Founder
Raymond Chen
Founder’s testimony
An All-in Service Life
One Rice Feeds a Hundred Types of People
Joyful Running on the Path of Service
There’s a good Chinese saying: One rice feeds a hundred types of people. God’s creation of us is truly diverse, and each type is so special and unique. When facing various turning points, setbacks, successes, or challenges in life, we, these hundred types of people, handle them in different ways. In service, some get hurt, fall and leave, or become discouraged, while others become more determined with each setback; some become exhausted, while others gain more energy as they go.
Every year, SOWIM holds an annual dinner just before Thanksgiving. At the dinner, we get to express our gratitude to brothers and sisters in person; we interact, pray for each other, and share about the ministry’s development and future plans. However, the pandemic changed our way of life. With physical gatherings prohibited, SOWIM also faced enormous challenges.
Thus, the online live broadcast of the Psalm Recital and Ministry Sharing on 12/12/2020 became another “first” for SOWIM!
With faith and courage from God, we worked hard on the preparations, connected with ministries in various places to obtain live videos, while also speeding up local filming and editing work in the US. In the tight schedule, SOWIM encountered some technically unsolvable mysteries, but our God is one who turns difficulties into grace! Through this live broadcast, God brought three brothers together – Zheng Mingqing, Chen Jiadong, and Chen Junhui (Raymond) – who became the behind-the-scenes heroes of SOWIM’s live broadcast. It was because of their simultaneous online presence that we were able to complete this live broadcast feast. This time, we conducted an in-depth interview with Brother Raymond, asking him to share with us about his joyful running on the path of service.
Obeying God’s Call
Brother Raymond describes himself as a die-hard before knowing the Lord. At the age of 42, God answered his prayer and allowed him to experience a miraculous healing. After that, this die-hard brother could no longer remain stubborn. He humbly turned to the Lord and embarked on a path of service, serving in the church as a guitarist in the worship team, sound engineer, and deacon.
On December 12, 2009, God called his wife Susan (yes, our Pastor Meng!) to start a ministry creating multimedia Bible study materials. Oh my! This was truly a huge challenge, starting from scratch, both big and difficult. How many people, when faced with God’s call, are willing to stand up and respond bravely? Here, two people raised their hands: Susan and Raymond. When this calling was so clear and from God, Raymond said he immediately made up his mind to be his wife’s unwavering support, fully backing this ministry. So, the two began working without pay, around the clock, step by step, and to this day they still obey God’s call, continuing to move forward by the grace of the Lord.
Principal and Bell Ringer
In the early stages, whether big or small, everything needed to be done. To help people better understand SOWIM, Pastor Susan made many plans and efforts, with Brother Raymond serving as a solid support and supply station. Need to release monthly videos? Alright! Raymond picked up the camera and tripod, following Susan everywhere for outdoor shots. Whether it was the hillside behind their house or even the 85°C bakery in Irvine, you could find their footprints filming videos. Of course, the post-production editing was also done by Raymond before uploading to the internet.
Additionally, Pastor Susan was often invited to preach at different churches in Southern California or to teach Sunday school using SOWIM materials. Need to turn these sermons and teachings into videos for more people to see SOWIM? No problem! Raymond continued to carry two cameras and two tripods, doing on-site filming, behind-the-scenes editing, and publishing these videos on websites and social media platforms.
Besides weekend outdoor shoots and going to various churches to preach and teach, they cherished any opportunity to make SOWIM better known. They often set up booths at many churches and special events to promote and introduce SOWIM materials. Carrying heavy equipment, including cameras, tripods, projectors, screens, and lots of teaching materials, sometimes for three or four-day events, they would man the booths every day, returning home very late. Raymond says he’s lost count of how many places they’ve been and how many times.
For the five years before SOWIM hired full-time staff, Raymond was also responsible for daily bilingual updates on SOWIM’s website and Facebook in both Chinese and English. For seven consecutive years after SOWIM’s establishment, he also went on short-term missions to Taiwan with his wife, responsible for photography, videography, and video editing. Occasionally, he also shared his testimony with students in the English Bible camps during the mission trips. Certainly, numerous filming projects within SOWIM’s Bible curriculum, including segments featuring scholars’ discussions, prominently include Brother Raymond’s involvement.
Trials Allowed by God
Since SOWIM’s establishment, the operation of the ministry has been fully supported by the couple. They have invested time, money, and energy, burning their lives in complete dedication to God’s work.
