16th January 2015
Dear brothers and sisters,
It’s best opportunity for the whole congregation to pray together with one heart in times of crisis. As a church, we need to pray for faith, wisdom and courage in 2015.
We have Cantonese and English Services every Sunday morning, Putonghua Service at noon time; Chinese Class, Bible Class, Parents Corner and Youth Fellowship in the afternoon. Both the Church and the Church Centre are so packed that the ‘Health and Safety Regulations’ becomes an issue. Brothers and sisters serving in different areas are so stressed that they cannot enjoy the rest in the Lord, and the quality of Services is also affected.
We urgently need to consider moving some meetings to Saturday, but this might lead to a lot of changes and inconvenience, so all the 3 congregations must have an understanding and work together sincerely for the vision and aims of the church, to provide a spiritual home for Christians in Cardiff and South Wales and to preach and share the gospel with our compatriots.
The Church Main Hall was built in 1897 and the Side Hall in the mid-20th Century. The joining of the two buildings are now leaking, might be due to problems of the foundation, causing cracks in a few rooms on all the 3 floors and the corners of the Side Hall. The Church Council has set up a sub-committee to investigate different ways to solve the problem, as the work might affect the safety of the foundation, they will look into the possibility of rebuilding the whole church building.
We thank the Lord for different ministries held in the church building in the last 20 years, with so many sweet memories and blessings engraved in the hearts of generations of brothers and sisters. We firmly believe that God is great and wonderful and He works great things in us. Let us bravely cry out to the Lord for great things and that we can do great things for Him. The building itself is not our main concern; we need to pray for the salvation of our compatriots.
I pray that the Lord will raise more brothers and sisters to serve in the church in 2015. We have experienced the abundant 2013 and 2014, yet facing the task unfinished, let us serve the Lord joyfully with our gifts in different roles.
As the hymn goes, ‘What the Lord wants is a genuine trusting heart!’
In Christ,
Sam Wong