The purpose statement for the English congregation is to “develop humble servants who will love the Lord, the lost and the local church for the rest of their lives.”  Even before I moved to Ithaca, I had a firm conviction that one of the most effective ways to fulfill this purpose would be to take a group of people from the English congregation on a mission trip.  Furthermore, I believed that since our church is so close to NYC that it would be ideal to take a group there.  In June of 2008, I received an email from Pastor Bill Redekop from the Brooklyn Chinese Evangelical Free Church.  He wanted some advice about how to lead an English congregation that consisted mostly of children of Chinese blue collar workers.  I gave him the best advice that I could.  I then asked him if there might be any opportunities to bring a group from our church to minister there.  He then told me about the Dorcas Center and about the summer day camp.  From there we started corresponding back and forth about the possibilities.  Later, I began to also correspond with Grace Mo who is the executive director of Dorcas Ministries in Brooklyn, NY.  It became more and more clear that this was what God wanted our church to pursue.

~ Pastor Paul

The Brooklyn mission trip was part of the Dorcas Center Ministry at Brooklyn.  In Acts 9:36~43. Dorcas was a female disciple who was always doing good and helping the poor.  She is wealthy, yet did ministry of charity.  Here in Brooklyn, a female disciple,  Grace Mo, the executive director,  and a missionary Rebecca Lee started the charity ministry of Dorcas Center to outreach Chinese new immigrants from near to far in that area hoping to win all 300,000 Chinese people back to God. 

The current offering to the Dorcas Center is only about $5000 and actually the running cost is more than that.  Both Grace and Rebecca serve God at Dorcas absolutely voluntarily.  I trust God did not just bring me to Brooklyn mission for a week only, instead He led me to see  “mission” .  Now I would like to bring back the mission to you.  If you see the value of  the Dorcas ministry, may God lead you to participate the Dorcas mission joyfully in finance and in prayer.   Please do check its website, www.dorcas-nyc.org.

I have quite a few chances to converse with Grace during this mission trip.  God spoke to Grace during one of her devotions more than 20 years ago through Proverb 30:8 “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the right of all who are destitute.”  She kept praying to seek God’s will and it ended up she started Bible reading ministry at garment factories in NY, then later on in 1990 the Dorcas Center was established.  Now many under-priviledge children and new immigrant families are outreached through Dorcas.  You might not know that there are many family crises and suicides found in those stressful immigrant families.  People need the Lord.

Grace has adopted several kids from abandoned families all her life. Her love, faithfulness and vision are admirable.  She is so supportive to our mission week this time---orientation, meal plan, fire fighter and answering questions.  Rebecca Lee is also kind and supportive for our emergency needs.  Knowing them reminds me of the verse from Hebrew 12:1 “…we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

~Juliana Kan