星期四, 10月 28, 2010

Designing For TV - Google TV - Google Code

Designing For TV - Google TV - Google Code

星期三, 6月 23, 2010

Your Special Needs Child Can Get Better. There Is Hope.

Your Special Needs Child Can Get Better. There Is Hope.

Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy
What Does It Mean For My Child?

Spastic diplegia cerebral palsy affects muscle stiffness in predominantly the legs.

The arms and face may be less severely affected, and the hands may be clumsy. Tendon reflexes are hyperactive. Toes point up. Tightness in certain leg muscles makes the legs move like the arms of a scissor.

Children with this type of cerebral palsy may require a walker or leg braces. Intelligence and language skills are often normal.

Originally called Little's disease, spastic diplegia was one of the first types of cerebral palsy to be identified. Click here for more information about the history of cerebral palsy.

If you have a child with the spastic diplegia type of cerebral palsy, don't be overwhelmed.

There are therapies available that can help your child get better.

There is hope.

星期三, 6月 02, 2010

Pastor Hans Waldvogel

http://www.hanswaldvogel.com/biography.html

Biographical Sketch

The following is the entire article by Edith L. Blumhofer, entitled History Matters from the booklet issued in 2000 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, 457 Harman Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237:




After five damp, gloomy days in Brooklyn, Sunday, 6 December 1925, dawned clear and seasonably mild. That morning, many New York City churches marked the four-hundredth anniversary of William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English. Those cel ebrations, coordinated by the American Bible Society, were impressive but are long forgotten. Every year since, though, one group of Brooklyn Christians has recalled 6 December 1925 as a day to remember with special thanks. On that day, they first met as the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church. December 6 was a watershed in their corporate existence. Coming that far seemed a miracle, and the future beckoned, thanks, in large part, to the recent arrival of their new pastor, Hans Waldvogel. Over the next decades, the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church and Hans Waldvogel’s ministry became so inextricably linked that to look at one is to explore the other. The story of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church has two beginnings that soon merged: the first, that of a small, struggling German mission in Brooklyn, can be recounted briefly; the second, the spiritual experience of Hans Waldvogel, is more complex but also more fundamental to the church’s enduring legacy.


Beginnings—The Patchen Avenue Mission

A German Pentecostal mission met for several years in a modest hall at 75 Patchen Avenue, part of a small, loosely knit Pentecostal presence in the New York metropolitan area. Known as the Full Gospel Mission, the meeting place stood in a neighborhood whose German population had recently swelled. In 1923 its pastor, John Baum, died, and in the following months most participants found other places to worship. By 1925 the few remaining families discussed closing the mission. Then a few people heard favorable reports about a young evangelist named Hans Waldvogel. They agreed to invite him for two weeks of meetings before they made a final decision to disband. He arrived on 28 April 1925, fresh from considerable success in a German Pentecostal church in Buffalo, coming not because he had no other possibilities but because he felt he should. The prospects seemed bleak: just fifteen people attended his first service on Wednesday evening, 29 April. Why the prospects changed—how a dying mission became the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church—is the story of Hans Waldvogel.


Beginnings—The Waldvogels

Hans Rudolph Waldvogel—Johann on his first passport—arrived in the United States in 1907, the year that brought a record number of immigrants to American shores. The family came from Switzerland, and there the story properly begins.

Hans Waldvogel was born to Adam and Anna Daehler Waldvogel in the small town of Herisau on 7 January 1893. He joined Anna, Gottfried, and Rose and would soon be followed by Lydia and Elisabeth. These sons and daughters always acknowledged the godly influence of their parents on their lives.

Adam and Anna, each born in 1859 (he in Stetten and she in Senftigen, Bern), married in 1886 just after Adam completed his studies at the Baptist seminary in Hamburg. In their part of Switzerland, the Reformed Church enjoyed social and religious privilege, and Baptists had no status. Switzerland had never been kind to Baptists. In fact, Adam Waldvogel, with other teenagers, had taunted and heckled the traveling Baptist preacher who ultimately won him to Christ. Few in number, Swiss Baptists could not support their own seminary, and so their prospective preachers studied in northern Germany. Adam had been a forester and was also a noodle maker. Now he turned his energies to ministry among religious outsiders. From seminary, he and Anna took responsibil ity for a small Baptist congregation in Hassenhausen, Germany, where their daughter, Anna, and son, Gottfried, were born. When an opportunity arose in Switzerland, the Waldvogels gladly returned to their native land.

Their first congregation was in Herisau, a historic town, capital of Halb-Kanton Appenzell-Ausserhoden. But in those days, Swiss Baptist pastors did not have the luxury of serving one congregation. Preaching points in homes in the surrounding area kept Adam—later accompanied by his sons—busy most evenings. On long walks on the forest paths, the sons came to know and admire their father and received their first training for the ministry.

Adam Waldvogel may not have been a fiery preacher, but devotion and piety marked his daily life. Anna was a cheerful optimist with abundant faith in God’s provision. Adam sometimes brooded and, during their second pastorate—in the village of Bülach, Kanton Zürich—became discouraged enough to consider leaving the ministry. Poverty drove him to think about other ways of pro viding for his family, but it could not diminish the rich spiritual her­itage that the family enjoyed. Family devotions morning and evening, prayers and songs at the table, Bible and hymn memoriza tion marked every day. The parents knew that “God had not given [them] any of the children for the Devil,” and they had the joy of seeing each accept Christ, be baptized, and assist in the work of the church. As Swiss Baptists their heritage—especially as expressed in its hymns—drew on the richly textured Pietism that, in its English forms, had produced Methodism and the Great Awakenings. The language of Paul Gebhardt and Gerhard Tersteegen shaped their faith.

The Waldvogels were in touch through publications with con temporary German evangelicals pursuing a desire truly to know God. They particularly valued Otto Stockmayer (1838-1917), whose writings and ministry in Switzerland and Germany revealed his deep commitment to holiness and spiritual power. Stockmayer’s simple-yet-profound message has a familiar ring to those who have known the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church over the years: “nichts von mir, aber alles von Christus zu erwarten.” This determination to expect everything from Christ rather than to rely on self marked Adam Waldvogel before it gripped his sons. Through annual Keswick Conventions in England, Stockmayer came to treasure the teachings of people like South African Reformed pastor, Andrew Murray; the English Baptists, F. B. Meyer and Charles Spurgeon; the Anglican advocate of a higher Christian life, Evan Hopkins. He helped popularize their writings among German-speaking people and influenced the Waldvogels’ perspective on contemporary evan gelical teachings. Through Stockmayer’s paper, the Waldvogels first heard of Max Wood Moorehead, a missionary to India who would later influence Hans Waldvogel’s choices. The family also learned about the Pentecostal movement, followed its troubled early course in Germany, and heeded the warnings against it issued by respected German evangelical leaders under the banner of the Gnadauer Gemeinschaftsverband of which Stockmayer was a founder.

Early in 1907 Anna Waldvogel’s sister, Rose Steinhaus, visited and urged the family to consider migrating to the United States. She and her husband had made the move, and she now longed for family nearby, especially for cousins as companions for her children. The Steinhauses lived in Chicago, a city teeming with immigrants, hundreds of thousands of whom spoke German. She persuaded the Waldvogels to see Chicago as a place in need of German-speaking pastors. In fact, the pace of migration made her plea especially timely. Across America, many denominations struggled to find pastors fluent in European languages. German Baptists had established a presence in the United States decades earlier, but, in numbers of churches and pastors, they could not keep pace with immigration. Adam decided to accept the challenge. The Waldvogels became one of thousands of families to leave Switzerland for the promise of America. In recent years poverty and hunger had been so severe that the Swiss government had offered money to assist those who chose to leave. The Waldvogels did not receive a government bounty; rather, ministry to their compatriots beckoned them to Chicago.

Hans and his oldest sister, Anna Martha, returned to the United States with their aunt and cousins. They left Bremen on the Kronprinzessin Cecilie 10 September 1907. The rest of the family came in November, and Adam soon settled them into the parsonage of Immanuel Baptist Church on Chicago’s North Side (not far from Wrigley Field) and began his work in the small German church at the corner of Newport and Robey. Gottfried Waldvogel had begun assisting in ministry in Switzerland. In the spring of 1908 his aunt, Rose Steinhaus, paid his way to the German Baptist Seminary in Rochester, New York.

A department of the Northern Baptist Seminary at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, the German Baptist Seminary enjoyed national renown because of the pathbreaking work of its premier professor, the controversial Walter Rauschenbusch. A man of deep piety, Rauschenbusch worked hard to evangelize German Americans. He collaborated with Ira Sankey to translate gospel hymns and edit hymnals, and he manifested a passion for German-speaking immigrants that drove him to challenging inner-city min istries. But he had recently discovered a larger theological interest in transforming society and had made what he called the Social Gospel central to his message. Uncertain that the “old gospel” could meet the challenges of the modern world, he devised alterna tive categories for understanding the Christian task, categories driv en by his view of the kingdom of God. Gottfried Waldvogel felt uncomfortable in this environment and left the seminary to return to Chicago after the spring semester.

Now he found opportunity in a busy mission to Chicago Jews established by the prominent Methodist pastor and author, W. E. Blackstone. The mission had close ties to Moody Bible Institute and to the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The American Jewish population grew exponentially in 1907 as Jews poured in from southern and eastern Europe. The Chicago Hebrew Mission gave Gottfried Waldvogel valuable experience and also put him in touch with influential American evangelicals who would help mold his future.

Hans, meanwhile, went to work at Spaulding & Co., a large custom jewelry firm in Chicago, where he became an expert in plat inum mountings. He assisted his father at Immanuel Baptist Church, where he took a Sunday school class of young boys. Within a few years he was Sunday school superintendent, choir director, and leader of the young people’s group. He occasionally collaborated with Gottfried to organize street meetings. And at every opportunity, he attended the Moody Church’s Saturday evening Bible study, sitting under the ministry of William Evans. Drafted in 1918 (although not yet an American citizen), Hans Waldvogel served briefly in the military where he signed on as a conscientious objector.

Late in 1917 Adam Waldvogel accepted a call to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where in January 1918 he became the founding pastor of another Immanuel German Baptist Church. Begun as a home missions church in 1906, Immanuel incorporated when the Waldvogels arrived and paid off its 130-seat building in the first two years of Adam Waldvogel’s pastorate. Hans remained behind in Chicago but spent weekends at his father’s side in the ministry. The little Kenosha congregation flourished. Hans was a creative Sunday school teacher and an enjoyable companion for the young people. His growing spiritual hunger diminished neither his common sense nor his sense of humor.

In Kenosha, Hans’s love for street meetings drew him to Pentecostals, led locally by George Finnern. Besides the Salvation Army, the Finnerns conducted the only regular weekend street meetings in town, and Hans Waldvogel asked permission to join them. To his surprise they welcomed him warmly, though he did not leave his father’s church. Over the next months they made him welcome in their home and answered many of his criticisms of Pentecostals. Hans began to feel tugged in his heart toward Pentecostal experience. His decision in June 1920 to leave his job and his father’s church, join the Pentecostals and enter full-time ministry with the Finnerns came only after months of agonizing about the painful separations he knew the choice would entail. He esteemed his parents for their godly example; he had a prominent place of service within their church; yet he was convinced God was leading him by a different path. He did not know just how the door of opportunity would open, but he clung to a verse that became one of his life texts: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).

