Mennonites in Hong Kong

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Mission History 1980 to Present

After serving twenty-five years in Taiwan, Hugh and Janet S9runger moved to Hong Kong in 1980, marking the joint efforts of the Commission on Overseas Missions (former General Conference Mennonite Church, now Mennonite Church USA) with EMBMC. T and S S9runger (COM) and Edmond and Kay Hoy (EMBMC) were sent to join the team in 1981.

The Mennonite Centre on Waterloo Road was purchased in 1983. Also in 1983 the East Kowloon Mennonite Church began worshipping in Kowloon Bay. During this period a number of Hong Kong Chinese who had studied overseas, primarily Canada, began returning to Hong Kong. Many of them came to faith while in college overseas. Desiring a closer connection with others who had studied abroad, they joined together to form Ho Man Tin Mennonite Church in 1984 (later to become Grace Mennonite Church). In 1987 East Kowloon merged with Grace Mennonite Church.

1984 also marked the year Miss Ch!u Bo-Kwan (Anna Ch!u) became the first Hong Kong Mennonite to graduate from seminary (China Evangelical Seminary in Taipei Taiwan). She managed the Lok Fu study centre before entering seminary and ministered in the Hong Kong Mennonite churches after seminary and before being called to missions in Ch!na.

A new ministry began reaching out to low-income workers and families in Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan in 1984. This outreach grew into Helping Hands Ministries which opened a student tutoring center in Kwai Fung in 1989. 1989 was also the year Hope Mennonite Church sprang up from the fruit of this five year ministry.

Lauren and Peggy Reusser (COM) joined the team for two years beginning 1985 and Winfred and Jean Soong were sent out jointly by EMM and COM for a year. Winfred Soong is pastor of Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church in Canada.

After 23 years of faithful ministry in Hong Kong, Ira and Evelyn Kurtz “retired”, returning to the United States to pastor. Barbara Kauf?man arrived in Hong Kong in 1990. In 1995 Barbara left Hong Kong to serve with China Educational Exchange in Mainland China.

Changing its name to Agape Mennonite Church, the Lok Fu church moves from Lok Fu to Prince Edward Road in 1989. Agape again moved in 1991 to Sha Tin. Agape Arts Centre also opened at this time, a creative attempt to more effectively reach out to the community while also providing some income to the church.

The Conference of Mennonite Churched in Hong Kong, LTD, was officially registered with the government in 1991.

One year before Hugh and Janet Sprunger retired in 1992, George and Tobia Veith (Mennonite Church Canada Witness) came to Hong Kong from Canada. Eastern Mennonite Missions sent G!enn and June Kauf?man to Hong Kong in 1992. 1992 was also the year Rev. Daniel Ngai agreed to serve as pastor of Grace Mennonite Church and Choi Wing-Kau (Jeremiah Choi) is installed as pastor of Hope Mennonite Church.

After serving the church in Hong Kong for five years, George and Tobia Veith were called to begin the first Mennonite mission to Macau in 1996. Andrew and Susan Wade arrived in 1996 to replace the Veiths. They focused in leadership and church development and worship and prayer.

T!m and Suanne S9runger were called to new ministry in the United States in 1997, leaving Hong Kong after 16 years of mission work here. In 1998 Tim and Cindy Buhler (Mennonite Church Canada Witness) arrived serving alongside Pastor Jeremiah Choi at Agape Mennonite Church for five years before joining the Veiths church planting in Macau.

Alde Wong graduated from China Graduate School of Theology and began ministry with Rev. Ngai at Grace Mennonite Church.

