Chinese Christmas celebration in Hobart
Children know more about Santa
Christmas is more likely a public holiday for most people at present and is losing its real meaning in many places. Children know about Santa more than Jesus for Christmas.
For all Christians, Christmas should be a special day to remember and celebrate Jesus' coming.
For Chinese Christians in Hobart, every Christmas Day is not only a day for celebration but also a good chance to reach Chinese non-believers.
On 25 December 2009, a beautiful Friday, brothers and sisters in the Chinese congregation of Wellspring Anglican Chinese Church (WACC) held a very successful Christmas celebration party. About 120 Chinese came for this exciting evening, which is probably the largest gathering for Chinese in Tasmania during the Christmas holiday.
Some of them are brothers and sisters in Jesus, but many friends are non-believers, including students and researchers in the University, local residents and short-term visitors.
Although they are all Chinese, they are from different districts, e.g., mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore. For some of them, this is the first time to Church in their life, and the first time to hear about Jesus and his words.
Brothers and sisters in WACC started to prepare this party two months before Christmas and almost everyone was involved in this event.
During the party, people could enjoy the beautiful and peaceful Christian music, listen to the special Gospel message from Pastor Rong, and had chances to win their surprise Christmas presents, and finally, a free Christmas dinner for every attendee. Brothers and sisters in Lord provided all the delicious Chinese food.
For many brothers and sisters in WACC, this Christmas Day was probably a little tiring; however, everyone was very happy to see so many Chinese friends getting a chance to have a real meaningful Christmas Day. May God bless all them.
From Brother Huayong Chen who belongs to the Wellspring Anglican Chinese Church and is a Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania.