Words from President (October 2021)

After facing the challenges of COVID-19 for an extended time, we all hope that the church can reopen and reconnect the scattered people as soon as possible! 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Presence’s service focus has always been on “A Reconciling Cultural Mission.”

When we look around today’s society, arguments are heard everywhere. People’s hearts are shattered bit by bit, and relationships are gradually torn apart! In view of this, Presence is more active in providing skill training that can reconcile and connect people while adhering to the truth! Our goal is that more pastors and leaders can personally lead the training of members and co-workers; therefore, Presence is updating more materials that can “connect people.” The “Healthy Dialogue” course is one of them. Recently, when I talked to a youth leader who was using this course, I helped her realize Presence’s characteristic is coaching – listening actively to others’ voices, understanding their pain, and guiding them to find the answer for themselves and apply it.

In addition to the “Healthy Dialogue” course, other Presence training and services also aim at “connecting people.” The following is the feedback of two of our participants. After receiving our training and services, they were reconnected with their families:

• A 12th grader often has tension with his mother in daily life due to the big difference in personalities. He used Presence Possibilities’ professional consultations for college majors and invited his mom to join. With our assistance, his parents came to understand his strengths and supported his choices.
• When a father participated in the “PLPC Certification Course (A)”, he shared that his relationship with his daughter was pretty bad. He applied what he had learned and plucked up the courage to talk to his daughter. As a result, their relationship improved.

The Presence team is dedicated to providing services. We have been training coaches with Presence characteristics since last year. We thank God that the PLPC intern coaches started teaching classes in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Mannheim, Germany this year! We also launched the “Presence Podcast” in September, hoping to make it easier for young parents to listen to and learn from our resources.

We will hold the “RE:NEW Career Panel” on November 5 to help young people who will enter the workforce understand the general working environment during the pandemic. We are also conducting a Survey, wanting to understand the young people (aged 11 to 35) who are facing challenges in their church and daily lives during the pandemic, thus helping pastors adjust the direction of pastoral care.

While providing services of “connecting people,” Presence has been facing a deficit (as of 9/30/2021, -$62,500). If you agree that the direction we are heading is pleasing to God, please pray for us, donate generously, and partner with us in this difficult circumstance to carry out the cultural mission!

May God bless you and your family!

Agnes Ip
Presence Founder and CEO

2021 October

Previous Words from President:

October 2020