Although he was the first of the family to leave the German Baptist church, Hans Waldvogel was not the first to embrace Pentecostal experience. Gottfried’s friends at the Chicago Hebrew Mission had recommended that he attend the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Missionary Training Institute at Nyack, New York. After his disillusionment with the Baptist Seminary, Gottfried acquiesced. He arrived at Nyack in 1910, just in time to participate in the last phase of the Pentecostal revival that had erupted at the school several times since 1907. He received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and his family observed a new intensity in his spiritual life, but he did not leave the Baptist church. He filled various pulpits on a short-term basis, as far from Chicago as Baltimore, then accepted a call to Texas. There he met and married Lydia Sievers, the daughter of a German Baptist pastor. After a brief stint in Waco, the two moved to the German Baptist parsonage in Peoria, Illinois. Gottfried soon gained a reputation among mid-western German Baptists as a Bible teacher and a music leader. Most regional German Baptist gatherings found him organizing impromptu music or a preachers’ quartet.

The Waldvogel sisters also found places of service. Anna mar ried a Swiss German Baptist pastor, Otto Roth. Rose became a home missionary affiliated with the German Baptist Church in Oak Park, Illinois. Lydia married Fred Lehr, a pastor in Cleveland and then in Iowa. Elisabeth attended Moody Bible Institute and mar ried William Scharf. The two offered themselves as missionaries but were denied appointment for health reasons. Instead, they moved to Los Angeles where they threw themselves wholehearted ly into the work of an energetic evangelical endeavor, the Church of the Open Door, in its heyday.

The children’s choices gratified their parents—until Hans— their closest in day-to-day association—left them for the Pentecostals. Over the next few months several others followed him out of Kenosha’s Immanuel Baptist Church. For a time Hans remained superintendent of the Baptist Sunday school, but opposi tion among Baptist members forced him to resign. Adam and Anna Waldvogels’ declining health complicated this final cutting of min istry ties and prompted Rose Waldvogel to leave her post in Oak Park and move her membership to her parents’ church. She helped them at home and tended needs in the congregation.

Hans Waldvogel’s apprenticeship in Pentecostal ministry with the Finnerns in Kenosha yielded some lasting convictions, espe cially about the importance of altar services, daily morning wor ships, and protracted times of “waiting on God.” The Finnerns also took him to the Zion Faith Homes, an independent Pentecostal fellowship a few miles south of Kenosha in Zion, Illinois. He attended his first Zion meeting on Thanksgiving evening in 1919, before he left the Baptist church. In the Faith Homes, he came to know the ministers, Martha Wing Robinson, Loretta M. Judd, Eugene and Sara Brooks, and, among other workers-in-training, a young man with whom he formed an especially fast friendship, Joseph Wannenmacher.

Also in Zion he met Max Wood Moorehead, a one-time missionary to India whom the Waldvogels had first encountered in the pages of Otto Stockmayer’s magazine years before. Hans knew that his father admired Moorehead, and Moorehead had since become a Pentecostal. Soon Moorehead would directly influence the course of Hans Waldvogel’s ministry.

But first, Hans Waldvogel left Kenosha in 1923 to spend a few months living in the Zion Faith Homes. He had already begun occasionally supplying pulpits in Chicago and in the German Pentecostal Church in Milwaukee. In Milwaukee, he met the pastor of the German Pentecostal Church in Benton Harbor, Michigan and accepted an invitation to hold meetings in that largely German lakeside community. Then Max Moorehead encouraged him to think about going east and recommended him to Noel Perkin, pastor in Fredonia, New York, for evangelistic services. From Fredonia, Hans accepted an invitation to a German congregation in New Castle, Pennsylvania. There he met Philip Brauchler who told him about the struggling mission on Brooklyn’s Patchen Avenue. Next, Buffalo beckoned; then Rochester. After Rochester, he returned to Buffalo where the German congregation offered him its pastorate. But by then he had in hand an invitation to Brooklyn, and he felt inclined to accept. In April 1925, as he prepared to go to Brooklyn, he took to heart a text that became his lifelong confidence: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” (Exodus 33:14).


The Ridgewood Pentecostal Church

The handful of people who invited Hans Waldvogel to Brooklyn had been deeply divided by the Pentecostal movement. Some objected to what they called “Pentecostal manifestations,” and in the first meetings evangelist and congregation had to find common ground. Hans Waldvogel had learned in the Zion Faith Homes that one should allow God to work in His way and time. Since he believed God had sent him to Brooklyn, he persisted, trusting God to touch people’s hearts in His way at His time. More people came. And unusual things happened. The second Sunday night, the congregation sat for a long time in absolute silence—something entirely new to them. They soon grasped Hans Waldvogel’s view that Pentecostalism need not express itself in fanaticism or noise. Rather, it included praise and silence, both operations of the Spirit.

After two weeks, both Hans Waldvogel and the congregation concluded that their relationship should continue. In June, Hans briefly returned to Kenosha where he was ordained 25 June 1925. In July, Hans Waldvogel held his first baptismal service. The Patchen Avenue mission was now too small, and the congregation sought and fitted out new quarters. They rented a second-story hall at the corner of Seneca Avenue and Cornelia Street, in the heart of Ridgewood, a rapidly developing neighborhood favored by new German immigrants. Across the front of the hall (which they billed as their “new cheerful home”) they mounted the words ALL FOR JESUS. The congregation marked its new beginnings with two weeks of special services featuring Loretta M. Judd from the Zion Faith Homes.

In February 1928 Hans Waldvogel visited his brother, Gottfried, then the pastor of the German Baptist church in Steamboat Rock, Iowa. Gottfried and Lydia had eight sons and a thriving church that drew German farmers from the surrounding area. During Hans Waldvogel’s visit, special services took on a Pentecostal flavor. Four months later, unwilling to split the Steamboat Rock church, Gottfried Waldvogel resigned and moved his family to Zion, Illinois. They lived near the Faith Homes and assumed responsi bility for the Full Gospel Tabernacle, a modest Pentecostal church in nearby Waukegan. Their oldest son, Walter, soon left for New York to live and work with his Uncle Hans. In 1930 their second son, Edwin, joined Walter in New York to finish school at Richmond Hill High School and to assist in the expanding efforts of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church. For the rest of his uncle’s life, he devoted himself to doing whatever it took to facilitate Hans Waldvogel’s ministries. In 1934 the rest of the family followed, and Gottfried Waldvogel became his brother’s associate pastor. The brothers’ complementary gifts as pastor and evangelist enabled the expanding ministries of the next decades.

By 1930 the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church had acquired a home in which workers could live and would-be workers could train for the ministry. The large house at 84-20 85th Drive Woodhaven, known as the faith home, was often filled to capacity.

Late in the 1920s both Adam and Anna Waldvogel died—Adam after a long bout with cancer, and Anna after a series of heart attacks. They were buried in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, in the neighborhood of their first Chicago pastorate. And before their deaths, they reconciled with Hans. Joseph Wannenmacher helped soften Adam’s objections to Pentecostalism, and Hans had the joy of hearing his father affirm his decision to pastor an independent church in which he could freely proclaim the gospel. Hans Waldvogel had purchased a home in Kenosha for his parents. Now his sister, Rose, closed the house and moved to New York to assist her brother in the faith home and the church. Uncle Hans and Aunt Rose had two of their nephews with them. Before long, another niece and nephew followed: Wally and Norman Roth. Norman stayed just a few years, but Wally devoted the rest of her life to assisting her uncle in the church, especially as organist. Active in the Sunday school and other children’s efforts, she helped run the church bookstore and quickly gained the affection of young and old. Over the years, the congregation in New York as well as hundreds in churches across Europe came to call her “Aunt Wally.” Her most prominent post in the church was as organist, but she was talented personal worker as well as the children’s friend, and she soon gained a reputation as a cook, too, entertaining large groups of the congregation at various church functions at the faith home. In her later years, she cooked at Pilgrim Camp. Devoted especially to assisting the church’s outreaches in Europe (where she spent several months each year), she made her home among her extended family and—especially after the death of Rose Waldvogel—played an important role at Uncle Hans’s side. Her music, her cooking and baking, and her sewing and knitting as well as her love for others endeared her to many in the Ridgewood Pentecostal Fellowship.

From the outset others expanded this family nucleus outward. Especially beloved were Frieda Goetz (known by everyone as Sister Frieda), a former Lutheran deaconess, and Amanda Klamm (Sister Amanda), for many years the church caretaker and an exprienced personal worker. Two congregations grew side-by-side, with some intermingling—one German, the other English. The German congregation met on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. English services were Sunday evenings and Friday nights. As individuals and extended families joined, the congrega tion rented nearby space and opened a small store to provide reli gious supplies. Street meetings in German at the corner of Myrtle and Catalpa Avenues in Ridgewood and in English at the intersec tion of Manhattan’s Avenue C and 12th Street, tent meetings in which Edwin Waldvogel took a leading role, and evangelistic serv ices around the city resulted in new congregations on Manhattan’s Lower East Side (1933) and in Brooklyn’s Canarsie (1942) and Williamsburgh (1939) neighborhoods. German services in Manhattan led in 1938 to the establishing of Yorkville Gospel Hall in Manhattan’s principal German section. Edwin Waldvogel, joined by his wife, Edith, and his brother, Arthur, assumed primary responsibility for Yorkville. The Pelham Bay Pentecostal Church (1940) served a Bronx neighborhood. In 1944 Edwin Waldvogel began the Ridgewood Church’s released time program on Wednesday afternoons. These outreach efforts offered opportuni ties for young people to gain ministry experience. Hans and Gottfried Waldvogel were joined by the next generation of their family—Walter, Edwin, Arthur, Gordon, and their wives—in the ministry. Others who helped shape the church’s efforts during these busy years included Ivan and Ethel Bowers, Frank and Emma Posta, Gordon and Caroline Gardiner, Charles Andrews, Ernest and Evelyn Oldfield, Anna Schuette, Robert and Nina Lyon, and Hermina Dautermann. The efforts of Rudolph and Anna (Posta) Kalis in nearby Elizabeth brought them into this circle, too. (Both had long ties to Hans Waldvogel. Rudolph Kalis had been converted by Hans’s witness in the Chicago jewelry shop where they both worked. Anna had come to know Hans Waldvogel as a child Immanuel Baptist Church in Kenosha.)

Daily morning worships at the faith home and a day of prayer on Wednesdays continued the priorities Hans Waldvogel had embraced early in his ministry. Participants in the morning worships read through the New Testament chapter by chapter and took time to comment. When they finished, they simply began again, and so it went year after year. And they sang through the hymnal in the same way—three or four hymns a day, all the way through, and then back to the beginning. This gave the workers a strong grounding in the New Testament and familiarity with a large repertoire of hymns, and morning worships also built a sense of common purpose among those workers whose responsibilities took them different ministry points.

