By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

The dreams scared Helen Yen, a retired administrative assistant in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. In the reoccurring dream, she would go someplace and then realize that she couldn’t find her way back home. The dream tormented her night after night.

During the day, Helen spent time with her husband, adult children, and granddaughter. She began attending free menopause classes at Taiwan Adventist Hospital.

At the classes, Helen heard that the nearby Sung Shan Seventh-day Adventist Church was seeking volunteers for a new community outreach program. The church planned to offer classes on Alzheimer’s disease, a major challenge in the local community, on Tuesdays, and cooking classes and Bible studies on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“I always wanted to volunteer in the community,” Helen said. “I had never heard of Adventists before. But I just went to the church, and the pastor invited me to help in the kitchen.”

Helen arrived at the church at 6 a.m. Tuesdays to bake bread for sale at the Alzheimer’s classes. The healthy bread, which also was offered to the church’s 180 members, helped supplement program funding provided by the Adventist Church’s Taiwan Conference.

Volunteering gave Helen a new sense of fulfillment and joy. She began to visit the church every weekday and soon was attending Bible classes led by the pastor’s wife, Brenda Huang, who oversees the outreach program. Helen, a lifelong Sunday churchgoer, heard about the sacredness of the seventh-day Sabbath for the first time.

“I felt something strange in my heart,” said Helen, 71. “I couldn’t go on with the way I was living after discovering this new information.”

She started to worship at the Adventist church every Sabbath. Her life also was transforming in other ways as she worked with 20 other volunteers.

“I saw big changes in my life,” she said. “Before, I thought, ‘I’m very blessed because I have a husband, children, and a granddaughter.’ Then, I realized that there is something more to life. I learned about God, and I wanted to share what I was learning with everyone.”

Nearly two years after Helen started volunteering, she is preparing to join the church through baptism in June.

“She is our first fruit,” said the church’s pastor, Raymond Ko.

In all, 300 people have visited the church’s Sabbath services as a result of the Mission to the Cities outreach program, he said.

During the week, about 70 people attend the Alzheimer’s classes. The community program recently expanded to include a weekly lunch, paid for in part by the city government. Guests include 40 people from the classes and 30 others from the community.

Helen dreamed for a year that she was lost and couldn’t find her way back home.

“But after I came to this church, I stopped having this dream,” she said. “I realized that the Seventh-day Adventist truth is the way home — to heaven.”

“I saw big changes in my life,” says Helen Yen, 71. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)

People lining up for a weekly lunch at the church. (Courtesy of Raymond Ko)

People attending a health class at the church. (Courtesy of Raymond Ko)