Youth short-term missions further evangelism and cultural exchanges at Taiwanese local churches

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

3097 Edition

July 4-10, 2011

Church Ministry News

Youth short-term missions further evangelism and cultural exchanges at 
Taiwanese local churches

Reported by Sam Lee and Chen Wei-chien

Written by Lydia Ma

This summer PCT will host about 170 youths for its annual “I Love Taiwan” (ILT) 
Mission scheduled from June 28 to July 14, 2011. Youths participating in this 
mission will observe and serve at various PCT churches and organizations and 
through such an experience, they will learn about Taiwan and serve God through 
short-term missions here. 

The ultimate goal behind this mission is to encourage youths to experience 
Taiwanese culture and lifestyle and share about it once they go back to their 
home countries, said PCT Youth Ministry Committee Secretary Itan Pavavalong. He 
hopes that youths will come to understand Taiwan’s isolation from the 
international community and appreciate Taiwan’s beauty and cultural diversity.

The camp’s theme for this year is “Diverse and Beautiful Taiwan” and camp 
leaders hope it’d remind youths of Taiwan’s current international predicament. 
Pavavalong likened Taiwan to a lonely, self-confident, and multi-colored bird 
flying solo. Though the journey may be at times lonely, it is also filled with 
hope because Taiwan is flying towards its destiny.

Youths participating in this year’s “I Love Taiwan” Mission came from as many 
countries as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, 
Philippines, Germany, UK, Thailand, and US. As many as 91 youths from these 
countries have come to Taiwan.

Accompanied by 80 local youths from churches across Taiwan, they first convened 
at Aletheia University in Tamsui for 3 days of training before being sent to 
various churches across Taiwan for 10 days to observe and serve at various 
local ministries. Afterward, they will meet at Hsieh-wei Campgrounds in Puli to 
share what they learned and did during their internships.

Song Meng, a Japanese youth who speaks Mandarin fluently and whose parents are 
Chinese, hopes that he will get to know some Indigenous new friends and visit 
Indigenous reservations. He will be interning at Hongye Presbyterian Church, an 
Indigenous church belonging to Bunun Presbytery.

Joonhyuk Huh, a South Korean youth who came to Taiwan through ILT Mission a few 
years ago, is excited to be back because he really appreciates Taiwan’s 
trademark hospitality.

In related news, over 100 Taiwanese American youths came to Taiwan on June 30 
to minister to Taiwanese students through an English summer program. They first 
gathered in Hsinchu at Canaan Church for a 3-day training before heading out to 
serve with various churches throughout Taiwan.

This summer program, sponsored by Nehemiah Foundation USA, is called Americans 
Dedicated for Voluntary English Teaching in Taiwan (ADVENT). It will be held at 
various schools in Taoyuan, Yunlin, Changhua, Hsinchu, Sinbei, and Taitung in 
collaboration with local churches in those areas. 

ADVENT has been held for 7 years now and its volunteers are second-generation 
Taiwanese American youths from senior high school to college graduates. They 
come to Taiwan during their summer breaks and help local churches host English 
Summer camps that blend character training with evangelism. Besides learning 
English, camp activities also include watching skits that contain biblical and 
moral themes. 

A total of 145 teens are coming to Taiwan to help with the summer camps. The 
camps have also been highly appreciated and welcomed by local majors and 
magistrates. This year, Changhua County magistrate Cho Po-yuan even arranged 
for 2 tour buses to help these teens get around.

In return for helping Taiwanese kids improve their English and sharing the 
gospel with them, these youths will experience Taiwan – the place where their 
parents grew up.

“But the greatest achievement for these youths is probably the discovery that 
they can share the gospel too,” said Rev. Chang Yu-ming, the coordinator of 
this program. He recalled that one youth wept for 1 hour after the camp, 
overwhelmed at seeing his entire class of 20 children make a decision to accept 
Christ.

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

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) 

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