Taiwan Industrial Evangelical Fellowship (TIEF)

Mission Development

The last 300 years of Taiwan¡¦s history are typical of a country with much immigration. It is also a snapshot of God¡¦s mission activity in our world. The Lord, who controls the history of salvation and mission, using the movement of people¡¦s and changes in society, produced a mission harvest field in Taiwan today. He also uses the mission work of TIEF as a vessel for His purpose.

TIEF’s Mission Development has involved three stages:

  1. ¡´ The testimonies of the great cloud of missionaries

In the 1970s Taiwan experienced fast industrial advancement. At that time there were around 3 million young people rushing to factories located in the different industrial districts to work. The Lord was merciful to those young workers who left their home town. He sent many missionaries from different countries to preach the gospel to them. He also inspired many local Christians who were willing to dedicate themselves to work in the outreach to factory workers. During this period, TIEF, was established officially in 1979.

  1. ¡´ TIEF mission development and changing of direction

In the early stage of TIEF mission ministry, the main strategies were to plant the seed of gospel, to provide discipleship training, and to prepare the new believers for church life by using mission teams and gospel centers around all industrial districts in Taiwan. In the 1990s, Taiwan started a fast paced industrial modification as society changed, resulting in the middle-aged and older workers being laid off. As a result of this trend, the number of disadvantaged worker families grew greatly. At the same time, the number of foreign workers grew tremendously, resulting in a large increase of low level laborers and also of families with foreign spouses.

    1. ¡´ TIEF’s new direction: Diverse Outreaches and Cross Cultural Outreach

    To reach eight million disadvantaged worker families and local workers, plus 480,000 foreign laborers (from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippine), with an additional 490,000 foreign spouses from overseas, almost all of whom do not know Christ, TIEF organized many mission teams using many different kinds of mission ministries in multiple locations of Taiwan. These ministries also reached out to cross cultural foreign labors and families with foreign spouses.

A Heart of Tender Mercy; A Vision of God’s Kingdom

The vision and mission that the Taiwan Industrial Evangelical Fellowship received from the Lord was to submit to the Lord¡¦s calling and to bring God¡¦s plan of salvation to all the people in the industrial sector. The main theme is still to be like Jesus Christ, who humbled himself with obedience, the Word becoming flesh. Thus with a compassionate heart like the Lord to reach the poor, the alien, the harassed and the helpless.

Our Clear Vision:

  1.       ¡´   To have compassion on the poor, the harassed and the helpless!
  2.       ¡´   To preach the gospel to the eight million workers and disadvantaged families, the 480,000 foreign laborers and the 490,000 families with foreign spouses!

The Mission & The Challenge:

  1.       ¡´   To win the families of those Taiwanese workers and disadvantaged for the Lord!
    The families of these eight million workers and the disadvantaged amongst them are a challenge to our compassion and submission to the great commission!
  2.       ¡´   To win the foreign laborers and families with foreign spouses to the Lord!
    The 480,000 foreign laborers and 490,000 families with foreign spouses are also a challenge to our work for God¡¦s kingdom!


Our Field Of Influence:

By preaching God¡¦s kingdom to change the destiny of Taiwan and the destiny of our generation.

The Harvest Is Ripe! It Is All Around Us!

Jesus once challenges His disciples with two words: ¡§The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few¡¨ and ¡§Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.¡¨

Today, Taiwan has a harvest that is ready to reap. It is the worker¡¦s community and the disadvantaged families; the local grass-root workers and the various groups of foreign laborers; the foreign care-givers and the fragile foreign spouse families which are spread in all areas of Taiwan! Jesus is waiting for us to respond to His calling; to seize today¡¦s opportunities and harvest the crops in our communities. These opportunities surround us and are at the door steps of Taiwan¡¦s churches.

  1.       ¡´    Disadvantaged laborer families are in the community!
    Today, the population of laborer families has reached eight million, which is about one third of Taiwan¡¦s total population. Families with foreign spouses have reached 490,000. These factors have not only changed the population structure, but have also created serious problems in unemployment, poverty, family and marriage issues and youth troubles. These problems effect Taiwanese society¡¦s stability and raises questions about the future. We believe that our Lord wants us to ¡§seek and save the lost¡¨ and ¡§to proclaim good news to the poor¡¨. He wants us to turn the crises of suffering into opportunities for repentance and salvation! !
  2.       ¡´    Workplace mission opportunities are near to us!
    Today, there is a most pressing challenge for many of those Christians who are at a management level and also for the intellectuals in the area of workplace missions. It is to care for the laborers and their friends who work at grass-root levels. Many of the factories, construction sites, hospitals, cafeterias, companies and office buildings are workplace mission fields, because these Christians can meet and contact many employees at their work places, whether they are domestic laborers, foreign laborers who have left their homelands or foreign care-givers living in Taiwan.
  3.       ¡´    Local cross-cultural missions are at our churches¡¦ doorstep!
    For the past 20 years Taiwan¡¦s foreign labor communities, including those laborers from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, have become a wonderful laboratory for our Lord¡¦s outreach mission to the nations of the world! TIEF and its mission partners are tools in the Lord¡¦s hands. We have organized different local cross-cultural mission teams for the foreign laborers. These teams have one heart and mind to preach the gospel in every corner of Taiwan. This is also an opportunity for all Churches to participate in ecumenical cross-cultural missions.

