CHRISTIAN WITNESS CENTER
P. O. BOX 700, WARSAW, MO 65355
TEL. 660-438-7710 FAX 660-438-7751
E-mail:
Home Page: / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: BILLY KO
TEL. 573-443-6218 FAX 443-6292
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DecemberDiscipleship Training十二月門徒訓練營
January Bible Camp一月讀經營
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Dear Brothers and sisters—God’s peace be with you!
Praise the Lord! In the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to serve on student campuses in the Far East. On one occasion, I passed by a campus in a big city of FujianProvince. The campus consisted of several universities adjoined together and looked very spectacular. The total number of students there was around 200,000. The local brothers and sisters told me that there were only around 1,000 Christians on those campuses. Superficially, this figure was not bad, but actually this only accounted for 0.5% of the student population. Similarly in another big city in thenorthwest China, the student population was around 200,000 but there were only around 1,000 Christians. In another big city in central China with a population of about six million, a local minister told me that all the university and college students added together were around one million, but there were only about 2,000 Christians—0.2%. The proportion of Christians in mainland China was about 10%; while in the United States, the proportion of Christian students among Chinese students was between 5 to 10%. Campus ministry in mainland China needs to be strengthened. Although many brothers and sisters have served wholeheartedly and diligently in campus ministry, statistically the proportion is almost zero. The total of Chinese undergraduate and graduate students should not be less than 30 million. Each year, no less than 6,600,000 undergraduate students graduate. These students flood into the world. Of course some of them come to the United States for advanced study. Young people are the country’s future. If they did not get to know Jesus Christ when they were students, what is the hope of the country? I was told that in China, there were not just many restaurants near college campuses but hotels as well. One day while we stayed in a chain-hotel just at the front door of one university in northwest China, I noticed many young college male and female student couples going in and out of the hotel. Some Chinese studies pointed out that about 50% of Chinese college students live together or frequently check in-and out of the hotels. They lived in sin while they are young. Such low moral standards made us worry about the country’s future—that this society would fall into God’s judgment. How can we change the present dim situation? Campus ministry is an important part of the solution—the new life and power in Christ is the hope of this era.
After serving in campus ministry for several decades, I’ve concluded that discipleship training is the most effective means of spiritual revival. Discipleship training not only renews lives, it also mobilizes Bible study groups and campus revival. Frequently people asked me—could we have such training in China? After praying and waiting, we recently started a discipleship training camp that lasted for five days. Due to environment limitation, we could only allow 20 some people to attend. Some of the participants were local campus students and coworkers. Some needed to take more than 30 hours public transportation to come to this training. They were very attentive and diligent in learning from morning till night. They were revived spiritually—understanding the way of the disciple, committing to the Lord’s way, willing to witness for the Lord in their daily lives and evangelizing among their schoolmates. They realized that they themselves were most effective in mobilizing campus ministry. Several days after the training, I visited them on their campus. They shared the impact of what they had learned from the training. A sister shared that several days after the training, the Lord helped her lead two classmates to the Lord. We were all touched because we witnessed how the Lord used students to do wonderful works. As a result, we were even more willing to serve on campuses so that more students could witness for the Lord, more people are influenced to accept Christ, more Bible study groups are established, and the gospel is shared on campuses. After graduation, these disciples could witness for the Lord in the larger society and help plant churches and Bible studies.
The most joy in serving in mainland China was to meet again those brothers and sisters who accepted Christ in the midwest US campuses. After receiving Discipleship training and being equipped in CWC, they returned to China and served actively. They took the risk to evangelizing on campuses. They worked with us in the coworkers and discipleship training. They also had wonderful ministry in the education sector locally. This is so beautiful and so much joy! May the Lord continue to use CWC’s training to build up more brothers and sisters, and to mobilize campus ministry in the Midwest US, so that these disciples will be used greatly by the Lord after graduation in mainland China and everywhere!
Construction of the New Dormitory
Thanks be to God that in the past three months, Dale and the other two workersworked very hard to build this new dormitory. The work went very fast. Right nowwe can see the roof, though inside has many jobs to be finished. I recalled earlier thisyear when we planned to build this new dormitory, we wished for six to eight sleepingrooms for families. However, in August when we dug the foundation, we found out theground level allows us to double the size of the building. So, we can build 16 sleepingrooms. Of course the total cost will almost be double of our original $100,000 plan.We wish to complete the upper eight rooms within the next half of the year. Thisupper level may need to cost around $150,000. If the Lord is willing, we would finishthe other eight rooms at the basement by the end of 2013. The progress will dependon whenever the Lord through His people gives us the additional $100,000. FromAugust to October, we have received about $40,000 in designated offerings for thebuilding. We have long way to go. Currently, the CWC camp ground only has 14family rooms. After the completion of this new dormitory, we can have 30 familyrooms! Due to the increasing numbers of the brothers and sisters attending our camps,we can see this need. Please continue remembering our needs in your prayers.
