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神恩澤僑胞 福音遍全歐 Reaching the Chinese to Reach Europe INSIDE COCM Training Ministry ~Editorial Committee The challenges and opportunities of discipling – rooted and built up in Christ ~Dennis Yau How to Equip Believers by an Itinerant Missionary ~ Lawrence Sin Go with the flow ~Cho Wing Leung 《未得之地》 ISSUE 4 2011 Over the past few years, we have seen fruitful results of evangelism from our outreach events and in areas where our workers labour to spread the gospel. At the same time, there has been a constant plea from our field missionaries as well as from others who partner with us in evangelism, that the COCM training ministry should offer some practical programmes to effectively follow up and equip the newly converted believers. One small group leader at our year-end gospel camp put it this way, “We are thankful that COCM helped us to give birth to many spiritual babies, but we cannot nurture them on our own. We can’t just give birth and not raise them. We need your help in equipping these new believers.” Indeed, our mission ministry cannot be effective if we separate evangelism from equipping. Our Lord’s earthly ministry provided a holistic training ministry model for us to imitate. In the account of Luke 6:12-20, Jesus began by praying, then called his disciples to him, then went down with them to the crowds who needed his touch. The authors of the book “A Passionate Life” describes Jesus’ ministry model as a three-sided series of relationships: Up – relationship with God; In – relationship with those we are close to; Out – relationship with those who are basically strangers to us, to whom we are to reach out. So when Jesus said to his disciples, “Come, follow me” (Mark 1:17) he was inviting them to walk with Him on His earthly journey. And on this journey they were building the three (Up, In, Out) relationships all at the same time. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a three dimensional life: we receive from God; we share together what God has given; we give to others what we have. The goal of the COCM training ministry will be to help believers to develop their three dimensional life so they will mature in Christ. We accomplish it by creating opportunities for believers to learn as well as to put what they have learned into practice, so eventually they become trainers of others. We need training programmes to teach new and more mature believers to know God through the study of His Word and to build a personal relationship with Him. We need to help them to develop a Christian worldview and acquire an accurate understanding of God’s plan and purpose being accomplished through the body of Christ. We also need to train them to utilize their God given gifts to serve in the local Christian communities, as well as to give them the tools to reach out to non believers and share the message of the gospel effectively. This year, we have initiated the COCM Training team to plan and create various training opportunities which aim to lead newly converted Christians to develop the 3-dimensional relationship so they will be equipped to stand firm in the faith, to take root downward and bear fruit upward. There will be courses and workshops to gain knowledge and challenge the old way of thinking. There will be times when we will invite believers to help our ministry activities as well as times when we will send our workers to help the believers’ local ministry activities so they can learn by observing, helping and actually participating in ministry themselves with our support. Just like what Apostle Paul said, “So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.” (Colossians 1:28 NLT) Our goal to disciple and equip Chinese believers is to see them mature in Christ and work together throughout Europe to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Please join me to pray for our new model of training ministry. From the General Director Rev. Henry Lu

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COCM Training Ministry; The challenges and opportunities of discipling–rooted and built up in Christ; How to Equip Believers by an Itinerant Missionary; Go with the flow

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Page 1: Link-2011-issue4-E

1神恩澤僑胞 福音遍全歐 Reaching the Chinese to Reach Europe

INSIDECOCM Training Ministry~Editorial Committee

The challenges and opportunities of discipling – rooted and built up in Christ~Dennis Yau

How to Equip Believers by an Itinerant Missionary~ Lawrence Sin

Go with the flow~Cho Wing Leung

《未得之地》

ISSUE42011

Over the past few years, we have seen fruitful results of evangelism from our outreach events and in areas where our workers labour to spread the gospel. At the same time, there has been a constant plea from our field missionaries as well as from others who partner with us in evangelism, that the COCM training ministry should offer some practical programmes to effectively follow up and equip the newly converted believers. One small group leader at our year-end gospel camp put it this way, “We are thankful that COCM helped us to give birth to many spiritual babies, but we cannot nurture them on our own. We can’t just give birth and not raise them. We need your help in equipping these new believers.”

