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Prayer: Lord, we worship You. Thank You that we can be gathered into Your name again. We treasure this time and ask for Your blessing. We pray that You would move among us and have the room to move through every one of us so that You can accomplish Your eternal will. Lord, we look to You to give us a word, Your Spirit, and the anointing. Enlighten us and grant us sight. We pray that You would bless Your church and remember every brother and sister, the home meetings, and every other meeting. We offer our thanksgiving and praise to You. You have led us until now. You are the Lord who leads us, and we bow our heads to worship You. May Your presence be with us. Amen.
We will now fellowship concerning the full-time training. Since August 1986 when the first term of the training began, the trainees have baptized more than twenty thousand people who were contacted through door-knocking. Out of these twenty thousand people, more than six thousand have meetings in their homes. Of these six thousand people, nearly four thousand meet with us one or more times a week, and their condition may be considered stable. The remaining two thousand have meetings in their homes at least once a month. The care of all these home meetings is still in the hands of the full-time trainees. Every day they visit and care for these households. Without such care it is not easy to sustain the newly baptized ones.
In our fellowship with the elders, we expressed the desire to gradually transfer the care of these home meetings to the brothers and sisters in the meeting halls. The transfer cannot be done in a light way. Some of these brothers and sisters have been in the full-time training and are already caring for new ones; hence, it will not be easy for these saints to care for more new ones. In addition, the full-time trainees have been caring for some of the new ones for eight or nine months and for others only one or two months. Hence, some of the new ones are accustomed to the trainees who are caring for them. Therefore, this transfer must be done properly in order to not lose any new ones. Furthermore, the new ones may not be able to accept being cared for by other people.
Therefore, we fellowshipped with the trainees about their burden. Some of the trainees from New Zealand and Europe are willing to stay, but we feel to let them return, because this decision involves the locality they came from. Therefore, we decided that the trainees who wish to remain here must first fellowship with their locality. If their locality is willing to support them, they can stay here for one or two more years. This also applies to the trainees from the localities in Taiwan. Approximately five hundred fifty full-time trainees who have attended two terms of the training are willing to remain. This number includes two hundred fifty trainees from Taipei, one hundred fifty trainees from the localities outside of Taipei, and one hundred fifty trainees from abroad.
The trainees who remain in Taipei will be a strengthening because they will be able to continue caring for the newly baptized saints and to contact people through door-knocking. These trainees were in two terms of the training, and therefore they are all experienced. Hence, if they remain, it will also support the church in Taipei. This is a tremendous strengthening for the growth and spread of the church.
In our fellowship with the elders in Taipei, we asked them to do their best to care for these five hundred fifty trainees and to find lodging for them. These trainees will spend most of their energy to care for the home meetings. We hope that they will be able to build up the new households in one or two years. This will be a tremendous help. All the saints need to know about this situation and receive a burden from the Lord to pray.
At present it seems as if the training will continue every year because there are already more than one thousand university and high-school students who have signed up to attend the training. In addition to these students, many saints from other localities have signed up for the training. This is a large number of trainees. It will not be a simple matter to feed these trainees. When we had the largest number of trainees, there were more than one thousand people attending the training and eating meals. We have two kitchens, in hall one and hall three, and about thirty brothers and sisters whose only service is to prepare meals for the training. There are also local saints who come and help with the meals. We thank the Lord that so far all the trainees have been eating well, and the food is healthy. If the training is to continue every year, we must consider the many details related to the training. This is the general situation of the training.
Our present need is to obtain a large meeting hall. Our numbers are constantly increasing, and even though we emphasize home meetings, we still need corporate meetings at least once a month. Sometimes the whole church will need to gather together to take care of a need. A few years ago we obtained some property at Linkou and began preparations to build a large meeting hall there. We spoke of the purchase of the property at Linkou in a general way at the end of 1984. After two years of applying for the property, we finally received a formal response from the government. We then had another meeting with the saints, but because we did not want this to be a financial burden on the saints, we gave the example of the meeting hall of the church in Pingtung and asked the saints to make contributions for the building of the meeting hall at Linkou. The saints were happy to receive the burden and made offerings. This enabled us to purchase the property quickly. This piece of land is in a government-protected area for a flood control plan. Therefore, we must wait until the city of Linkou is developed, its population has increased, and the government has completed the flood prevention work before we receive a building permit. This means that we will not obtain a building permit in the near future and that we must temporarily leave that piece of property for later development. We now know that it is difficult to purchase inexpensive land in the outlying areas to build a large meeting hall. Therefore, we must build a large hall within the city of Taipei, but the price of land in the city is high. In order to buy six square feet in the eastern district of Taipei, we need NT$400,000 to $500,000. Thus, this matter must be carried out according to the leading of the Lord.
If we want to gospelize Taiwan, our first step must be to gain the city of Taipei. The meeting halls continue to set up meetings in the communities. When there are fifteen to twenty “small hall” meetings in a community, we can find a hall to meet in. There is a place in Taipei with four hundred saints who were saved through door-knocking. One hundred of these new ones come to the meetings regularly, and another thirty meet regularly in a sister’s home. The meeting in the sister’s home is just like a meeting in a small hall. There are more than ten meetings like this one that can be called community or district meetings. If we continue step by step, these small hall meetings may eventually establish a regular meeting in a hall.
If possible, it is good for the brothers and sisters to attend the training. If they are not able to attend during the day, they will still receive much benefit from attending the training at night. We need to be trained in everything we do. It is difficult for a person who is not trained to play the piano well. This also applies to sports. We have been practicing the new way for more than two years, and most of the churches around the world are practicing the new way. However, the success of knocking on doors depends on whether the elders are in one accord. If the elders and the saints who knock on doors are in one accord, there will be results.
The elderly brothers and sisters who have been in the church life for many years are experienced, and they have a heart to knock on doors. We hope that when they go out door-knocking, they will stand before the door, in front of the trainees, so that people will feel comfortable to open their doors. However, when it is time to preach the gospel, it is best to let the young people speak, and the older saints should be there to comfort people’s hearts and to pray. In this way their function will be effective. Even though the young people cannot compare to the elderly saints in experience and eloquence, the young people who have been trained can calmly meet the need. For example, I was not trained to play the piano; therefore, I cannot play as well as my young granddaughter, even though I have been around pianos from my youth. The elderly brothers and sisters who knock on doors with the trainees should receive this exhortation to stand before the door but to not open their mouths to preach the gospel. When the young people come to the crucial point in the gospel, the elderly saints should not interrupt, even if they fear that the young saints will not do a good job. Any interruption can prevent a person from being saved. Furthermore, even though the young people may speak quickly or may not be so polite, the elderly saints must not become angry. Similarly, the young people should not resent any criticism from the elderly saints. We must not overly emphasize being correct in our speech or being polite. As long as people are saved and baptized, it is very precious.
If all the brothers and sisters pick up this burden, we will not need to spend time on other problems. May the gospel run freely, may people be saved, and may the Lord have a way to go on. We must gospelize Taipei, then Taiwan, and then the entire world. May we all receive this commission.
