December 24, 2020
Dear TCCBC Church Family,
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)
Today is Christmas Eve. On behalf of the entire Tri-City Chinese Baptist Church, I would like to wish each and every member a Merry Christmas full of the Lord’s peace, joy and presence!
With the advent of Christmas, this will be my last communication letter to everyone for 2020. Needless to say, everyone will agree that we have all gone through quite an “extraordinary” time this past year. The impact of the pandemic has brought great changes to our lives. But looking back, God still allows us to experience His faithfulness, love, and presence in our difficulties. Most all members were protected by the Lord both physically and spiritually, being full of peace! As the Apostle John said: “I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. ” (3 John 2)
In the church, God also has allowed us to see that as long as we follow God in faith, what God has prepared for us will always exceed whatever we can ask and think. We thank God for leading Pastor Mak and his wife to the Cantonese congregation of our church to do a great work for the Lord for the past year and a half. They are about to step down from their service to the church at the end of the year and hand over pastoral responsibilities to the newly appointed Pastor Michael Kwong. We had nearly 50 brothers and sisters attend the Zoom video meeting last Sunday. Everybody shared how they were touched by Pastor and Mrs. Mak’s ministry. From the beginning and throughout the next 90 minutes, there was no stopping of sharing. Pastor and Mrs. Mak made their spiritual nurture and care obvious to all in such a short time at our church. I believe that we can attribute all the glory to our loving God and Father. I believe that everyone will welcome the arrival of the new Cantonese pastor with the same warmth and love as servants of the Lord. I also believe this will be the start of a new chapter for our Cantonese ministry.
Next, I want to report another piece of good news to you. After months of prayer and pastoral interviews, God sent a very young seminary student, Stephen Choy, to jointly seek God’s will with our church, something beyond our own original imagination or plan. In online videos the past few weeks, whether Brother Choy was preaching or communicating with church members, he displayed his passion for God, zeal for the Lord’s work, humble study, and fervency for the gospel. After the pastoral search committee recommendation and the prayers and decision of the church council, Brother Stephen Choy was formally approved and recommended for English pastor. The church council will send out another ballot in the next few days, asking all church members to together pray and vote according to God’s will.
In addition to deciding the church’s appointment of the Brother Stephen Choy as the pastor of the English congregation, there are two other items that need everyone’s support. First, because we will hire new pastors, there needs to be some adjustment and revisions to the fiscal year budget. Please vote for the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget revisions passed by the church council. Second, in accordance with church’s bylaws, church members must formally confirm at the conclusion of the first year the service of pastor of the church. According to bylaws, the church members will also be confirming the service of our Senior Pastor, Pastor Job Lee at this time. The ballot should be mailed out within a few days. If you are a member of the church and you have not received your ballot before the end of the year (12/31), please notify Deacon Roddy Kwan immediately! The church needs to receive all completed ballots before January 15, 2021. Please return your completed ballots as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation!
In order for everyone to know more about the content and significance of this vote, the council will have an online Q&A video meeting at 2:00 pm on Sunday, January 3, 2021, like last time. Church members are welcome to join us online. Please use this Zoom link to join the meeting; the password is TCCBC.
The “Heavenly Dew” for the second half of 2020 has been published. The number of articles in this edition is much more than previous issues because of the enthusiastic contributions from everybody. Thanks to those all who took the time to write something. May God inspire many people through your written testimonies so that everyone can share our feelings and thoughts during this pandemic and thank God for his grace, love and provision. Similarly, the editorial team decided to suspend the print edition of Heavenly Dew because of the difficulty of distribution under the pandemic situation. We have put all the articles on the church’s website, so please read them online. For Chinese “Heavenly Dew “, please click Chinese. For the English articles, please click English.
If you want your offering to the church to be used in this (2020) year tax returns, please be sure to send your offering check to the church before the end of December 31, or go to the online giving page on the Church’s website.
Following tradition, the church will have a thanksgiving and sharing meeting before the end of the year. This year, despite the pandemic, we will still hold it with each pastors leading the sharing with his congregations at the specified time. For details, please refer to the meeting notice issued by the pastor of each congregation.
I hope that during this Christmas season we can still make a few more phone calls, so that we can share the Lord’s gospel while greeting others in peace. That is in line with the purpose of the Lord Jesus coming into the world as a man. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4- 5)
Immanuel, God’s grace forever
Led by the Lord’s light together,
Job Lee
Pastor Job Lee, Senior Pastor
With fellow church leadership team
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