Expanding vision in 1999 led to The Integrated Mennonite Church in the Philippines sending their first missionary, Annie Fe Lagrada, to Hong Kong in order to reach out to the large population of foreign domestic workers from that country. Her outreach was through St. Philip’s Society, Cheung Chau Christian Centre. When Annie returned to the Philippines to be married in 2002, Nora Iwarat was sent to replace her. During this time there was also a dramatic shift toward hiring Indonesians as domestic workers rather than Filipinas. It was discerned that the ministry needed to expand to reach these Indonesian ladies so in 2003 Dewi Kumalasari was send from the Mennonite Church in Indonesia to join the international mission team. Dewi returned to Indonesia in 2006 and was replaced b

Mennonite Central Committee in Hong Kong

In the summer of 1950 a Far-Eastern area office of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was established in Hong Kong.

The headquarters were located near Sha Tin. The office also was used to house 20 children with TB and was also the distribution centre for relief goods.

At Christmas time, 115 “Christmas bundles” were handed out to families in need.

The office coordinated relief efforts in Asia, assisted with mission agency support – especially with missionaries forced to leave the Mainland, and began new relief efforts in Hong Kong.

The centre was closed in 1952 due to a decrease of relief efforts in the Asia area.

During the next six years the refugee situation in Hong Kong became quite serious. MCC reopened its Hong Kong office in 1958 sending Norman and Eunice Wingert as directors of the renewed effort.

In the first sixteen months after reopening, $1,344,617 Hong Kong dollars worth of food and clothing were distributed by MCC through its centre and 55 other agencies cooperating with MCC in Hong Kong.

About ¼ of this relief was personally distributed by MCC through two local charity hospitals, Kwong Wah and Tung Wah.

At that time Kwon Wah hospital had the largest maternity ward of any hospital in the world, delivering 23,000 babies each year!

In 1958, Mrs. Wingert delivered a package of food and or clothing to every mother who left the hospital – an average of 63 women each day!

During this first year-and-a-half 10,000 Christmas and Leper bundles where handed out.

During 1960, 13,000 cans of pork were distributed to school children attending roof-top schools.

There were also three kitchens used to cook hot meals for 1,500 students each day. By 1962 this program was serving 645,000 meals a year to 4,000 students.

In addition to the food and clothing bundles given to new mothers leaving Kwong Wah Hospital , MCC prepared food for and served 200 outpatients of the hospital each day, six days a week.

6,000 Christmas bundles were also handed out in 1960.

It was also in 1960 that MCC began giving aid toward school tuition and medical treatment.

The Educational Assistance and Family Child Assistance programs began in 1961 linking 450 families in the US and Canada with 450 children from 347 families in Hong Kong providing tuition assistance, milk powder, vitamins, and other needed support.

In 1971 the Hong Kong Government began to provide free tuition for all primary students. In 1972 the Government began a project to provide public assistance to families in need.

These changes meant fewer and fewer people required the assistance of welfare agencies like MCC.

After the school feeding program ended, the kitchen facilities at Lok Fu were converted into a student library – study centre. The 3,000 volume library was used by nearly 100 students each day.

Everett and Margaret Metzler joined EMM workers Ira and Evey Kurtz in 1969 and Everett served as both MCC Hong Kong Director and EMM missionary from 1970 until MCC ended its Hong Kong relief efforts in 1973. The Metzlers continued ministry in Hong Kong until 1975.

Hong Kong Missionary History

1965-1980

I. NEEDS - PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL

The Eastern board entered Hong Kong in 1965 at the invitation of Mennonite Central Committee, which had a program in that British crown colony where 3,600,000 people were crowded into thirty square miles. MCC gave clothing to churches, institutions, and other relief agencies for distribution to needy families; directed an educational assistance program in which North American sponsors paid three dollars a month to support a child in primary school; and operated a child-feeding program. The school lunch program was its largest project. Five days a week the MCC kitchen prepared hot meals for three thousand needy children and sent the food by van to schools in the poor districts. Concerned that spiritual as well as physical needs should be met, MCC asked that one of the Mennonite mission boards send in workers. MCC staff offered to help the mission program get started. They recommended beginning by sponsoring several roof-top schools. [GH (2/27/62, 198-9; (1/19/65), 64; MM (5/64), 24-27; (12/65), 12-13]

