「台灣宣教基金會」緣起
作者 楊宜宜牧師 / 會長 2-17-2008
台灣宣教基金會 – 紐約
世界名著<雙城記>描述女主角的愛心，好似「一條金線」將她的家族及身邊的人穿在一起。同樣，我感到好似也有條無形的「金線」貫串我的一生，直牽引到「台灣宣教基金會」的設立。
關於台灣，外公是台灣第二個律師，也是早年鄭姓宗親會的領袖。他常帶著我及兄弟三人旅遊台灣各地，並介紹鄭成功軍兵屯墾的「王田」，使我們幼小心靈即摯愛台灣這塊美麗的土地。可惜近日讀到1661年鄭成功來台逐出所有荷蘭軍兵及宣教士，嚴禁基督教並殺死五千名排灣族基督徒(載於宣教日引1-10-08)，頗令我錯愕難過。
至於宣教，英籍宣教士戴德生的曾孫戴紹曾宣教士，1960年代當高雄聖光書院院長期間，即由高雄鹽埕教會長老暨好友的先父楊天和醫師或授台語會話。我1970來美之前也數度到戴院長家學英文會話；念台大外文系期間，並自友誼之家(Friendship Corner)美國宣教士Miss Margaret Sells得到英文名字Eileen沿用至今。
留美期間，先生和我在1973-76創辦海外第一份全球性的。「海外台灣基督徒聯合通訊」。1977-82進一步道成肉身跨出教會藩籬創立「台灣之音」，以電話廣播服事當代全球台灣社區，提供海外台灣遊子一份屬靈及精神的食糧。
1998是我人生轉折之年。以色列春旅震醒了我懵懂之心，也催我嚴肅反思自己信仰及身為選民的真義。當體悟到以色列選民兩千年不忠於上帝的託付–“把福音傳給萬民”，致令上帝揀選「新選民」基督徒來取代他們，我遂多次呼籲基督徒趕緊宣教，否則恐落相似下場，因為第二個兩千年又要到。同年秋天蒙上帝呼召，又得早年高雄鹽埕長老教會主日學老師亦前台福神學院（即今正道神學院）副院長蘇文隆牧師的引介修讀神學。在學期間發生台灣921大地震，次春即隨紐約一支短宣隊去重災區埔里，踏出個人畢生首次的宣教步履。98年底又在三年一次的中國差傳年會深受感動。宣教的種子及熱情迅速在心中滋長，並在大紐約幾間台灣教會熱切傳遞宣教異象。
近十年「中國宣教」蓬勃發展，偶而會自問「台灣宣教」在何處？但因畢業隨即從事神學教育，而把那份宣教之念懸置到2005神學教育告一段落。該年底即進入美國伯特利神學院美東分院修讀教牧博士科。次年(2006)5月1日突接加州愛恩教會張玉明主任牧師(我前神學院教授)一通電話，告知第二代青年回台教國小國中生美語一星期，75%的孩子會信主。張玉明牧師非常期盼我在美東推動「台灣宣教」。一方面訝異於聽到「台灣宣教」，二方面訝異於公認硬土難傳的台灣，會有75%的信主率，我感到上帝正在大開台灣宣教之門，所以一口答應：「我會去。」當然也想親睹實況再說。我一連參加2006夏、冬及2007夏三季台灣短宣，看遍沿海四周、中央山地及勞工區，內心感動久久不去。尤其眼看台灣一百五十年來基督徒比例一直偏低，總未能突破3%；而台灣四周國家近來基督徒增長頗速，南韓35%，中國10%，回教國的印尼、阿富汗或伊拉克都有4%，更感愧疚與沉重。
2006九月首次在紐約長島豐盛生命教會，以「美麗孤島的宣教」講題分享「台灣宣教」，也把講章分送加州林華山醫師及紐約法拉盛第一浸信會關榮根牧師(伯特利美東分院宣教學教授亦我屬靈父mentor)。關牧師2007年1月24日遇到我就說：妳何不設立一個組織去推「台灣宣教」呢？你的律師女兒張音音可以幫妳去登記！我可以當妳的顧問。這時上帝突然大大開路，許多台灣教會及團契紛紛邀我去分享「台灣宣教」。不少牧師問我：「妳代表什麼組織這麼熱心呢？」一月底加州愛恩教會的張玉明牧師、莊澤豐牧師及林華山醫師討論的結果是：「妳應該在美東自己設立一個組織去推動，因為我們是一個教會。我們會繼續當妳的夥伴。」2月28日賓州來的伯特利神學院美東分院院長Dr. Douglas W. Fombelle聽完我的分享說：如果妳設立「台灣宣教」的組織，把我列入妳的顧問團。我心想：沒有「台灣宣教」的組織，大家卻都要當顧問夥伴，太好笑了！」
