February 2025 A New Beginning
February 2025 A New Beginning
February, 2025
A New Beginning
Looking Back and Moving Forward
This past week, Chinese people around the world started celebrating the Chinese New Year, beginning on January 28, New Year’s Eve. Family reunions, food, travel, visits, gifts, candy, beautiful decorations at home and in public places, laughter, conversation, memories, etc. It is a good beginning of the new year, 2025. On February first, transporters of different kinds throughout China carried millions of Chinese people back to where they work and study. While the Chinese look forward to new beginnings, so do we.
World Christian Broadcasting (WCB), including the Chinese Language Service (CLS), can’t help but thank God and you for the past forty years. God, through you, has been giving us what we need through the valley to this point in 2025 and beyond. Your prayers have been answered and have sustained our love, faith, hope, spirit, strength, health, and growth. Your support has secured and maintained our daily operation these 40 years. We are confident that your prayers and support will continue because of your love of the unsaved people around the world and our common anticipation of the second coming of Christ Jesus. It is our prayer that God the Father will bless you and keep your loved ones daily, spiritually and physically.
Listeners’ Blessing
Each listener is precious to God and us. When they share their needs and what is on their heart with us, we are encouraged and honored. Last week a listener sent us his New Year blessing for the wellbeing of our staff’s families. He also prayed for the growth of bearing fruit among listeners, that many of them would accept Jesus’ saving grace and be saved.
Most of our listener correspondence set their request for a copy of the Bible and a QSL card. Recently, a listener asked for a shortwave radio, a cross, and a hymn book. He appreciates our daily broadcast.
Another listener who wrote last week to ask if he could contribute to our programs. He believes that he is blessed with gifts, but he needs an opportunity to serve.
Staff’s Transition
Our dear co-worker Shumei is transitioning her work from full-time to part-time work. Her aging mother and the growing active grandson require her work schedule to be flexible. Shumei has been a faithful and diligent co-worker who contributes so much to the wealth and variety of our program database. Even at a part-time work schedule, Shumei will continue to strengthen the effectiveness of the ministry of CLS. May God bless her family as she gets to visit with them more.
What’s New in Programming
At the end of 2024, Mr. Gao completed his devotional remarks on the Book of Acts. Our listeners will get to learn more about the works of the Holy Spirit and the earliest history of the churches of Christ in our daily broadcast. As 2025 just unfolds, we are looking forward to finish the Chinese voiceover works for the “Salvation Story” video project produced by Dr. James Norms and his team.
Please pray for more helps from volunteers in the Kingdom of God for all eight of our language services at WCB. As a radio ministry solely depending on donor contribution, we are constantly looking for God’s providence to add a new language in order to reach more people for the Lord, seeking additional stringers to enrich program depth and strength is a doable and realistic strategy. We ask for your prayers and when the opportunity arrives in your networks please introduce your Chinese friends to us.
A Little Bit of Fun
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the year of Wood Snake, marking a period of transformation, wisdom, strategy, and adaptability. So, let’s make use of our intelligence and creativity while being flexible and creative, pursuing deeper thinking, thoughtful decision-making, long-term planning, and progress on personal growth and development. May we do these for the common good and for the glory of God.
January: Chinese new year
Chinese New Year begins on January 29 in 2025. Traditionally called
“Passing Over a Year” and renamed “Spring Festival” in 1914, Chinese
New year is the one holiday Chinese citizens enjoy the longest days-off.
This eight-days holiday begins on New Years Eve when family reunion
dinners take place for which it is noted the busiest day of public
transport in China consequently.
Because of the long holidays, more families travel overseas for vacation or for visiting family members abroad in recent years. Chinese Spring Festival has the most varieties of celebrations traditionally than any other Chinese holiday. Many preparations begin days before the New Year for food, decoration, dress, travel, public celebration, gift, etc. It is a time that energizes the entire Chinese society for personal enjoyment, family reunion, social networking, and national economy. Chinese people, young and old, leaders and workers, take actions for personal responsibility and blessing for others or to the community.
It is most important for Chinese to be with family during the Spring Festival. Visitation occurs among family members, relatives, in-laws, teacher and students, government and corporate employers and employees, and friends. Spring Festival is a time of joy and celebration, lots of music, art, and festivities in communities all over China where people visit, enjoy, and relax. Consequently, it is a time when we have fewer short-wave radio listeners, but a good time for us to make plan for the future.
We petition for your prayers. Your participation in Word Christian Broadcasting is the backbone of this ministry from which staff are strengthened, and operations are normalized. We need God’s guidance as we make plans for 2025. We need God for love, truth, and for creativity as we produce programs for listeners. Your prayers are important to us. Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, was officially recognized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on December 4, 2024. Creativity plays a significant role as we produce the Spring Festival radio programs.
Spring Festival is a time where many Chinese people pray. Pray for a year of good health, peace in relationship, prosperity, and personal improvement. This is what we pray for you also in this time of the new year. May God bless you and your family. Thank you for working together for bringing more people to Christ and our Father in heaven. Have a fruitful 2025.
