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Issue: 1269 Date: 12/18/2014
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The Amazing Story of the St Louis Chinese Church
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The St Louis Chinese Gospel Church is the oldest Chinese organization in St Louis which is still in full operation.
On November 23, 2014, St Louis Chinese Gospel Church celebrated her 90th birthday. Guests and friends gathered to share the joy. They enjoyed a fine program in the new sanctuary, and were amazed at the work of God through the years. Afterwards, everybody enjoyed delicious refreshments in the gym and visited with each other.
90 years ago in 1924, a missionary to China, Ms. Chiles, returned to St. Louis for retirement. At that time, there were no more than 300 Chinese people in St. Louis. Most of them were Cantonese-speaking first generation immigrants, engaged in hand-laundry business. They worked very hard and often did not have time to take good care of their children
With the help of a few local Christians, Ms. Chiles gathered the Chinese children and started a Sunday School to take care of them and to teach them about the love of God. She also taught English to their parents.
Ms. Chiles passed away two years later. However, the local Christians were determined to continue this ministry. For the next 20 years, they borrowed a space from a Lutheran church at 4000 Washington Avenue and continued to bring the Gospel good news to the children and their parents.
At the end of WWII in 1945, many immigrants from China came to St. Louis. This ministry began to grow.
This handful of faithful local American Christians volunteered their time and resources out of their love of Christ and love for the Chinese people. They were ordinary folks like postal workers, painters, teachers, tailors, carpenters, and small business people. They pooled their personal savings and resources, totaling some $10,000, to purchase a two-story residential building at 4237 McPherson in mid-town St. Louis.
In 1961, a young minister, Rev. Fred Cheung with his wife Freda, originally from Hong Kong, felt called by God to be the first, full-time pastor even though the church could not pay him a full salary.
Soon, a lot of professionals and college students joined and the church began to grow rapidly. Very soon, the church outgrew the building at McPherson.
In late 1968, CGC acquired a modest church building at 700 Tuxedo Blvd in Webster Groves. We later discovered that the building was a historical structure, constructed during the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. For the next twenty years, the congregation of the St. Louis Chinese Gospel Church continued to increase. The population of our second generation was also growing by leaps and bounds.
The church soon outgrew the building at 700 Tuxedo Ave. Also, by then, the Chinese population had shifted westward, so our church decided to move to West County.
In 1986, a wonderful thing happened, we bought an 8 acre piece of land at our current location at 515 Meramec Station Road for an amazingly affordable price. In 1989, our nice church home was built in the city of Manchester, in the heart of West County St Louis.
Again, our church outgrew the facility at 515 Meramec Station Road. In 2004, God enabled us to buy the adjacent piece of land so that the church building could be expanded to accommodate a sanctuary and more classrooms.
God provided the necessary funds for the building expansion project. Even during the economic recession, God enabled us to give cheerfully and generously. On Sunday Oct 30, 2011, we dedicated the new building expansion to God in a joyous dedication service.
Today, the St. Louis Chinese Gospel Church is a multilingual, multicultural and multigenerational church. Whoever comes to our church will be able to find a place to grow and to belong.
There are fellowship groups for all ages and backgrounds. They meet on various days at various locations.
We have an outstanding Youth Group. The young people are well cared for and nourished spiritually to grow in all aspects.
We have the "Agape Fellowship" for the young professionals and "College Ministry Fellowship" for college students. Then there is the Young Married Couples Fellowship, the Home Builders Fellowship, Family Builders Fellowship for families and a Friday Night Bible Study Group for everyone.
There is the Friendship Fellowship for the Mandarin speaking, the Cantonese Fellowship for the Cantonese speaking and the Senior Fellowship for the elderly Chinese.
For sports, we have ping pong, basketball and volleyball.
Each year, CGC holds activities like the Labor Day picnic, Chinese New Year party, Children's Summer Vacation Bible School, Christmas Worship, Easter Worship etc??
We engage in community service such as Health Fair, caring for the Chinese seniors, joining in disaster relief work etc. We continually desire to be active in the local community serving others and also seeing how we are called to serve others all around the world, for the love of God motivate us to love others and share the Good News of Jesus to all.
CGC is now led and cared for by three pastors and many faithful elders and deacons. God is greatly blessing CGC.
CGC meets every Sunday morning to worship God. All Chinese and English speaking are welcomed. It's our sincere hope that you come and hear the Good News, find out for yourself the truth and the real meaning of life. We wish you joy and peace that transcends all circumstances.
Pastors: Benjamin Tzeng; Dat Trieu; Jingcai ZhuAddress: 515 Meramec Station Road, Manchester, Mo 63021Phone: 636-391-2112
Sunday Schedule: 9:30 AM English Worship Service; Chinese Sunday School11:00 AM Chinese Worship Service; English Sunday School
1St Sunday of each month, English and Chinese Combined Service at 9:30 AM
Please visit us at :
http://www.stlcgc.org for details; or contact us by e-mail: stlcgc@stlcgc.org |
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