Tell us about your Mission Partner and how they believe your mission work has impacted their ministry and the lives of the people they served this past year.
Our work has helped the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan to identify with the people of this land, as we testify to the presence and work of Jesus Christ in our lives, our schools, and in society at large. We continue to be affirmed in our work by people we meet in churches and at the schools we serve, and by those schools and the church’s request that we be reappointed for a further 3 years and granting us time away from Taiwan for home assignment in the USA. As the Church adds congregations and members, we are fully active participants. We are physical and visible testimony to partnership and cooperation.
Describe how an engaged congregation’s involvement and prayers enhances this ministry and what are some of the other ways a church can be effective and supportive.
Congregations of the RCA have supported our work in many ways since we began here in 1982, extending lives of faithful witness in their own communities by reaching half-way around the world to touch our students, co-workers and communities across the Pacific Ocean. A church wanting deeper involvement could subscribe to our newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/DavidAlexander and use the stories we regularly post there in a newsletter, or bulletin or on a bulletin board. These stories might help a local congregation to imagine and enact new ways to pray for people, schools and churches in Taiwan that they learn about through those stories and updates. A church’s website editor could choose new stories regularly to update their own site’s content, and those who lead congregational prayers at worship could use items mentioned about Taiwan to broaden the scope of what a congregation in North America prays about.
Share a story about a life directly impacted and/or transformed by your ministry with our partner.
As Char’s semester at Chang Jung Christian University drew to its conclusion, many students striving to complete their “free-talk” requirements sought her out for a conversation. Among them was a woman we’ll call “R”. She transferred into Chang Jung from another university last Spring, so she lacks the close personal relations with classmates that others who have been there from the start have naturally.
At the end of their regular “free-talk” conversation, she got personal. “R” told Char that she is seriously considering becoming a Christian, but has reservations based on family concerns. Having attended church only a few times, all by herself she began to “believe in God” sometime during high school. She is the only child of divorced parents. She lives with her mother when at home, and with her aunt, who has a house near the university, during school term. In both households, adherence to Taiwanese folk religion is the way things go.
“R” is not currently in a church, but reads her Bible and prays before bed every night. She feels that a regular involvement in a church, especially if and when it leads to baptism, will cause problems at home. Char encouraged her to consider trying out one of the Christian fellowship groups on campus and promised to connect her to a few other students with similar faith stories. They’ll continue to be in touch during our home assignment this coming spring.
How are new leaders being prepared and nurtured in hopes of empowering our Mission Partner to grow and become more self-sufficient?
Three students in Dave’s “Write your Personal Catechism” course at Tainan Theological College made final presentations early in January. Because more and more of what is done in 21st Century churches involves use of technology, Dave required that projects be presented using a computer and projector. When one had problems, Dave asked how a minister should plan for computer problems. Suggestions from students included always being set at least 24 hours in advance to allow for things to go wrong and get corrected before any meeting starts.
As they used computers, too many students showed “black words on white screens”. Dave pushed for power-point. Those who had never done that before have to learn how. The student who was most enthusiastic about this method was appointed to help the classmates who don’t know how.
Dave was impressed with the visual creativity used in presentations, how much students had progressed in understandings of their own faith, and how well they were learning to articulate it.
Share how you are directly involved in preparing a leader who might succeed you in the future?
Not all mission positions result in training a replacement. Char’s job at Chang Jung Christian University requires a native speaker of English, something that can’t be “trained.” What she seeks to exemplify to the school is the value of having a native speaker who is and works as a Christian while doing the job she does.
Dave is filling a position that will be replaced when faculty-in-development return from their studies overseas, some in the UK, others in America. Their preparations will enable them to fill the empty spot that will exist in Tainan Theological College’s language center, practical theology and translation fields when our current 3-year term as missionaries ends in 2018.
Help us to understand how we can continue to be in prayer for you, your family, our Mission Partner and the people of God.
Pray for us as we are on home assignment in the US and Canada from February 1 through August 19, visiting churches and renewing relationships. Pray for us as we return to Taiwan in August, that we find a better work/life balance than we had in our 2012-2015 term of service. Pray for our family making happy transitions, our daughter Kate moving into a university teaching job, our son Grant getting married this year. Pray for Chang Jung Christian University as it faces an increasingly competitive market in seeking students, and ministers to those who choose it from among many alternatives. Pray for the students of Tainan Theological College who struggle to balance academic and field education requirements as they grow in faith. Pray for the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, striving to live a socially and evangelically relevant witness in a land where 96% of the people do not yet confess Christ as Lord.
~Dave and Char Alexander, Hope Church missionaries in Taiwan