wfn.org | God, church beat cram school in helping teen excel in entrance exam

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

>      Taiwan Church News

>3044 Edition

>June 28~July 4, 2010

God, church beat cram school in helping teen excel in entrance  exam

>Reported by Chen Wei-chien

>Written by Lydia Ma

Many Christian parents in Taiwan agonize over whether they should  send their 
kids to cram

schools or church small group meetings during weekends –  especially when 
there’s a time conflict.

This year, Chang Yuan-cheng, first-place finisher in the  Technological & 
Vocational Education

Test and Nei-shin Presbyterian Church member, has a compelling  testimony to 
make on this

dilemma: In his three years of high school, he never went to a  cram school, 
never skipped a

church gathering to study for a test, simply went with the flow of  his school, 
and landed in first place overall.

Chang is a student at National Feng-Yuan Commercial High School.  He scored 
well enough in

his exams this year to earn a spot at Taiwan Normal University.  Chang and his 
twin brother

and another elder sister are the only Christians in his family. He  will be 
baptized in August of this year.

Chang said he didn’t like to study when he was in junior high  school, often 
frequented internet

cafes, and came home late. When he first went to church during his  first year 
of senior high

school at the invitation of his twin, and saw how church youth  lived and 
studied with passion,

he was awestruck by their lives and began attending church  regularly.

In the past three years, his church attendance never fluctuated.  He always 
attended youth

fellowship meetings and Sunday services – exam or no exam.  Looking back, he 
believes the

church has impacted his life in big ways in the past few years and  he wouldn’t 
have come this

>far if it weren’t for his church.

According to Nei-Shin Presbyterian Church’s pastor, Rev. Wang  Fu-hsiang, the 
church has

about 120 members, half of them youth. Impressively enough, out of  the 
church’s 14 high

school seniors this year, 10 were accepted to a public university  even though 
none of them

>attended cram schools.

With the support of their church community, every youth at  Nei-Shin has keys 
to the church so

that they may go to the church to pray, meet, play ball, rehearse  any time. 
The church is an

integral part of their lives. Their pastor’s only insistence  is that every one 
of them be home before 11:00 p.m.

According to Wang, Chang’s family is struggling financially.  Chang’s sister 
has suspended her

studies to earn money toward another year of tuition fees. Chang  and his twin 
brother’s

college tuition fees will become a big financial burden for the  family.

Wang hopes Christians can financially support Chang and his  siblings so that 
they won’t have

to quit school over lack of money to pay tuition. He urges those  willing to 
give an offering to

>help them to contact the church.

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