There’s red everywhere! Flame trees (delonix regia) were first imported to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era, and have been named Tainan City’s official tree. It’s flame tree flowering season ~ this is the one outside Advent Church, and even on a dull day, they still look amazing! I just LOVE red! Continue reading Flame Tree Season in Taiwan!
An amazing morning spent at an amazing place, at the Grand Opening Celebrations of St. Francis Care Home 聖方濟安老院 in Toucheng, Yilan County 宜蘭縣頭城鎮 YES! Last Christmas, under the leadership of Rev. Lennon Chang, the charity bazaar and fundraising efforts organized by St. John’s University Chaplaincy raised NT$ 340,000 (US$ 10,350 / £ 6,985) for St. Francis Care Home. At the end of December, a large group of us from the chaplaincy and Advent Church went there to present the donation to Sr. Betty, who had kindly come to visit us to share about their ministry. For my blog post about that visit, … Continue reading 聖方濟安老院開幕慶活動 Grand Opening Day @ St. Francis Care Home, Toucheng, Yilan!
The first week of our Advent Church Children’s Summer School ~ running all summer, all day, Mondays to Thursdays, with a mix of Bible classes, homework, arts and crafts, games, computer classes etc etc, and all run by 3 of our students with the help of church members and clergy, and being held in our new church centre ~ so do please pray for them all! Fun, fun, fun ~ yes, yes, yes! Continue reading 小太陽 Advent Church Children’s Summer School 2016!
You’d never believe that anyone could have so much fun and laughter on a summer camp, and see so many smiling faces on all the children, when the theme of the summer camp is – guess what? Potentially the world’s totally least attractive and least interesting theme for a summer camp ever! Particularly when the key elements of a summer camp are always fun, fun and more fun! Every year Advent Church holds a 2-day non-residential summer camp (like a holiday club) for children aged 5-12 ~ those in the local community plus children of staff and faculty at St. … Continue reading 2016 降臨堂 ‘奔向節制’ 兒童喜樂營 Advent Church Children’s Summer Camp!
Today is the last day of school for all government schools in Taiwan ~ YES! Tomorrow is July 1, and July means summer holidays! Pray for Advent Church Children’s Summer Camp (Holiday Club) tomorrow Friday July 1 and Saturday July 2 ~ being led by our students, who are very busy in preparation! Very very busy! Continue reading Summer Holidays a-coming!
Not just a day, more like Moving In Week with the students helping on Thursday….. Then more students helping on Friday, and then on Saturday, anyone available was welcomed to Advent Church to sort out, clean up, throw out and move in! Since the old kitchen was demolished and the construction started 2 years ago, all the kitchen stuff and musical instruments etc have been in storage in the back of the church during that time. The Sunday School and choir have also moved to the new centre. On Saturday about 30 people turned up for a day of hard … Continue reading Advent Church Centre Moving In Day!
Torrential rain all day yesterday, so much rain in fact that Advent Church buckets and bowls all had to come out to collect the water dripping through the roof ~ ‘n we collected a whole lot of water! Raining cats and dogs it was all day ~ though we collected lots of water, fortunately we didn’t catch any cats and dogs…. Continue reading Rain, rain and more rain….
Thanks be to God ~ YES! And this is it ~ our brand new Advent Church Center in the sun yesterday! Thanks be to hundreds of people who contributed their money, time and resources ~ YES! And thanks be to everyone who came along to participate in the grand opening events ~ note the plural, we’ve had 2, yes TWO grand openings, one for the church and community on Sunday June 5…. and one for St. John’s University (SJU) yesterday, Tuesday June 7…. And guess what? There’s another grand opening celebration still being planned, for the SJU alumni, who’ve been … Continue reading The Grand Opening of the brand new Advent Church Center @ St. John’s University, Taiwan! 聖約翰科技大學 長齡生命關懷中心 落成感恩禮拜 YES!
And another big milestone is reached, another group of SJU graduates is launched ~ ‘n many congratulations to them all! Today’s graduation was spectacular, as always – faculty and students gathered in gowns and mortar boards, parents and friends gathered with bunches of flowers and balloons, and the procession into the hall was led by 3 of our student fellowship students carrying the cross and 2 candles, and followed at the very end by chaplain Rev. Lennon Chang and Bishop Lai. We were delighted that our lovely friend, Su-Chin, who runs around the campus every day cleaning and sweeping and … Continue reading St. John’s University Graduation 2016!
Catherine Lee 