community action

one thing that has been on my heart is the church's involvement in the community.

as sad as it is, it's something that i don't really see in the Chinese ethnic church (at least the ones i know of here). the only support i see is merely monetary.

so at render, i asked, "how do we get the people in the Chinese church to be actively involved in the community?"

one pastor mentioned that people are just scared of interacting with such people. i also talked about this with several friends, and they seem to agree. in the chinese world, people don't really engage in random acts of kindness or giving help to strangers at not-so-random times even though they respect those who do.

i guess i have this burden because i see this especially where my mother works. now on hand, it's a bit selfish because my mother's work there is our only source of income now. on the other hand, if it weren't i can still see that they need lots of help. within the past 3 years that i've been there, the number of classes have dropped, and the number of people that work there and go there have dropped some (at least from what i've seen).

i'm glad that this community isn't a stand-alone one but rather one that has offices in other parts of the states as well. however, they're there to focus on their city they're in, but it's hard for me to see the progress.

so, if the people who should be serving in the community are scared because of interacting with strangers, how do we mobilize them to get involved?

i don't know

i'm still trying to figure this one out. God has given me a heart for the chinese community, and i hope to be effective for Him in it, but i don't know how to go about that quite yet.... that's a big reason why i feel that God is calling me to Taiwan to learn Chinese. that way, i can be more effective in communicating with them.

my He use me as He pleases.