Dear Sozo Family:
A year really flies by, and in a blink of an eye Tony has left us for more than a year. I think many of us will have the question about how our life is going? There is a difference between living in the Lord and being in the world. God’s grace is really sufficient, and this year has been peaceful, calm, and more than abundant, and full of excitements.
Although sometimes I still miss Tony, but in fact, every time I do ministry, I can feel that he is with us, and he is still with us like a cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), and join with angels into Heavenly army, minister and fight with me and Christine together. Once, Christine shared with me that she noticed that when we minister, the presence of the Lord not only did not decrease, but increased. When she discussed this issue with the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus replied that it was because Tony ministers with us every time. He chose to complete the mission entrusted by the Lord to Sozo with us in the spiritual realm, and then enjoy the reward prepared by the Heavenly Father, so he joined the heavenly army to serve us with Jesus Christ and the angels.
Therefore, instead of lacking, we have increased. In the kingdom of heaven, the heaven and the earth are one, and there is no difference. Now every time we cast out demons, Christine will see Dad’s young appearance when he responded to the Lord Jesus’ call, fighting with us with the legion of angels.
Now we are both on earth and in heaven, and Tony and the Lord Jesus are both in heaven and on earth.
Let’s take a look at what kind of breakthroughs and expansions the Lord has led us to make in 2022. Due to the updated version of the prayer booklet, some simplified Chinese versions were printed in the United States in 2020.
But the result was not very satisfactory, and the updated version in traditional Chinese was not printed in the United States because of the epidemic. In 2022, due to the urging and needs of the brothers and sisters, we contacted the printing factory in Taiwan about to print an updated traditional version of the prayer book. It is amazing that the printing factory we contacted happened to be a printing factory that cooperates with Elim Publishing House.
When he heard that it was a prayer book, he immediately asked me if I would like to cooperate with Elim Publishing House to sell it. It was originally only to print for the needs of the traditional Chinese version in the United States, but the result of discussion with them later is that we have complete freedom in Taiwan and can reprint the paper version of this updated version. This also aroused the interest of Elim Publishing House, and I realized that they have been sparing no effort in promoting this prayer handbook to help many newly saved or already saved saints who need life transformation.
In the end, we signed an agreement to let Elim Publishing House be responsible for the printing and sales rights of the traditional Chinese version in Taiwan, and Sozo is only responsible for the sales in North America.
Therefore, last year we re-edited and updated this prayer book, including typography, printing, and art cover. The Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions are also updated simultaneously, including a difference in the cover to make this version of the prayer book more beautiful and easier to read. Because the original typesetting fonts are too crowded, we have widened the text part. This makes it easy for everyone to read, and we’ve also added notes pages for users who need to take notes. It took many months, and many sisters helped us do a lot of editing and typesetting work. Those in Taiwan were taking care of proofreading traditional Chinese characters, and the ones in the United States were responsible for proofreading simplified Chinese characters. Then there were typesetting companies and printing houses to help us complete the update together. We also thanks to 3 sisters they donated the printing and typesetting cost, because of all these helps from everyone and with prayers of many saints and help from the Lord. We are able to complete the task and provide cheaper and better version of this prayer book for everyone in need. Now the prayer book in North America have also arrived. I really feel that it is worth the money when I hold it in my hand and look at it in use. It also made me consider updating the English version of the prayer handbook and rearranging the layout, so that people who use this prayer handbook can be more comfortable and easy to use.
Since many people did not know how to use the old version of the prayer book. So we’ve included a lot of tips for using the prayer manual in the updated prayer book. We have also reorganized the entire order of the prayer book and arranged them in order of their use by category. At the same time, we also put the prayers that are used every day at the front of prayer book for everyone’s convenience.
Now they are all listed on Sozo website, so brothers and sisters who are interested can go and buy them.