三月三日紐約大雪紛飛，先生出差亞洲，我首次安靜認真地回想這短短一個半月，為什麼三地五人會說同樣話，妳設立「台灣宣教」的組織呢？但組織怎麼設呢？如果我不理它，萬一這是上帝透過他們要向我說話，那就糟了。怎麼辦呢？拿起電話找好朋友紐約聖教會的林妙瑛姐妹談談。我把最近的故事奇事道與她並說：宣教怎麼推動呢？尤其「台灣宣教」氣氛不濃的美東。這時我突然想到那些必須修讀宣教課及實習的神學生。何不在神學院設「台灣宣教」獎學金「一千元贊助一位神學生組短宣隊去台灣實習」呢？教會方面也鼓勵牧師或召集人組台灣短宣隊，照樣贊助一千元。這樣千元就能支持一隊，那是「One Thousand One Team」！「One Thousand One Teaｍ」也是不錯的口號啊！太好了！太好了！興奮地掛上電話才想到「錢從那裡來呀？」隔天起，天天尋求主，也不斷和主爭論：「主啊！就算我願意，如果沒有人沒有錢，那可別怪我啊！不過我承諾一定不會懶惰。」想到一切資源在主手中也就釋然。但要募多少款呢？一百萬嗎？想到富豪企業家輕易就以一百萬設立一個私人基金，難道我們這一大群基督徒合起來才募集一百萬嗎？真會給人笑話我們的神太小了。「主啊，那麼一千萬好了」。設個千萬元的「台灣宣教基金會」，用千萬宣教基金，拯救千萬靈魂。如果向30人各募30萬，用一千萬當永久基金，年孳息5%可得五十萬。另外向30人年募一萬可得30萬，再向200人年募一千可得20萬。這樣每年就有一百萬，可不斷送短宣隊去台灣，並支持長期宣教士，來達到十年台灣基督徒達百分之十的異象(得自林華山醫師）。不過凡事得從自己做起。隨即和先生商量把在紐約Forest Hills區最好地段一個公寓捐出來，市值30-40萬。又近年先生每年聖誕節送我一張一萬元支票，也捐出來。我告訴上帝說，若有五人年捐一萬我就去登記。有了具體募款及支持宣教的方案，開始逢人就談。
四月初參加合唱團，趁空檔照樣向左邊的廖萃美姐妹分享。她說：「我的阿姨有筆錢要奉獻還沒決定對象。」我請她「立刻」幫我約阿姨，唯恐隨時會「飛掉」。四天後的四月九日晚八點，我在萃美的阿姨鄭清妍姐府上向她家族五人分享。分享完，清妍姐說：「我出一萬」。萃美自己的母親清愛姐也說：「我也出一萬」。清研姐又說：「我再給妳30萬。」我整個人傻在那裡不會說話，不知那是不是真的。清妍姐幽默的說：「妳明天可以開始工作了」，並歡欣地合照一張相片留念。4月15日先生說他的公司高盛Goldman Sachs替副總裁投資，他還得繳稅，所以願再拿出一萬。哇！四個「一萬」了！奇妙的是次晨長島的許登龍醫師夫人瑞鳳姐電話說：「登龍本要給妳五千，但覺這事工實在太重要，決定增為一萬。」哇！五個了，五個「一萬」了，立刻去電女兒Karen律師。當律師樓Perl man & Perl man老板發現是Karen的媽媽要登記，就說：「免費」！哇！多大的恩典！女兒這律師樓是專門代理非營利機構的，只一週在4月24日就登記完成。而我的生日是4月25日。我立刻知道這是上帝賞賜我的生日禮物。我更謙卑的承認，上帝自己開始的事，祂必親自成就！旋即，一位年輕幹練的彭榮仁牧師續加入董事會，上帝的恩典確實超過所求所想！
2007年4月25日正式設立「台灣宣教基金會」，不到半年的10月10日收到美國政府捐款免稅許可，認捐者紛紛捐出。11月17日我們立刻舉辦一場感恩會感謝上帝的恩典及弟兄姐妹的支持。2007年底，基金會已經撥款兩萬元支持兩隊短宣隊、設立神學院的「台灣宣教」獎學金，並支持鄉福、基福、工福、客宣、生命線、福音傳播、癌患、傷患，並購置墓地供貧困患難的人使用等等宣教及慈善的事工。留學生事工及宣教訓練學校也在規劃中。我們堅信以愛心慷概撥出，上帝必再豐富賞賜。畢竟，一切資源都屬於上帝自己。甚願福音早日遍傳台灣！阿們！
「任何一個福音工場，最重要的就是要有上帝的呼召，以及受過聖經訓練 被聖靈充滿而膏抹過的本國籍人。」—引自戴永冕（戴德生孫）「今日乃明日之父」
Origin of the Taiwan Mission Foundation(TMF)
President Eileen Yi-Yi Yang Chang
translated by Sandi Liu
2-17-2008
The world-famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, describes the female protago-
nist’s love as the “golden thread” that held her family and the individuals around
her together. In the same way, feel that Taiwan Mission Foundation is much
like the “golden thread” that has pervaded my life, culminating in its founding
in 2007.
