In this joyful season, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect a few things that were happening in my family during the year of 2013. In the year, we experienced heavy load of college tuitions and insecurity of my job due to the uncertainty of economy. In parallel, we were also joyous to see the formation of a new family and the spiritual growth of our church. All in all, we are thankful for God’s provision and leading of my family.
When we learned my son gained an admission to one of his favorite colleges in last year, my wife and I started to worry about how to shell out two college tuition and fees, at the same time. In the middle of our worry, our gracious Lord lets us receive partial financial aid from the school to help alleviate our financial burden. In addition, He lessens our load in picking up and dropping off because my son is joining the same college with my daughter. Later of the year, we also find out that there is a family from the city where my kids’ college is has a daughter who is studying in our local culinary school. This makes our life even easier because we can carpool with the family. From this experience, I was once reminded by the name of God – Jehovah-jireh 耶和華以勒﹝就是耶和華必預備﹞.
In last June, my working company held a large scale resource action (RA) to her workforce. I thank God for sparing me from this RA. One day when I was walking around the buildings at my working place during my lunchtime break, I rant into an old acquaintance. We chatted a little bit on the topics of family and work. He told me that he was shocked from this RA occurred in his department. It was hit hard and consequently he has to pick up more workload from his let-go colleagues. The bad is now he has to work on weekends. So, he sighed, “There is no fun in working here anymore, I would retire this time if my kids were not still in college.” “Me too!” I responded. Talking about job in this world, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes indicated that “it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.” 我所見為善為美的、就是人在 神賜他一生的日子喫喝、享受日光之下勞碌得來的好處．因為這是他的分。(Ecclesiastes 5:18). It tells us that it is our lot to enjoy what we have labored, as long as we acknowledge that it is given by God. I realize that I am blessed to have a job under this uncertain environment.
In last August, my wife’s niece had a wonderful wedding in our church. She came two years ago to study her graduate degree here. We are very happy to see the decision she made to accept Christ as her personal savior. We are also glad to see that she found a loving and trust-worthy person to accompany her throughout her future life. Her family and relatives came from Far East to attend her wedding and celebration. My wife also had a chance to have a reunion with her sisters and in-laws. We thank our brothers and sisters for the time and efforts they spent to pull everything together. Especially we’d like to thank them for their prayers. After the ceremony, my wife’s sisters and in-laws told us that they witnessed a very meaningful ceremony. I trust that this will become a seed in their heart – to foretaste the concept of “It is a big loving family, when you are in Christ”.
During the year, we saw God’s hand continued to lead our young church. Our serving in various areas of ministry – the ministry of food management, finance, music, and teaching ministry – help my family to grow in Him continuously. We thank God for giving us brothers and sisters to co-work together. Their dedication and love become our major thrust in serving Him. We feel that our church has a great potential in proclaiming God’s love, especially when we saw the huge crowd in hot-pot gathering for Chinese New Year, Summer BBQ picnic gathering, and Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. In this warped and crooked generation, our belief has been challenged from every angle. How can we foster a church that is standing firm against all the ferocious attacks is going to be a tremendous task to us. We pray that His name be lifted on high in this country. May this country experience what prophet Isaiah has prophesied: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)” 在黑暗中行走的百姓看見了大光；住在死蔭之地的人有光照耀他們。以賽亞書9章2節.