Indeed, our mission ministry cannot be effective if we separate evangelism from equipping. Our Lord’s earthly ministry provided a holistic training ministry model for us to imitate. In the account of Luke 6:12-20, Jesus began by praying, then called his disciples to him, then went down with them to the crowds who needed his touch. The authors of the book “A Passionate Life” describes Jesus’ ministry model as a three-sided series of relationships: Up – relationship with God; In – relationship with those we are close to; Out – relationship with those who are basically strangers to us, to whom we are to reach out. So when Jesus said to his disciples, “Come, follow me” (Mark 1:17) he was inviting them to walk with Him on His earthly journey. And on this journey they were building the three (Up, In, Out) relationships all at the same time.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a three dimensional life: we receive from God; we share together what God has given; we give to others what we have. The goal of the COCM training ministry will be to help believers to develop their three dimensional life so they will mature in Christ. We accomplish it by creating opportunities for believers to learn as well as to put what they have learned into practice, so eventually they become trainers of others. We need training programmes to teach new and more mature believers to know God through the study of His Word and to build a personal relationship with Him. We need to help them to develop a Christian worldview and acquire an accurate understanding of God’s plan and purpose being accomplished through the body of Christ. We also need to train them to utilize their God given gifts to serve in the local Christian communities, as well as to give them the tools to reach out to non believers and share the message of the gospel effectively.

This year, we have initiated the COCM Training team to plan and create various training opportunities which aim to lead newly converted Christians to develop the 3-dimensional relationship so they will be equipped to stand firm in the faith, to take root downward and bear fruit upward. There will be courses and workshops to gain knowledge and challenge the old way of thinking. There will be times when we will invite believers to help our ministry activities as well as times when we will send our workers to help the believers’ local ministry activities so they can learn by observing, helping and actually participating in ministry themselves with our support.

Just like what Apostle Paul said, “So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.” (Colossians 1:28 NLT) Our goal to disciple and equip Chinese believers is to see them mature in Christ and work together throughout Europe to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Please join me to pray for our new model of training ministry.

From the General Director

Rev. Henry Lu

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COCM Training MinistryThe COCM Training Team will work closely with the Gospel

Team in the planning of various events throughout the year. The idea is to plan evangelistic and training events as the academic year unfolds, keeping in mind the needs of a new student arriving on campus as a seeker, gradually coming to know the Christian faith and along the way becomes a new believer. So the focus will be on evangelism during the first half of the year and on discipleship training during the second half. If the student goes back to China at the end of the year, we will provide resources for returnee preparation and connect him or her with Christians in China wherever possible. If the student stays in the UK for longer, we hope to train him or her to go from the basics of the 1st year, which is discipleship training more at the personal level to the deeper, more ministry oriented type of discipleship training in the 2nd year. This aims to prepare them to serve in local churches and fellowship groups. From there we pray some will become lay church leaders and others will be future missionary and pastoral workers.

To create opportunities for practical training, we will organize a series of training week, training weekend, and training day events within a one year cycle. At this point, the One-Year-Cycle training programmes are being developed with the aim to follow up and equip new believers. We will utilize the COCM mission centre as our base for the training week and training weekend events. As we continue to expand our training programmes, they will include training days that offer practical courses to build up the more mature Christians and shape them into future church lay leaders and potential full time Christian workers. For some training days we will send out training team members to partner with existing or potential trainers to train believers in their local churches or fellowship groups. For those who are ready, they will be invited to join our programmes throughout the year (such as the Year-End and Easter camps) to play a more active role of helper/supporter. We hope that eventually they will become evangelists and teachers/trainers to partner with us by becoming a member of our Gospel Team and our Training Team.