ROOF-TOP SCHOOLS

In an attempt to house some of the thousands of refugees who lived in bamboo, tin, or oiled paper shacks clustered on the cliffs and hillsides, the British government was building huge H-shaped blocks as many as sixteen stories high, where families lived in one room, sharing kitchen and toilet facilities located on each floor on the cross-bar of the H. No fewer than five people were permitted to live in a 10×12 room with one door and one window, and a child under twelve counted as a half person. Since there were not enough schools for the children, a number of volunteer agencies had begun schools on the roofs of the housing blocks. On a typical roof there was room for eight classrooms and a space for play. As many as six hundred children could be taught in two sessions per day. [MM (5/64), 24-27]

ENCOURAGEMENT TO ENTER

In February, 1964, Paul Kraybill visited the city to explore the possibilities for mission work. He learned that MCC’s program, especially the child-feeding project, had won great respect. Church World Service, Lutheran World Federation, and other mission and relief agencies encouraged the Mennonites to enter as missionaries. Dr. Andrew Roy, Vice-president of Ching chi College, a Christian school of six hundred students which was a branch of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, urged strongly that the Mennonite witness of peace and reconciliation was needed. Eastern Board saw Hong Kong as a strategic place, with a population representing a cross-section of the entire population of China. It drew students from Chinese communities in all of Southeast Asia, and refugees streamed across the border from the People’s Republic of china. Besides being reconcilers on the edge of China, missionaries would be able to learn about what was happening behind the bamboo curtain. [GH (1/19/65), 64; MM (2/65), 13; (5/64), 24-27; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 11/4/81, Exhibit VI]

II. FIRST EFFORTS

TEMPORARY WORKERS

In June, 1964, the Eastern Board decided to enter Hong Kong, beginning with an educational program. The James Stauffer family, located in Saigon, were asked to move to Hong Kong temporarily to study, investigate, and plan a mission effort. On the basis of Stauffer’s recommendations, the board would assign personnel to take over the Hong Kong program so that the Stauffers could return to their work in Saigon. [MM (2/65), 3; (3/65), 23; GH (2/26/68), 266-7]

EARLY CONTACTS

The Stauffers found the contrasts of the city overwhelming; gay ferries, neon lights, cars and double-decker buses, brightly lighted department stores, modern buildings-rugged mountains and sandy beaches-squatters’ huts on the hillsides, fishermen’s families living on junks in the harbor, the layers of concrete of the resettlement blocks-millionaires and paupers. They started to get acquainted with the three-part city-the island, the Kowloon peninsula, and the New Territories, stretching twenty miles to the border of China. They visited the lawless “Walled City” within Kowloon City, where amid the dirt, poverty, crime, drug trade, and smuggling, they met a white-haired Christian woman who operated a school for several hundred poor children. Her pupils were among those fed from the MCC kitchen. [MM (12/65), 12-13] The Stauffers investigated roof-top schools and negotiated with the managers and principals of several schools while they studied Cantonese and entertained a steady stream of visitors. Guests came from Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and Formosa. The Stauffers fellowshipped with the Emmanuel Church, an international inter-denominational English-speaking group, and James helped in their Sunday evening evangelistic services. He also taught a boys’ Sunday School class at a Baptist church begun by former Vietnamese missionaries, helped in a family worship hour conducted on a roof top by a Christian who worked for MCC, assisted in a MCC summer camp for seventy children from the Family Assistance plan, and taught Bible in a private school. The Hong Kong government required one h our of bible teaching a week in public and private schools. [MM (10/65), 17-18; (6/66), 8] In addition to helping in these programs, the Stauffers had informal Bible classes in their apartment every Sunday afternoon with three young men, graduates of a technical school. After two of them accepted Christ, James and the MCC workers began to investigate locations for services. [MM (10/65), 23; (11/65), 11]

