Covenant News

Covenant Women Take Closer Look at South African Ministries

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (January 29, 2004) - More than a dozen women from Covenant Women Ministries, ages 22 to 86, recently returned from South Africa Chinese Covenant Church (SACCC) after a two-week stay that included a Vacation Bible School (VBS) and other activities.

David and Judy Dolan, coordinators for Chinese ministry for the Evangelical Covenant Church Department of World Mission, helped coordinate the trip. David Dolan spoke at a mission conference hosted by SACCC after the CWM group left South Africa. Pastor Frank Tuan of SACCC was the church liaison throughout the trip.

Nancy King of Prairieview Covenant Church in New Richmond, Wisconsin, led a VBS program centered on Moses that was held January 7-10. About 25 children and nine assistants from SACCC assisted the effort. King used puppetry as an integral teaching tool and the sessions culminated with a Friday night outreach program that attracted numerous parents of children who participated during the week. The VBS even received extensive coverage in a local Chinese newspaper, Dolan said.

There were many positive ministry opportunities in and around Johannesburg that made the trip especially satisfying. On January 5, SACCC held a thanksgiving and dedication service for its New China Town Outreach Ministry Center, located in nearby Cyrildene. Several members of the CWM team attended the event. The new center is especially important to mainland Chinese arriving from China to Johannesburg because it will serve as a familiar entry point for newcomers.

Dolan said that a SACCC parishioner from Singapore, Nancy Lim, and two African residents serving as short-term missionaries with another organization, Fred and Soekie Woolls, offer English classes, cell groups and English worship services. Soekie Woolls hosts a local Christian radio program and she interviewed the Dolans about Chinese ministry and discussed U.S. ministries and short-term ministries with CWM team members King, Katie Nielsen, Rosemary Maulden, Beth Sandell and Lela Sibley. Those interviews will be broadcast in Johannesburg next month.

In addition to coordinating VBS activities, the CWM group met with 35 women from the church for an evening event. Participants made bracelets of sterling silver and crystal beads that were brought by team member Donna Britting. Some CWM members also surprised one host mother by giving her a baby shower - a tradition not traditional in South Africa. Church members and CWM participants also took a sightseeing tour of internationally known Kruger Park.

SACCC's history spans nearly a dozen years. In 1991, Frank Tuan, his wife, Ada, and son, Steven, were supported and commissioned by Taiwan Covenant churches to work with a group of Indian Muslims in Johannesburg through a parachurch ministry now known as Serving in Mission (SIM). The Tuans, who are from the Taipei Covenant Church in Taiwan, discovered that there were many Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants coming to South Africa. Eventually, SIM asked Tuan to work with Chinese immigrants, beginning in Johannesburg and continuing in four other areas.

A Bible study group was formed in 1995 and a year later that group began church services in a Baptist church building. In May 2000, David Dolan traveled to South Africa in May 2000 and met with Tuan, pastor John Kuo of the Taipei Covenant Church and Rev. Franklin Chang, general secretary for the Taiwan Covenant Church, to coordinate a ministry partnership. The congregation has recently purchased its own building, which will enhance SACCC's ministry potential.

For more information about SACCC and Chinese ministries being undertaken through World Mission, email the Dolans at djdolan@attbi.com. For more about CWM and its ministries, call CWM Executive Minister Ruth Hill or Suzannah Worl at 773-907-3332.

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