With regards to Taiwan, my maternal grandfather was the country’s second lawyer, and the leader of the Cheng Family. He often brought me and my two brothers along on his travels throughout Taiwan, and he introduced us to the “Wang-Tian”（meaning King’s Lands) farmed by Koxinga’s (Cheng Cheng-Gong’s) army. These trips caused our young and impressionable hearts to fall deeply in love with the beautiful island. Unfortunately, I recently read that in 1661, upon Koxinga’s (Cheng Cheng-Gong’s) arrival on the island, he deported all the existing Dutch armies and missionaries, banned Christianity, and killed five thousand aboriginal Pai-Wan tribe members of the Christian faith (recorded in the daily devotion of Crossroads Publications 1-10-2008 in Chinese, translated from Global Prayer Digest). This shocked and saddened me greatly.
As for missionary work, Rev. James Hudson Taylor, III, great-grandson of English missionary James Hudson Taylor, was the Kaoshiung Holy Light Bible Colllege President in the 1960s, where he was receiving lessons in conversational Taiwanese from Kaohiung Yan-Chern Presbyterian Church elder and good friend Dr. Yang Tien-Ho, my father. Before my arrival in the United States in 1970,1 also learned conversational English from President Taylor’s family at his home. While doing a foreign language degree at National Taiwan University, I was given the English name “ Eileen” by the American missionary at Friendship Corner, Miss Margaret Sells, and I have continued to use the name to-date.
After moving to the United States, my husband and I started the first global Taiwanese Christian monthly chronicle, Overseas Taiwanese Christians United Press, which we published from 1973-76. Later, we stepped out of the confines of just serving in the church, and in true ‘Word was made flesh’ spirit, founded and operated the Voice of Taiwan from 1977-82 to serve the global Taiwanese community through telephone news broadcasts and provide nourishment for their spirit and soul.
1998 was a turning point in my life. A spring trip to Israel awoke me from my
innocence and urged me to solemnly reflect on my faith and the true meaning of being God’s chosen people. When I realized that God elected the “New Chosen People” – Christians – to replace the Israelites due to the Israelites1 failure for two thousand years to bring God’s blessings to all the nations on earth, I began urging fellow Christians to pick up the pace on spreading the Gospel, or we might end up like the Israelites at the turn of the second two thousand years. In the fall of that year, upon God’s calling and upon the suggestion of Pastor Wilfred Su, who was previously my Kaohsiung Yan-Chern Presbyterian Church Sunday school teacher and former vice president of the Logos Evangelical Seminary, I decided to do graduate studies in theology. In the middle of my studies, Taiwan suffered the massive 921 earthquake, and the following spring, I started out on my first missionary steps and headed towards the heavily affected area of Puli with a New York group for a short-term missions project. At the end of 1998, I was once again moved after attending the Chinese Mission Conference, which is held once every three years. The seed and passion of missions work blossomed inside me and moved me to promote mission by giving testimonies of other churches to Taiwanese churches in the greater New York area.
