Epiphany Gifts

 By Fr. Louis Aldrich S.J.

We often tried to express that our benefactors are really sharing in the mission of direct evangelism.  I do not know if each of you really feels, understands and experiences this truth.  Maybe I can use the Christmas story of the three wise men to help make this truth real to you.  These wise men had been searching for Jesus and finally they found Him.  The Bible tells us that after they found Him, they worshiped Him: that means that in some way they intuited His divinity.  Finally, the wise men offered Jesus gifts.  Some early Christian traditions tell us that it was by the money raised through selling these gifts that the Holy Family was able to begin a new life in Egypt.  

These "donations", then, allowed Jesus to escape the death Herod had planned for Him; hence, they made a key contribution to God's plan of salvation.  The donations of the wise men did not go for the building up of their nations, to the helping of the poor or crippled or sick (of course, all of these are worthy of support); rather they went directly to helping God's work of salvation, the work of bringing eternal life to each person.  In the same way, your donations really are directly helping Jesus to bring salvation and eternal life to Chinese people, especially in Taiwan.  Every year our lay evangelists lead hundreds of Chinese to know and love Jesus as Savior and Son of God, and to begin to worship the most Holy Trinity.  The direct evangelism of our lay missionaries would not happen without your help.  So again, I hope that during this Christmas season you are able to experience the joy that this cooperation in Jesus' work of salvation should be giving you.

In this issue, we share with you some examples of the fruits of your generous help. First, we share the story of Liu Fang-yi, who just graduated in June from the Evangelism Department of the Fu Jen School of Theology. Because of enthusiastic support from two pastors and two parishes she is already leading six catechumen courses with thirty-four catechumens. Second, one of our most experienced lay evangelists, Ying Jr-li, will lead an intensive two week training course for Catholics in northern China on how to prepare the lectures for a catechumen course.  Third, Prof. Chiang Tzu-Hwa explains how one of our lay evangelists is forming a small community of parishioners in Tai-chung to assist in the mission of direct evangelism.  Finally, we report the fruitful work of Chou Lyan-hwa among non-Catholic Chinese and Aborigines of Ping-tung area of Southern Taiwan.

We are now starting to raise funds for 8/1/2014 to 7/31/2015.  We plan on adding four lay evangelists during that year, which will make a total of 20 lay evangelists plus two staff persons: that means we will need a budget of about US$400,000.  So we will continue to need the support of each one of you, plus find new benefactors.

Jesus became Incarnate and was born of the Virgin Mary to bring us salvation.  Again, thank you for being our partner in bringing Jesus' salvation to the Chinese.  May the Most Holy Trinity richly bless you this Christmas and in the coming year.