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Equipping

《未得之地》

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Timeline of One-Year-Cycle programme in 2011-2012Training through classroom teaching

20th – 24th June 2011 Training Week: Bible Camp8th – 10th July 2011 Training Weekend: COCM Gospel Team Training Camp12th – 16th September 2011 Training Week: Bible CampMarch 2012 Training Weekend (TBC)

Training through doingAugust – November 2011 COCM Gospel Team Events20 to 30 students / young professionals participating in evangelism

December 2011 COCM Year-End Student Conference20 to 30 students / young professionals leading small groups in the conference

April 2012 COCM Easter Conference20 to 30 students / young professionals leading small groups in the conference

Proposed curriculum for training● Understanding our new life (Up)

Christian foundation Spiritual formation Bible reading and prayer

● Cultivating our new life (In)

Introduction to spiritual discipline Introduction to inductive Bible study method In depth Bible study Spiritual growth assessment

● Sharing our new life (Out)

Understanding church and church life How to discover your spiritual gift How to lead a small group How to share Gospel with others How to lead worship How to work in a team

20th – 24th June 2011Main content:1.To understand that the Bible is written in

various literary styles, to learn the principles of biblical interpretation in relation to these styles and how to apply the truth of the Bible to our lives.

2.Examples of how to read certain passages exegetically.

3.Exegetical preaching messages4.Group discussion and practice

12th – 16th September 2011Main content:1.Study a book in the Bible using inductive

Bible study method2.Learn how to read the Bible individually

and how to lead group Bible study3.Bible messages4.Share the trends and issues in students

ministry and explore ways to develop it

Bible Camps 2011

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2. Returnees’ limitationIn the discipling of Chinese Christians in the UK

one inevitably comes across the fundamental problem of the mobility of the returnees. The ideal scenario is for an undergraduate to come to the Lord, who will then still have a few years for discipleship and growth. But in reality the largest group to become believers are the master students. They are only here for 1 year and with their intensive studies, the time available for discipling them is relatively limited, for some there is no opportunity for that whatsoever as it is already time for them to return home. With no foundation and no brothers and sisters by their side, sometimes in all honesty I equate their returning to their homeland with returning to their spiritual death. Moreover, the situations of the churches in China are worlds apart from those in the UK. In view of such differing spiritual and cultural backgrounds the returnees often feel at a loss. From this it can be seen that if the discipleship programme does not include a ‘returnees follow-up’ element or prepare them well to face the challenges to their faith back home then, from my limited observation, many believers will just die like stillborn babies.

3. Relationship limitationIt is easy for us to think that just because the

discipler and the one being discipled are both Chinese that no cultural conflicts exist between them. In reality, the discipler is often a church leader who has lived in the UK for many years. There are many areas in which his faith and culture needs to come to terms with the Chinese

I believe ‘being more Christ-like’ should be the life goal of every Christian. This is both an on-going process and a testimony of our growth. Paul says in Philippians 3:12 "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." If ‘being more Christ-like’ is the goal of every believer’s growth then the starting point is being discipled. Therefore, discipling is of utmost importance and it also brings many challenges.

The 3 ‘R’ limitations of the Chinese church in UK

1. Resource limitationThe lack of manpower and shortage of leaders in

Chinese churches in the UK, especially in small cities is for all to see. This is all the more acute in churches with a high proportion of students. Many members are new in the faith and have hardly received any discipleship training but may already be taking on the role of a discipler. As a result, discipling may just be limited to the passing on of knowledge and loses the original intention of ‘one life influencing another’.

Indeed, discipling requires time and effort. It goes without saying that the ‘hardware’ is important but it is the ‘software’ that is the heart of the matter. Another aspect is that there is generally a lack of mutual help and co-ordination between the Chinese churches in the UK. In some small churches it can be that not even one believer has been trained to be a discipler.

Dennis Yau was born and raised in Hong Kong. He accepted Christ when he was 13. He studied Master in Economics and Finance at the University of York and currently works as a financial analyst in Luton. He is still a core leader of the York Chinese Christian Church and also leads a Bible study group at Luton Chinese Christian Church. He has a diploma in theology from the United Wesleyan Graduate Institute and became a COCM associate in 2011.

