Changhua Presbytery creatively addresses premarital sex, abortion, biblical illiteracy among youths

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

3079 Edition

February 28~March 6, 2011

Church Ministry News



Changhua Presbytery creatively addresses premarital sex, abortion, biblical 
illiteracy among youths



Reported by Joe Ko

Written by Lydia Ma



Changhua Presbytery held a Bible contest called “Grand Evaluation on Proverbs” 
on February 26, 2011, at Hsihu Presbyterian Church in Hsihu Township. Concerned 
about declining biblical literacy among youths today and hoping to instill the 
habit of reading Scripture daily instead of only Sundays, the presbytery hoped 
the event would encourage youths to read their Bibles more often.

The grand evaluation was a team game and each team received questions varying 
in level of difficulty depending on age group. Each team consisted of 4 people. 
Teams were further divided into youths in junior and senior high school and 
college-age youths. The test format included fill-in-the-blanks, short answers, 
and paragraph answers. Since it was an open-book evaluation, participants were 
allowed to flip through the Bible and search for answers.

According to Changhua Presbytery Youth Committee Secretary Liu Hsi-hsiang, the 
church had noticed that fewer youths liked to read the Bible in recent years 
and many were unfamiliar with the Bible. That is the reason he thought of 
organizing this event and he hoped to make it a fun, easy, and relaxing contest 
to inspire youths to pick up their Bibles.

In related news within Changhua Presbytery, the recent decline in age among 
youths experimenting with premarital sex prompted Yungfu Presbyterian Church to 
hold a retreat for youths on the weekend of February 26-28, 2011, to address 
issues such as dating and premarital sex. 

Church leaders informed youths on these issues from a Biblical perspective and 
taught them about why “true love is worth waiting for.” They also encouraged 
youths to make a pact with God that they wouldn’t engage in any sexual activity 
before marriage.

Headlining this 3-day retreat was Huang Che-min, a representative from Rainbow 
Family Life Education Association. Huang underscored that youths should be 
level-headed when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex because they 
can become complex – especially when sexual urges are factored into the 
equation.

To illustrate his point with some humor, he arranged participants to play with 
one another using long threads. Before long, the room became a mess of tangled 
webs Having made his point, he then went on to teach youths the proper way to 
approach dating, the importance of praying for guidance constantly while 
dating, and the importance of sexual purity.

There were 52 participants at this retreat ranging from as young as sixth 
graders to as old as college students. According to event organizers, many 
participants interviewed before the retreat thought that as long as both people 
were willing, there was nothing wrong with premarital sex. But at the end of 
the retreat, almost everyone signed a card stating their promise to God that 
they would wait until marriage before engaging in sex. Many youths also said 
they’d like to keep in touch with counselors and church volunteers after the 
retreat to follow-up on what they’d learned and the promise they’d made.

  

********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages. 

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you acknowledge the 
source as "Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and writer. 
Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print publications. 

Direct comments and questions about this article to: enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/ (English) or 
http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese) 

********************