For over twenty years, the Cumberland Presbyterian Chinese Church (CPCC) have organized "mission emphasis weeks" where congregants can focus on the "commission of Jesus Christ."

The mission committee planned a year in advance, and chose Frank Liu, pastor of First Evangelical Church of Cerritos in LA, Rev. Maak Hay-Chun, former general secretary of CCCOWE, and Rev. Gabriel Tsang, a graduate from Hong Kong Alliance Church and Canadian Theological Seminary, to speak on Sept 18, Sept 25, and Oct 2 respectively.

Rev. Lawrence Fung, senior pastor of CPCC, said the speakers, who are famous among the Chinese Christian community, were chosen by the mission committee because of their strong perspective of the mission field.

This year, Rev. Fung emphasized that he wanted to open his congregation to "serve other ethnic groups locally and globally."

"Chinese churches in America need to reach beyond the Chinese ethnicities to reach other people groups of the world," he said.

A goal that Rev. Fung has for the next few years is that his congregation will be more open minded, in order for the missions to expand.

The speakers were asked to focus their message on the theme, "Kindle the Passion of Missions."

Rev. Fung said, "We have to strengthen the passion, the energy, and the excitement to do the work. It is not by our abilities, it is not a tradition, it is not an obligation, but it is out of the strong desire to do something."

The CCPC mission committee organizes both short and long term mission trips. Planning with the future goal of missions in mind, they strive to reach the remaining "unreached" or "unchurched."

Rev. Fung said that there are roughly 1100 groups of people who are restricted from hearing the gospel because of the countries' ideology. Therefore, missionaries are not welcome in these countries, and as a result many remain "unreached."

"Our prayer and our hope is that one day these people groups in the world will be open to missionaries, to Christians, to building relationships, and to being introduced to Jesus Christ," he said.

Their annual fundraiser is for the sole purpose of supporting missions around the world. The goal of CPCC is to collect 100,000 dollars that will be used to fund missionaries from organizations such as Go Intl, CCM, SEND international, and Partners International, and to support missions worldwide.

Rev. Fung understands that a few weeks of education is not enough to ignite the passion of mission, but he said "it's a kick off to such teaching." Congregants will learn that there are still many people who don't even have the chance to listen to the gospel and this will help them "expand their horizons," he said.