The Ridgewood Pentecostal Church was a faith work. No one received a salary or benefits. This was just one of the ways that the church differed significantly from many emerging Pentecost churches. The absence of men’s and women’s ministry programs well as the full schedule of services, German and English, gave the church calendar a unique rhythm. The ministry emphasis on Christ rather than on the Holy Spirit combined with an unerring commitment to the Bible to forge a congregation less focused on spiritual gifts or signs and wonders than on knowing and obeying the Word. The self-conscious attempts by leaders to allow Christ to have His way in every gathering as well as in their moment-by-moment lives challenged the congregation to expect different kinds of meetings than those typical in many churches around them. The church never insisted on speaking in tongues as “the uniform initial physical evidence” of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, nor did it hold to dispensational premillennialism—both standard emphases in the larger Pentecostal movement. Rather, Hans Waldvogel understood the purpose of the Pentecostal movement to focus in Christ and Christ’s revealing himself in the hearts of believers, empowering them to be as well as to do. While much of American Pentecostalism focused outward, he looked inward. His father’s mentoring, Stockmayer’s ideas, Andrew Murray’s teaching, Moody Church associations, and the ministers of the Zion Faith Homes ground the lens through which he understood the Christian life.

In 1933 and again in 1937 Hans Waldvogel returned to Europe. As the European political and economic crisis expanded through the 1930s, German-speaking immigrants sought new lives in New York, the congregation grew, and reports of the troubles relatives faced at home in Germany and Austria became more persistent. Concern for relatives in Germany grew in the congregation through the years of World War II, even as many of the church’s young men served in the armed forces in Europe and Asia.

In 1947 Hans’s friend, Joseph Wannenmacher, traveled to Switzerland for the first meeting of the World Pentecostal Conference. He soon began sending urgent requests for Hans to join him, and he finally prevailed. The two enjoyed ministry togeth er in German-speaking Switzerland; then Hans Waldvogel crossed into Austria and Germany. He could move freely through the American Zone, and what he saw transformed the rest of his life. In Frankfurt, he passed a group of Christians holding a street meet ing. After a brief conversation, the leader begged him to return to hold evangelistic services. His own observations confirmed what he heard in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany: While those dis possessed by World War II appreciated CARE packages from America, they hungered even more for the clear preaching of the gospel. When Hans Waldvogel returned to New York just in time for Christmas, he wept when he tried to describe what he had seen. Edwin Waldvogel suggested that they try to obtain a tent for evan gelistic services, and his uncle agreed. In 1948, with the hearty support of the congregation, Hans and Edwin and Edith Waldvogel spent several months in Europe evangelizing, assessing ministry opportunities, and contacting relatives and ministers displaced by the war.

One can look at the history of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church and conclude that in 1947 one of its primary reasons for being became clear. God, one might say, brought a family from Switzerland to the United States, placed them in German-speaking ministries and kept them in contact with their homeland so that after World War II they would have a resource base from which to return. After the war the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church generously supported evangelistic outreach in Europe. Hans and Rose Waldvogel, Wally Roth, Edwin and Edith Waldvogel, Walter and Bertha Waldvogel and others devoted themselves to evangelism in cooperation with German Christians that resulted in the gathering of new congregations across West Germany and Austria. Thousands of people crowded their tent wherever they set it up. Edwin Waldvogel saw to the details with the postwar authorities who did not routinely favor evangelistic efforts. He and Edith conducted children’s meetings and assisted in the tent where Hans Waldvogel preached, occasionally assisted by local leaders like Karl Fix, Paula Gassner, Oskar Lardon (whom the Waldvogels met at the World Pentecostal Conference in Paris in 1949), Niklaus Betschel, or Karl Griesfelder as well as by his old friend from Milwaukee, Joseph Wannenmacher. Their theme songs well “Jesus Christus heisst die Botschaft,” a translation of A. B. Simpson’s “Jesus only is our message, Jesus all our theme shall be” and “Folgen und Trau’n”—”Trust and Obey.”

Early in the 1950s Walter and Bertha Waldvogel moved to Germany where they assumed responsibility for one of the resulting new congregations, the Pfingstgemeinde Kirchheim/Teck. In old-fashioned Pentecostal lingo, all of these efforts together—Hamburg, Wuppertal, Moers, Kirchheim, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna, Schaffhausen, and several congregations in Yugoslavia—came to be known in New York as “the work” in Europe. This “work” consumed months of every year for the rest of Hans Waldvogel’s life as he worked to encourage and build the congregations that emerged from his post-war evangelistic efforts. The association with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland strengthened the Ridgewood church as well as its European counterparts.

The death of Gottfried Waldvogel in 1953 at the age of sixty-three necessitated changes at home to enable “the work” in Europe to continue. In his uncle’s absence Edwin Waldvogel took responsibility for German services and stepped into his father’s place as associate pastor. In 1956 Rose Waldvogel died. Her capable personal work had made her an invaluable asset at her brother’s side.

Growing commitments in Europe did not preclude a range of new efforts at home. Chief among these was the development of Pilgrim Camp, an effort enabled by Hans Waldvogel in 1946 and overseen by a board of trustees with Gordon and Caroline Gardiner as directors. Karl and Gertrude Sailer moved from Ridgewood to oversee and improve the thirty-acre camp property at Brant Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Their home became home as well to two Austrian families orphaned by the war and brought to New York by the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church—the Baumgartners and the Schrecks. Margaret Sager, a nurse from Switzerland, took oversight of these young people and also began a lifetime of serv ice as Pilgrim Camp nurse. Soon John Schreck and Elsa and Hermina Baumgartner joined the faith home family in New York. In the 1950s John Schreck, Robert Kalis, and a young minister from the Ridgewood Church, Walter Fette, assisted Hans Waldvogel in Europe. Sister churches in Germany sent some young people to the faith home, too, among them Monika Kleinbach and Siegfried Maier.

Another advance on the home front was a new building suited to the changing needs of the congregation. The building—origi nally a Presbyterian church whose cornerstone was laid in 1928—was typical of neighborhood churches of the era. In 1945 Karl Sailer, Edwin Hergenrother, and Edwin Waldvogel oversaw much of the renovation that turned the gymnasium into a second audito rium suited for worship services and Sunday school. Later, the front choir loft of the sanctuary (at first used regularly by the German choir) was removed and the platform area renovated. Dedicated during the congregation’s twentieth anniversary celebra tion, the building was centrally located in a thriving German neigh borhood. The church contained a small pipe organ, and Wally Roth played it adeptly when she was not abroad as organist for meetings in Europe. Regular attenders noticed her evident gift to use music to complement her uncle’s ministry. The church at 457 Harman Street stood a few blocks from Wyckoff Heights Hospital where, organized by an energetic member named Helen Hoss and prodded by the visitation work of “Sister Frieda” Goetz, church young people had several years earlier begun singing and passing out tracts on Sunday afternoons.

The faith home had also been put to other uses besides housing workers. It offered hospitality to missionaries passing through, and their ministries expanded the vision of the congregation and enriched its experience. In 1947 the congregation sent one of its own, Helen Hoss, to South Africa. A few years later, Pearl Young and Elisabeth Lindau left for Taiwan. Other missionary “regulars” at the faith home included Gottfried and Christine Bender, old friends of Gottfried Waldvogel from Nyack days. Hans Waldvogel preached for the Benders in Venezuela, and the congregation in New York enjoyed their frequent extended visits. The Olson brothers—Yngve from Venezuela and Lawrence from Brazil—had known Hans Waldvogel as their Sunday school teacher in Kenosha. As missionaries on furlough, they considered the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church one of their “homes.” The Bards from China; Louise Schultz from Hong Kong; Kathryn Roth from Kenya; Clara Lewis and Janet Grothman from Liberia; the Loutons and Pettengers from South Africa; Anne Eberhardt, Florence Dreyfus, Margaret Michelsen, Adeline Grieger, the Ericsons, Valborg Frandsen, and other “old-timers” from India regularly spent weeks in the faith home seeking their own renewal as well as enriching the fellowship of New York congregations. From the 1950s preachers from Germany came, too, further strengthening the ties to Europe. In the 1960s when Hans Waldvogel’s travels began taking him to Taiwan, ministers from the fellowship established there by Pearl Young and Elisabeth Lindau also took their places in the faith home and at Pilgrim Camp.

Hans Waldvogel knew the importance of building a sense of fellowship that would nurture those who had contact with the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church. To this end he encouraged the publication, first of the Ridgewood Pentecostal News, and, from 1951, of the Bread of Life. Edited by Gordon Gardiner, the papers presented missionary news and devotional materials supporting the growing fellowship’s special emphases. The Bread of Life had a monthly circulation of about one thousand, and as people moved away, it served an important role of keeping in touch. It ceased publication after Gordon Gardiner died in 1986. The church also helped sponsor a German paper,Sieg des Kreuzes. This was prepared in Germany by Oskar Lardon, and it circulated widely among German-speaking Christians here and abroad.

The church also helped prepare a German hymnal, Siegesklänge, published in Germany by Oskar Lardon with substantial assistance from Hans and Walter Waldvogel. (Each con tributed text; Walter Waldvogel also contributed music.) Hans Waldvogel had an interest in new technology and took advantage of radio opportunities, sponsoring a live English broadcast over WWRL for several years from 1936. During the 1960s and 1970s Edwin Waldvogel prepared German broadcasts that aired on Sunday evenings in New York and on Radio Luxembourg in Europe. These consisted of Hans Waldvogel’s sermons and of music, often arranged by Walter Waldvogel and sung by his choir in Kirchheim/Teck. Hans Waldvogel’s interest in technology made possible an extended tape outreach as well as radio broadcasts.

When Hans Waldvogel died on 24 March 1969, his efforts had taken him around the globe several times. In the work of mission aries, publications, and congregations that identified with the emphases of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, his legacy contin ued. At home his nephews, Edwin and Arthur, together with Gordon Gardiner, assumed full responsibility for the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, Pilgrim Camp, and the faith home. Walter Waldvogel had a leadership role among German pastors and served the Pfingstgemeinde Kirchheim/Teck until his death in November 1977. For many years Arthur Waldvogel faithfully conducted the German-language Yorkville Gospel Hall until demographic changes in the 1970s eliminated the opportunity. Gordon and Martha Waldvogel, who had co-pastored with Anna Schuette at the Williamsburgh Pentecostal Church (from Gordon’s ordination in 1951) until she died in 1965, had taken on the challenge of leader ship there. Alfred Waldvogel assisted the Oldfields, then the Bowers, at Canarsie; Herbert Waldvogel and others served the con jugation in Pelham Bay; the Postas ministered on the East Side and, beginning in 1961, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ozone Park; in 1954 Fred and Eleanor Pra joined the ranks and pioneered a church in Floral Park.

Through the ambitious neighborhood vision of long-time attenders Karl and Maria Hetzel, in the 1960s the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church began sponsoring an outreach in a nearby predominantly Hispanic area. Over the years, the ethnic mix of the neighborhood around the Ridgewood church had changed several times. What had once been primarily German became staunchly Italian, and Spanish-speaking people as well as eastern Europeans moved ever closer. German families and businesses slowly moved out, some stopping in nearby Glendale, and others finding their way to Long Island, New Jersey, and northern counties. The lack of parking and the changing character of the neighborhood affected the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in various ways; but this outreach in the predominantly Hispanic area—known as the Wilson Avenue Mission (later Wilson Avenue Pentecostal Church)—1ed first by Sarah Gerbino Klaus and later by Kenneth Ott, represents the commitment to serve a newer neighborhood constituency. Expanding efforts among recent Chinese immigrants also impact the congregation’s ethnic mix.