The challenges and opportunities of discipling - rooted and built up in Christ Dennis Yau

Equipping

《未得之地》

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culture, especially regarding issues such as evolution, atheism and communism. It is not at all easy for the one being discipled to go from polite disagreement to humbly listen to the Bible’s teaching. Therefore a relationship built on mutual trust is crucial. Yet the disciplers in the church are always the same few brothers and sisters but the ones being discipled change from year to year and they are getting younger and younger, from being born after the 1980’s to the 1990’s, from the modern to the post modern. If a discipler has no understanding of the contexts of these young people then the discipling often backfires and the effectiveness is diminished. This is indeed a great challenge.

Opportunity for discipleshipWithin the UK Chinese churches, I think discipleship

can be summarized into 4 main points using the word ‘present’.

1. Present—the urgent ministry of the church

The first meaning of present is now. Discipling of believers is the urgent ministry of the church. In my own experience of ministry, I have indeed seen many believers who have gone back to the old way of the flesh because of the lack of a discipleship programme. Another observation is that new believers who receive no discipling are more prone to ‘imbalanced development’. It is hard for them to have a comprehensive grasp of the Christian faith, the most common problems are not being clear about the authority of the Bible and the concept of the Church.

2. Present—God’s gift to the churchThe second meaning of present is a gift. In discipling

we need to emphasize that our faith is by grace. For Christians, the fact that we can grow in Christ so that we can be more and more like Him is a gift from God. Moreover, this ‘big present’ is to be received together with the whole church. I am deeply convinced that discipling is not for answering all the questions of a new believer but to try our best to lead the person to understand God’s grace and to grow in it. At the same time the new believer is God’s grace and present to the church, who is to be

treasured and nurtured on God’s behalf so that he can grow to be strong.

3. Present—to experience God’s presence as a reality

The third meaning of presence is attendance. This is not just to encourage new believers to attend Sunday worship but to remind them that God is never absent from any aspect of our life and faith. This is very important for new believers, especially for returnees. They need to know that they do not only need ‘the God in the UK’ but He is also the lord of their lives who goes with them as they return to China. Moreover, it often happens that the discipler is unaware of the fact that ultimately he is not the one doing the discipling. For me, the discipler is the one who brings the new believer before God so that they can experience Him together, until such a time as the one being discipled can himself become a discipler.

4. Present—demonstrating the integration of faith and life

The fourth meaning of present is to demonstrate. In the process of discipling, the ones being discipled need to know that they will face painful trials but our foundation, Jesus Christ has overcome the world. We are to demonstrate our identities as Christians, to demonstrate our foundation as the Lord Jesus, to demonstrate that the power from God is sufficient to help us to integrate our life and faith. Even in the midst of difficulties we can present God’s word and be present in the church. At the same time, the passing on of knowledge is of course important but disciplers demonstrating their faith in action exert a more direct influence.

In conclusion then, discipl ing is an urgent commission that God has entrusted to the church to demonstrate God’s presence and the power of Christ. More importantly, through discipling the church will experience at first hand the truth that only God can make a person grow. To witness a new believer grow to maturity, who holds fast onto the faith whatever the circumstances and spreads the gospel, is in actuality demonstrating the meaning of "rooted and built up in Him" (Colossians 2:7). This is what the church is for.

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Leadership trainingDuring the past few years

of serving in the UK, I have o b s e r v e d t h a t d i s c i p l e s h i p training is lacking among Chinese churches. And leadership training is even more lacking. Although many have become Christians for years and have been faithfully attending church meetings and Bible study, yet only a few are trained to lead in church ministry. Chinese churches have always had a great demand for pastors, the government’s increasingly tight regulation on immigration only makes the employing of pastoral workers more difficult. Under these circumstances, we should not neglect the training for believers to become leaders. Yet this could not be done in a short period of time, instead, it is a long term “investment”. In order to strengthen the church and to prevent weaknesses from setting in, this should be put into action right now.

