A Weekly Meditation of Pastor Chang (July 12, 2009)

<As for Me and My Household >

Praise the Lord! Until yesterday it was a full month after my wifes surgery. It was also a month of physical and spiritual trial for my wife and me that we never experienced before. In the past, our physical conditions sounded good. We did not have much trouble. Therefore, we felt that our health insurance provided by our church was a kind of waste, because we did not use it. And I even once called the insurance staff in the RCA General Synod office seeking for the possibility to reduce or cancel the insurance policy. The staff gave me a very good and polite advice, she said, It seems that you do not need it now, but it doesnt mean you will never need it in the future. Besides, your payment now helps those who need it, and in the future, other people may help you pay when you need it. It is a kind of mutual support by helping each other. And it is so true. I got a very good lessen this time when my wife had this surgery. It is because of the health insurance, I only needed to co-pay around $3,000. Of course, it was better than paying over $100,000 or more if I did not have an insurance policy. God is so good to us, I am so thankful!

Another point: We Christians need to have a very alert spirit always especially understanding the spiritual warfare, because our enemy Satan never takes a break to stop attacking Christians.

This time the summer mission team spent a very long time in preparing their mission trip before they took off: They constantly met daily in prayers, in meditating the Word of God, and in strategizing the details of the teachings. And also our prayer warriors constantly support them in prayers, because we know that Taiwan has been called, a resort center of evil. But unfortunately, our prayer focus was not big enough to cover the entire local teams. This is part of my fault that I was not alert enough. May the Lord have mercy on us!

When my son Jeffery led the team arrived Taiwan in the early morning of June 30, two couples of Taiwanese pastors went to pick them up from the Airport. They were my cousin, the host pastor of Her-Ping Presbyterian Church, Rev. Wen-Bing Chang and his wife, and my sister and her husband, Rev. Ray-Long Liu. Both are local pastors not far from each other. They went together and stayed at Tau-Yuan Presbyterian Church one night before, so that it was easier for them to meet the team in the early morning. But after picking up the team and sending them back to the church, my sister rode her motorcycle home, and before 500 feet away from home, she slumbered and hit an electric poll. An accident occurred. She was seriously injured. Her right leg bone was broken at three places, her right arm was hurt also, and her right cheek bone was broken too, and she lost conscience. After she was found by a passenger and reported to the police, she was sent to Changhua Christian Hospital nearby, then, her family was informed. Thank our Lord, she did not have a life-threatened injury, yet she needs to stay in the hospital and home for several months for her recovery. I went to see her with my young brother in the hospital when I arrived in Taiwan.

Besides this car accident, Faith, Ruth and Emma, three team members all got sick in different ways and days when the camp started; and originally Mrs. Francis Lo planed to come to help but was stocked in Japan because of her sons fever. These are all called -- spiritual warfare. Nevertheless, we still believe that our Lord is in charge of everything. We will never be afraid of the evil Staten, for it has been destined to doom soon, and because Christ has defeated it on the cross already. Nowadays, Staten knows that its time is so limited and getting closer to the end of the world; it becomes crazier to attack Christians constantly. But we will never surrender, because the battle belongs to the Lord. We will overcome the evil completely someday in Christ. Therefore, I would like to quote the word from Joshua as a statement of my faith on behalf of my family: As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24: 15)