Military conflicts in Middle East and Africa, injustice and social unrest in Myanmar, Central and South America, humanitarian crisis, stress, anxiety, anger, poverty, lack of basic self-management skill and government support, and similar problems among people of the previous generation have been causing many marriages to fall apart and families to become dysfunctional on a global scale. Children are the primary victims. A Chinese Christian recently commented on a commonly shared problem among church attendees these days, that “many of us seem to possess a spirit of orphan.”
In responding to the need for father and family, our June program logs are filled with many segments concerning husband and wife relationship and parenting during our airing time worldwide. Listeners got to learn about the unique characteristics of men and how different they are from woman. These segments aim to equip female listeners to learn how to empower their husband to be the positive role model their children need and to avoid conflicts due to different traits embedded in God’s creation of man and woman. We aired several prayers specifically for mother, for father, and for family members who are taking care elderly parents with chronic illness at home. Though primary program segments in May and June revolved around issues concerning family and marriage, we always reserve programs aiming to help listeners to come to know God who is our Savior and whose word is the only foundation on which to transform us into a godly human beings, besides building strong marriage and happy family.
For example, in an interview with Ms. Qiao, she depicted how she sought God’s help and how God healed her insomnia caused by her husband’s affair and divorce consequently. Mrs. May gave her testimony about how her wounded emotion caused by her own mother was healed by God after her obedience to God’s word taught by her grandma and her forgiveness to her mother. Brother Wu talked about how he saw the church surrounding his family with love and prayers when his father’s business failed and how God answered prayers and enabled his father to be able to support their family again. And, how this experience forged his faith in Christ and led him to live a life anchored in God’s truth and church family. We aired another person witness story about how God turned the life of a gambler into a church minister who now serves faithfully in a Chinese community in southern China. Besides personal testimony we also select few segments of Bible facts, including how did God introduce Himself in the Bible so every generation can come to know about Him as they read the Bible. Also broadcasted in June was the last prayer of Jesus for his apostles in John 17, inviting listeners to live the life of Jesus which will help build unity at home, at work, and beyond.
As we focus on meeting the need for father and family in our June programming, we saw a surging number of listeners. Three hundred daily visitors on average to our website increases to seven hundred, to fourteen hundred, and even to sixteen hundred daily visitors lasting for two to three weeks in June. In evaluation, we contribute the increase to another possible factor which is our live streaming Bible reading which we first provided since six months ago. Although not knowing for sure exactly what is the primary cause of the increase, we take it as our Heavenly Father’s special encouragement gratefully.
Another encouragement occurred in early June was a baptism. Mrs. Rong was baptized into Christ after a three months Bible study and a special counseling session on parenting coordinated by our Chinese staffs. The baptism is the first one conducted on Zoom platform where Mrs. Rong was baptized in San Diego under a step by step instruction given by our staffs here in Franklin Tennessee, an experience unexpected but surely increasing our capability to serve listeners afar in the future. As we are encouraged, we want share the encouragement from God with you, our donors and prayer partners as well. Without you, services and helps to listeners are unlikely to take place. We thank you. And, may God bless you and your family.