When a church invites me to lead Bible studies, I will keep an eye on who has the potential to be equipped to lead. I will give them special training and encourage them to learn how to lead. I practise with them in advance, and then allow them to try it out with their small group. Their confidence will grow gradually, and they learn to take more seriously the studying of God’s Word. It is a similar situation in university fellowships, as I guide the group leaders to lead the study for a Bible passage. They can always come back to me to review if there are any difficulties. Through this way of learning and practising, the gifts of believers are gradually discovered and put into use.

Furthermore, I am currently providing evangelism training using Evangelism Explosion III (EEIII). I must emphasise that although there are many different and practical tools for evangelism training, yet no one single tool can be said to be the most effective and the best. Nevertheless we have to decide and focus on one or two.

Evangelism Explosion III is a 13-week training course that aims to teach course members the skills to present the whole gospel and to be able to witness independently. The first stage can begin with a minimum of 2 course members. After completing the lessons and the practical training of evangelism on the street, visiting non-believers in teams and taking oral and written exams, the course member then graduates to become a leader, and will then assist the members from the next course with the outreach. Every leader can train 2 members so if the 2 members graduate and become leaders then 4 members can be recruited for the second stage and 8 in the next, and so on. Every member also needs to have 2 prayer partners. So if a church is willing to implement EEIII then not only will a few believers be equipped, but the majority will participate through prayer, then the entire church will be revived by the dedication of the congregation to share the gospel.

Mentoring StudentsAt the moment, I am participating in several

university fellowships, taking up the role of advisor and teacher. During this process, it is most important to act as their mentor. Students often need someone to be their role model. This, on the one hand, helps to establish a good working relationship between the students and me; on the other hand, I can provide them with spiritual knowledge through teaching the Bible, discussion on certain topics and workshops. Students often passionately discuss and debate certain topics in the Bible with me. Apart from that, I also attend their meetings, plan the programme for the weekly fellowship, organise the annual welcome activities, evangelistic meetings, short-term mission, conferences and retreats. Students can be guided to lead the fellowship through the informal training. Lastly, I try my best to free up a slot in my timetable to attend their graduation, as it is a great delight for me to see them finally succeed in their education and also to give thanks for their accepting and growing in Christ during their time in university. When I meet parents who have come from far away, I all the more encourage them to support their children to participate in church activities.

Partnership with churchesIt is crucial to partner with churches for the training

ministry. If churches would commit more resources to develop training programmes with us, it surely would help believers to grow in maturity and to train up more leaders. With everybody using their gifts, the church would become a ‘great commission church’, to be used by the Lord.

Last year, with the support of Coventry Chinese Christian Church, we founded Coventry University Chinese Christian Fellowship (Cantonese) and began the ministry at the university. We now have regular weekly meetings.

In the past two years, I conducted two EEIII training courses in Leicester Chinese Christian Church, with a total of 7 graduates who then became leaders. By God’s grace, they all seize every opportunity to share their

How to Equip Believers by an Itinerant Missionary

Lawrence Sin

Equipping

《未得之地》

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Many people say that the main aim of mission is to evangelise. This is at most only half correct. It is just as incomplete as saying that the responsibility of parents is to give birth to children. Giving birth is not easy but it is only the first step in becoming parents. The test comes in the long haul of nurturing

and educating them which demands patience and love. Likewise mission encompasses leading believers to grow, nurturing them to become spiritually mature disciples. Evangelism without equipping is like laying the foundation but not building on top.

Unfortunately there are too many unequipped believers in the Europe mission field. It is not that they are not willing to make an effort. On the lifelong road to growth the majority longs to receive more instruction, to be better equipped spiritually and to have a more steadfast trust in the Lord. Sadly people who can support them are few and far between. It is often the case that either the church does not have a pastor or the pastor is already shouldering too heavy a workload. The lay leaders have a lot on their plates too and may not be able

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testimonies with their families, friends and new comers in their church. As a result their passion for Christ is greatly ignited. The church will continue to hold EEIII courses. It is my desire that they continue to be a light for Christ.