Those who called Hans Waldvogel to Brooklyn in 1925 are gone now. But some of their children and grandchildren remain, and many more keep in touch. Pilgrim Camp has become a meeting place for many who once lived close enough to attend services at Ridgewood. The church’s German services continued until 1996 when they were no longer needed; but contacts with Germany remain strong, and groups of young people as well as ministers from the churches in both countries visit as occasion allows. After Uncle Hans’s death Edwin Waldvogel regularly took his place at annual Pentecost conferences hosted by the church in Kirchheim/Teck.

Over the years the fellowship churches have grown and adapted to new circumstances. Ivan and Ethel Bowers followed the Oldfields at Canarsie Full Gospel Chapel. When they retired in 1992, John Schreck, their associate of over twenty years, assumed the oversight of the church. He and his wife Elsa have carried the work forward and seen it grow. Their son-in-law, Kenneth Friedmann, is their capable associate pastor.

When Frank and Emma Posta retired from the pastorate of the Church of the Good Shepherd in 1982, Ernest Waldvogel (who had worked with the Postas for two years) assumed responsibility for the congregation. Under his leadership, the church in Ozone Park has grown. In recent years they expanded their space to capacity, and the building is filled every Sunday.

A new work in Rockaway Beach is led by Garry Patrylo. After coming into the Ridgewood Fellowship through his affiliation with the Canarsie Full Gospel Chapel, Garry was burdened for his old neighborhood and returned to Rockaway Beach to establish The House on the Rock.

In January 2000 Gordon and Martha Waldvogel celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. They continue to serve the Williamsburgh Pentecostal Church, now assisted by their son, Philip John Waldvogel. The Williamsburgh church moved from 608 Grand Street to 674 Metropolitan Avenue in January 1960. In 1972 and 1980 the congregation expanded by purchasing the three-story buildings on either side of the church to help facilitate a grow ing Christian education program.

When Fred Pra, pastor of the Floral Park Pentecostal Church, died in 1977, his wife, Eleanor, continued to serve the church (known as Calvary Full Gospel Fellowship) with the assistance of their son, Mark. In New Jersey, James and Grace Schultheis and their church in Keansburg are part of the Ridgewood Fellowship. With other Fellowship ministers, they share leadership responsibil ities every summer at Pilgrim Camp.

Recent missionary outreaches include Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. After political turmoil forced them from Liberia, Clara Lewis and Janet Grothman turned their efforts toward Tortola. Soon after veteran missionary Clara Lewis died, Veta Greenwood, an English immigrant who had found her church home at Ridgewood, joined Janet Grothman. Together they oversee thriving children’s ministries on several islands as well as adult outreaches and radio broadcasts. Taiwan missionary Gerda Bocker oversees a growing Chinese-language evangelistic effort based in Woodhaven, Queens.

A monthly publication, Things New and Old, is assembled by Edwin and Monika Waldvogel, assisted by Aletha Freeman. It offers inspirational and instructional material focusing on the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church’s particular emphases. Monika Waldvogel takes responsibility for Die Botschaft vom Sieg des Kreuzes, a paper sent monthly throughout the United States, Canada, and German-speaking Europe.


Personal Reflections

Those who—like me—grew up in the Ridgewood Pentecost Church in its middle years remember the church as the center of our lives. The rhythm of services, weeks of prayer, and special efforts like the Sunday school parade, Vacation Bible school, or singing at various hospitals shaped priorities. Saturday morning services served some whose schedules precluded their attendance at week-day morning worships. Morning worship at church on every holiday attracted such people, too. Christmas programs on Christmas night and meetings at fellowship churches on the few nights the Ridgewood Church had none nurtured the conviction that spiritual things mattered most. On special holidays German and English congregations met together, both choirs sang, testimonies were welcome in either language, and hymns and Bible readings were done in both languages simultaneously, though the preaching was generally in English.

The congregation benefited from Hans Waldvogel’s love of music and his extensive knowledge of hymns. He played the violin, and his brother played the piano and organ. Both loved to sing, and their homes featured singing and musical instruments. It was only natural that the congregation joined in with their instrument and special vocal numbers. The congregation has always used a far wider variety of hymns and gospel songs than most. They sing often, frequently from memory. The Waldvogel family’s love for music assured it a prominent place in congregational life, and their taste helped shape the congregation’s corporate song. One never knew when Hans Waldvogel might render the song, “Sail On!” His mischievous side had a serious edge when he delighted the congregation by singing about “the shelf behind the door.” But throughout the years, no English hymn better summarized his confidence than his favorite “battle song”—”Like A River Glorious.”

Those who regard Hans Waldvogel simply as a spiritual leader miss something of who he was. No one could tell a better story, manifest a more lively imagination, or be more thoughtful. Simply put, he was a good companion, and—despite the best efforts of some to insist that he lived on an ethereal plain—his piety was always down-to-earth. To my brother, sister, and me, Uncle Hans took the place of his brother, our grandfather, whose early death meant we never really knew him.

Those who came to the church later—or who knew only its English-language side—also miss something of the man most fol lowed his family to call simply “Uncle Hans.” Since the language of Hans Waldvogel’s primary spiritual formation was German, the hymns that best expressed his piety were often the German songs he had memorized in childhood. Each Sunday morning—with as much liturgical regularity as the church ever mustered—the service concluded with the congregation singing from memory all the stan zas of the old German hymn, “So nimm denn meine Hände, und führe mich” (“Take Thou my hand, and lead me”). As I recall those days, I can almost hear other occasions when Uncle Hans started—and Maria Hetzel kept the congregation going through all the stan zas of—”Solang’ mein Jesus lebt.” The Waldvogel family had long treasured another hymn that especially characterized Hans Waldvogel’s yearning: “Jesu, geh’ voran auf der Lebensbahn, und wir wollen nicht verweilen, Dir getreulich nach zu eilen.” This invitation to Jesus to lead and the promise to follow captures Hans Waldvogel’s personal determination and the vision he and his suc cessors have held before the people they serve.

When Hans Waldvogel left on his frequent trips abroad, the people at the faith home always gathered in the hallway to sing and pray in German and/or English. The hymn for the occasion was generally a Fanny Crosby text, and its words make as apt a conclu sion as any for these reflections. They are equally appropriate tes timonies to the lives of his brother, Gottfried, and other leaders of the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church over the past seventy-five years. And they bring us back to the beginning, for they capture the simple insight the Waldvogels gained from Otto Stockmayer before he left Switzerland for America—expect everything from Jesus:

All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me;
Oh, the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way.


錫安堂歷史 by 曹力中牧師

Written by 曹力中牧師

前言
第一章 追本溯源
第二章 美國伊利諾州錫安城
第三章 從錫安到全世界
第四章 錫安城的信心家庭
第五章 溝子口錫安堂


【前言】

  在台灣叫作「錫安堂」的教會很多,很多宗派都有稱作錫安堂的堂會,聽說在大陸稱作錫安堂的教會特別多!但我們在這裏所講的錫安堂,乃是指著榮教士所建立、以溝子口為母會、在各地有廿幾個分會的錫安堂。我們在這本小冊子中要簡述這個錫安堂的歷史。

  要講一個教會的歷史,當然應當上溯到使徒行傳第二章,五旬節那天聖靈降臨,在耶路撒冷所建立的教會;從一個角度來說,那是一切教會的母會。不過耶路撒冷的教會也還不是最源頭的母會,保羅在加拉太書第四章提到:「那在上的耶路撒冷…是我們的母。」(26節)地上的耶路撒冷並不是永存的,事實上她在歷史上有許多年落在回教徒手中,使徒行傳第二章的耶路撒冷教會也早就不存在了。但這在上的耶路撒冷卻是永存的,她是神在歷世歷代所建造的教會的總合,可以說自人類一墮落,神就開始建造在信的人身上的。使徒行傳五旬節那天,這屬天的教會在地上開始有一個小影-耶路撒冷教會;每一位重生得救的基督徒都應當委身於一個地方教會,在那裏接受牧養,並參與事奉,這樣神才能將那屬天的、宇宙性的教會建造成全在我們身上,也在我們中間。然而這些地上的小影都有可能過去,但有一個屬天的建造卻一直在進行,那就是天上的耶路撒冷,是我們的母。她是永不被毀滅的,聖經有時稱她為新耶路撒冷,是神所經營所建造的城,是聖徒永恆的家鄉。這才是一切教會真正的母會。

  所以我們講一個教會的歷史,應當上溯到這裏,好叫我們知道神原初對教會的心意是什麼,而神原初的心意就是祂永恆的心意,因為神是永恆不變的。今天研究教會應當如何建造的人,常常主張要回到初代教會,但最源頭的教會應該是這在上的耶路撒冷。

  但我們在這本小冊子裏所要講的錫安堂歷史,只要上溯到這個世紀初的一個事工;就像路得記的作者要記述大衛王朝的源頭時,只上溯到前幾代,為著要表明神的一些作為與法則。我們在這裏所要講的歷史將上溯到本世紀初在美國伊利諾州芝加哥附近的錫安城,事實上「錫安堂」這個名稱與此有關。當然教會的名稱並不重要,但我們要藉著這些回顧來思想一些神建造教會的法則,事實上我們正是要藉此來回溯到神對教會永恆的心意。所以我們仍然可以說是將我們的教會歷史上溯到最源頭-我們的母,天上的耶路撒冷。

  我們講自己教會的歷史,並不是覺得我們的教會是特別的而來誇耀。不過我想神的兒女覺得自己的教會是特別的,並沒有什麼不好;你應該覺得我有一個最好最屬靈的教會。當你傳福音給人時,你會說:「來參加我們教會的聚會,我們的聚會很棒,很有神的同在,能叫你得著幫助!我們的牧師也很會講道呢!」如果你出差到外地去,遇見渴慕的人,你傳福音給他,他也信了主,你當然應該介紹他到當地合宜的教會參加聚會;我自己常常介紹人到別的教會。但如果信主的人是在我們的教會附近,我一定會介紹他到自己的教會來,我想這是合乎主作工的法則的。

  所以我認為每一位神的兒女都當以自己的教會、自己的牧師為榮,這是我們來講錫安堂歷史的原因之一。但這不是最主要的原因,最主要的原因是:「從前引導你們、傳神之道給你們的人,你們要想念他們,留心看他們為人的結局。」(來十三7)

  我深深的以我從小到大,神在我跟隨祂的一路上,所量給我的一些屬神的人為榮;他們的教導以及他們生活與生命的好榜樣,帶給我多麼大的幫助與祝福。我不是一個習於崇拜英雄、高舉人的人,事實上在我本性中有厭惡這個的傾向;但有時我們必須提到一些人,好成為我們的榜樣或鑑戒,就像聖經也常常提到一些人一樣。

