We thank God for bringing our family to beautiful Auckland and leading us to the warm and loving community of EFC Central Auckland. When I first attended a service, I saw the church’s vision in the bulletin: “Treating One Another with Grace, Revealing the Lord’s Love.” What a heart-warming vision.
God led our family to EFCCA—now our church—in April this year. Over these past months, we have experienced the care, love, openness and acceptance of Pastor Dong and his wife, Pastor Liu and his wife, and many co-workers, brothers and sisters. We have witnessed the beauty of treating one another with grace. I have seen pastors, elders and deacons, zone leaders, ministry leaders, small-group leaders, brothers and sisters united in love and serving with one heart, bearing witness to God’s love and glory. We thank God, and all glory belongs to the Triune God.
During my first year and more in Auckland, I experienced loneliness, struggle, disappointment and confusion. For the first nine months, my heart was full of longing and expectation, sometimes anxiety, and continued waiting. Then, in God’s time, He brought me to this loving church. My lonely heart gradually found warmth, my struggling heart found rest, and my restless longings found peace and release. God also helped our family gradually settle here.
After I came to this church, God graciously gave me opportunities to serve alongside other co-workers. At the end of May, I joined the English class ministry, and at the end of July, I began serving in the seeker class. I know this is God’s great grace: someone as small as I am has been given the opportunity to serve Him, love Him and respond to the grace of Christ, who shed His blood and gave His life for me.
Through these months of serving with other co-workers, I have seen God’s gracious care and His own work. Through the English classes, people are being brought before Him, introduced to the church, and helped to understand Christ and the Christian faith. The ministry has also enabled more of our church’s co-workers to serve new migrants—to listen to their stories, understand their varied needs, comfort them in uncertainty and see more clearly how much their souls need prayer. May God use the English classes, every ministry of EFCCA and every brother and sister for the glory of His kingdom. May He also work through the seeker class, Alpha, Evangelism Explosion, the Huai Xiang courses and the pastoral care of small groups to reach more people and build up the lives of those He has chosen. May our God continue to draw them to Himself. May the Lord’s love fill them, may the Holy Spirit touch their hearts, and may they soon return to the embrace of their heavenly Father and enjoy His loving-kindness each day. I also thank God that He continues to use every member of our EFCCA family to bear witness to the beauty of “Treating One Another with Grace, Revealing the Lord’s Love.”
Finally, our family joins in praying: “May EFC Central Auckland—God’s church and our church—continue to be renewed under the Lord’s leading.” After thirty years through many seasons, may the church bear an even greater witness to the glory of God’s kingdom in the years ahead. May all glory belong to the true and almighty God. Amen.
