As we look back on God’s leading in our family, our hearts are full of gratitude. His grace has flowed like a gentle stream through the decades—from Taiwan to New Zealand, from our first steps of faith to today—and has never left us.
In the summer of 1968, my wife had just graduated from teachers’ college. At the age of twenty-one, she was assigned to teach in a remote village. Transport was difficult, and the daily journey to school was exhausting. In God’s wonderful arrangement, one of the pupils in her class was the youngest daughter of a pastor. When the pastor learned of her situation, he warmly invited her to stay in the church accommodation. This care, offered in the love of Christ, not only solved a practical difficulty but also became an important opportunity for her to encounter the gospel.
My wife had learned piano from childhood. While staying there, she often played pieces such as “Ode to Youth,” “In the Sweet By and By” and “A Maiden’s Prayer” in the pastor’s home. The music brought joy to the family and gradually drew her into church life. With the encouragement of the pastor and his wife, she began playing the piano in Sunday worship. At that time she followed Buddhism and had even received a Buddhist religious name. She could not have imagined that the seed of the gospel had already been quietly sown in her heart and was beginning to grow under the watering of love and truth.
As Scripture says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). After our marriage, the gospel continued to take root in her heart. On 2 December 1973, we were baptised together and received into the name of the Lord in the presence of brothers, sisters, relatives and friends. From that point, faith became the centre of our family life. Our two children attended Sunday School from an early age, while we joined Sunday worship regularly and shared peace and joy in the Lord.
In 1991 our whole family migrated to New Zealand. Everything had to begin again. To support the family, the husband needed to travel back and forth to Taiwan for work, leaving the wife to care for the home and children. In an unfamiliar environment with an uncertain future, anxiety was natural. Yet God’s promise sustained us: “your strength will equal your days” (Deuteronomy 33:25).
That verse became a source of strength during our years as migrants. We learned that God does not always remove every difficulty in advance, but He gives enough grace and strength for each day, enabling us to move forward step by step. Looking back, many barriers that seemed impossible at the time were crossed safely under the Lord’s protection and guidance.
Several years after arriving, with the help and introduction of Elder Stephen Yeh, we purchased our first home near One Tree Hill in central Auckland. It gave our family stability and became a concrete sign of God’s grace and provision for an immigrant household.
As we searched for a spiritual home, we hoped to find a church whose faith and values were close to the Mennonite tradition. Through Elder Yeh’s introduction, we began attending EFCCA. After moving to Henderson in 2008, distance led us to worship at Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church for eighteen years. When we moved back to central Auckland in 2025, we returned to EFCCA and rejoined this familiar and warm spiritual family.
Over the years, we have seen that EFCCA values not only Sunday worship but also the spiritual formation of believers during the week. Through small-group Bible study, fellowship care, mutual prayer and sharing, brothers and sisters grow in truth and build deep relationships in love. This pastoral life, grounded in Scripture and lived out in the body of Christ, helps many people find a spiritual home in a foreign land. Faith does not remain confined to Sunday; it becomes part of everyday life.
As EFCCA celebrates thirty years since its planting, we thank God wholeheartedly for His leading. From a young village teacher in Taiwan encountering the gospel, to our whole family receiving God’s protection after migration; from the first stirrings of faith to worshipping the Lord today with children and grandchildren—every stage testifies to God’s faithful and unchanging love.
May the church continue to exalt Christ, proclaim the gospel and shepherd God’s flock. May every brother and sister bear fruit through the Holy Spirit and live a life of faith, hope and love. And may we all declare with Joshua: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Amen.
