Newsletter - Daniel Hung

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Happy New Year! Praise God for watching over us this past year. The Westside and Columbia Heights congregation have been working together to make a change in our local history. We are steadily moving one rock at a time. Step by step, we are improving and getting closer to our goal. Our goal is to build a strong, sound New Testament church of Christ that can worship in unity. The members of both congregations have been getting along together very well. We are worshiping together in harmony as one large body. We’ve been able to see that even when two very different groups get together to do God’s work, that we are not very different. With one common goal, no problem is too difficult to overcome.

When the Westside congregation first started meeting at the Columbia Heights meeting place, which is a single family house, there was a bit of culture shock for both congregations. The Columbia Heights congregation is a family church. Nearly everyone that attended had the same last name. As we learned and observed, the members of the congregation grew up as a child or grandchild of the preacher of the church. Many of them may have attended service out of habit. As time went on and the next generations grew up, the habit stuck for some and not for others. After nearly two years of worshipping together, there were more former members who would come back to visit. Although they seemed to be new visitors to the Westside congregation, they would always tell us that they grew up in this house.

Now every Sunday, many of these members are coming to worship. I can feel a sense of responsibility in all of them. I am very happy to see this and I’m grateful to the members of both groups who are leading by example. The next step will be to get the members to participate more in the work of the church. There are many visible milestones we will need to overcome. I pray that God will continue to give all of us the strength and wisdom to overcome these. Please continue to pray for the Westside and Columbia Heights congregation as we work together to glorify God in our work as we reach out to the local community.

At the end of last year my wife Grace, her sister, my son Josh and his wife Judy went to visit Judy’s family in Venezuela where Judy grew up. The four of them visited with extended family and went to eat authentic Venezuelan food. The country is very beautiful because it has nice beaches and it has warm tropical weather all year long.  After they traveled around for about a week, I met with them too. To my surprise Maracay, Venezuela the city where Judy’s family lives is full of Chinese. Judy has a large family.  The community where they live is very warm and welcoming. Everyone knows everyone by first name and always wants to sit down to have a meal together with you. While we were there we visited with her extended family and built up good relationships with the people there. I met one relative who is a preacher in Venezuela. I visited with him for a long while to understand the religious situation and the need of the people. I encouraged him and we exchanged contact information. While visiting in Maracay, Venezuela I found a very large community of Chinese people. There are many Chinese born Venezuelans and also many Chinese who come from China to live in Venezuela. The Chinese there work 7 days a week; 365 days per year. There is a great need for the people to hear the Gospel.

While I was visiting in Venezuela my youngest son Alex was preaching that Sunday in San Francisco. At the invitation a young man named Ian Smith decided that he wanted to give his life to Christ and became baptized. They baptized him immediately after the worship service and served him the communion. After the baptism, Alex called me while I was in Venezuela to give me the good news. I was very happy to hear the great news! Please pray for the new baby in Christ and also pray for Alex as he continues to serve our Lord.

The Westside congregation has a good sized group of Chinese who are Mandarin speakers. Bro. David Chen started a new Mandarin Bible class on Sunday mornings. Please pray for him because he is working very hard every week to start this class and to keep it growing. Every Sunday he drives all around the city picking up the students in his van. If you would like to help support him, please let me know. He needs the support and encouragement from all of us.

The year 2010 is the start of a new decade and I pray that we will be able to reach our goals for the year. There is a lot of work to be done and we are in need of your prayers and financial support. My big project this year will be to prepare the Chinese School of Evangelism for students to attend in China. I will need to make two trips to Hong Kong and one trip within the US. I estimated it will cost around $2400 for the two trips to China and $600 for the trip with in the US.  I know we are also going to need funding for the Chinese leaders meeting in China. We will need from $2000 to $3000. We need all of your support and every little support will help make this effort to do our Lord’s work possible. Let us do with our might what our hands find to do. If you’re unable to help us financially, please help us spread the word regarding our work. Please continue to keep us in your daily prayers.

May God bless you all. We love you.

In Christian Love,

Daniel Hung