Taiwan Church News
3725 Edition
July 17~23, 2023
Topical News
Love in Christ Bringing the Hope to Tribes of Walo’ and Sinkina
Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong
Translated by Peter Wolfe
The Walo’ Church of Tayal Presbytery, located in Nan-Zhuang Township of Miaoli County, is an indigenous church of the Saisiyat people. On July 16, the Walo’ Church held a hymnal service of witness and invited the Sinkina Church of Tayal Presbytery from Hsinchu County to praise, worship and witness the living grace from God.
Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong, pastor of Walo’ Church, said that through the support and love of his mother church, Sinkina Church, Walo’ Church hoped to encourage the people in tribes, bring in the hope, revival and growth for the church, and therefore become influential in the ministries.
Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong pointed out in an interview on July 17th that before the covid pandemic, the believers of Sinkina Church often went abroad for short-term evangelical missions, which lasted for more than a decade. In addition to such overseas missions, the Sinkina Church also supported and cared for small local churches across Taiwan.
For this service of hymnal and witness, almost all members of the Sinkina Church came to the Walo’ Church. Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong, who grew up as a child in the Sinkina church, believed that this close fellowship between indigenous churches just feels like a hand-in-hand family care among brothers and sisters. He also encouraged the audience that such hymnal service to witness the love of God should be held frequently and not held as an occasional assembly.
So, from April this year, members of the Sinkina church had gone to Walo’ church every two weeks to participate into their house worships, which had given Walo ‘ church a very great encouragement. Usually there are only about a dozen of believers attending the Sunday service of Walo ‘ church, but this time, more than 20 brothers and sisters participated in the hymnal service of witness, which really touched and inspired Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong .
In the past, when the total members of Walo’ Church reached its peak, the members attending Sunday worship was about 70, but due to multiple factors such as urban emigration, ethnic marriage, and frictions between gospel and culture, the Walo’ church was shrunk back since as a branch congregation.
This hymnal service of witness was also of great significance and support to the community, said Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong. He hoped to change the mindset of the church members and let the church reach out to the community. Just like he wants the community to know that he is a missionary for the church, so he actively integrates into the community lives of the tribe and tries best to know each people and family.
He also hopes that through the assemblies held by the church, the community could be curious about the ministry of the church and willing to come to attend the church actively. All these are made to make the tribal people learn the church is willing to care and provide in-time help when needed.
Evangelist Oemaw A bo:ong mentioned that a non-Christian mother in the community once said that she wanted to persuade her neighbors to go to the church to quit drinking. This story showed the mother’s trust in the church, as she believed that the church has the power to change people in addiction. He expressed that this is the influence of the church, because the love of Jesus Christ can change people’s addictive lives and bring them back to normal.