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第一章 追本溯源

  位於台北市木柵區的溝子口錫安堂,是加拿大籍的榮耀秀姐妹(我們通常稱呼她「榮教士」)於1954年所建立的。在榮教士於1986年離世進入主永遠的賞賜時,錫安堂已發展成有廿幾處分堂,約五十位全職同工的「教派」。當然「教派」這個詞決不是我們喜歡稱呼的,但她確實以擁有相當特殊的聚會與追求方式聞名;榮教士與其同工在各地的教導,也吸引許多渴慕進入更深生命、渴慕活水泉源的聖徒甚至傳道人前往聆聽;就是錫安堂的信徒也常被認為身上散發出一種特別的味道。

  這些榮教士的同工,多半都曾有一些年日在溝子口錫安堂,也可以說在榮教士手下受過教導與訓練;他們事奉的型態與特點、他們生活與生命的樣式,可以說與榮教士本人的生命與性格息息相關。而榮教士的豐盛生命以及充滿了膏抹的事奉,與她在紐約布魯克林區立巨屋五旬節教會所得到的幫助是不能分的,她從在1925年建立這所教會的吳漢斯牧師(我們通常稱呼他「吳老牧師」)所得著的啟發與幫助,更是她終其一生經常提及的。榮教士在這裏經歷了聖靈的浸,並且從神領受了一種生活與事奉的偉大樣式,她的經歷塑造了錫安堂的建立,也塑造了這許多同工。

  吳老牧師是瑞士裔美國人,他在生命與事奉上得著的塑造與幫助,則要追溯到我們在前言中所提到的伊利諾州錫安城。亞歷山大‧陶威博士在1901年所建立的錫安城,在1906年經歷了聖靈大澆灌的洗禮之後,發展出許多偉大的事工。其中與我們所講述的歷史直接有關的,是由羅炳森師母所建立的「信心家庭」。這些故事都將逐一簡述於下面的篇章中。

  • 這本小冊子有些資料取自賈德納牧師所著Out of Zion Into All the World一書(中文譯本《從錫安直到地極》)。
  • 有關榮教士的故事,請參溝子口錫安堂出版的榮教士自傳《我在這裏,請差遣我》(已發行中文版與英文版)。
  • 有關吳老牧師的故事,請參撒母耳訓練學校代禱月訊第32-34期的「器皿的製作」。
  • 有關羅炳森師母的故事,請參溝子口錫安堂出版的《榮耀的光輝》。(本書有中文版、英文版與德文版)

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第二章 美國伊利諾州錫安城

  錫安城(Zion City)位於美國伊利諾州芝加哥北邊約五十公里處,係陶威博士(Dr. John Alexander Dowie)於1901年創立,其居民幾乎全部是他在1896年所建立之教會的成員。這是個基督徒城市,居民皆獻身於其三大宗旨:「救恩、醫治、與聖潔生活。」這裡彰顯過許多偉大的醫治神蹟,也吸引了許多美好、聰明、又熱心的基督徒,到1906年時居民已達數千人,其中也包括了羅炳森師母。

  後來陶威博士失敗,並被迫退出錫安城領袖的職位,城中居民陷入經濟與靈命皆破產的可悲光景中,並因此產生許多猜忌、迷惑、苦毒。這時城中有幾位弟兄就從肯薩斯州邀請了一位傳道人巴罕弟兄(Mr. Charles F. Parham)來幫助他們。

  這項邀請扭轉了錫安城的情況,改變了其中許多人的生命,並進而在後來許多年日中將祝福帶至全世界,是廿世紀最奇妙的事件之一。

  巴罕是一位循道會(衛理公會)背景的自由傳道,在本世紀初任教於肯薩斯州多比卡(Topeka, Kansas)一所聖經學校。這個世紀破曉的那天,1901年元旦清晨,學校裡一位年輕姐妹在守歲禱告中經歷聖靈的浸並說出方言來,以後有些其他的學生以及巴罕弟兄本人也領受了同樣經驗。其中有位姐妹Mrs. Waldron約在1904年搬家至錫安城,她的見證吸引了不少錫安城的居民,也有一位姐妹因此領受了聖靈的浸並說出方言來。這在城中帶來不小的騷動,後來Mrs. Waldron在壓力下離開錫安城;但種子已撒下去,激發了不少渴慕的心靈,其中有五位弟兄常聚集禱告。

  1906年四月,消息傳來,聖靈大有能力地澆灌在洛杉磯的阿茹撒街(AzusaSt.,LA)的一個聚會中(註一)。其領袖是一黑人傳道西默弟兄(W.J.Seymour),他正是巴罕弟兄的學生。錫安城的那五位弟兄遂邀巴罕弟兄到錫安城來。

  雖然巴罕弟兄所帶領的聚會,遭遇錫安城當局一部分領袖的反對,但居民越聚越多,聖靈也澆灌下來,許多人逐一被聖靈充滿,其中有許多人後來被聖靈差往美國與世界各地,其中也有羅炳森師母。這些人帶著聖靈的能力,在世界各地傳揚全備福音,祝福了許多人,從而改變了廿世紀普世教會的歷史。紐約教會的賈德納牧師被主接去之前,將這些故事寫成Out of Zion Into All the World(從錫安直到地極)一書。

  歷世歷代神偉大的工作,常開始於小小的火花。這位從多比卡來到錫安城的Mrs. Waldron,是個沒有多大恩賜,默默無名的小姐妹,但她真正經歷了神,又沒有隱藏她的見證,於是從一個小小的種子就結出豐碩的果實來。錫安堂在各地事工的開展,也常是如此;主常會在一個團體中興起一位渴慕的聖徒,後來火就燒旺起來,影響了許多人。正如主自己所講比喻,祂說天國好比一粒芥菜種,開始時很小,後來卻長成大樹。神的工作不怕開始時有多小,只要有真實的種子,有真實的生命,真有人遇見了主,真有人被聖靈充滿,就一定會結出果實來。

  今天這個世代最大的需要,不是出來一個偉大的政治家、社會學家,也不是一套更好的學說,不是出來一個可以改變世界的領袖,甚至不是興起一個大有能力的教會領袖!今天這個世代最大的需要乃是人有真實天國的種子在他們裏面,雖然開始的時候很小,但後來要長成大樹,有飛鳥來棲息於其上,叫許許多多人得著奇妙的祝福。神在整個教會歷史中的奇妙作為,都在這個原則裏往前。所以我們不要只著眼於大規模的活動,我們應時時關切的乃是我們與神的關係,留意保守我們心中寶貴的種子。

〔註一〕這個事件史稱「五旬節運動」,參橄欖出版《火浪湧來》一書。

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第三章 從錫安到全世界

  錫安城在這次聖靈大澆灌中,有許多居民經歷了聖靈的浸,其中有不少人在接下去的世代中,成為神所重用的器皿。下面是幾個傑出的例子,我們也摘錄一些他們的講論,好讓我們看見這些五旬節運動的先驅們,如何論到這末後的日子聖靈偉大澆灌的意義。

一. 弗勞爾夫婦J. Roswell(1888~1970)and Alice Reynolds(1890~1993)Flower

  弗勞爾弟兄的家庭從加拿大移民到美國時,就定居在錫安城,後來在陶威博士的作法帶來困擾時,它們舉家遷至印第安那波利斯。1907年在那兒他們遇見了從洛杉磯吹來的五旬節運動的聖靈之風。弗勞爾太太愛麗絲雷諾則是印第安那波利斯本地人,他們兩位都在1907年領受了聖靈的浸,於1911年結婚。

  弗勞爾弟兄原屬衛理公會(循道會),弗勞爾太太則屬宣信弟兄所建立之宣道會;後來他們夫婦又參與衛斯理麥蘭(David Wesley Myland)的事工,而麥蘭牧師原為宣道會中的領袖,也在這一波五旬節運動中經歷了聖靈的浸。所以弗勞爾夫婦與宣道會關係密切,而宣信弟兄所傳講的「四重福音」-基督是拯救者、醫治者、使人成聖並用聖靈施洗者、以及再來的君王,都是以基督為中心。這些生命與真理的穩固根基,使弗勞爾夫婦在進入五旬節運動,又逐漸成為其重要領袖之後,能一直強調聖靈的浸最重要的意義。他們夫婦很多年在五旬節運動之後新形成的宗派神召會(Asemblies of God)中,擔任非常重要的職位,神召會的形成與擴展跟他們密不可分。

  愛麗絲‧雷諾‧弗勞爾(註一)後來與吳老牧師所建立的紐約立巨屋五旬節教會,有相當親密的交通,常應邀成為其夏令營的講員,她的文字、特別是詩,常被刊在紐約教會出版的月刊Bread of Life上,其中有一些也曾譯成中文刊在溝子口錫安堂出版的雙月刊《恩光》上。她許多的詩,都表達了五旬節經歷的意義與生活方式,下面就是其中一首,刊在《恩光》第123期:

清晨之詩

主阿我今向你獻上清晨之詩,歡樂頌揚!
神聖純愛在心充滿,分享你那浩大平安。
有福港口安全穩妥,在你翅膀蔭下藏躲。
惟願今日與你同住,望眼欲穿只見耶穌。
獻上愛的馨香火祭,直到晚霞染紅天際;
我心仍舊追尋安息,靠你膀臂遠離仇敵。


  弗勞爾弟兄則有一些文章也表達了早期五旬節運動的領袖們,如何看待這偉大的神的運行。他認為五旬節的經歷(聖靈的浸),意味著「被帶入面對面與耶穌有活潑的交通」。他也認為因著忽略等候主的聚會,神召會中第三或第四代的信徒,已經犧牲了他們所承受之產業的重要部分!他說:

  「惟一能滿足信徒的心的,乃是將他們帶入與耶穌面對面活潑的交通中;一個膚淺的生命絕不會產生這種生活。而這正是等候主聚會的目的;但等候主的聚會幾呼已從五旬節運動中消失了。在禱告中等候主,是我們將自己降服在聖靈的引導與膏抹中所必須的操練。神盼望能在大能中降臨在祂百姓中間,但惟有當我們願意花時間與神同在,並為此尋求祂的面,祂才能降臨。」(註二)

〔註一〕有關弗勞爾太太的故事,請參溝子口錫安堂所出版之恩光選集《聖靈豐滿的祝福》中「蒙受五旬祝福的七十年」一文。
〔註二〕本文主要內容摘譯自Edith L. Blumhofer所著Pentecost in My Soul一書。


二. 布朗夫婦 Marie(1880~1971) and Robert(1872~1948)Brown

  1907年,在紐約曼哈頓中區開始了一個五旬節教會的事工,是由一位年輕姐妹主領的,當時很少人會想到這個後來稱為Glad Tidings Tabernacle的教會,會成為叫千萬人得祝福的偉大事工!Christian Life雜誌在1954年將她列為曼哈頓最傑出的五所教會之一。

  這位姐妹名叫布姬‧瑪莉Marie Burgess,她後來在1909年嫁給布朗弟兄,二人在紐約為主做了美好的聖工。他們惟一的兒子一出生就去世了,以後他們一直沒有孩子;但他們擁有許多屬靈的孩子。這些人這樣形容他們夫婦在事奉上完美的配搭-Robert將他們「刺入剖開」,然後Marie「倒入膏油」。

