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This summer, although we are a young church with a small congregation, we sent a team of three on a short-term mission to Taiwan. Myself (Minh Ho) and two others from Agape, as well as two from a Vietnamese church in Vancouver, visited Mission Centres in Taipei (Northern Taiwan), Kaosiung (Southern Taiwan) and Tai Zi (Central Taiwan). We also visited four detention centres and a prison. Both inmates and workers responded to the Gospel message and turned to Christ in droves. More than 200 first-time decisions for Christ were made, including sixty-one female HTC (cell phone company) workers out of the eighty or so young ladies who accepted the invitation and came for the outreach event.

My most memorable time was the evening I spent in Tai Zi talking on a more individual basis with about twenty young people. To qualify for work in Taiwan, one must be between the ages of 18 to 25. Many feared that once they return to North Vietnam they would not have a church in their town or village to join. We encouraged them to look to Christ for help and be prepared to form cell groups and plant new churches. I am excited to report that half a dozen of these young people committed themselves to pursuing further biblical and theological training.

To help those new believers who want to study theology to prepare for ministry, we are establishing a partnership with the China Lutheran Seminary in Taipei. We are excited about a bachelor program CLS offers to our Vietnamese students. The school will allow us to provide one half of all the courses in Vietnamese while our students learn Mandarin. No other school anywhere we know of has been doing this. The unique bilingual program will prepare our students well for ministry to the Vietnamese population both in and outside of Vietnam.

We ended our mission trip in Hanoi, Vietnam, where we hosted some Vietnamese new believers who had recently returned to Vietnam from Taiwan. We were able to connect them to the main Hanoi church and encourage them in their desire to serve Christ through ministry. Praise the Lord for the great work he is doing among the Vietnamese in Taiwan, Vietnam, Toronto, and throughout the world!

Image is of the China Lutheran Seminary in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Taken from Picasa.