2023, a year full of rapid changes, inflations, and turmoil, is about to come to an end. With the reopening of the world, I had the opportunities to visit EFC churches in Australia, New Zealand, United States, and Canada on behalf of the General Assembly. As I reflect upon this year, I am grateful to have the opportunity to bring greetings and encouragements to various churches, to have met many new friends, brothers and sisters, church leaders that I have only heard of previously.
During those visits, I also reconnected with many long time friends and coworkers. There is a sense of relief seeing all the brothers and sisters persevered through three years of adversity due to the pandemic. What is even more precious is to see coworkers and churches continue to stand firmly in the Lord and in ministry despite experiencing various challenges including the lost of love ones.
On behalf of the General Assembly office staff, I want to thank you for your generosity and support of various ministries of the General Assembly, and to express my utmost appreciation. I trust the Lord’s blessings will be abundant for you in various areas, and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
As Christmas and the new year approaches, our hearts are filled with joy and expectation because we have all endured much this past year, and we have all experienced God’s grace and comfort. I am looking forward to next year’s Ministerial Association Meeting and the General Assembly Meeting, which will take place on February 21st to 24th at EFC Irvine in Southern California.
The executive board members and I are excited for this opportunity to meet representatives from EFC churches worldwide and to fellowship. Besides electing the new leadership team for 2024, we look towards the Lord to provide us with His vision from above to reflect and readjust some of our ministry methodology and organization structure, so that we can press forward towards the Lord in this post pandemic era, to receive all the promises and responsibilities the Lord has in store for us, to fulfill His calling for the EFCers in this generation.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Rev. Allen Hu
Secretary General