  瑪莉在聖靈澆灌錫安城時,經歷了大有能力的靈浸,以後神差她往紐約去建立五旬節的事工(註一)。她在一個婦女公開講道尚未被普遍接受的世代中,成為一個廣被尊敬和喜愛的講員,是一個傑出的牧師、使徒、和先知。在她的信息中她常呼召神的百姓「(謙卑)下來」,它因著看見許多經歷了聖靈的浸的人,後來「失去了對神的渴慕,也就是對祂顯現的渴慕」,而心中起了如保羅一般的「憤恨」(林後十一2)。所以終其一生,她常帶著沉重的負擔呼召神的百姓,要來「坐在祂的同在中」,並「追求認識祂」。(註二)

〔註一〕有關瑪莉‧布朗的故事,請參溝子口錫安堂所出版《榮耀的光輝》第十六章。
〔註二〕本文主要內容摘譯自Edith L. Blumhofer所著Pentecost in My Soul一書。

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第四章 錫安城的信心家庭

  錫安城的居民中,凡被聖靈充滿又進入五旬節的職事者,幾乎全部離開錫安城,前往美國各個城市以及世界各地。只有一小部份被主引導留在錫安城,其中最突出的就是那些在「信心家庭」的傳道人們。

  信心家庭的領袖們包括布魯克長老夫婦、密歇爾夫婦、羅炳森夫婦、翟弟兄夫婦、以及史蒂拉小姐。其中除了史蒂拉小姐外,原來都是陶威博士手下傑出的同工,後來又在五旬節運動中影響深遠。

  信心家庭(Faith Homes) 的成立,始於羅炳森師母在1907年的一個經歷。1906年底她領受了聖靈的浸(二個月後即次年初她才說出方言),雖然在此之前她已是個在傳福音或為病人禱告,以及在教導上都很有能力的被主使用的年輕傳道人,而被聖靈充滿後更是如虎添翼。但主並未使她立刻進入廣泛有功效的服事中,卻將一個極大的渴慕與呼求放在她心中;有幾個月之久,她不住地禱告說:「使我認識基督,曉得祂復活的大能!使我死去!…」然後在1907年十一月,主至終成全了這禱告,將她帶入一種偉大經歷中,她自己描述說:「基督住在我裡面,不是我自己活著,彷彿基督借用了我的身體。」(註一)

  之後,主也使用羅炳森師母幫助上述後來成為信心家庭領袖的傳道人們,藉著全心全力的禱告追求,主將他們也帶入與羅炳森師母類似的經驗中。布魯克師母這樣描述之:「我發現祂就是我靈魂所愛慕、所渴想的那位,我不斷地活在祂的同在裡,也活在祂翅膀的蔭下,基督對我變得非常真實。」羅炳森師母在多年後回顧這段早期的日子時說:「這項事工開始時,我們為『向己死』這件事禱告通,遂進入一種前所未知的改變裡-包括從頭到腳的每一個地方。…一剎時之間我們不見了,只餘更大的那一位;整個靈與魂與身體進入一種嶄新而神聖的管制中。我們的身體靈魂走出了天然,進入了屬靈的」。神藉著這樣的經驗,開展了這項事工。

  錫安城的第一個信心家庭於1910年開放,之後又陸續增加到三個信心家庭,參加聚會的人數日日增多。這些信心家庭有幾項特色:

  1. 幾乎天天有聚會,常常一天有三次聚會,其中一次是等候主的聚會。
  2. 幾個傳道人一起配搭,隨聖靈感動起來講道,帶領一首詩歌或短歌、方言或預言的信息,或對個人作按手、預言、勸勉等服事。
  3. 若聖靈沒有別的帶領,他們就只有安靜坐在主面前,常常那是神彰顯浩大同在之時刻。這與古時貴格會的聚會光景相似。(參基督教輔橋出版的「貴格派文集」一書中 George Fox 的日記)
  4. 家庭成員過信心生活,不但在經濟上如此(同工們從不對外提到物質需要也不收奉獻,除了為海外宣教收奉獻外),在人員接待上也是如此─主自己安排誰住進來。
  5. 信心家庭附近的芝加哥是美國東西部交通的重要中途站,許多傳道人與宣教士在此經過或停留,信心家庭成為他們從新得力的地方;而住在裡面受訓練的年輕工人也因此有許多機會接觸這些有經驗的傳道人與宣教士,激發其宣教心志,也學習許多寶貴的事。據估計,每年至少有一千人進出信心家庭。

  信心家庭從建立到1936年羅炳森師母去世為止,廿五年期間造就了無數神兒女,神也特別使用它們來造就工人。

  那些在錫安城靈性與經濟上破產而受傷的神兒女,有許多來到信心家庭,在此得了醫治、領受了聖靈的浸。他們特別從這裡有關讚美的教導與在聚會中實行讚美裡,得著很大的幫助。這些教導後來被製作成「讚美」小單張。

  在信心家庭受訓練的年輕人,後來有些被神差往美國各地,其中有在紐約布魯克林區建立「立巨屋五旬節教會」的吳老牧師;也有些被差往南美洲、非洲、印度、中國等等,在各地被主重用。羅炳森師母在信心家庭中教導受裝備的年輕人,如何操練保持主的同在,她的教導被製作成「內在的生活」小單張。

【讚 美】

  你要時時刻刻的力求能夠讚美──要超越你的一切過錯,超越別人的一切誤會,超越你所有的失敗,和別人一切魯莽的言行;當失意的感覺臨到你的時候,你當留心──立刻要起來抵擋它,遠離它,制止它,把它交給主,不要理會它,不要再去想它;要快快樂樂的說話,保持一付爽朗的臉色,不管發生了甚麼事,要安息下來,讓它在主的手裡就好了。無論是大的難處,小的難處,痛切的失意,或輕微的沮喪,都要保持你的讚美和信心,不要去看那些東西,也不要看你自己,你只要看耶穌就好了。

  假若你天天讚美主,時時刻刻地讚美主,你將不知道會發生多大的事,那是要使你前所閱歷的一切都失去顏色的。你必常常看見主,將有一個極其驚人的大改變要臨到你這個人──你要以祂自己的道為樂,以祂的願望來代替你那天然人的願望,你也要在祂面前狂喜,你就要以稱頌、讚美,誇耀祂的聖名了。

  這樣的人,便是那些得勝者的行列。 -羅炳森師母

【內在的生活】

  當耶穌吸引人們來愛祂時,祂盼望他們時刻地注視祂。如果他們殷勤地追求,這每時每刻的注視就成為他們生活的方式。

  起初的經歷,他們是藉著更多禱告、讚美、等候神、交通及有時在工作中來注視耶穌。  如果他們在這方面的經歷有長進,並且成了神所用的器皿時,他們便能更多的尋求祂,祂也更多向他們顯現,因為祂留意那些專心尋求祂的人。  不但如此,祂也開始使他們的心思每時每刻專注在祂自己身上,激起他們在祂裡面有所尋求。這就是內在及更深生命的起點。  當他們進入這個階段時,祂就藉著別的教師或亮光教導他們如何「操練與神同在」──就是:將心思定注在耶穌身上──任何遊蕩的心思、動作、言語或感覺都要在神的愛中藉著器皿的意志把它召回。

  我們的心思往往逗留在一件事物上而不是神自己,這時我們要非常小心把心思轉向神。當我們一發現有一句話不是出於祂的意思時,當立即把它改過來。要回到裏面注視耶穌,告訴耶穌,是祂在你裏面掌權。如此你的行動、思想、及言語將合乎祂的旨意,並且祂將看顧你使你能行出來。

  同時,你也需要在神裡面儆醒禱告、安靜等候。如此的生活將使任何一個人有了裡面的轉變:也就是使他能與主同在。如果你在神裡面一直保持這種謙卑、安息及信心時,聖靈便將主動的使你住在神裡面,看見神,思念神,並蒙保守。這就是每位基督徒所蒙的呼召,所要過的真正內在的生活。 -羅炳森師母

〔註一〕本文有關羅炳森師母的故事,請參溝子口錫安堂出版之《榮耀的光輝》第四章。


【紐約布魯克林立巨屋五旬節教會】

  神藉著錫安城信心家庭所造就的傳道人中,吳老牧師(Hans R. Waldvogel)是很傑出的一位。(註一)

  1925年他在紐約市布魯克林區建立了立巨屋(Ridgewood)五旬節教會,戰後又在歐洲建立了幾個強有力的教會(特別是德國)。1929年開始了紐約的信心家庭,從這裡也造就了許多被主重用的工人,像凱牧師、榮教士、林教士、貝教士等。1969年吳老牧師去世後,由其姪兒吳愛恩(Edwin Waldvogel)接任這個教會的牧師。

  1946年,教會在紐約上州買了一個營地,叫Pilgrim Camp,每年夏天有幾個月為成人與小孩舉辦各梯次的營會,叫許多人在此得造就。這個營地由教會配搭同工賈德納(Gordon P. Gardiner)牧師夫婦主持。榮教士、林教士、貝教士都曾參與這裡的事奉,在服事上受操練。1986年賈德納牧師去世後,夏令營由凱牧師(Robert Kalis,貝教士的姐夫,在紐澤西州伊莉沙白的以馬內利堂牧會)接任負責。

  1951年,教會開始發行《生命之糧》(Bread of Life)月刊,造就了世界各地許多人。內容主要是刊載羅炳森師母及其同工內在生活的信息,錫安堂出版的「恩光」雙月刊也有許多文章譯自 Bread of Life。這份雜誌也由賈德納牧師夫婦主編,他們又陸續出版了幾本流傳甚廣的書,包括Radiant Glory(中譯本即《榮耀的光輝》)、Out of Zion Into All the World(中譯本為《從錫安直到地極》)等。1986年賈德納牧師去世後,Bread of Life就停刊了,改以別的型態發行教會的刊物。

  吳老牧師是一位非常屬靈的人,他從年輕付代價竭力追求主,一直到被主重用時仍如此。事實上無論是羅炳森師母、吳老牧師、榮教士,以及許多早期被神重用的器皿,他們事工的推展都源自器皿更深的追求與生命,不是在事奉上有什麼花巧。但願今天主仍然得著這樣的器皿。下面摘錄一段吳老牧師的信息:

【獨一的呼召】

  今天神正在全地作一些事,是我們應當留意的,報章雜誌與國家政府也都應當注意-除非我們十分謹慎,否則很可能忽略了它-就是耶穌的臨在與顯現。

  神原初的目的,是要藉著五旬節運動為耶穌同在的顯現開路,使耶穌基督能被祂的百姓接納為王。這件事實在迥異於那些為人所見且讚賞的事。當耶穌基督彰顯祂的同在時,就意味著祂找到了一個真心順服祂、要祂的人了。

  就是這件事帶來了五旬節運動-人要耶穌。開始的時候,他們一點也不曉得什麼恩賜、能力,但他們曉得缺少耶穌,且曉得要祂自己。我記得那時聽過有人這樣禱告:「耶穌啊,我們唱你的詩歌,聽你的道,但你究竟在那裡呢?」當耶穌基督開始彰顯祂自己時,乃是把人帶進一種內在經歷中,這經歷就改變他們,使他們外在的人也莊嚴起來,從此他們就認識了耶穌。

  主耶穌曾說:「有了我的命令又遵守的,這人就是愛我的,…我也要愛他,並且要向他顯現(我的自己)。」(約十四21)你不能欺哄神,祂只向一種人顯現祂自己,就是真正單單要祂、尋求祂的人;他們遵守祂的命令,一直禱告、相信、順服、愛祂,直到得著祂的顯現,得著祂的同在。

  我們只能有一個呼召-就是要得著耶穌成為我們自己的。或許你曾經嚐過祂的臨在與內在的滋味,於是除了祂自己之外,再沒有別的能吸引你的心、使你滿足了。天上、地上、地底下,並沒有什麼事物真能滿足人的心,惟獨耶穌基督才能。那些如饑似渴單單要祂自己的人有福了。耶穌是一位忌邪的新郎,祂使祂的新婦歷經各等試驗,要看看她在其中是否多多想到耶穌,而非自己;多多提到耶穌,而非別人;多多注意耶穌,而非各樣事物;經得起考驗的人才會得著耶穌。

  有一件事正在臨到全地上,但尚未完全顯明-就是耶穌基督要在屬祂的人身上顯明出來,在祂的眾聖徒身上得著榮耀。今天耶穌正用大能力、諸般恩賜,並聖靈裡各種方式的服事來顯明祂自己,但最要緊的是祂所教我們的禱告:「願你的國降臨(在我們中間)!主耶穌啊,我願你來!」耶穌基督必須找到一種人,他們預備好要接受祂自己,他們被祂充滿,與祂聯合,不滿足於任何事物,發覺自己與祂榮耀的形狀還差一點時就不滿意-祂必須找到這種人!

