2014年5月24日

~Congratulations to 60th anniversary of St. Paul’s evangelical activities and 50th anniversary of the building consecration held by Bishop Gilson.

60th anniversary Friendship Magazine~~from St. Paul’s Church Philip J. L. Ho The grace of the Lord tastes good and wonderful! ~Congratulations to 60th anniversary of St. Paul’s evangelical activities and 50th anniversary of the building consecration held by Bishop Gilson. 《History》 In 1953, autumn, there were about 20 congregation members in average that they had worship service at an institution named “Central Trust of China” located at Wufu 4th Road, Yancheng District of Kaohsiung City. In 1954, after the Taiwan Diocese established, the Rev. Theodore Yeh, came to a club of “Tainan(now is named back to Kaohsiung) Customs Administration” at “Shao Quan Tou” hold the Holy Communion Service monthly from Taipei St. John’s Church. May 31 in 1964, the building of St. Paul’s Church was consecrated by Bishop the Rt. Rev. Charles P. Gilson. St. Paul’s Church was famous of her appearance that looked like a glory crown. The land was bought by the Ven. Patric Hutton and also he held the groundbreaking ceremony in Oct. 1963. The designer was the famous architect Haigo T. H. Shen who was graduated from the St. John’s University which was belonged to the Episcopal Church. In 1966, the St. Paul’s Kindergarten started to engage in the preschool education for neighborhood with a deeply evangelical mind in every strategies of schooling. Till now there are totally 21 Reverends serve for the congregation of St. Paul’s Church since 1954. They are the Rev. Theodore Yeh (1954-1956. 07), the Rev. John Caton (1956. 09-1957. 08), 馬永樑牧師the Rev. Yong-Liang Mar (1957-1959), the Ven. Richard Yoh (1959-1963), the Ven. Patric Hutton (1962-1964. 08), 劉約翰牧師the Rev. John Liu (1964. 09-1967. 06), 歐俊士牧師the Rev. Jun-Shi Ou (1967. 07-1978) , 王憲治牧師the Rev. Xian-Zhi Wang (1968-1969. 08. 31), 潘衡牧師the Rev. Heng Pan (1970. 01-1972. 05), 黃明德牧師the Rev. Ming-Te Huang (1978-1989. 02), 林應求會吏the Deacon Ying-Qiu Lin (1978), 李文惠會吏the Deacon Wen-Hui Lee (1979-1988), 陳宏行牧師the Rev. Hong-Xing Chen (1989. 02-1999. 01. 31), 劉定華牧師the Rev. Michael T. H. Liu (1999. 02. 01-2006. 07. 30), 林俊明會吏the Deacon Justin J. M. Lin (1999. 02.01-2000. 01. 07), 李瑞強會吏the Deacon Richard R. Q. Lee (2003. 08. 23-2004. 08. 29), 陳致仁傳道 Mr. Zhi-Ren Chen (2003. 08. 23-2004. 08. 29), 林立峯會吏the Deacon Philip L. F. Lee (2005. 02. 01-2006. 07. 01), 曾文斌牧師the Rev. Leo W. B. Tzeng (2006.08.01-2008.01.28), 周韞光牧師the Rev. Yun-Guang Chou (2007. 08. 15-2011. 01. 30), 鄒才新會吏the Deacon Simon T. X. Zou (2010. 01. 06-2011. 01. 19), 何政隆牧師the Rev. Philip J. L. Ho (2011. 01. 20-Now) Recently around these three years, there are some amazing graces happened from our Heavenly Father that we would like to share with you. 《Worship in the roof leaking》 There are four lines of light inlet window on the roof of the church. Many years ago, they became leaking when it was raining. In May of 2011, the cement edge of one of the light inlet window was broken by itself that caused via the rusted iron tube and fell to the floor of the temple. It was a dangerous warning for there would be a graduation ceremony of the Kindergarten in July. We called a very good constructer who is very familiar of every constructing item of St. Paul’s Church. He began a renew repair for all the light inlet windows and after hid finishing repairing, until now there is not any rain leaking again. And when the terrible earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale that happened on February 26th 2012 at 10:35 am when there was preaching a sermon by Rev. Philip Ho, only a sister ran out to escape the danger but the others, all the congregation and the building were “sit” still and safe. Praise the Lord’s amazing grace! 《Number increasing on the baptized people》 Since the day Rev. Philip Ho came to St. Paul’s Church, January 20th 2011, the first year had 8 people baptized, 13 people were baptized in 2012, 18 people were baptized in 2013. Evan Wu came to visit Rev. Philip Ho on July 13 2012. She was touched and moved by our Lord’s salvation that day obviously for the reason that she called Rev. Ho again in a week and eager to buy a Bible to read after she read the book “Streams in the Desert” that given as a gift by Philip and she made an appointment to be baptized on July 29 together with her two little children for she needed to have a spine bone surgery on July 31. At the first time she met Rev. Ho, Evan left a message to ask Rev. Ho to pray for her about her broken spine bone. She didn’t understand why her spine bone was broken. She just felt painful without having any idea about her spine. The next day after her baptism, July 30, Rev. Ho came to visit her, prayed for her and anointed her with the holy oil. Later, she described the amazing grace that given by our Lord. In fact, she got a serious of check by doctors in hospital. Then she was told by doctor that her broken spine bone was caused by cancer that originally transferred from lung to liver and to spine bone. The worst situation was that her cancer was in a final phase. She only had about 6 months to live. Until now, she looked very well. Started an office lunch meeting to sing hymns, say prayers and read the Bibles on May 27th 2013. At the Christmas eve 2013, there were 8 people, Evan’s friends and relatives, were baptized. Praise the Lord’s amazing grace! 《The new evangelical car》 Soon after Rev. Ho came to St. Paul’s Church, around January 2011, there were about 88 children in St. Paul’s Kindergarten. It increased to 116 in July. Next January, it was 104, and increased to 125 that July. In 2013 January, there were 105, increased to 125 in that July. Now around May in 2014, there are about 140 children in this preschool. It is amazing grace for that we got little students to attend in while there is decreasing the number of the birthrate of the Taiwan society and many kindergartens were closed yearly. For needing to pick elementary school students back St. Paul’s after-school class, there was a Recreational Vehicle car bought by this preschool and used by St. Paul’s Church also freely for the gospel ministries. Because of the increasing students, it was not any more convenient for Church to use the RV. For this reason, a suggestion came to buy and own a RV that used by St. Paul’s Church only and not need to borrow the RV of the kindergarten. Finally we bought a used RV, Toyota, Sienna, Se, imported from USA, cheaper, better and more functional. The Amazing grace is that vehicle registration plate which is AHY-9529 and the four digital numbers is totally same as the last four phone number of St. Paul’s Church, 07-2519529. We had a consecration for that car held by our dear Bishop David, J. S. Lai on May 10. 《Praise the Lord’s amazing grace!》 White clouds passing by the top of our Church in the blue sky, what a beautiful day, May 24, we had the new constructed new enclose consecration held by our dear Bishop David, J. S. Lai. The old wall became dangerous gradually since 20 years ago when it was rebuilt with cement and bricks. Now there shows the names of St. Paul’s Church and St. Paul’s Kindergarten in Chinese obviously in front of the gate. Praise the Lord’s amazing grace!