About Us
About Us
Founded
The Canadian chapter of Family Keepers International was founded in 2009 with the help of Rev. Ye Gaofang, president of the U.S. headquarters, with Dr. Dong Xinxian serving as president and Chu Xianglie as vice president. In January 2018, with the board’s approval, the organization reorganized under a new board: Dr. Dong Xinxian continued as president, Rev. Joyce Liao took on the role of CEO, and the volunteer team grew to include He Weisheng, Attorney Liang, Wang Shunfu, and Xing Qihua.
Rev. Joyce Liao
Introduction
Current role: CEO and speaker, Family Keepers Canada
Guest speaker, Family Keepers International (U.S.)
Columnist, "Family Time" column, Family Keepers International (U.S.) magazine
Education: M.A. in Christian Studies from Logos Evangelical Seminary; currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Logos Evangelical Seminary
A Faith Heritage to Pass On
Shaped from childhood by the truths of a Christian family, Joyce has carried that heritage into her own marriage and passed it on to her four children. Together with her husband, she has built a "family altar" at home, leading all four children to serve God together as a family and to live out their faith in everyday life.
A Diverse Ministry Background
Joyce spent over a decade as a computer systems analyst, starting a Christian fellowship in her workplace and helping launch early radio and television ministries. She and her husband have partnered for years in family and marriage counseling, opened their home to lead a mothers’ growth group, and, as a family, stepped onto an unconventional path of missions together as messengers of the gospel.
Cross-Cultural Ministry Experience
For many years Joyce served family, children’s, and youth ministries within Chinese-speaking churches. Valuing the passing on of faith within the family, she brought her own children alongside her to help grow youth ministry and start a youth fellowship in a Chinese church. Today she worships at an English-speaking, cross-cultural Salvation Army church, where she serves in a care ministry alongside people of many backgrounds.
Family Life Today
Joyce married her husband, Zhang Shiming, in 1987. In 2007 the family relocated from Taiwan to Toronto, Canada. They have raised four now-grown children — two daughters who are primarily Chinese-speaking with English as a second language, and two sons who are primarily English-speaking — parenting across two generations and two languages.
Vision and Calling
Joyce’s particular calling is to families where parents speak Chinese and children speak English — helping them build a family altar, strengthen communication between husband and wife, deepen parent-child relationships, and equip parents to become their children’s spiritual mentors.
Vision
To build Christ-centered families and foster harmonious family relationships — turning "the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents" (Malachi 4:6) — raising up a spiritually rooted next generation so that faith is lived out and passed on from one generation to the next.
Mission
To help parents build healthy families, so that home becomes a place where biblical truth is passed on and life’s values are lived out — letting family influence family, serving this generation, and living out a hope that lasts forever.
Strategy
To build a broad platform for family ministry, strengthen connections with like-minded family ministry organizations, promote Family Sunday within churches, host workshops, and help churches train family-ministry leaders — so that believers live out their faith day to day, life speaks into life, and families in this generation are kept and protected.
Features
1. Tailored to each church’s needs:
We design family ministry programs around each church’s specific situation — Family Sunday services, courses, talks, workshops, family camps, and more — so that family ministry takes root in both the church and its surrounding community.
2. Tailored to each family’s needs:
We offer counseling resources and periodically host topical talks on parenting and family life, including our "Family Time" lecture series.
A Letter to Pastors
When Ontario announced its new sex-education curriculum in 2015, many Chinese parents began paying closer attention to traditional family values. Christian parents, even more so, are called to return to biblical truth and become their children’s spiritual mentors at home, building a Christ-centered family together — because only healthy families can make for a healthy church.
Seeing this generation’s need, Family Keepers Canada is committed to promoting our "Family Altar Workshop." A family altar simply means "revering God and placing Him at the center of both family and personal life." Our hope is to awaken churches to the importance of building a family altar — and to actually put it into practice by living out faith at home. We also offer a "Family Time" series of practical life talks. If your church is interested, we’d love to hear from you.
(1) Family Altar Workshop outline (90 minutes to 2 hours):
1. Short talk: The Family Altar (10 min)
2. Video: real-life examples of a family altar (30 min)
3. Testimonies: shared by parents and children (20 min)
4. Small-group discussion (15 min)
5. Q&A (15 min)
6. Resource overview
(2) "Family Time" life-talk series (90 minutes each):
1. How to build regular family time
2. Setting family rules with your children and resolving conflict
3. Talking to your children about sex
4. Helping your children avoid internet addiction
(For more details, please contact us.)
Yours in Immanuel, Family Keepers Canada CEO: Rev. Joyce Liao · Tel: 647-403-0923 Email: canada@familykeepers.org