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

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.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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