Three Meetings in the Winter
We have already started to prepare for the three meetings in this winter.
A. Winter Conference:
Date—it will be from Dec. 21 evening to the noontime of Dec. 25. The programhas been posted on our web. Due to the online cost, we plan to open the onlineregistration from Nov. 15. The online registration will be automatically off at4:00 pm central time of Dec. 16. Many people have asked the dates of online registration. Thanks for your patience and please keep an eye on it.
Location—it will be at Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center. As to howto get here, the information has also been posted on our web. A few monthsago, when I visited the Sheraton, they were making a big renovation. Theytold us it should be done before our conference. We are looking forward to a new hotel setting. Sheraton has also owned the Crown Center Exhibit Halls.God let us have favor in their eyes. This year they let us use Exhibit Hall Aand 1/3 of the Exhibit Hall B as our dining room. The size will be 3 timesbigger than the old dining room. In this kind of situation, the children can usethe old dining room, plus part of the Exhibit B as their classrooms. We thankGod for all of this.
Purpose—This Conference is for both Christians’ edification and nonbelievers’gospel message. You can start to prepare your heart and also invitenonbelievers to come.
Speakers—God has sent Brother Yunbo Bian, Dr. William Hok, Dr. Esther Su,Pastor Johann Lai, Elder Chien Li, Pastor Edwin Su and four local ministers:Pastor Jerry Jing, Pastor Puong Lau, Pastor Vincent Choi and Brother Henry Lee to be our speakers.
Youth and College English program—This program is for the 7th grade up tocollege English-speaking youths. Pastor Brian Leong from Mountain View, CA, Pastor Dat Trieu from St. Louis, MO, and Pastor Steve Tan from Shawnee, KS will be the speakers.
For more information, please go to our website.
B. December Discipleship Training
Discipleship Training is to edify bothers and sisters to be the followers of Christand also learn how to serve the Lord in their Bible study groups and churches.It will be held from the evening of Dec. 25 to the noontime of Dec. 30 at theCWC, Warsaw, MO. Pastor Johann Lai and Elder Chien Li from Taiwan will beour speakers. The strict due date is 11:59 pm, Dec. 16. Praise God! Already 81people have applied for the Discipleship Training Camp. All the forms and thedetails have also been posted on the web.
C. January Bible Camp
The Bible Camp will be held from the evening of Dec. 30, 2012 to noontime ofJan. 5, 2013. This time we will study the Book of Acts and the life of ApostlePaul. Sister Grace Lee and Pastor Stephen Chang will be our speakers. Praise God! So far 107 people have applied for the Camp and will start to do their last stage homework from Nov. 1. If you plan to come, please do not delay. The strict due date will be on Nov. 15.
Praise and Prayer Requests
1. Praise the Lord for greater opportunity to reach the Chinese students in differentcampuses. Thank God for many students growing spiritually in the Lord.
2. Thank God for three retired American couples (RVICS) who came to help ourbuilding projects in the past three weeks.
3. Please pray for the new dormitory building project. Please pray for the safety of theworkers and the financial needs.
4. Please pray for the preparation of the three meetings in the winter. Please pray forthe hearts of the brothers and sisters and the nonbelievers.
5. Please pray for Sister Cindy Chiang’s administrative ministry at the CWC office onweekdays and campus ministry on weekends.
6. Please pray for Sister Ching Kuan’s ministry at Fayetteville, AR. She needs morewisdom to reach out to the young Chinese students there.
7. Please pray for Sister Vivian Tsen’s ministry in Iowa. Traveling in Iowa duringwinter is not easy. Please pray for the safety and her ministry in differentcampus groups.
8. Please pray for Brother Xiaoming Pan and his family in Starkville, MS. Besidestations and ministers at Starkville, he also ministers at Memphis, TN, Mobileand Tuscaloosa, AL. Please pray for him.
9. Please pray for Brother Liyu Tu’s ministry in Columbia so that he can be ablessing to the students there.
10. Please pray for Brother Dale and his family, as he is working on the buildingproject busily and also preparing to move to Guatemala for mission work nextyear.
11. Please pray for Pastor Ko, that he will have greater wisdom and strength to coverthe needs of growing student ministry in different areas. Please also pray for thehealth of Mrs. Ko.
Thank you very much for your prayers and support for CWC and all of ourcoworkers. We appreciate your support. Please keep praying for us especially at theend of the year.
May God bless you!
In Him
Billy Ko
Director
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