In the past, Sozo products, prayer manuals, teaching MP3s, and DVD courses were all placed on Sozo website, but when using it, with people not being able to download them after placing an order, or sometimes the links they needed were not available, or sometimes the fees paid were not transferred to our account. So we decided to reorganize these courses and other paper and audio-visual products. We put them in a separate category of the merchandise store.
merchandise stores can’t be regarded as non-profit organizations, so we have to separate from Sozo, now we put all our products in the bookstore now, because the bookstore is a for profit merchandise store, and now it’s all under the name of Tina (as a sole proprietor). We have been discussing how to build the relationship between this store and Sozo, especially after signing the contract with Elim, the sales may increase and we need to face and deal with these changes. We are grateful to the Lord for the dream of one of our sister team members, that told us clearly that we need to correct this relationship in a clear and legal way, and separate profit-making and non-profit operations, and we cannot use our previous practice of grocery store, but must operate in a correct way. So now we have separated the store from the Sozo website, but there are still links in between, so brothers and sisters who go to the Sozo website can still use the link to enter the store to buy the products they need.
We are now setting up a membership system on Tina’s YouTube channel, where many of the teachings and some of the discussions of the Seal Gathering, as well as more videos on how to use the prayer book that we may want to do in the future, can be put on YouTube. These audio-visual videos are all on YouTube, including the videos of Tina’s sermons in the church and other places can also be placed on the YouTube channel, so that participating members can use it at any time to help the saints’ to build and renew their spiritual life until God’s children can enter, and receive the blessing of Abba Father God, that is, our spirit, soul and body can reach the wholeness according to His original creation.
We also plan to continue to complete the book writing part what the Lord inspired us last year—including Tony’s autobiography, and Christine is also writing a book about the experience of “being a child of God”. We still need to follow the Lord’s inspiration more on building products in the future, and lead us to let His heart and grace we have received in our lives be turned into books or audio-visual products, so that more people can be helped.
We were also continued to do personal ministries in 2022. It is Christine and I ministering together. We also do some remote counseling and ministries that is not too emotionally involved or will not causing too much of manifestation through the online Zoom meeting, and we did some in person corporate ministries as well. In person corporate ministries are only being held in our HIC (Harvest international center) and house churches in Long Island I need basis. Tina also conducts remote group teaching and sharing through online Zoom meeting. We also found that with more experience and more expansion by the Lord, we can carry more anointing, and God also leads us to minister deeper and faster. As long as the recipients are prepared, they can receive it, and we can greatly experience His mighty power. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:21-21)
We also plan to go to Taiwan in 2023 to continue to help established churches in Taiwan and those who have been taught to receive ministry.
From July to December 2022, we ministered to two sisters who came to the Sozo center to receive individual ministries. We saw as their lives healed and renewed spirit, soul and body was aligned and reconciled with Father God, they could sleep well. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late,
to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep. ( Psalm 127:2)
In fact, during the epidemic, we saw many brothers and sisters who were anxious and nervous because of the epidemic, or some of them had depression, and some of them even had cancer. Many churches are still stuck in the cultural traditions and myths of the old wineskin, and have not yet entered the new wineskin that God is renewing for us to enter, or restoring the mighty church in the age described in the book of Acts. As a result, many wounded children cannot receive these promises and blessings of renewal, healing and restorations that God has long prepared for us.
We hope that in the year 2023, when more shaking will take place on the whole earth, God’s kingdom and the Truth will turn the body of Christ more through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:23). We also hope that more children of God will be renewed by healing and reconciled with themselves and God, so that more love, joy, and peace may flow in their lives, and naturally. Relationships will naturally be restored, families will be united, and the Body of Christ will also become one and be One new man, the house of God becomes the dwelling place of God, filled with the power and glory of God.
We ask Abba Father God to bless every child of His Kingdom to receive this abundant grace, to be restored to the glorious image of creation, to be a light and salt for Him on this earth, and to manifest the glory of God the Father. We are also once again to bless Sozo family members in 2023, there will be more renewal and transformation to carry more glory of God, and use His glory to glorify Him.
Tina, Christine Chong and family