On June 5th, 2005, Christians celebrated the 140th year anniversary of mission. The entire Taiwan separated into six regions to hold the celebration. They include areas in the northern part (Chang-Kai-Shek Memorial Hall), middle (Changhua Auditorium), Jianan (Jiayi Auditorium), Gau-pyng (Kao-hsiung Auditorium), Hualien County (Hualien) and Taidong (Taidon University Physical Education High School). United together, they celebrated the blessings given to Taiwan people since missions is Taiwan first began.
In the district of Taipei, there were over hundreds of representatives from overseas churches, who came to attend the Thanksgiving conference, including those from United States, Canada, Malawi, Japan, and various countries, and to celebrate the anniversary together. Around 10:30am in the morning, approximately 20,000 people gathered around the northern part of Taiwan, Taipei Chang Kai-shek plaza, where music performed by Danshuei Middle School orchestra and dances were presented by Taiwan Seminary officiated the beginning of this joint thanksgiving service.
On that day, the Pastor Law Ron-Guon, general secretary on the executive committee, delivered a sermon with the theme “God Loves Our Taiwan.” He said Taiwan’s 140th year anniversary should be a time filled with gratitude and also a time of repentance. “Because of our insufficiencies, weaknesses and hesitations, we often times cannot fully proclaim and testify the gospel, but during this time, we wish to renew our spirit and face the future challenges. First, we must have vision, mission, action.”
In his sermon, he spoke about the focus of future. The first thing is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, the second thing is to become actively bringing forth the kingdom, just as Jesus Christ is like word becomes flesh, proclaiming that God’s kingdom is the purpose of his life. “History is to progress forward, we need Mission with People. In the future, Presbyterian Churches of Taiwan hopes that they can cooperate more with the local organizations and government. Through social services, preaching the love of Christ fulfilling the Lord’s kingdom,” concluded Pastor Law.
In the middle of the service, Taiwan’s former president Dr. Lee Teng-hui delivered a message, he mentioned the time when he received the honorary doctor’s degree at Taiwan Seminary he wrote an article with the contents titled, “No Longer I.” He hopes that Taiwan can have more people becoming renewed in Christ and become the new creations in Christ with this new transformation. After the service ended at 12 noon, a carnival was held in the afternoon with singing and dancing and every Christian organization have also setup booths. It was a very bright scene.