Profile of TIEF Ministries

Taiwan Industrial Evangelical Fellowship (TIEF) is a gospel mission organization. The main role of TIEF is to serve to the labor populations¡A including Taiwan¡¦s domestic laborers, disadvantaged families, foreign laborers, and families with foreign spouses. Its mission is to share with others its vision, to act as a first line care-giver, to sow the gospel seeds and to provide discipleship training for the purposes of paving the way for the expansion of God¡¦s kingdom and the growth of connected churches. Thus the missions of TIEF are listed below:

  1.       ¡´    Mission Vision, Kingdom Partnership and Ministry Expansion:
    Through monthly published ¡uTIEF Newsletter¡v, website http://tief.fhl.net, and sharing of TIEF mission vision and testimonies.
  2.       ¡´    Gospel Seeds Sowing and Evangelistic Ministries to Diverse Groups:
    Conducting seasonal and short-term evangelical activities to those diverse community groups including labor families, schools and community youths, park crowds, factory employees, hospitals and foreign laborer shelters.
  3.       ¡´    Bible Studies and Discipleship Ministry:
    Providing series of Bible studies and discipleship training courses to those truth seekers, new believers and other Christians to transform laborers into disciples.
  4.       ¡´    Media and Publishing Of Discipleship Material Ministries:
    TIEF regularly publishes evangelical media materials and discipleship training materials suitable for those grass-root community groups.
  5.       ¡´    Disadvantaged Labor Families Contact and Caring Ministries:
    Direct contacting and caring for disadvantaged labor families through appropriate channels and cultural bridges. These include gospel centers, visiting teams, character development camps for children, as well as promotional media.
  6.       ¡´    Workplace evangelical and training ministries¡G
    Encouraging and inspiring Christian managers and employees in the business community to establish workplace staff Christian Fellowships, including raising up and training workplace missionaries.
  7.       ¡´    Foreign Laborer & Foreign Spouse Cross-Cultural Evangelistic Ministries:
    Co-work with churches and mission organizations, locally and abroad, to form long-term or short-term mission teams linking with foreign laborers to perform cross-cultural ministries.

The Trilogy of Supporting TIEF Mission!

Under the great commission for world mission for God¡¦s kingdom, TIEF urgently needs support from churches and individual brothers and sisters in the following three areas:

1. Faithful prayers
2. Financial support
3. Becoming kingdom mission partners

The partnership between TIEF and churches and with Christians is like the wings of a bird. The partnerships will cause us to soar like eagles to accomplish the plan of salvation given by our Lord for these end times. TIEF is a work of God, serving in its mission role towards laborers by being a front runner, a testimony, and a partner, thus encouraging churches and Christians to obey the great commission of our Lord.

Kingdom partnership mission projects:

  1.       ¡´    Help us Preach through our regular publications
    Regularly distribute the TIEF monthly publication¡uFriends of TIEF¡vor other foreign labor publications to the laborers, disadvantaged families, and foreign labor friends.
  2.       ¡´    Join us in disadvantaged family team work
    Establish teams to conduct students tutoring, character building camps, family visits, parent-child gatherings, woman¡¦s groups and quarterly family gospel meetings in gospel centers, schools, and day-care centers.
  3.       ¡´    Adoption and partnership model for Church small groups
    By forming at least one ¡uTIEF Mission small Group¡vin every church, thereby adopting disadvantaged families and foreign laborer families in the community. In this way forming partnerships with TIEF to conduct the caring, preaching and pastoring ministries.
  4.       ¡´    Participation of workplace missions to win employees to the Lord
    Christian managers and employees in the factories can form Bible study group or fellowships and be trained as workplace missionaries.
  5.       ¡´    Cross-cultural foreign labors mission model and practice
    Actively learn from and team up with various foreign laborer mission teams (Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino) on local cross-cultural evangelical ministries.

Friends and Praying Supporters of TIEF