FIRST SERVICES

After a year, the Stauffers were replaced by Allen and Elsie Shirk, who arrived in Hong Kong in January, 1966. they chose Kowloon City as the place to begin an educational and evangelistic program. The first Mennonite service in Hong Kong was held in March in the MCC kitchen near the Shirks’ apartment in the resettlement area where lived many families who were aided by MCC. Seventeen adults, four youth, and thirty-six children came to the first service. A regular Sunday evening service followed, held in the kitchen, which MCC did not use weekends. A Chinese Christian couple, Henry and Sarine Law, were employed to help in the work. They took charge of the Sunday School. soon there were more than a hundred present, mostly children. [MM (6/66), 9; (12/66), 12-14; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 6/1/66, Exhibit X]

KINDERGARTEN IN KWUN TONG

Plans for a roof-top school did not develop, since no satisfactory agreement could be reached with any mission moving out of a rooftop. Instead, the Eastern Board decided to open a kindergarten. The Shirks rented six flats in Kwun Tong, a growing satellite town of 160,000 on the edge of Kowloon City, and remodeled them for use as classrooms with an apartment for the Laws, who directed the school. the kindergarten opened in August, 1966, with a total of 250 children in morning and afternoon sessions. Sunday School was started at Kwun tong in September, and ten pupils came for the first class. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 1/11/66, Exhibit VII; MM (9/66), 5; (12/66), 12-14, 17]

THE KURTZES BECOME PROGRAM DIRECTORS

In 1966 Ira and Evelyn Kurtz were appointed to assist the Shirks in Hong Kong. They arrived in Hong Kong in August, moved into an apartment on the 19^th floor of a high-rise building, and began to study Cantonese in the New Asia College. [MM (9/66), 5; (11/66), 15; Paul Kraybill, Deputation Report, 12/29/66, LMCHS Box: Mission Board 1967] Allen Shirk was asked to give a third of his time to direct the MCC program, which was being reduced, since emergency needs had decreased and long-term welfare programs were increasingly provided by government agencies. Two Paxmen remained to work with the 450 families being helped by MCC and to carry on the material aid program. In December, 1966, the missionaries helped MCC to distribute eight thousand Christmas bundles. The Shirks also reached out in person-to-person contacts with Hindu neighbors. Having served under the Elkhart Board as missionaries in India, they were very much interested in the Indian population of six thousand in Hong Kong. [MM (9/66), 5; 12/66), 12-14, 17; )3/67), 15; David Thomas, deputation Report, 12/28-31, 1966, LMCHS Box: Mission Board 1967] In February, 1967, the Shirks returned to United States, because Elsie needed back surgery. [MM (4/67), 17] At their request they were released by the Eastern Board to order to work more closely with the Emmanuel Church. When they returned to Hong Kong, they were supported by a private sponsor in California. After the Shirks withdrew, Ira Kurtz became acting director of the Hong Kong mission. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 3/3/67; 10/25/68, Exhibit XII; 7/16/71]

DIFFICULTIES

Life in Hong Kong was not easy. Most of the year the climate was hot and humid. [MM (5/81), 18] Cockroaches and ants seemed to thrive on bug spray. The missionaries had their first experience with the ever-present crime when the mission car was stolen, stripped of electrical and mechanical parts, and abandoned in Kowloon City. [MM 12/66), 17] Learning Cantonese was discouragingly difficult. For two years the Kurtzes’ main occupation was memorizing characters and learning how to write them in the Western alphabet. [MM (3/80), 13] They attended Cantonese church services in an effort to learn the oral language more quickly. [Annual Reports 1967, p. 61] After nearly two years of study they were delighted when a fourteen-year-old girl who needed a home joined their household. As they ate, worked, and relaxed together, the Kurtzes got the informal language practice they needed as well as insight into the Chinese way of living and thinking. [MM (4/68), 18] In 1968, the death of a baby daughter brought special grief to Ira and Evelyn. [MM (12/68), 20] It was hard to make friends in the city. Everybody was very busy. People had their jobs and circle of friends and assumed that everybody else did too. [MM (12/71), 19] The crowds in the city could be oppressive as the Kurtzes waited in long lines among thousands of commuters, shopped among the throngs of window-shoppers who were trying to escape the congestion of their settlement blocks, or got caught in traffic jams. [MM (3/80), 12] The city’s sounds were nerve-racking, especially after 1973, when the Kurtzes moved to a more centrally located apartment in Kowloon city, near a busy intersection where an overpass was being built and a multi-story building was going up next door. All day long there was deafening noise and continual vibration-air hammers, jets on practice runs, and truckloads of squealing pigs rounding the corner on the way to the slaughter-house. Evelyn couldn’t even tell when her vacuum cleaner was turned on. [MM (10/73), 20; (12/73), 5; (3/80), 12]

