Starting a Church Plant in Wanhua
21/04/2009 9:00 am <>
How does one start a church when you’ve just moved into a new city? The following is the story of God’s guidance in our first church planting efforts among working class people in Wanhua, Taipei.
“Gowl Tsa!” The thin white-haired street sweeper paused, staring in amazement at the foreigner who just said “Good morning” in Taiwanese.
“You must be with the church,” she said.
“I am a Christian and came here to tell people about Jesus,” I replied.
“Jesus must be very great because he is so famous,” she commented, continuing her sweeping.
“Have you heard about Jesus?” I asked tentatively, not sure if this nervous little women would really want to talk to me.
“No. I’m not educated. I don’t know much. Everyone thinks I’m stupid.”
We chatted a little longer, and I cautiously asked if she would be willing for me to tell her about Jesus sometime. To my delight she said yes! A few days later we met SC in the park and told her the story of the Creation, the Fall and the promise of the Savior to come, Jesus.
Over the next few months we met with SC several times to chat and pray. She even came to our house to sing. Though she was willing for us to share with her about God and pray, her ailing parents would not allow her to give up ancestor worship and be baptized. One day she told us that her mother had died and that she would be moved to another neighborhood to sweep streets. We then lost contact with SC because we did not know where she lived and her phone was out of order.
About this time, a colleague introduced us to MI who welcomed us to her home to share Bible stories and pray with her. Our colleague had met MI during prayer walks around the neighborhood. The first night we met MI she told us about a neighbor who had just lost her mother and whose father was very sick. We began to realize she was talking about SC. To our great surprise, SC and MI were not only neighbors, but friends! We had found SC again!
MI and SC were not the only ones we knew in Wanhua. Soon after arriving our OMF colleague also introduced us to Mr. D. He became interested in Christianity a few years earlier after meeting OMFers at an English camp his grandson attended. Mr. D is not baptized and does not attend a church. We began meeting in his home to sing, tell the Chronological Bible stories and pray.
Easter morning, we met again with Mr. D in his home. At that time, he asked about meeting regularly with other people, possibly in a larger place in the area. After leaving Mr. D we immediately ran into SC and MI. They were sitting under some trees on a corner in this crowded neighborhood. We sang, told the Easter story and prayed together under the trees. Other people walking by joined in. What a joyful Easter celebration for us!
One by one God has brought people with open hearts into our lives, amazingly from the same neighborhood. Could this small group of people be the beginning of a church in this working class community? Stay tuned and pray with us.
Randy & Janet Adams
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