Tag Archives: prayer

Gracepoint Bi-Monthly Sharing

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At Gracepoint Fellowship Church’s Tuesday night prayer meeting, we had a bi-monthly church-wide sharing time focusing on the theme: growth through suffering. We heard three very powerful, refreshing and challenging testimonies. One of them was our very own Allen’s salvation testimony, and the other two were from Joyce who just returned from Taiwan after serving the Hsinchu church for two years and Daniel who returned from a 10-day mission at Honduras.

Allen shared honestly and simply how God has brought the light of the gospel into his dark and depressing life. Even though he was leading a decent life, he did not find the true meaning of his life until he understood God’s forgiveness of his sins and God’s love for him. And he wrapped up his testimony with Galatians 2:20-21a: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God.” I was really impacted afresh by the simplicity and the transforming power of the gospel.

ISMRetreat 002 thumb Gracepoint Bi Monthly Sharing Daniel, who was our guest speaker at the International Student Ministry 2009 Winter Retreat, shared in detail about how the full time missionaries in Honduras labored hard to provide medical and spiritual care for the people in Honduras. The missionaries there had to suffer a lot due to the lack of resources; however, God used them to bring the salvation message to the people. It made me feel ashamed of my desire for comfort and avoidance of suffering. Pastor Ed challenged us to think about the suffering that our brothers and sisters are undergoing throughout the world.  1 Peter 5:9 “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

Sichuan earthquake tragedy… and Myanmar…

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44219 1 Sichuan earthquake tragedy... and Myanmar...Many of our brothers and sisters have been following the tragedy of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centered in China’s Sichuan province. CNN, Xinhua, and other news outlets report nearly 20,000 dead, and 40,000 missing and/or trapped in the wreckage. It was difficult to look at some of the pictures and video footage, as many of our students and visiting scholars call China home. For others of us, China is our homeland. Either way, it is heart wrenching to consider that in the period of 2 weeks, there is a death toll of 19,500 from China and potentially 120,000 from the Myanmar cyclone.

We had an opportunity to review some of the sad footage at tonight’s prayer meeting… Personally, to see the children in Myanmar was something that I was not expecting. So many of them have tasted death. And as the World Vision worker there said, it will change their view of life, alter their personality, and color their view of God. It’s a sad reality for us who are comfortable in America to face. Our pastor’s wife, Kelly Kang, shared with us our response to this sort of tragedy must be more love for God: the one who can change people’s lives and redeem horrible situations.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims. For those looking to donate and help the current situation, here are a few helpful blog posts for Chinese charities:

And for Myanmar, World Vision is on site. You can donate here. As CNN reports here, World Vision has hundreds of workers there and they can use support. Please pray because it looks like a second cyclone is about to form and hit Myanmar. (see here)

UPDATE: If you want to donate to a particularly Christian fund, World Vision now has a Chinese quake fund setup here. The donation link is at the bottom of the page.