Ministry Highlights July 2008

 

“What I have been trying to tell the west is that the world, the real world is Asia !” – Arnold Toynbee, British historian

 

Harold and Darlene Sala, accompanied by Florence Lin, recently completed an extensive tour of Asia . Harold and Florence represented the US board of Far East Broadcasting Company, where the late John Lin, Florence 's husband, served with the Chinese department. The team also ministered in China , Hong Kong , Mongolia , and the Philippines .

MONGOLIA, the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, with a population of about 3 million, has one Christian radio station—WIND Radio and Media Center. On May 26 the team participated in dedicating a new facility and celebrated seven years of service to the one million living within the footprint of Radio WIND. The terrain has an awesome beauty from the mountains of the north to the Gobi Desert . Golden eagles are commonplace and one-third of the population live in a round kind of housing known as a ger , made of felt supported by two posts and portable enough to be disassembled in a few hours and placed on the backs of two camels.

CHINA, the world's most populated country, has been much in the news due to the devastating earthquake in Sichuan that took the lives of tens of thousands of people. Many in China think earthquakes are tokens of God's wrath and the tragedy brought an awareness of the reality that life is short and uncertain. Christianity Today reports a resurgence of Christian growth in urban areas, especially among young professionals.

Speaking as family relations counselors Harold and Darlene ministered to large groups of people, who eagerly listened to God's plan and purpose for their lives. DVDs previously produced for women were distributed along with Created for a Purpose by Darlene in Chinese. Harold's book Coffee Cup Counseling has also been released in Chinese. In Hong Kong they did two seminars hosted by China Alliance Press and International Christian Assembly.

The Far East Broadcasting Company releases hundreds of hours of programming to China in various dialects and reaches most of the 1.3 billion people who are unsatisfied with materialism and seeking a purpose in living. Guidelines focuses on training pastors and Christian leaders who, in turn, impact their culture and country.

THE PHILIPPINES is second home for Harold and Darlene, whose books are among OMF Literature's best sellers. But what drives them is teaching and training a new generation of men and women. For 45 years Guidelines has been released on the FEBC outlets throughout the country of 80 million plus. On two recent flights on Philippine Airlines flight attendants expressed gratitude for the help the Salas' ministry has been to them. The StarWeek , a Sunday news magazine, carries a column by Harold, widely read through out the country. GMA-5 carries the televised commentaries at sign-on and sign-off.