginal believers came down to urban area to find a living at Changhua county, they were trapped into an incredible loan interest after the Chang-san church was built up. Loan interest up to NT$ 200,000 per month had to be paid then.

As the aboriginal members of Chang-san church then were either unemployed or being hired temporarily, some even lived in an adapted hog pen, Chen decided to organize church members and offer cleaning services in order to solve the urgent problem of poverty. Chen thought that a healthy growth of the church requires a steady income of the church members, so he as a leader in faith and works was responsible to find jobs for his church members.

Following the expansion of the business of cleaning service, the "Chang-san Environmental Protection & Cleaning Service Limited Company" was set up in 1988 in order to comply with the business law and issue the commercial receipt to the customers. Chang-san company's professional service in cleaning is also affirmed by Changhua Christian Hospital to manage most of her in-hospital cleaning tasks.

According to different spiritual demands of the aboriginal church members, Chang-san church divides their church ministry into three major parts: mission, education and economics. The management of cleaning service company is committed to the management board, which is counseled by Rev. Chen, stressing a spirit of independence and self-sustain. As to Rev. Chen, now he helps to solve the economic or legal problems of the aboriginal families and train the tribe people to build up a correct idea about savings.

At present, this Chang-san cleaning service company has over 400 employees. Not only the aboriginal people are employed, but also many of the disabled are taken care of. Elder Ku Li-chu expresses that now the customers includes Changhua Christian Hospital, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Nantou Christian Hospital, Yuan-seng Hospital and etc. The story of Chang-san church proves that the combination of mission with the development of industry could be the best opportunity for the urban aboriginal church who are short of resources.

Translated by Peter Wolfe