An Octopus in China
Following the work of LCMS Deaconess Carol Halter, Serving the Lord in Hong Kong.
My dear Friend in Christ,
It has been a while since I last wrote to you.
Recently I had the honor to share at a seminar. It was sponsored by the Lutheran Church Hong Kong Synod Evangelism Committee for the Tsuen Waan Area of Kowloon. The name of the seminar was, “報福音傳喜信的人” (How Beautiful Are the Feet of Those Who Bring Good News!). Three of the LCHKS churches, namely Holy Cross Lutheran Church, St. James Lutheran Church, and Cheung Shan Lutheran Church, collaborated to invite people and coordinate the event. I spoke about how we can share the Word of God with non-Christians. There were over 50 who attended as shown in the picture below:
I shared the core principles of witnessIng and explained some of the ways I witness to non-Christians. I demonstrated various methods that can be used effectively to tell the Gospel in a clear and interesting way. As usual, I explained how to use the Gospel octopus as a special way to get a person’s attention. In the picture below a large octopus is shown to explain what the various colors represent. Each arm of the octopus is a different color. The eight colors represent eight important Biblical concepts. For example, red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, while white stands for our hearts which are made clean by Jesus’ blood.
In addition to the octopus, I provided Christian pamphlets, little Bible verse booklets and various kinds of evangelism pictorial brochures as well as Gospel coins and paper crosses. The Gospel coins have John 3:16 in Chinese on one side and a prayer thanking God for His salvation through Jesus Christ on the other side. The image below displays the coins on the left and the small Gospel octopuses on the right. The paper crosses are at the bottom of the picture. Quite a few ladies in the USA cut these crosses out of old Christmas cards and put John 3:16 in Chinese on the back of them. These can be given to non-Christians who have never heard this Bible verse before. When one puts that person’s name into the Bible verse where it says, “the world” and “whosoever” it helps him or her to know the verse also applies to them.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to share the Word of God by visiting people where they live. In the photos below I am sharing the message of salvation with a deaf Christian residing in a nursing home and praying for a blind lady in her home. Visiting people and building relationships is a great way for us all to share Jesus.
I am excited to share the following news. I will be traveling to the USA for home service next March to May, 2027 and will be able to share for 9 weeks. Since many churches and groups plan a year ahead of time, I thought I would let you know now. I will be traveling from the West coast of the USA (California) to the East coast (Florida) and many other locations in between. Please let me know if I can come and share the wonderful work God is doing in Hong Kong. I hope to hear from you soon so that I, too, can start to make my plans. You can contact me at carol.halter@lcms.org or by mail at 21 Hankow Road, 6th Floor, Flat C, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate your prayers.
With love in Christ,,
Carol
To learn more about Carol’s missionary work, visit her page at lcms.org/halter.