(Php. 4:6)
Vision Sharing
Through participation in the prayer movement, brothers and sisters experienced the truthfulness and power of God and many testimonies emerged as a result. These testimonies provided great resources when it came to sharing the gospel. Men can pray to God is such a wonderful message. In the "Rebuilding the City" conference on January 16, we specially held an evangelistic meeting for the elderly with the name "Men can Pray to God". We have written a special essay that was part of the invitation sent out to the elderly (essay in Chinese only).
智者心聲 白雲蒼狗，變幻無窮； 天地萬物的奇妙創造，自然定律的神奇奧秘； 真使人測不透、摸不清、也尋不著。 每當低頭沉思，腳踏之地、所站之處，已夠我深思！ 地為何能夠出糧食，地中的石頭竟有寶石，又有金沙； 磐石中可鑿出水道，地的深處，石油成河……誰是地的創造者？ 舉目望天，何處是它的邊際呢？ 日月星宿，誰能數點呢？ 誰把它們放在天上，誰定它們的軌跡，使它們乖乖掛在天上呢？ 人生在世，營營役役；心中惆悵，誰能演譯； 何去何從，終需一別；若有轉機，定必尋覓。 誰是創造者，叫我能認識； 誰是帶領者，叫我能跟隨； 誰是大能者，叫我能倚靠。 誰能瞭解心中情，誰能解開晚年夢，誰…………。
In early December we spoke about the good news during a sister's wedding. It was a very attractive message for the audience: "Are there any treasures that we could pass to our future generations?" There were about 60 guests seated near the stage who were unbelievers. The majority was elderly and all became quiet at once. That treasure was our Lord Jesus. If we put our faith in Him, it could pass on to the following generations. In the end 10 relatives and friends put their faith in Jesus. During the evangelistic meeting for the elderly on January 16, we shared a message about the importance of blessing and not cursing the future generations.
During the evangelistic meeting, the worship was led by Mr. Thomas Fok of the Hong Kong Campus Crusade for Christ. We also invited a well-known movie star in the 1950s to share her testimony. It was the drama performance that really left us going nowhere. However, an amazing thing happened one day when a film director contacted our General Secretary. When he knew about our needs, he wrote up the story plot and later promised to prepare the script and coordinated the rehearsals. Hallelujah! God's provisions were more than all we had asked or imagined.
May brothers and sisters not only remember our needs in your prayers, but actively invite the elderly to participate. Admission is free. Each elderly participant will receive a special gift. Please call 2503 0102 (Jireh Fund) or 2753 8887 (Hong Kong Campus Crusade for Christ) for admission tickets.
2. Highlights of "Men can Pray to God" Evangelistic Meeting for the Elderly (Afternoon of 16 January 2003)
At 2:30pm on 16 January 2003, Jireh Fund and Hong Kong Campus Crusade for Christ co-organized "Men can Pray to God" evangelistic meeting for the elderly at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. At 1:30pm, the elderly from various elderly centers began to arrive. A total of about 3,800 elderly attended the meeting.
The meeting began when Mr. Thomas Fok led the elderly in a time of songs. A special music and praise program followed afterwards which featured performances from a local secondary school, primary school, kindergarten and an elderly center. This program featured people in different age groups singing praises to God, as well as youth expressing gratitude toward the elderly in their contribution to the society. The elderly also took this opportunity to communicate words of blessings to the younger generation.
After the music program, it was followed by a drama performance entitled "Men can Pray to God". It was about the story of an elderly who prayed for blessings upon her daughter to not follow her footsteps in the midst of difficulties in her marriage. In the end her daughter's situation improved. Although only one member in the drama team was trained in acting, everyone of them gave their best in the performance and it greatly touched the audience.
After the drama, we were very honored to invite a lady who was a prominent actress in the Cantonese soap operas in the 1950 to share her testimony. After the testimony, the General Secretary of Jireh Fund shared her message. Before coming to know Jesus, Mrs. Fan Chan helped escort her mother-in-law back to mainland China when she became sick and unable to walk. However, her mother-in-law passed away 13 days after returning home.
As Mrs. Chan went to the cemetery to pay her respect, a butterfly flew from the side of her tomb. Her relatives said her mother-in-law has now been transfigured into the butterfly, which left her with a sigh and frustrations. Mrs. Chan shared about the truth of becoming a child of God after putting one's faith in Jesus. When we leave the world, we can joyfully return to heaven and meet face to face with our Heavenly Father. The message came with clarity and power, and touched the elderly's hearts in a special way. When the invitation to respond came, Mrs. Chan urged the elderly to wave the flags at the seats to indicate their decisions to accept Jesus. The audience was turned into a sea of flags. Many elderly raised their flags and was willing to accept the Lord. In order to avoid chaos when the elderly walked to the stage, 280 students from a local elementary school were sent to the seats and placed an identification sticker on those who made the decisions to accept Jesus. This allowed easy follow-up by the staff from the different elderly centers. (The elementary school invited Jireh Fund to hold an evangelistic meeting in December 2002, and close to 800 students accepted the Lord. We give thanks to the Lord for providing these new believers with an opportunity to serve Him. We would also like to thank the school principal, teachers and parents for their invaluable assistance.)
After the meeting, all the elderly participants were given a Prayer Handbook for New Believers (Elderly Version) and a bag of mushrooms.