A Glimpse into the Need for Care
Several years ago, while I was still living and serving abroad, an invitation to a 50-hour prayer meeting led me to begin working with a couple who were serving locally as cross-cultural workers. On the third night, this couple invited all their fellow colleagues into their home to share a meal, have fellowship, and connect with one another. Since I lived nearby, I stayed behind after dinner along with another cross-cultural worker couple who were good friends with the hosts. When the meal ended, the four of them sat around the table, and the mood gradually turned somber. Their conversation was not a heated argument, but rather one accompanied by choked sobs and carefully chosen words, with emotional tension escalating far beyond what words could express. I chose to keep their four-year-old child company and try to distract him, knowing that even though he had no way to understand the content of his parents’conversation, the tone and atmosphere could nonetheless make him feel heavy and unsettled.
Discovering “Member Care”
A few days later, still in shock, I made a call to Pastor John of Hwa Kang Fellowship at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan to share my experience. It was only then that I heard the words “member care” for the first time. Coming from a background in psychological counseling, I began to think: with preventive intervention, could these types of situations be avoided? This experience triggered many questions for me — Does Taiwan currently have people doing member care? Who? How is it going? I quickly thought of my own church — Bread of Life Christian Church in Taipei. Praise God that Bread of Life has abundant resources, even establishing a “Holistic Care Center” that allows cross-cultural workers to receive regular check-ins. At the same time, I thought of a former schoolmate from Hwa Kang Fellowship waiting to be sent out as a gospel worker by a local sending organization, one that had only been established for four years. This sending organization was young, lacked resources, and essentially had no member care system. I began to understand that it was not that Taiwan did not have people doing member care, but that resources were distributed unequally. Only long-established sending organizations with international connections could provide a comprehensive member care system, while the many more gospel workers sent by local organizations or churches struggled to receive the same level of support.
A Vision for a Shared Platform
At that time, an idea began to form in my mind: in order to ensure that every gospel worker, regardless of the size of their organization or denominational background, could receive ongoing member care and support, a third-party platform unaffiliated with any institution would need to be established. This platform would have to operate independently, like a nonprofit organization, becoming a hub for resources to fill gaps that current systems could not reach. I immersed myself in developing this concept but quickly realized the limitations posed by Taiwan’s legal system. Providing mental health services required licensed professional psychologists, meaning that if the platform were to provide mental health support for gospel workers, it would need to find suitable Christian counselors with not only professional qualifications but also an understanding of and burden for missions. This posed a great challenge.
As I pondered how to carry forward amidst these realities, a reminder from God came into my mind as I was praying one morning: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem offered an MA program for Nonprofit Organization Management and Leadership. At that moment, I thought to myself, If God truly calls me into full-time member care work one day, then I first need to learn how to manage a nonprofit organization. So, I applied and was admitted to the program. Upon starting my coursework, I began to integrate the concept of a “member care platform” into every assignment. Whether it was fundraising strategies, brand marketing, project management, organizational development, or financial planning, I designed and implemented everything with this platform at the core and gradually constructed a complete and feasible operational model. In addition, through several in-depth interviews with sending organization leadership and gospel workers on the field, I became even more certain that the needs of the workers far exceed just psychological counseling. I summarized them into five main service categories, with each category corresponding to practical resource connections and support systems, and also established a holistic service process with gospel workers at the center. Thus, the En Hakkore Member Care Platform was officially born. Last September, I returned to Taiwan from Israel and began to immerse myself in the Taiwan gospel worker community and build connections. I fully committed myself to the promotion and establishment of the En Hakkore Member Care Platform.
The Birth of En Hakkore
הקןרא עין (En Hakkore) comes from Judges 15:19 and means “spring of the caller.” It is the living water that God provided for an exhausted Samson in the wilderness. This is exactly our vision — to provide grace and support for parched gospel workers. En Hakkore Member Care Platform is a third-party, holistic care platform dedicated to integrating resources and supporting cross-cultural workers. We focus on serving Chinese-speaking workers in God’s Kingdom, providing resources and support in five key areas: Ministry Support, Holistic Health, Training and Development, Family and Relationships, and Financial Planning. The platform is centered around gospel workers and sends out mentors to establish a relational support network, enabling workers to maintain their passion and physical, mental, and spiritual health while resiliently advancing God’s work.
A Vision for the Future
En Hakkore Member Care Platform was conceived not only to solve a problem, but even more to respond to a generational need. We believe that this platform is not only serving the gospel workers of today, but also paving the way for future waves of gospel worker sending. As the young Chinese generation rises up and steps into regions yet to receive the gospel, En Hakkore Member Care Platform will also mature and strengthen, becoming the gentlest and most steadfast support behind them. This road of integrating resources and promoting unity may be hard, but we deeply believe this: the Lord who calls us will not forsake our steps.
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Additional Suggested Reading on Member Care
- Member Care for Chinese Missionaries by Ruth C. Chang and Brent Fulton
- Yes, Yes, Yes—Member Care is Part of the Mission by Lisa
To explore more related resources, you can also use the tag: Member Care.
Editor’s note: This article was originally written in Chinese and was translated and edited by the ChinaSource team with permission.
