wfn.org | Central Bunun Church Opens Sarawak Missions Center

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>Taiwan Church News

>2958 Edition

>November 3~9, 2008

Central Bunun Church Opens Sarawak Missions Center

>Reported by: Chen Wei-jian

>Written by: Lydia Ma

Though indigenous churches in Taiwan are generally weaker, they have not  forgotten the Great Commission. Salitung Church from Central Bunun  Presbytery celebrated its 57th anniversary on October 26th, 2008, while  simultaneously celebrating the opening of a new missions center reaching  out to the people in Sarawak, Malaysia. During the celebration, a  thanksgiving service was held in memory of the first overseas Bunun  missionary – Pastor Chuan Suo-je. In total, over two hundred people  attended the celebrations. Many of the attendees on that day were past  church members that had moved away but were now returning to join in the  celebration.

Pastor Chuan Suo-je was the first Bunun pastor. Besides being a  missionary from central Bunun presbytery, he was commissioned by James  I. Dickson to go to Sarawak, East Malaysia, as an overseas missionary in  the 1970s. He stayed in Sarawak for ten years before returning to Taiwan  in 1982 to lead Salitung Church. He would pastor at Salitung for 18  years.

According to Salitung’s current pastor, Biaz-takehunang (Chuan  Jian-Sheng), the main purpose for creating Sarawak Missions Center is to  commemorate Chuan. Though the center is merely the size of an office  room, it displays many historical documents, including handicrafts,  photographs, missionary documents, and Sarawak Iban tribe’s  literary works. Pastor Biaz-takehunang said that Chuan dedicated his  life to overseas missions. After his return to Taiwan, Chuan persuaded  Central Bunun presbytery to dedicate one day to prayer and fasting every  month. The offerings collected during those occasions were channeled  into a fund for overseas missions. The prayer and fasting meetings  continue to this day and several churches have taken turns hosting them  in the past two decades. Currently, the offerings are used to support  missionary work in Hokkaido, Japan and Sarawak Missions Center.

In related news, Central Bunun Presbytery will send a missions committee  to Malaysia in December 2008 to visit Malaysia’s Methodist churches  and Presbyterian churches to further discuss missions.

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