PROBLEMS OF THE PEOPLE

Yet the missionaries’ problem seemed small as they learned to know people well enough to share their problems-extortion and blackmail by criminals who waylaid relatives illegally arriving from China, hopeless waiting in a refugee camp with nowhere else to go and no hope for the future; poverty which compelled both parents in a family to work to keep rice on the table while children could not go outdoors to play in sunshine and fresh air because of the danger of gangs and kidnapping. [MM (9/79), 14]

JOYOUS TIMES

There were joys, too-an invitation to the wedding of a teacher in the mission primary school [MM (9/68), 22], sharing retreats of the Emmanuel Church at a Baptist campground [MM (6/68), 37], regular Bible study with the Henry Laws [MM (12/68), 6], participation in summer camps in the New Territories [MM (12/69), 17], school outings with water bicycling, ball games, and picnic lunches. [MM (3/71), 17] Joys increased as the Kurtzes got to know their neighbors, and as a group of young Christians emerged: the woman who shared her lawn with Evelyn and her little daughter once a week so the child could get outdoors [MM (12/75), 5], the family who gave Evelyn a lovely sweater knitted by their mother, the young people who prepared an elaborate Chinese meal to celebrate a missionary’s birthday [MM (9/78), 7], a Chinese festival shared with friends. [MM (5/80), 15] Also, through the years, the visits of many travelers enriched their lives. In addition to the deputations from the Eastern Board and the Bishop Board which encouraged them and helped to set goals, there were Mennonite missionaries, representing the Elkhart Board and the General Conference Mennonites as well as the Eastern Board. Other visitors included representatives of MCC, and also United States speakers, some of them Mennonites, participating in interdenominational meetings in Hong Kong. [MM (10/73), 20; (12/75), 21; Annual Reports 1972, pp. 39-41. See also deputation reports in EMB Exec Com Minutes, 1965-1980]

TEMPORARY HELPERS

Often the Kurtzes felt their aloneness was a liability in the work. [MM (3/80), 13] They had sole responsibility for the mission for several years after the Shirks left. In 1963, Luke Martin from Vietnam joined them for just two and a half weeks. The Eastern Board had assigned the Martins for a six-month term to help in the mission program while studying opportunities for a peace witness in Southeast Asia and trying to learn more about the situation in China. However, the dramatic needs in Saigon after the spring fighting in 1968 led the Vietnamese missionaries to request the Martins to return and so cut short their stay in Hong Kong. [MM (12/67), 21] In 1969 the Everett Metzlers were transferred from Saigon to Hong Kong to serve as Asia consultants for the Eastern Board and to share responsibility with the Kurtzes. [MM (6/69), 19; (10/69), 17] Everett served as treasurer of the planning committee for the first East Asia Mennonite Conference held in India in the fall of 1971. Besides attending the conference in India, he visited Burma, Bangkok, and Saigon. Later he also spent several weeks in Indonesia attending a meeting of the Executive committee of the Asia Mennonite Conference and visiting Indonesian Mennonite churches. [Annual Reports 1969, pp. 63-64; 1970, pp. 65-66; MM (2/71), 19; (10/73), 20]

