wfn.org | Taiwan's Ilan County Government and Churches Co-Host Christmas Celebrations

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2964Edition

>December 15-21, 2008

Ilan County Government and Churches Co-Host Christmas Celebrations

>Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

>Written by Lydia Ma

Churches across Ilan County are partnering up for Christmas this year.  For every Saturday afternoon or evening in December, churches will hold  joint-Christmas celebrations so that local residents can feel some  Christmas cheer. This will also be the first time Ilan county government  will cooperate with churches to co-host Christmas events such as gospel  meetings, performances, small carnivals, Christmas caroling on bicycles,  etc. On the afternoon of December 20th, Ilan County Mayor Lu Kuo-Hua  will join church members in caroling across town on his bicycle. Lu had  often cooperated with local churches back in the days when he was Ilan  City Mayor, so, it seemed natural for him to invite churches to co-host  Christmas events with him as soon as he became county mayor.

According to Pastor Tan Pek-kiat (Chen Bo-jie) from Wu-Jie Presbyterian  Church, Christmas celebrations co-hosted by churches and government  agencies are great opportunities for residents to get to know churches  and their ministries. They are also an occasion for churches and  residents to get to know each other better and bridge the distance  between them. Pastor Chen also said that while participating in the  “Franklin Graham Festival” a few weeks ago, Ilan churches  found out that they needed to transform and cooperate with one another.  They have progressed a great deal since then. As a result, more than  twenty churches participated in co-hosting this year’s Christmas  events. Since churches exist to spread the gospel and serve the  community, Pastor Chen reported that proceeds from the carnival and  leftover funds from the grant given by the government will be donated to  charity to help local marginalized groups.

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