  讓我們自問:我是正在盡我所能、盡我所知地來更認識耶穌嗎?我是否這樣呼求著-「耶穌啊,叫我認識你」?可憐我們都成了懶惰的人,我們都瞎了眼,對我們君王的呼召只有冷冰冰的回應!我們說在尋求祂,但當祂前來向我們顯現時,卻不留意祂的同在。啊,耶穌基督何等切望要被彰顯出來呀!

  你可知道,在這世上若有一個聚會,無論是兩三個人或兩三千人,因著耶穌基督的同在清楚地顯現在那兒,祂在他們中間行走,每一顆心都被祂吸引到祂面前,引到敬拜之中,每一顆心都向祂打開,並且都因祂的同在而滿足了,請問還有比這更甜美、更有能力、更奇妙的事嗎?

  也許祂並未大大使用你,但你擁有一位偉大的救主、偉大的新郎、偉大而奇妙的君王;而且當你擁有祂時,你就擁有了一切。

(本文摘自恩光選集《明亮的晨星》)

〔註一〕有關吳老牧師受裝備的故事,請參撒母耳訓練學校代禱月訊第32-34期的「器皿的製作」。

TOP


第五章 溝子口錫安堂

  榮教士(Pearl G. Young)原籍加拿大,從小在蘇格蘭長老會的敬虔氣氛中長大,25歲時以內地會宣教士身份前往中國大陸,被派在山東煙台的宣教士兒女學校任教員,直到太平洋戰爭於1941年爆發,被關進日本集中營三年。戰後1946年經人介紹來到紐約立巨屋教會追求,領受了聖靈充滿,以及一生信守不渝的追求方式。她自己曾見見証說:

  「我無法詳述那些日子聚會的情形,一切都很新奇,彷彿置身於另一世界,因著服事的器皿決意俯伏在神面前,等候聖靈的帶領和主同在的彰顯,所以這些聚會完全受聖靈管治。…聚會有自由敬拜、有安靜等候主的時間,也有聖靈恩賜的運行,聚會充滿了神的同在與大能。我雖然已多年認識主、愛主、事奉主,卻缺少他們那與主親密的關係。」

  榮教士在她的自傳《我在這裏,請差遣我》(由溝子口錫安堂出版)中,描述她在這兒所參加的第一次聚會時這樣說:「那場聚會完全改變了我,我第一次知道聖靈的浸就是要引人與耶穌面對面,引人進入與耶穌面對面的交通。我原以為自己所需要的是能力-事奉的能力。當然那裏也有能力,有聖靈恩賜的運作,但這些不是重點;所強調的乃是耶穌自己-這是最寶貴且最重要的。」

  榮教士留在那裡追求的期間,領受了聖靈充滿,主榮耀地向她顯現,並將幾件事深刻地啟示在她心中,我們可以說,日後她一切事奉豐碩的果實都起源於這「大馬色的經歷」:

一. 基督徒因信稱義之後,還須被聖靈充滿,才能「全備」地領受耶穌的救恩。

二. 聖靈充滿的中心意義是耶穌(約十五26,十六14)。聖靈充滿使耶穌實際而豐盛地彰顯在信徒裡面,所以追求耶穌的同在成為追求聖靈充滿的正確態度。不應專意追求聖靈的恩賜,但也不可忽視。被聖靈充滿的信徒應期待並羨慕得著造就教會的恩賜,並明白一切恩賜也是為著彰顯耶穌(而非彰顯器皿本身)。

三. 要保持聖靈充滿,住在主裡面而多結果子,必須:

  1. 完全順服主。包括遵守神的命令,如常常喜樂、彼此相愛、凡事謝恩、常常讚美,並要在生活中學習順服聖靈的引領。(約十四21、23)
  2. 在個人生活與聚會中常用時間安靜親近主、等候主,也學習在生活與服事中與神同在。
  3. 這樣,我們必逐漸被模成神兒子的形像,且同被建造成為神的居所,這是神最終的心意。(參林後三18,羅八18~30,弗二19~22等)

  之後不久,榮教士以自由宣教士的身份與另一姐妹Esther Hess 連袂再往大陸宣教,大陸赤化後,回到加拿大。經常前往紐約立巨屋教會,或住信心家庭追求,或在Prlgrim Camp參與事奉。1954年主差遣她與林教士(Elizabeth Lindau)前來台灣宣教,直到1986年去世。1992年,林教士也以八十高齡退休回美,教會由貝教士(Gerda Bocker)接任大家長。

  當神呼召榮教士到台灣來時,她身上有嚴重的癌症,腹部腫大如孕婦,但她毅然順從上帝呼召,與林教士於1954年搭船前來戰局危殆之台灣,後來前往當時尚無教會之木柵溝子口,建立了第一間錫安堂。不久主醫治了她的癌症。因著她對上帝的順服,今天錫安堂已發展成在台灣各主要縣市皆有分會的事工,她的教導與榜樣也直接或間接影響了千萬人。(註一)

  我們將榮教士在台灣卅二年的事奉,分成幾個階段簡述如下:

一. 第一個十年(1954-1965):

  1954年溝子口錫安堂建立之後,因著福音的大能,許多人在此得幫助,其中包括鄉間小民,也包括考試院的委員,和大學教授等。他們有的經歷了心靈的新生,有的經歷重病得醫治,得救人數逐漸加多。當時許多教會對於聖靈充滿所帶來的豐盛與能力所知不多,但神的同在與大能彰顯在溝子口錫安堂,名聲逐漸傳開,有不少人從台北各地、宜蘭、高雄、甚至香港前來拜訪榮教士或參加聚會,從而得著聖靈的充滿與祝福。

二. 第二個十年(1966-1975):

  這期間在台北地區拓植了三個分堂,其中包括了後來也被視為母會的公館錫安堂。1967年分別由英國與紐約來了另兩位女宣教士,其中戴默麗教士前往偏遠的深坑拓荒,較年輕之貝珍珠教士則加入新建立之公館錫安堂的事工。公館錫安堂開工之初經歷重重困難,但這彷彿豐收之前的產難,因為從1970年之後,忽然湧來許多年輕人,特別是大專學生,他們因在此尋見基督和滿有榮光的喜樂,就互相傳報,帶領更多人來。教會也開始了後來廣為人知的錫安堂青年冬夏令營。在這些年輕人中,有數十位後來蒙上帝呼召,在下一個十年中被差往台灣各地建立了許多分堂。

三. 第三個十年(1976-1986):

  這許多前來尋求上帝的年輕人,在這裏尋見了基督,被聖靈充滿,經歷了無法言喻的神同在的光輝;主從其中揀選一些人,逐漸差他們往各處去建立教會。到1986年榮教士以八二高齡離世,去享受她永恒的榮耀與公義的冠冕時,台灣主要縣市都已建立了錫安堂,連同母會共有廿六處教會,全職同工近五十位,會友總人數也接近二千人。

四. 1986年之後:

  當年與榮教士連袂來台,同樣將一生獻給台灣,多年委身於兒童事工的林樂道教士,在榮教士離世後接下教會事工。1991年林教士因年紀老邁,退休回美國,然而錫安堂的事工並未因教會領袖的去世或離去而失敗;在大家長貝珍珠教士及各地同工的忠心耕耘下,各地聖徒都能靠主站立得穩,並且比過去更積極開展福音聖工,有些地方甚至開始成為母會,在其附近拓植新的教會。


星期六, 5月 01, 2010

在美國租車的保險

USATODAY.com - Do you really need car rental insurance?

Options galore

If you've determined that your existing coverage is not fully adequate, you'll be faced with a variety of products to purchase.

Here are the four types of optional insurance offered by most major car rental firms:

CDW (collision damage waiver) and LDW (loss damage waiver). This relieves you of financial responsibility for a rental vehicle damaged by an accident, vandalism or theft. It usually costs between $9 and $20 per day. Note: Although the sale of CDW was formerly prohibited in New York state, recent legislative changes now allow it.

SLI (supplemental liability insurance). This provides excess liability coverage up to $1 million. It usually costs between $7 and $9 per day.

PAI (personal accident insurance). This covers you and all passengers in your vehicle for any medical expenses. It's not necessary for most renters already covered by personal health policies or travel policies. It usually costs between $3 and $5 per day.

PEC (personal effects coverage). This provides coverage for theft of or damage to personal items inside the rental car. Again, it replicates coverage already provided to many renters through their own insurance policies. It usually costs between $2 and $5 per day.

Rental companies make these options even more confusing by combining two or more into insurance packages. Each product should be evaluated separately. First determine if you have a need for the service, and then verify if you are not already covered. Finally, of course, you have to comparison-shop the costs. Note that in some leisure hot-spots, the cost of taxes, fees, surcharges and optional insurance can easily exceed the daily base rate of the rental itself.

星期四, 1月 28, 2010

• After installing, the script will be running as Paused. The only thing different will be what you see below.

Prior to clicking Resume, first click AutoPlay Settings. Most likely you don't want to use the default settings.

GENERAL

• Enable auto-refresh / Refresh every "30" to "110" seconds (default set to 30 - 110 )

This refreshes the screen looking for items to complete at a random interval be between the two times you set.

>>> It is not recommended to set the first time below 30 seconds as it may become too difficult to get into the settings to change anything.
• Enable auto-heal / Minimum health + Hide in hospital

This will take you to the hospital and completely heal your character once Health gets below what you set. It will also automatically withdraw money from the bank if needed.
>>> Setting this to below 29 could cause you to die in your next fight.
• Hide in Hospital

Enable this to prevent others from attacking you for a short period of time. The auto-heal will start up again once your health gets back to 20. You will know you are hiding in the hospital when the icon next to Health on the games front page shows a red cross with a bandage around it.
>>> The red cross (or red cross with the white flag if you are hiding ) can be clicked on to heal you in one click.