Apart from responding to the invitations from churches to speak at gospel and evangelistic meetings, I am preparing for the Mandarin and English EEIII training. I pray that the Lord will touch every church and fellowship to respond to the need for evangelism and equipping.

DifficultiesThe main difficulty for training university students

is that they do not stay in the UK for long. Most of them are only here for one to three years. They are often busy with assignments and exams and have little time to spare. By the time they are ‘well-equipped’, it is almost time for them to graduate and leave the country. It is both difficult and critical for us to build up believers so that their faith will be steadfast when they face trials and temptations in the future. We must grasp the opportunity to do this.

To me, ministry to university students is like a relay and I am the first one to run. For students who become believers here, the infant stage of believing is the most precious; they must build their faith on the firm foundation of the Word of God. The second stage will be the time when they are back in their home countries.

I encourage them to participate in church and serve when they return home. There are many professionals among them. I really hope they can be used by the Lord in different areas and professions as light and salt for Christ. In the past, there have been students who were willing to offer their lives to the Lord, seriously searching for the Lord’s will after graduating. There is even a graduate who is currently training to be a minister in a Bible college in Hong Kong. This is by the grace of God and is also my motivation to continue to work hard in the training ministry!

Another difficulty is the different background of the students who come from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc. There are also British born Chinese. With different cultural backgrounds and languages, the pastoral ministry is a mission with a certain degree of challenge. In terms of equipping, more flexibility is required when designing the course to respond to the needs of the different cultures and languages.

With a growing number of Chinese students arriving in the UK for further education, the workers to harvest the field are few. We pray that the Lord will raise up more churches to take up the mission with us, have long term plans to develop the evangelism ministry, equipping believers to be gifted workers so that the Chinese churches in the UK can ultimately spread the gospel to the whole of Europe.

to share the responsibility of pastoring the believers.In view of this difficulty we started the Theological

Education by Extension course (TEE) back in 1983 with the aim of contributing our effort to the equipping of Chinese believers in Europe. The current curriculum consists of 10 subjects. Upon completion of the course students are awarded the TEE certificate.

As the term TEE suggests, the materials are sent to the students by post. They do the studying at home, send in the completed assignments and then go onto the next subject. There are many advantages to studying TEE. The student is not limited by time and space. One can enrol at any time. There is no fixed deadline for completing the assignments and there is no need to go to classes. The student can pace himself according to his own situation. Of course freedom on this scale can have some ‘side effects’. With no outward constraints of classes or exams, discipline is the only thing that one can rely on to complete the course. But not everyone can be disciplined all the time so understandably not every student can finish the course. As a result, not a few have dropped out.

Cho Wing Leung

Croydon TEE

Go with the flow

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HEADQUARTERSGeneral Director: Rev Henry Lu

2 Padstow Avenue, Fishermead,

Milton Keynes MK6 2ES

England UK

Tel:+44-(0)1908-234-100

Fax:+44-(0)1908-234-200

E-mail:[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocm.org.uk

HONG KONG OFFICERev Tang Chi-Ming

Rm522, Metro Centre II,

21 Lam Hing Street,

Kowloon Bay,

Kowloon, Hong Kong

Tel:+852-2549-5288

Fax:+852-2549-5155

E-mail:[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocm.org.hk

Chairman: Rev Cham Nai-Bun

MALAYSIA OFFICEMr David Liew

Unit 697-2-2, Desa Kiara,

Jalan Damansara,

60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel:+60-(0)3-7954-5884

E-mail:[email protected]

[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocmsea.org

Chairman:Mr Bryan Lee

SINGAPORE OFFICEChairman:Mr Alan Wong

420 North Bridge Road

#05-07 North Bridge Centre

Singapore 188727

Tel:+65-6466-7678

E-mail:[email protected]

[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocmsea.org

USA BOARDChairman:Rev Daniel Chan

1960 Silas Deane Hwy,

2nd Floor, Rocky Hill,

CT 06067, USA

Tel:+1-860-257-3986

E-mail:[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocmusa.org

CANADA VANCOUVER BOARDChairman: Mr Lawrence Chen

P.O. Box 32528, Richmond, B.C.

