The First "English Group" at St. James'

#2015-0418

Praise the Lord! We started a new "small/cell group" at our church, St. James' Church.

In the previous vestry meeting, it was discussed and "suggested" that an "English" group be set up by some people from the English-speaking congregation. There had been several cell-groups here at St. James', such as 飛揚小組 (The Soaring Group), 二四八小組 (The Two-Four-Eight Group), 活水小組 (The Living-Water Group), 以斯帖小組 (Esther's Group), etc., but all of them were "Chinese-speaking" groups, whose members are mostly from the Chinese congregation. So, the members of the vestry thought it good to organize a new cell-group or two that have something to do with English.

Now the first "English Group" (英文小組) has been formed at St. James'. Yesterday evening we had our first meeting, starting at 7:30 p.m. We met, and will continue to meet, on Friday evening in the room/space where we usually have our Coffee Hour right after the English service on Sunday. -- Well, those who would like to practice English in (or by) Bible Studies, please don't hesitate to contact me, Jerry Liang, either by email or by phone! [Cell-phone: 0933-503537; email address: mookoo.liang@yahoo.com.tw] Praise the Lord!

Freewriting (隨筆)

#2015-0415 (11:35 p.m. - 11:55 p.m.)

It's going to be 12:00 midnight. I have only 20 minutes or so for my freewriting. But I don't want to spend these final minutes in writing freely. Instead, I'll take some notes that I think are very useful for my creative writing. -- Oh, yes, I've just received an email from "Creative Writing Now," which contains the key points as follows:

1) Remember, you don't have to write your story in order. You don't have to write a perfect beginning before you can move on to the rest of the story.

In fact, it's often easier to come up with a great story beginning AFTER you've written the rest of your rough draft, because you'll have a clearer idea of what the story's really about and where the beginning will lead.

So don't let the problem of the story beginning hold you back. You can dive right into your story and worry about the beginning later.

2) You don't have to start a story with an "introduction." Often, the best story beginnings take the reader right into the middle of the scene.

The reader doesn't need to have all of the background information ahead of time. In fact, if you start the story by filling in background information, the reader's likely to lose interest.

Provide enough clues to orient your readers so that they can follow what's happening. It's okay if there are some unanswered questions in the reader's mind for a while. That can provoke curiosity and increase the reader's interest.

Here are some other strategies for capturing the reader's interest:

-- Start with a problem or conflict. This could be a small problem; for example, your character can't find her car keys. Even a small problem gives your character something to do and crates activity and momentum right away.

-- Start with dialogue. Dialogue draws readers into the scene. It also helps you, the writer, resist the temptation to summarize or explain the story instead of "showing" it in real time.

-- Start at an exciting point in the story. The police show up on your character's doorstep. Or your character's husband confesses that he has another wife and family living across the city. Or your character lies rigid with terror in bed as the closet door slowly opens....

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相關文章 (See also)： Freewriting (隨筆)     (2015)

復活夜 -- The Great Vigil of Easter, 2015

#2015-0405

During the service of the Great Vigil of Easter, the Rev. Charles Chen, rector emeritus at St. James' Church, in Taichung City, preached a sermon which was entitled "Renounce and Promise" and can be outlined as follows:

陳金地牧師今年 (2015) 復活夜於台中聖雅各堂講道，以「棄絕和承諾」為題，其內容［講道大綱］摘錄如下：

一、前言 -- Introduction
二、棄絕什麼？ -- What have we agreed to renounce?
　　(1) 邪靈的力量（會使人背叛上帝）
　　  -- The spiritual forces of wickedness (that will rebel against God)
　　(2) 屬世的惡勢力（會敗壞受造物）
　　  -- The evil powers of this world (which will corrupt the creatures of God)
　　(3) 邪情私欲（會使人離開上帝）
　　  -- All sinful desires (that will draw us from the love of God)
三、承諾什麼？ -- What have we promised?
　　(1) 歸向基督（救主）
　　  -- Turn to Jesus Christ (He is the Savior)
　　(2) 信賴上帝（有恩典、有慈愛）
　　  -- Put your whole trust in God (He is the grace and love)
　　(3) 跟隨服從（我的主）
　　  -- Follow and obey (He is my Lord)
四、結語 -- Conclusion

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照片轉載自 Facebook 由賴冠宏弟兄拍攝及上傳分享。

The following photos were taken on April 4, 2015 

and shared immediately by Guan-Hong Lai, 

who is working at St. James' Church.

愚人節 (The First Day of April)

#2015-0401

The first day of April! It is the Fool's Day, or the Day of Fools. I don't know why people call this day "Yurenjie" -- the Fool's Day or Fools' Day! Is it appropriate for us to make fun of others in a "foolish" way? . . .

I remember what my elementary-school classmates had done long time ago. My classmates Xuemei Xie, Yizhen Xu, etc., falsely told our teacher Mr. Yunxing Liao (廖運星老師) that one of our classmates had been found suffering from cancer -- a dreaded disease that would kill the person, and Mr. Liao believed what they told. He became sad, and quiet, and very sorry about the bad news. Almost twenty or thirty minutes passed. Mr. Liao still didn't know that it was just a trick, nothing being true at all.

Oh, he was so happy and so unhappy to know the truth, when my classmates told him they had just been telling a lie, to make fun of him, on the first day of April. I felt embarrassed about that kind of thing happening to us, dishonest students cheating our teacher! Poor Mr. Liao! No wonder you became so upset, so disappointed about us at that moment. If I had been you, I would have become so furious that I would punish the liar(s) one way or another, because telling such a lie would cause too much harm to one's feelings!

Well, it was something foolish that happened a long, long time ago. I don't think that all of my classmates who were involved in that incident would still remember it well. Time and space have separated us in such a great extent that we would no longer remember all those embarrassing (or interesting?) things that had happened during our childhood -- during the days when we were still elementary-school students. Now we're all old, being in our sixties already. How fast time flies!

On the first day of April this year, 2015, I'd like to start to do "freewriting" more regularly. I've made up my mind to "freewrite" every day: I'll freewrite 15 minutes per day at least; if possible, I'll practice writing for 30 minutes or a longer time each day. Peter Elbow's book Writing Without Teachers has showed me the advantages I would have by keeping the habit of freewriting. I will try to carry out this plan, in order to improve my writing skills. May it be a successful experience!

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相關文章 (See also)：

1)  April Fools' Day (愚人節 側寫)     (2020)