With the rapid development of “China Mission” in the last ten years, I have sometimes asked myself where is the development of “Taiwan Mission?” I placed my thoughts about missionary work on hold until after 2005, after I had wrapped up the theological education ministry that had occupied me since graduation. At the end of that same year, I entered a Doctor of Ministry program at the Bethel Seminary of the East. On May 1 of the following year (2006), I suddenly received a telephone call from Joseph Chang, senior pastor of Evangelical Formosan Church of Irvine in California, who was also my former seminary professor. He told me that his church had a 75% success rate of bringing Taiwanese children to Christ as part of their missions program, which engaged second generation youth from the United States in teaching English to elementary and middle school students in Taiwan for a week. Pastor Chang very much looked forward to having me jump start this program on the east coast. I was, on the one hand, surprised to hear about the idea of a “Taiwan Mission,” and, on the other hand, shocked at the 75% success rate in Taiwan, which was known for its difficulty with missionaries. However, upon hearing this news, I felt God was opening the great door to Taiwan missions in general. Without hesitation I said, “I will go.” I wanted to see it myself first-hand. I ended up participating in three consecutive short-term missions trips: summer and winter of 2006, and summer of 2007. I saw much saddened and filled of Taiwan’s coast, plus mountainous inland aboriginal and industrial areas, and the emotions they stirred up stayed with me for a very long time. It particularly saddens and fills me with guilt to see the number of Christians in Taiwan never surpassing 3% and even continuing to decline, while neighboring countries have been experiencing rapid growth in their numbers: Korea 35%, China 10%, even in the Muslim countries of Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, 4%.
In September 2006,1 shared for the first time my thoughts on “Taiwan missions” via a sermon entitled “The Mission of an Isolated Beautiful Island.” I also gave a copy of the sermon to Dr. Howshan Lin in California and Pastor Henry Kwan of the New York First Baptist Church of Flushing (also professor of Missions at the Bethel Seminary of the East and my mentor). When Pastor Kwan saw me on January 24, 2007, he said, “Why don’t you start an organization to promote Taiwan mission’? Your lawyer daughter Karen I. Wu can help you incorporate it! And I can be your advisor.” This was the moment that God opened the road ahead of me. And opened it wide He did. From then on, many Taiwanese
churches and fellowships began extending invitations to me to share about “Taiwan mission” with them. Many pastors asked, “Why are you so passionate and which organization do you represent?” At the end of January, the conclusion from a discussion between Pastor Joseph Chang, Pastor Tse Feng Chuang, and Dr. Howshan Lin of the California EFC Irvine Church was: “You should set up your own organization on the east coast, because we are only a local church. We will definitely continue to be your partner on this project.” On February 28th, Dr. Douglas W. Fombelle, the Dean of Bethel Seminary of the East, who is from Pennsylvania, said after my sharing, “If you form a Taiwan Mission’ organization, put me on your advisory board.” I thought to myself, “There is no Taiwan Mission’ organization, yet everyone wants to advise for it! This is too funny!”
March 3rd saw heavy snowfall in New York, and my husband was in Asia for a business trip. For the first time, I deeply and quietly reflected on the past month and a half, and thought about why five different people physically located in three separate places would ask me to set up a “Taiwan Mission” organization. But how do I go about it? If I ignored all this and it happened to be God speaking to me through all these people, it would be terrible. What should I do? I had to speak to someone further about this. So I picked up the phone and called my good friend, sister Lydia Lin Chen from the Queens Taiwanese Evangelical Church. I told her all the amazing things that had happened to me in the past year and a half, especially in the past month and a half. I said, “How do you promote missions, especially in the northeast, where people are generally not excited about Taiwan Mission?” It was during this time that I suddenly thought about those seminary students who were required to take missions classes and participate in mission field internships.
Why not establish a one thousand dollar “Taiwan Mission” scholarship that would assist a seminary student with putting together a short-term mission team to Taiwan as their internship? And we will encourage pastors and organizers from churches by also providing this opportunity to them if they are interested in forming short-term mission teams. In this〜way, one thousand dollars may support a team, and it will be “One Thousand One Team”! What a nice slogan this forms! This is great! This is wonderful! Only after excitedly hanging up the phone did I think about, “Where would the money come from?”
