Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Watchman

To promote the "Get Yilan off the Suicide List" project, the number of visits Jane has made to Yilan over the past five months has surpassed that of the last five years. During this period, she contacted 27 pastors of various denominations, introduced workshops regarding suicide prevention at monthly prayer meetings in diverse areas of Yilan and the Yilan District Meeting of the Presbyterian Church, invited pastors to contribute to suicide prevention in Yilan, and made contact with school principals. The highlights of the ministry are as follows:

Jane shared a 45-miniute condensed version of "Early Detection of Other's Suicide Attempt" in her Sunday sermon at the Christian Yilan Church, and a complete version from 1PM to 3:30PM later. When the Sunday service was over, several church members told Jane that the information was impressive and important, but they had other appointments for the afternoon unfortunately. Jane encouraged them to put what they had learned that morning into practice. Several church members who listened to the complete version also told Jane they had friends with suicide attempts, and they knew what to do as a helping hand. A total of 162 people attended the service.

Jane’s messages at the oldest Presbyterian Church in Yilan from 3/4 to 3/5 brought very affirmative responses. Although the number of people who came to the complete version of "Early Detection of Other's Suicide Attempt" on 3/5 afternoon was not as large as that on 2/19, most of the participants had friends who attempted suicide. Jane reserved 15 minutes to answer the question, yet Q&A time took nearly 30 minutes, and a queue of people stayed with unanswered questions. A total of 281 people attended the 3/4 to 3/5 service (on-site and online).

The "Healing Depression for Life" workshop was held in the afternoon of 3/19 at the Yilan Christian Church, both on-site and online simultaneously. A total of 35 participants (from 19 churches) signed up for the workshop. The interactive exercises were well received and the Q&A time was infused with questions and discussions.

Twenty-nine people signed up for the seminar on "How to Help the Brokenhearted Through Their Grief Journey", held in Yilan Church on 4/22 morning. Twenty-two who actually attended the seminar came from 16 churches are mostly pastors, and others are psychologists, health care teachers and social workers. It was a pity only four locals from Yilan attended the seminar and five were unable to attend.

In general, people do not associate aboriginals with suicides because of the cheerful images of their constant singing and dancing. However, a social worker Li from the Aboriginal Family Counseling Center talked to Jane after the 3/17 prayer meeting to emphasize the significance of suicide prevention, and that two young aboriginals committed suicide in their area last year.

There are many aboriginals in Yilan, and the culture of the aboriginal church is dissimilar from that of common church. From 4/22 to 23, Jane was invited to preach at the youth service and Sunday service of Hanxi Church, a well-reputed church among the aboriginals. Using the title “the Watchman”, the sermon started from the responsibility of the watchmen of Israel and the commandment not to kill, finally bringing it to the current situation in Yilan. Christians were urged to prepare themselves to become watchmen for suicide prevention regardless of age. Thank the Lord the congregation responded with much enthusiasm.

In the afternoon of 4/8, through a friend's referral, Jane had the opportunity to speak to parents at the "Communication Skills with Teenagers During Storms" parenting seminar at Huideng Middle School. There was a presentation on going straight up to senior high school without sitting for the entrance examination at the same time, and thus the number of parents attending was limited. Nonetheless, those who came listened attentively. They took notes, did exercises, and lined up to ask questions afterwards. Some parents said teachers should also attend the seminar. A parent who lived in Taoyuan told Jane she would attend Jane’s seminar of different topics if given the chance.

Thanksgiving:

1.Pastor Zhuang Chenghan of the Christian Yilan Church recognized the importance of suicide prevention and was willing to provide a venue to co-host the event.

2.Pastor Yan Qiren of the Yilan Presbyterian Church saw the urgency of suicide prevention and actively promoted it in the Presbyterian Church, in the meantime encouraging neighboring churches to participate.

3.Jane had the opportunity to visit principal Li Weijing of Hung Dau High School on 4/21. Principal Li understood the urgency of suicide prevention, and expressed that he would ask the school office and counseling office to make relevant arrangements.

Prayer requests:

1.Pray that God would open the eyes of the pastors of the churches in Yilan to see the significance and urgency of suicide prevention and be willing to give Jane opportunities to share messages in Sunday sermons to help church members become watchmen of suicide prevention.

2.Pray that God would open the way so that principals of the schools in Yilan can recognize the need for suicide prevention, and that the school office would be willing to cooperate with the counseling office to arrange a time for teachers to receive training, and invite Jane to teach on related topics.

3."Sustainable Church: Growing Ministry Around the Sheep, Not Just the Shepherds" traditional Chinese version would be successfully launched and become a blessing to all churches.

4.Pray that God will touch the hearts of the schools and churches which expressed willingness for future workshop collaborations to take actions and schedule exact timing.

5.Pray that the Lord will greatly use the publications of Lifting Hands Network to enhance the relationship between Chinese people with God, with people, and with themselves.