Christian Leadership Renewal Center 基督僕人更新中心

CLRC October 2014 Prayer Letter

Praise the Lord. Duke Chinese Christian Fellowship of Durham CCMC (Chinese Christian Mission Church) hosted their annual Fall Retreat at Lake Gaston on 10/10-12. The retreat emphasized fellowship among brothers and sisters and let everyone have a chance to lay down their worldly burdens and enjoy the love of our Heavenly Father.

They prepared and cooked meals together, spending time sharing with one another about “God’s greatest work in my life.” During Sunday’s worship, minister Gabby Zhong shared the message: “Emmas’ Road: where is Jesus when I am hurt?” Everyone received renewal through the retreat.

UNC Fellowship organized and spent a joyful Fall Retreat at Lake Gaston on 10/18-19. This was their third visit to Lake Gaston. The last two times were in the Spring season, but this time during the Fall season they enjoyed different scenery around the Lake.

More than 30 people – brothers/sisters and friends with family members stayed together for 2 days in friendship building and sharing God’s love together. Pastor Peng also baptized a visiting scholar from China in the Lake. This was the first time someone was baptized at the Lake. All witnessed God’s grace and power.

Everyone came together making dumplings for meals, playing games, and riding boats on the Lake. This Retreat helped to train up the Fellowship’s new coworkers in team-building and service learning experiences. It was organized and run by the students themselves. Pastor Peng shared the Word of God, encouraging everyone to continue to grow spiritually. Many non-Christians joined the retreat. May the Gospel seeds in their hearts one day spring forth flowers and fruits. Amen!

A group of 13 brothers/sisters from NJ’s International Canann Bible Seminary (led by Ms. Dorcas Chen) came to CLRC’s Lake Gaston for a Short-Term Missions Trip & Training from 10/22-25. Pastor Hung, the Director of Vancouver Short Term Missions Organization, taught seminars on evangelism. Besides seminar trainings, they spent time visiting Chinese restaurants in Richmond, Greensboro, Rocky Mount and Raleigh, reaching out to the workers with the love and gospel of Christ.

On September 6, 2014 , Elder Albert Yeh and his wife Vivian graciously opened their CLRC to set up a welcome party for three dozens of old and new Chinese high school students from Mainland China who are attending the North Raleigh Christian Academy (NRCA). A dozen of Chinese Christians from Open Door Church along with Pastor Dwayne and Kay participated in this event. Here are some highlights of that day:

Pastor Dwayne gave a welcome speech and invited the Chinese students in the future anytime they wanted to come to visit the Open Door Church for any help.

Elder Yeh gave a brief introduction of CLRC and encouraged students to open their hearts and minds for the biblical truths as they are pursuing education in the States.

Brother Wu Jun, a long time graduate from Beijing University who has also achieved his Ph.D. in America a decade ago, shared how he came to meet Jesus Christ during his academic pursuit and exploration of the American Dream. After sharing his testimony, Wu Jun also briefly navigated high school students through the greater Raleigh area with a slide show.

After that, we broke off to tour Lake Gaston, play games, converse with one another until dinner time – Pastor Yip delivered great Chinese food from a Chinese restaurant.

With great fun and satisfaction we had at CLRC, we wrapped up the welcome party for high school students of NRCA and left around 6:00 p.m. Both NRCA and OD Church appreciated greatly Elder Albert & Vivian for making this ministry opportunity possible for the Chinese high school students who have never heard the Gospel before. Many thanks also to Pastor Yip for his food arrangement and assistance in organizing this event. May God continue to bless and use CLRC for wider evangelism and deeper equipment for the saints!

(Mulberry Sang)

On September 20th, 2014, the first RCCC fellowship leader’s retreat was held at the Christian Leadership Renewal Center (CLRC), located at Lake Gaston in Bracey, VA. The purpose was to host and equip our current fellowship leaders to become better servants of Christ in their own spiritual journey and ministry.

We would like to give our thanks to God for preparing such a wonderful facility (CLRC). Our beloved elder Albert and pastor Yip laid out the ground work to ensure a comfortable learning environment. Albert tried his best to accommodate our schedules by coming to RCCC one week in advance and shared his vision on developing spiritual leaders, including the newly finished Guidelines for Disciplined Fellowship. Pastor Yip helped with our lunch order, delivering delicious food from a Chinese restaurant in Durham.

Pastor Lin delivered a short message derived from Exodus 32: 1-14. Three brothers shared their visions and personal experiences in serving the Lord. To our biggest surprise, the afternoon sharing session emerged as another major highlight. Beginning with a “warm up” game led by Eric Chien, the brothers and sisters went deep into their hearts and shared their own personal spiritual journeys. We also got to know each other about their family, favorite foods, hobbies, favorite Bible verses, and much more.

It was such a wonderful retreat! Our thanks go to brothers and sisters who helped plan this event, those who prepared the wonderful and touching training sessions, and those who helped with the meals and fun games. Most importantly, we thank our heavenly father for the beautiful day, his care for all of us and blessing us with safety.

(Jianying Li – Fellowship Deacon)

Maple Springs Chinese Christian Church (Winston-Salem, NC) Student Fellowship held their retreat on 8/1-3, 2014 weekend. Since many of the Fellowship are young Christians, they focused their time on learning how to lead group studies according to the “Inductive/Bible Study Method.” Everyone enjoyed a weekend of fellowship in the bond of Christian love with one another at CLRC Lake Gaston for Bibe studies, sharing, cooking, etc.

CLRC organized a one day “Preaching” seminar on 8/23/2014 at CCMC (Chinese Christian Mission Church, Durham) from 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM. There are 25 brothers/sisters from the Triangle, Greensboro and Greenville areas attending the seminar. The speaker was Pastor/Dr. John Hsu who had ample pastoral experiences in pulpit ministries. Pastor Hsu emphasized that besides the preaching “skills” which one learns from preaching courses/classes, one must strive to pursue spiritual growth in his life in parallel to what he preaches. Besides lectures in the morning sessions, attendees were divided into small groups to work on the theme, outlines, number of messages based on the book of Colossians. Two brothers were asked to tell a short story to practice communication skills followed by critique from the audience. Four seasoned lay brothers of preaching in their own churches also shared their experiences in preparing sermons and lessons learned through the process. The sharing as well as Pastor Hsu’s lectures are available on the Media Page of CLRC website.

We pray that this seminar will help and strengthen the pulpit ministry of His churches in proclaiming His Word.

Deer Park Community Church organized a DC Regional Summer Retreat at Lake Gaston on July 11-13. Sixteen pastors/ministers and church members attended the retreat from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The theme of the retreat was: Gospel Mind and Kingdom Vision. Church leaders took turns to share messages encouraging one another to hold fast to the great commission of our Lord and seek Him first in His Kingdom.

CLRC July 2014 Prayer Letter

Praise the Lord that RCCC’s Young Adults Fellowship (Y.A.L.L./Young Adults Loving the Lord) organized their retreat at Lake Gaston on June 6-8, 2014. This was their first time using the CLRC’s retreat site. About 20 young adults joined the retreat. The topic for their retreat was on the subject of “Missions” – building up faith in sharing the love of Christ with non-believers. The speakers were Mike and Grace Wilson. Besides group meetings, they divided into men and women groups for deeper sharing and praying. Praise the Lord that the weather was good during their stay and some enjoyed fishing, ping-pong, exercise, and “silent retreat” just for relaxation. Many expressed that they would like to come back here for their next retreat at Lake Gaston.