Starting the very next day, I began to plead With God daily, and constantly debated with Him: “God! Even though I wish for this to happen, if I don’t get the money or the volunteers, please don’t blame me! But I promise I will not be lazy.” Knowing that all the resources are in God’s hand actually relieved me. But how much should I raise? One million dollars? When I thought about how easily rich entrepreneurs could set up a private foundation of one million dollars, I wondered if we could not do better pooling all these Christians together? That would make people laugh at the power of our God. “God, then how about ten million dollars?” Form a ten million dollar “Taiwan Mission Foundation”, and use the ten million dollars to save ten million souls. If we raise three hundred thousand dollars from thirty people, we can set aside the ten million dollars as a permanent endowment fund, and generate five hundred thousand dollars on 5% interest each year. Separately, we can annually raise another three hundred thousand dollars from another thirty people (ten thousand dollars each), and one thousand dollars each from two hundred people, totaling another two hundred thousand dollars. In this way, we will have one million dollars every year to continually send short and long term missionaries to Taiwan, and support an on-going campaign to reach the goal of 10% Christians in Taiwan in 10 years (this vision was first articulated by Dr. Howshan Lin).
However, everything must start with us taking action ourselves. After discuss ing it with my husband, we decided to donate a two-bedroom apartment we owned in the best location of New York’s Forest Hills, worth three hundred to four hundred thousand dollars. I also decided to donate the ten thousand dollar checks that my husband had been giving me these past few years for Christmas. I told God that if five people volunteered to donate ten thousand dollars annually, then I would establish the foundation. With a formulated fundraising and missions-support plan, I started telling everyone I saw about it. I joined a choir at the beginning of April, and during our break, I shared my vision with my sister friend sitting to the left of me, Tsui-Mei Liao. She said, “My aunt has a sum of money that she wants to donate but she has not yet determined where it should go.” I asked her to immediately contact her aunt to set up an appointment, in fear that the money might “fly away” any minute.
Four days later, on April 9th, I arrived at sister Ching-Yen Cheng’s (Tsui-Mei’s aunt’s) house at 8pm to share my vision with her and four other members of her family. When I finished, sister Ching-Yen said, “I’ll give you ten thousand.” Tsui-Mei’s mother, sister Ching-Ai, also said, “I will give you ten thousand, too.” Sister Ching-Yen then continued, “I’ll give you another ten thousand.” I sat there shocked, unable to speak for a while, wondering if it was all real. Sister Ching-Yen then joked, “You can show up for work tomorrow,” and joyfully we took a formal picture to commemorate it all.
On April 15th, my husband told me that wh^n his company, Goldman Sachs, invested money on behalf of its vice presidents, he still needed to pay taxes on it, so he was willing to give me another ten thousand. Wow! Four “ten thousands”! Miraculously, the next morning, Dr. Teng-Lung Hsu’s wife Jui-Feng talked to me on the phone, “Teng-Lung was going to give you five thousand, but felt that this project was too important, so he has decided to give you ten thousand.” Wow! That’s five! Five “ten thousands”! I immediately called up my lawyer daughter Karen. When the boss at her firm, Perlman & Perlman, found out that it was Karen’s mother who wanted to set up a nonprofit organization, he offered to provide the legal services for free. Wow! What a grand blessing! Especially since my daughter’s firm specializes in assisting non-profit organizations, the incorporation was completed within one week, on April 24th. And my birthday was on April 25th. I knew right away that this was God’s birthday present to me. I must humbly admit, what God starts, He will fulfill Himself! Immediately after this, a young and competent pastor, David Peng, also joined TMF Board. Godfs grace indeed is immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine.
The “Taiwan Mission Foundation (TMF)” was formally founded on April 25, 2007. Less than half a year later, on October 10, the United States government granted it tax-exempt status, and donations started pouring in. On November 17, Taiwan Mission Foundation held its first Thanksgiving Meeting to give thanks to God and fellow Christians for their support. By the end of 2007, the Foundation already used twenty thousand dollars to support the following missions and charitable activities: support two short-term missions teams; establish two “Taiwan Mission” scholarships at seminaries; support various missions organizations, including Gospel Village Mission, Taiwan Grass-Roots Mission, Industrial Evangelical Mission, Hakka Mission, Lifeline, Gospel Communication; support cancer patients and accident victims; and help the poor with cemetery plot purchases. An Overseas Student ministry and a Mission Training School are also in the works. We firmly believe that when we generously give with love, God will provide abundantly. After all, all resources belong to God himself. May the Gospel reach every corner of Taiwan with speed! Amen!
“In any mission field, the most important thing is to have God’s calling, and to have native countrymen who have been trained by the Bible, filled with and anointed by the Holy Spirit.”- From Rev. James Hudson Taylor, II (grandson of English missionary James Hudson Taylor), “Today is Tomorrow’s Father”
摘自 「台灣宣教基金會」 (www.taiwanmissionfoundation.org)