The Metzlers served in Hong Kong until 1975, when Duane and Pat Bishop, who were unable to return to Vietnam, were sent to Hong Kong. [MM (6/75), 18; Annual Reports 1975, p. 6] The Bishops stayed to direct the work while the Kurtzes took a furlough in 1976-77 for additional training, returning to the United States when the Kurtzes’ furlough ended. [Annual Reports 1976, p. 22; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 5/4/77; 6/1/77, Exhibit II] In the autumn of 1977 Sanford Yoder went for a one-year Mission Associate term to work with the Kurtzes in youth ministries. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 8/3/77]

A PERMANENT TEAM

Not until 1980 did the Kurtzes have the privilege of working with colleagues who came as part of a permanent team. In 1977 the Eastern Board approved plans for a conjoint effort with the Council of Overseas Ministries of the General Conference Mennonite Church, which had a thriving work in Taiwan and was interested in Hong Kong. [EMB Exec com Minutes, 3/2/77, 4/6/77] In 1980 the General Conference Mennonite COM sent Hugh and Janet Sprunger to work with the Kurtzes. [Annual Reports 1979, p. 17] Under the agreement, each missionary was responsible to his own sending agency, but all would work together to build a unified Mennonite brotherhood. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 4/6/77, Exhibit XI] The Sprungers, who had worked in Taiwan for twenty-five years, were familiar with some of the dialects spoken by the older people. It was hoped that they could reach some of the senior citizens in the new housing blocks. [MM (3/80), 13; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 11/4/81, Exhibit VI] In 1981 the Eastern Board sent Ed and Kay Hoy to join the team, and the COM sent Tim and Suzanne Sprunger. [Annual Reports 1981, p. 16; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 11/4/81, Exhibit VI]

COOPERATION WITH MCC

Until the MCC program was discontinued, the Kurtzes worked closely with the MCC staff. During the early years they helped each December to distribute Christmas bundles. [Annual Reports 1967, p. 61, MM (6/65), 11; (4/69), 19] For some time Evelyn helped in the MCC office several evenings a week, and both she and Ira spent one evening a week in the MCC tuition program which gave help in English to school children. [MM (4/69), 19] In 1969 Hong Kong sent its first representative to the Southeast Asia reconciliation work camp sponsored by MCC, which was held in Hokkaido, Japan, that year. [MM (12/69), 17] the next year Hong Kong hosted the sixth work camp (earlier held in Taiwan, Korea, and Japan), which brought together twenty-nine Mennonite and Brethren in Christ campers and leaders from India, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia. It was held in the New Territories for two weeks in August. [MM (12/69), 17; (11/70), 20; (6/71), 10; Annual Reports 1969, pp. 63-64; 1970, pp. 65-66] During the two-year phase-out of the MCC program, the missionaries were responsible for the Family Service program which linked 450 United States and Canadian sponsors with children in 350 families. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 5/6/69; Annual Reports 1969, pp. 65-66] The MCC program ended on June 30, 1973, after which time the Mission used the former MCC facilities as a youth center. [MM (10/73), 20]

III. NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR WITNESS

YAN OI PRIMARY SCHOOL CLOSES

In addition to assisting MCC, the Kurtzes worked with the Henry Laws, who were employed to direct the mission primary school. In May, 1967, the Yan Oi Primary School in Kwun Tong, which had grown out of the kindergarten established the preceding year, was officially registered with the education department. By that time it had about sixty pupils in Kindergarten 1 and 2 and Primary Grades 1, 2, and e, with two full-time and two part-time teachers. [Annual Reports 1967, p. 61] Ira and Evelyn taught English classes in the school, and in 1968 moved into the Kwun Tong area, about a three-minute walk from the school. the fourth grade was added in 1968, and the fifth grade the following year, bringing the total number of pupils to eighty. [MM (12/68), 6; (12/69), 7]