>>> Using this setting in conjunction with setting your auto-heal setting to 29 is very efficient for getting into the hospital. Since the max damage is 27+damage bonus, at 29 you shouldn't ever be killed, but are likely to end up in the hospital. If you set your heal to 50 or higher, you will not likely get there. There can be an issue that you do not have the ability to heal when you get below 29 and over 20, then you could be killed. A request has been submitted to add a timer to delay fighting after a heal, to allow us to heal again. The recommendation was to just increase the delay between fights, but that unfortunately made it too slow and ended up wasting energy/stamina.
• Enable auto-bank / Maximum amount

This will automatically make deposits for you once your cash goes above the amount you set.

>>> Auto-bank shouldn't be set if you want to auto-buy, as auto-buy doesn't withdraw cash, but protects it from the 10% fee by saving it to property instead of the bank.

>>> Auto Bank In New York & Cuba Now!
• Enable auto-pause

This will pause the script Choose between Before or After you level up. If you choose Before, then also set the Experience left to pause at. The system will pause once your experience needed to level up gets to that amount or less.

>>>If you chose pause before leveling up, note that certain events can still happen that gain you experience points and push you into leveling up. Being Paused cannot prevent this.
• Enable auto-lotto

This will Auto pick your tickets and Submit them.

• Enable left align main frame

This will move the game play area to the left so that there is more room for the log on the right.
• Enable Hide advertising

This will remove the Zynga Hide advertising that show above the game play area.
• Move email options to the bottom

This will move the Email me notify to the bottom of the page.
• Enable Logging

This displays a log of events along the right side of the screen. Included in the log at the bottom are some stats of your character. More details about the log later.
Use the Max # of messages in log to determine how much information you want to viewable in the log at one time.
Set Log Player Updates to on if you want everything that shows in the Player Updates window recorded in the log. Otherwise, the only items that show up in the log is anything that the script does that you wouldn't see in the Player Updates window.
• Log Player Updates

Enable this if you want everything that shows in the Player Updates window recorded in the log. Otherwise, the only items that show up in the log is anything that the script does that you wouldn't see in the Player Updates window.

• Enable auto-stat

This will automatically assign any skill points you earn to the skill you have chosen.
• Enable Hourly Stats Updates

This will get hourly updates from the game.
• Skip Gift Wall Posts
This will Automatically click the Skip button when wall post pop up.
• Minimum experience for job help

This is the min about of experience you get back from the job (pic above was set for "Boss Job ~ Shake Down a City Council Member) Player can set to Any job payout amount.
• Message to post on Wall for job help

This will be the message that will be posted with the wall post for Help Jobs.

MISC

• Enable auto-stat

this will activate the auto stats (turn it on)
• Disable auto-stat when status goals are reachedl

If checked, the auto-stat allocation will stop and log a message saying you have reached your status goals
• Fallback Method

Once you hit all your goals, this will be where your stat points will end up going in a "round-robin way" if you checked any of the fallback stat. The Disable auto-stat must be unchecked for the auto-status point allocation to use fallback method. If not one is checked, then the auto-stat allocation will be disabled.
• Priorities

This will set how you want the flow of your stats to be sent from 1(highest) to 5 (lowest) in this pic shows that no 1 is for attack stats each stat has its own drop bar. If your status goals for attack and defense have the same priority, status points will be allocated to the stat which is FARTHEST from your status goal.
• Goal

This is the status goal you would like to reach, may either be an actual targeted status value (say "500" attack), or a ratio against a certain attribute (say a ratio of "2" against level). Discussed more thoroughly below.
• Allocation Mode

This allows you to (Mode 1) just set a stat target value or (Mode 2) you can set a ratio against a certain attribute.

Mode (1) - Stat target value
- Use this if you want a fixed value for a certain attribute, mostly useful for Health or Stamina
- Say if you set a value of "200" and select "Health target value", then it will just add stats to Health till the target value is reached.

Mode (2) - Stat ratio against certain attribute
- Use if you want a certain stat to increase with respect to any of the other attributes
- Stats are usually hooked against character level
- Say your level is 200, and you want your energy to reach 400, then place "2" as the value for "Energy ratio against level"
- This simply means you want your Energy to be "2" times your character level

Les Msg: Not 100% sure how this works when i find out more Info i will be sure to edit this.
Cygnum: I hope this clears some things up, any clarifications don't hesitate to send me a message.


ENERGY
• Master jobs one at a time

When turning this on, also select the mission you want to work on. Auto mission will continuously do this mission until it is mastered. Once mastered, the next mission will automatically be selected and the process will repeat.
When you only want to do a specific mission all the time.
• Perform any combination of jobs

When turning this you get the option to select jobs you wish to run (hold CTRL + push jobs )
Also Support multiple jobs with automatic switching based on experience payoff ratios and the ratio needed to level up.

>>> when enabled only one job ~ Repeat Job will kick in automatically.
• Perform jobs only when energy is full

Enabling this will give you the opportunity to do some jobs on your own. Otherwise, it will run missions once energy is full thus preventing you from having an idol energy regeneration timer.
• Spend energy packs
This will use auto use energy packs if ready to be use (set by Estimate Job Ratio)
• Estimate Job Ratio

This will be how you set it your Auto-Energy Pack. (so if you set to 8.6 it will use it when job pay Ratio is at 8.6)
• Job mastery items owned

1, Have helicopter job mastery loot item (get this by completing All jobs in "Consigliere")
2, Have Private Island job mastery loot item (get this by completing All jobs in "Underboss")
3, Have golden throne job mastery loot item (get this by completing All jobs in "Boss")
• Character type is Maniac

If you are Maniac Please tick this box as all player types are different.
• Auto Send Energy Pack

This will enable Auto Player to send Energy Packs to your mafia every hour.
STAMINA
• Spend stamina to
This is used to set if you want to Fight/Rob/Hitlist (pic below)

• Enable Random Opponents Fight/Rob

• Location

This will be where you want to fight. (New York Or Cuba)
• Maximum level

this is to put in the max level you would like to have your Opponents to have (Add My Level Checked will add any level close to you)
• Maximum mafia

this is to put in the max mafia size you would like to have your Opponents to have (Add my mafia size will add mafia size same as yours)
• Minimum mafia
This will be the minimum amount of mafia you would like
• Use fight stealth

This option will fight mafia that are either inactive or have health below 20. Fighting these users should not show in their history and can help you avoid being added to the hitlist.
If you've played the game manually you may have noticed that when you attack an opponent, sometimes the "Attack Again" link shows up after the first attack and sometimes it doesn't. Some smart guys figured out that when this link shows up - the opponent is active and can see your attacks. When it DOESN'T have the link - the player has actually become inactive or their health is below 20 and attacking these people does not show up in their player updates.

To clarify, the script will CONTINUE to fight mafia that are either inactive, etc., etc. The trick is that the script must first find an inactive, etc., etc. player. To do this, the script has to fight an opponent AT LEAST ONCE to know whether fighting them again will be detected. If they are active the first attack will be seen in their player update with your name in all it's glory. If you have stealth mode enabled the script will drop active players from the attack list after the first attack and only keep the ones that are inactive. When it runs out of inactive players to attack it will grab a new list of players and run test attacks until it finds more inactives. Another thing to note is that you will also be detected once a player become active, etc., etc. again.

The script cannot really hide you, but it just takes advantage of a known loophole of undetectability. In short you will only show up once in another players update window instead of multiple times.
• Avoid Top Mafia bodyguards

setting only applies to random mafia. If they are in your fight list, you will keep fighting them even if they are top mafia bodyguards.
• Avoid mafia families

This option will avoid fighting any families that contain the user defined list of prefixes in their names. These are usually clans. You may wish to avoid fighting members of your own clan, or you may wish to avoid fighting members of any clan since they may enlist the help of their clan to seek revenge.
• Stamina to keep on hand

Setting % Stamina to keep on hand (+/- 1) will keep some stamina for you to use as you like.
• Use all stamina to level up

Enabling Use all stamina to level up will override the above option only when the script calculates that your stored stamina is enough to get you to the next level this you don't waste stamina.
• Enable Specific Opponents Fight/Rob

This will give you a box to put the users Facebook id number in so it will only Rob/Fight people in this list. (pic below)

• Collect Hitlist Bounties

Seems to explain its self in the pic below
1 Where to Collect Bounties
2 Minimum bounty
3 Avoid mafia families (explained above)



HitList

• Enable auto-hitlist

Not enabled at this time.
• Bounty amount

Not enabled at this time.
• Summarize Attacks From Player Updates

When Enabled, this option adds up all the attacks you receive in player updates and then displays them in the log after you've been snuffed.

>>> The script doesn't actually know when you were put on the hitlist (this is very difficult to do, but we're discussing how it might be possible) - anyway if you were just being attacked randomly throughout the day then at the end of the day were put on the hitlist - the entire days worth of attacks would be summarized and displayed like you see. The script then resets counts and starts capturing again until it sees you've died and spits out the summary once more.
When NOT Enabled, attacks you receive in player updates will be moved to the log right away.
• PROPERTY

• Enable Auto Buy

This will purchase properties that you have selected.
Properties are purchased in groups of 10. (except mafia mikes)
The property that gets purchased next is the property with the best return on investment (ROI). The ROI is visible on the property page. See below for this screen sample.
Minimum cash is the amount of money not to spend when purchasing properties.

The empty lots do not need to be selected for the script to buy them if the improved properties require them.

>>> Some people prefer not to stock up on empty lots, others think it is a good setting to select all...except casino. Everyone targets casino's, even this script. You may not want to put too much money there to be robbed
• Enable auto-repair property

This will repair property that has been damaged. The script will automatically withdraw money from the bank if needed.
• Enable auto-protect property

This will protect property that needs protecting. The script will automatically withdraw money from the bank if needed.
>>> Currently this will repair/protect rather frequently potentially costing you a lot of money. You may not want to use the setting unless you are confident about your defenses. There is an open issue to repair protect when within a certain amount of time to collect the rent. This would be the most effective time to repair and protect, as the damage doesn't affect your return at any other moment.
• Sell Cuban business output

This will make to Auto Player Travel to Cuba just to sell your business output make you money wile doing New York
MAFIA LOG
• Clear log

Only clears the log. The stats at the bottom will remain.
• Clear stats

Only clears the stats. The log above will remain.
• Close mafia log

Will close the log. Log info and stats will not be cleared.
OTHER SCREEN CHANGES
Next auto-buy property.

This will tell you how much its going to cost for the next buy (also shows in log)
• Property ROI

This will show you how long it will take to make your money back
• Energy ROI

Energy ROI is the line at the top of the jobs just under the job level names. This states what job ratio to shoot for if you want to level on energy. It doesn't take into account the stamina that you have.
• Next Job Timer

This puts Under the Do Job button, you will find how long until you can do the job.
OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
• Automatically Accept Mafia Invites

This script will automatically accept mafia invites.

• Automatically Accept Mafia Help Jobs

Automatically Accept Mafia Help Jobs From Player Updates.