Tainan church celebrates Christmas by serving its neighbors

From "Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>
Date Wed, 5 Jan 2011 11:08:13 +0800

3070 Edition

December 27, 2010-January 2, 2011

Church Ministry News



Tainan church celebrates Christmas by serving its neighbors



Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan

Written by Lydia Ma



On December 26, after holding an outdoor service, Takuang 
Presbyterian Church in Tainan convened at a neighborhood park to 
share the joy and meaning of Christmas with local people in an 
unusual way.



After the service ended, the entire church was divided into eight 
small groups and each group headed to a different nearby neighborhood 
to sweep the streets, pick up garbage, plant flowers in parks, and 
demonstrate the spirit of Christmas through serving these communities.



Takuang Presbyterian Church is a member of a community association in 
the area that promotes solidarity between neighbors. The association 
serves various surrounding boroughs and these boroughs were all 
visited by the church on that day. 



Not only was the church able to secure cleaning tools from borough 
chiefs for church members to do their work, the event was yet another 
opportunity it to become a church without fences or walls and do 
something to express its appreciation for its neighbors.



Of those who participated in this activity, 45 were church youths 
currently in junior or senior high school. They joined this event 
because they all agreed that there was more to Christmas than 
partying and church services. 



One student, quoting one of her pastor’s adages, said: “We don’t want 
to be people who just sit and listen to a sermon. We want to be 
people who hear God’s word and do something with it!”



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