By that time the future of the school was uncertain. Many private schools were closing because of rising rents and decreasing enrollment due to an increasing number of government schools and government-subsidized private schools. When a nearby school closed and asked the Yan Oi school to take its pupils, enrollment rose to 120 in 1970. The mission faced the decision of whether to make a big investment and commitment to an enlarged school or to find another form of service with a potential for witness. [Annual Reports 1969, pp. 63-64; 1970, pp. 65-66; MM (2/71), 17]

YAN OI READING AND STUDY CENTER OPENS

In 1971 compulsory primary school education began. [EMB Exec com Minutes, 7/14/72, Exhibit VI] That year the Eastern Board decided to terminate its primary school and to use the school premises to develop a reading room, student center, library, and English tutoring program. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 3571. Exhibit V] The school clcosed in July, 1971, but the Sunday School in the location continued, taught by Henry Law and Esther Lee, the reading room monitor. [Annual Reports 1971, pp. 46-7] The new facility was well used. Many children brought their home-work to the study center because their homes were too crowded for study. Often they came for tutorial help also. In the summer of 1973 the library-reading-room-study center was enlarged to take care of the growing numbers. [MM (3/74), 18] This center was known as Yan Oi.

THE LOK FU CENTER

Meanwhile another program had been developing in the former MCC facilities on the ground floor of a government resettlement block, the Lok Fu center. By 1967, 100-150 children and young people were attending the Sunday evening Sunday School there. The problem was that the large numbers of children crowded out the adults. In February, 1968, the Kurtzes and Laws began a Saturday evening Bible study for teenagers so that those who had come to the Sunday evening classes for two years could study the Bible at a deeper level. The Saturday evening meeting became a time of games and informal fellowship as well as Bible study. In 1969, a Sunday afternoon Bible study group began also. [MM (4/68), 18; (6/69), 2; (6/72), 8; Annual Reports 1969, p. 71]

BOOKRACK EVANGELISM

In 1972, Ira Kurtz began to plan outreach through literature, using bookrack evangelism as a means of reaching those who would not come to services. In 1973 one hotel permitted him to place a bookrack holding English and Chinese titles. That eyar the mission also gave books from the MCC Peace Shelf to the library of Chung Chi College to provide an important educational center with literature of peace and reconciliation. [MM (1/73), 19; (6/73), 8] Bookrack evangelism was successful. In nine months in 1973, 500 titles were sold, including an ever-increasing number of Christian books. [Annual Reports 1973, p. 35] The next year Ira placed bookracks in five new outlets, four in one chain of stores. When he asked to place bookracks in two stores of the chain, the manager requested bookracks for the other two. Other agencies affirmed this ministry which reached people not normally contacted by Christian bookstores. A local Christian business man volunteered time to help service the bookracks. [MM (7/74), 17-18; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 11/6/74, Exhibit XII] In 1975 the bookrack ministry was reorganized to involve more local people. As Ira needed more and more time to lead a growing group of young Christians, he asked Christian Literature Crusade to take the responsibility for the bookrack evangelism. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 7/2/75; 3/3/76]

OUTREACH THROUGH INFORMAL CLASSES

Through the years, Mennonite missionaries also cooperated with other denominations in Summer Bible School and summer camp programs. However, their most fruitful ministry was with small groups in their homes. Teaching English informally provided contacts and opportunities to witness. A young man living six floors down began to study English with the Kurtzes shortly after they came to Hong Kong, and asked to go to Sunday School with them. He attended Sunday School faithfully and usually went to morning worship also. In March, 1968, he decided to follow Christ. [MM (7/68), 15] In the early years several other young people studied English in the Kurtz home, one a government school teacher and one a worker in a television station. [MM (12/68), 6; (6/69), 2] The informal English conversation classes which attracted young people of the neighborhood led to opportunities for home Bible studies. [MM (3/74), 18] At a Saturday evening Bible study in the Kurtz apartment, three youth studied Living for Christ in English, and six in Chinese. Two of the group confessed Christ. This ministry grew until Bible classes met several times a week in the Kurtz home. [MM (10/73), 9; Annual Reports, 1974, p. 20]

