wfn.org | Spotlight on Taiwan’s oldest woman pastor

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3016 Edition

>December 14~20 2009

Spotlight on Taiwan’s oldest woman pastor

>Reported by Lin Yi-ying

>Written by Lydia Ma

86-year-old Li Ming-an, who in 1960 was the third woman pastor to  be ordained

within the PCT, is currently the denomination’s oldest woman  pastor. Li is also

the cousin of another well- known pastor in Taiwan, Rev. Li  Pang-chu, the first

>woman pastor in Taiwan.

Li Ming-an was ordained in Tainan’s An-Ping Presbyterian  Church in 1960

before she was sent to minister in Taichung’s Wujih  Presbyterian Church

between 1962 and1965. She is Wujih’s first pastor as well.

Li chose to remain single for the rest of her life to serve God.  She currently lives

alone in a small apartment in Taipei near Shuang-Lien Presbyterian  Church.

Monthly rent and utilities for her small apartment amount to  NT$8,700, but she

receives only NT$3,000 from a seniors stipend. Where does the rest  of the

money come from? “I depend on God to provide!” she  replied optimistically.

Though Li is officially a PCT retired minister, she only served in  PCT for 7 years

(between 1959 and 1966). She travelled to Brazil in the 1970s and  served there

as an itinerant preacher for 25 years. Hence, she doesn’t  qualify for the pension

plan PCT designed for all its retired ministers.

According to Li, she first went to Brazil in 1973 to visit her  sister who had

immigrated there. As she prepared to return to Taiwan, she  realized she didn’t

have any money left and decided to stay in Brazil instead and  serve Taiwanese

and Japanese churches there. Henceforth, she would preach, lead  Bible studies,

and help out at any church that needed her assistance.

Li returned to Taiwan in 1997 to attend her cousin’s funeral  and later became

CEO of Tao-Sheng Theological Seminary. She served there until her  retirement

in 2004. Now, she spends her days reading books, writing letters,  and watching

>television.

The third Sunday of December is PCT’s “Retired Ministers  Sunday”. We hope all

churches can take time to pray and reach out to retired ministers  during this

>occasion.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you  acknowledge the source as

"Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and  writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print  publications.

Direct comments and questions about this article to:  enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English)

>http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>