CCYF News Letter
7/1/99 -- 10/31/99

Dear brothers, sisters and friends:

Greetings in the Lord !

It has been very busy for CCYF since we reorganized our staff. Thank God that He has blessed us, so that the new staff members have been faithful and had worked hard to reach out new friends. The joining of He Kening as the new chairman and other new staff members Ren Zhong, Chen Sen and Tang Ningyi has brought the new blood into our fellowship, which we have beening praying for for years. Following are some of the latest news of the fellowship.

1. 1999 Fall Retreat

Since we just came back from the annual fall retreat, which had impressed me deeply, I'll start writing from the fall retreat. God has faithfully answered our prayer by giving us a beautiful sunny weekend. Thanks to Jianzhou, Luming and Hu Jun, this year we moved our fall retreat site back to Mt. Pocono, where our first fall retreat was held in Oct. 1991. Though a little bit earlier, Mt. Pocono impressed us once again with the countryside tree leaves and the quiet land. We had invited about 20 truth seekers to join us. To many of them, this is the first time that they were exposed to Christianity. A lot of 'Old Bones' had noticed that many new comers were quite young. Some of them had just graduated from the college and just arrived in U.S.A. Thank God that many of our coworkers had shown their love to them by providing free transportation and registration. We would like to specially thank JianZhou, Luming, Tai-ying, Hu Jun, and Lin Zhen for their effort in providing rides for the new comers. We have been benefited a lot this year from the overhead projector and the microphone which Tai-ying had purchased for the retreat. Special thanks also goes to Danjie who prepared all the pamphlets.

Our lunch on Saturday were sandwiches made by our own "chefs" on site and home-cooked eggs prepared by Mei. The eggs were very delicious and lots of people asked for more. After the lunch, we spent the whole afternoon at a clean and charming lake-side in a state park. We had a very interesting group walking game, in which one of the feet of everybody in the group were bound together. We then had barbecue as our dinner. Some of us also played soccer. Before the sunset, we headed back to Youth Hosteling. In the evening we had a wonderful singspiration and testimony. Our singspiration leaders Mei and Tai-ying and pianist Aliya did a good job to cheer everyone up. Many brothers and sisters (Kening, Jianzhou, Xiaodan, Chen Sen, etc) shared with everyone sincerely how they had experienced God. What touched me deeply and freshly was brother Hsiao Xihui's testimony. Thank God, after many years of search, he found his faith in Christ finally. During the testimony, our 'Chefs' (Lu Qing, Huacheng, etc,) prepared very delicious 'night food' for us.

It was very cold on Sunday morning, but the atmosphere in our gathering was hot. Brother Xu Shu preached gospel with God's power and mercy. Four truth seeker (Li Jie, Wang Jun, etc) stood up to respond to God's calling. Many Christians also were encouraged and rededicated their love to the Lord. May God be glorified. The sun came out after the service. The colorful trees and bright sun rays along the road from the Hostling to the restaurant were so beautiful and truly were beyeond what I could express. God's creation is so good. This has been an unforgettable event to many of us.

2. Contribution

Praise God, contribution from CCYF members has increased a lot during this year. According to Guan-yuan, our contribution will be over 10,000. Recently the fellowship has decided to donate $100 to CCF every month.

3. Other News

These are some of news about CCYF members. Jianzhou had made a good progress in his career, he has recently been promoted. Chen Sen and Ning-yi just bought a new town house in New Jersey. Zhou Wei and Cui Qing are expecting a new baby. Huachen has been cooking dinner for the fellowship on each Thursday evening. Ren Zhong's wife has returned from Beijing, and started her master's program in Columbia University. Ye Li, our pianist between 1992 and 1995, just got married and many 'old' CCYF members showed up in the wedding. Kening's parents have come to visit him. Please pray for their salvation. Zhong Yanyan and Li Zhen just left us to other places. May God be with them.


Wei-qiang Fang
Chinese Christian Youth Fellowship