However, in 2013, SOWIM faced a financial crisis. There were insufficient funds in the bank, no source for video production costs, and they often had to transfer money from their own retirement savings to the SOWIM account to alleviate this predicament. So Raymond and his wife made a decision: from 2014 to the end of 2016, for a full three years, they would not buy any new clothes, bags, shoes, cameras, electronic products, etc. They were determined to donate all the money they could save to SOWIM, allowing it to continue producing Bible study materials. Because being faithful to God’s calling has always been the top priority in any decision in their lives.
After three years, SOWIM’s finances suddenly improved. God Himself moved more brothers and sisters to become SOWIM’s elite soldiers, and miraculously led SOWIM through the financial difficulties. This experience made him deeply realize that for the ministry God wants us to do, He will provide abundantly and show the way clearly!
Little Secrets of Joyful Running on the Path
On the path of service, indeed, we may encounter some setbacks and hurts. Or even if it doesn’t happen to us personally, we often see or hear about brothers and sisters who leave their positions of service, leave the church, or even distance themselves from God after investing much effort and energy. Seeing all the voluntary service Raymond and his wife have done for SOWIM, no one can deny the hardships along this journey, all the sweat and tears, all the time and energy spent, which are so clear and profound. But Raymond says he rarely has moments of doubt. Occasionally, due to human relationships, he might feel discouraged. But he says, “I focus on the moment when I will face God in the future, hoping that God will be proud of me. I concentrate on pleasing God and obeying my Heavenly Father, and everything is done willingly and gladly.”
If you’re having thoughts of giving up… here’s a verse to encourage you: John 12:26 says, “If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him.” What an honor it is that we can receive respect from our Heavenly Father! Brother Raymond says that service is about working for God’s kingdom and pleasing God, so he does it willingly, without complaint, and doesn’t feel tired. Moreover, “serving God” in SOWIM is not just an abstract concept, but a real experience that allows believers to learn the Bible and know God more deeply and in an interesting way, and also allows non-believers to be saved and come to faith through SOWIM’s materials. He says that whenever he sees someone believe in Christ and get baptized because of SOWIM’s Bible study materials, or sees hundreds of students raise their hands to accept Jesus as their Savior during years of short-term mission camps, he feels great joy and thinks all the time and effort spent is worthwhile. From this perspective, everyone involved with SOWIM’s materials, whether in front of or behind the scenes, users or producers, consumers or donors, all share in this grace and glory together.
SOWIM’s 11th Anniversary Commemoration: Live Broadcast on 12/12/2020
For this live broadcast, Brother Raymond said he was under immense pressure. Firstly, gathering materials from various places took time, and with the broadcast time approaching, post-production editing time was repeatedly compressed. He worked until midnight on the day of the broadcast, feeling extremely tired but also excited, nervously anticipating the 4 PM broadcast.
Since the live video wasn’t uploaded to YouTube in advance, figuring out how to get the correct link to brothers and sisters was a real headache for the SOWIM team. Thank God, Brother Mingqing, with rich live broadcasting experience, appeared. He shared techniques known only to insiders, guiding Raymond and Brother Jiadong through several rehearsals. On the day of the broadcast, Brother Mingqing handled the primary video transmission, Brother Jiadong was on standby as the second hand, and Brother Raymond was the third safety line. This way, if the network suddenly had issues, someone could immediately take over the broadcast.
Thank God, with the golden touch of these three mighty warriors, the first live broadcast was successfully completed on the day of SOWIM’s 11th-anniversary ministry thanksgiving and the release of the Psalms project!
Through this online broadcast experience, we can clearly see God’s intention for us to be parts of one body. Going solo might be exhilarating, but it cannot take us far. In the journey of ministry, because of Christ, we can complement each other’s strengths and work together harmoniously; we strive to be each other’s family. When facing difficulties, family members are always the first to extend a helping hand. We thank God for the behind-the-scenes efforts of these three brothers, showing us how God works all things together for good for those who love Him.
Readers might think by now that Raymond must be a retired person to have so much time to do all these things for SOWIM! But in fact, he still has a quite busy full-time job. All these big and small tasks were completed during weekday evenings and weekends. Going on short-term missions to Taiwan also required taking special leave from his company.
What kind of determination allows one to run joyfully and tirelessly in service? Is it because the service process has been smooth, enjoying endless grace, so one can keep going? Or is that determination not only strong but an innate willingness to suffer?
美國加州 2022-04-27