V6X 3S1 CANADA

Tel:+1-778-591-0109

E-mail:[email protected]

Web Site:www.cocmcanada.org

www.cocm.org.ukPublished by the:

Chinese Overseas Christian Mission.

Registered Charity No.232651

No.1135892

Company No.7106567

Editorial Committee:Rev. Henry Lu.Ling Lu.Min Yin.Yu-Mei Wu

Translator:Monica Li

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God called us to serve in Europe, and we are thankful for the financial support from individuals and churches around the world over the years. The vast majority of people living in Europe has yet to accept the Gospel, hence we ask humbly for you to work with us. If you are moved to support us financially, please get in touch.Donations from UK By ChequeCheques made payable to “COCM” may be sent to:COCM, 2 Padstow Avenue, Fishermead, Milton Keynes MK6 2ESBy Bank Transfer or Standing OrderPlease contact COCM Headquarters for detailed information.Donations from overseasPlease contactYour local COCM offices / boards or COCM Headquarters(Please see the contact information at the right-hand column on the back page.)

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Being disciplined or not is an over simplified way of putting it, as other elements are also at play. When I promote this course at churches, some brothers and sisters respond with great enthusiasm and enrol straightaway but there are also those who hold back because of their lack of education. Some say that they are not used to reading, that they have not picked up a pen in years, that they are afraid of doing the assignments and not being able to write down the simplest of answers. Their worries are not exaggerated but are very real. In order to encourage them the course design includes one to one instruction. In the course of the study, if a student comes up against anything that he does

not understand he can contact us directly and we can explain to him straightaway. Apart from that, if there are 5 students or more enrolling from a church we will send a tutor to teach 2 sessions for each subject, to discuss the content and to answer questions that the students may have.

This is an ideal way of learning for some brothers and sisters so that those who are less confident are willing to try. We have over 700 students registered and just last year alone 230 enrolled. When we see some of them who have unfavourable learning conditions but who still try their best to overcome their obstacles and regardless whether they manage to finish at the end or not, we do feel admiration for them and give thanks to God. Indeed, our labour has not been in vain. In the past 5 years, on average we have about 10 students graduated each year.

In fact, this course is not limited to individual brothers and sisters taking the initiative to learn, the material is also useful for pastors to equip their flock. There is an example of a pastor who chooses to use our teaching material as the content for the many weekly meetings. The believers were encouraged to enrol, as a result almost 50 people applied. For each subject the pastor teaches 8 sessions and our worker is sent to teach 2 to 3 times. Since it is the pastor leading the entire group to study the same subject, it achieves the double effect of mutual encouragement as well as creating a force to bring the brothers and sisters together. Suddenly, the subjects and contents of TEE become a common topic. Moreover, they are making steady progress, completing 1 subject every 10 weeks or so. After half a year they are into the third subject. The students really feel that they are making progress in understanding the Bible and their faith. This example tells us that if the course is taken on board by the church then the effect that it brings is all the greater and more visible. We hope to see more pastors or church leaders using this course to equip believers.

In the past year, through teaching the course I have gradually gotten to know the students. Outside of class we would talk about work, family and personal issues and this has increased my understanding of them. Sometimes they would tell me struggles that they faced or experiences that hindered them from making progress spiritually. Whenever possible, I would try my best to encourage and support them. As for me, the relationships that I have built with brothers and sisters from different churches are just as precious, if not more so, than the teaching and the assignments. It is my wish that every student will continue to grow in Christ and to live out the abundant life that He bestows.

Brothers and sisters from Cork Chinese Christian Fellowship in Ireland enrolled in the TEE course. Cho Wing (third from the right at the back) went to teach the course among them.

The TEE students from Glasgow