MINISTRY TO NEIGHBORHOOD WOMEN

Missionary wives also developed an informal ministry to neighborhood women, even though it was hard to make the first contacts. When little Jennifer started to attend a Chinese kindergarten, Margaret Metzler got acquainted with some of the neighborhood mothers. [MM (12/71), 19] A group of factory girls came to the Metzler home for help in English once a week. When they asked Margaret to teach them to cook, she agreed and enjoyed learning from them how to prepare Chinese food. Through this contact, a Bible study of the book of Matthew emerged. [MM (10/73), 9] Evelyn Kurtz also made contacts as she enjoyed trading recipes and patterns with her neighbors and friends. [MM (12/75), 5] Barriers broke down as the American wives learned to appreciate Chinese ways of doing things: the usefulness of bamboo poles for drying laundry; the convenience of chopsticks. economical, easy to clean and store, and useful in cooking; the effectiveness of the traditional broad chopper. They learned that food tasted better when cooked in a “wok.” They worked hard to master the intricacies of the beautiful Chinese embroidery. [MM (9/72), 2-3]

Sometimes efforts together neighbors for Bible study were discouraging, as the Bishops discovered when they first came to Hong Kong. In a building of thirty-six apartments they rarely saw their neighbors, so they visited and invited them to Bible discussions. The first week one Chinese youth and one Indonesian-Portuguese couple came. The second week only the couple came. Nobody came in the third and fourth weeks. When they knocked on doors again, some people opened only as far as a chain lock would permit; a few opened wide. Answers ere discouraging, “I’m not interested,” or “I’ll come if I’m not busy.” [MM (12/75), 21]

CONTACTS IN SCHOOLS

Duane was more successful in teaching oral English and Bible several hours a week in a private secondary school. Opportunities for informal contacts began when several boys stopped to ask, “Why do you like the Bible?” giving him the opportunity for an informal contact. [MM (1/76), 20] Ira Kurtz also had been making meaningful contacts with young people through teaching religious education classes fifteen times a week in a Kowloon secondary school and also through teaching English classes in another high school. [MM (6/73), 8; (10/73), 19]

IV. A CHURCH IS BORN

A BELIEVERS’ FELLOWSHIP

Gradually, as groups of young people gathered to study the Bible in greater depth in the missionaries’ homes, a cluster of believers emerged who wanted to form a Christian Fellowship. [Annual Reports 1975, p. 6; MM (6/75), 18] The Eastern Board had not planned to contribute to denominational divisions in this city which had Christian churches, schools, and other institutions representing a wide spectrum of beliefs and practices. When students in English and Bible classes said they wanted to follow Christ, Ira and Evelyn tried to get them to attend Christian churches near their homes. But the young people came back saying they didn’t feel a part of those congregations and wanted their own worship service. As they pressured to have their own church, the Kurtzes yielded, and the core of youth who had become Christians through Bible studies meeting since 1973 became the Lok Fu Mennonite Church. [Annual Reports 1969, pp. 63-64; MM (3/80), 12-13] Their first meeting was held on February 3, 1976 with Ira Kurtz in charge. Five Chinese students and six Westerners were present. [EMB Exec Com Minutes, 3/3/76] After that as many as thirty, never fewer than five, Chinese young people attended. They met in the reading room at the former MCC Center, with tables pushed back and chairs arranged in a circle. After ten or fifteen minutes of singing accompanied by a guitar, the missionary gave the message, and then there were testimonies and prayers. Some of the young people faced personal problems, such as parental objections or Sunday work which made regular attendance impossible, but all were interested in praying to God, in learning more about Him, and in living for Him. [MM (12/76), 12-13] Duane Bishop led the group while the Kurtzes were on furlough. [Annual Reports 1976, p. 22]

DESCRIPTION OF BAPTISMAL SERVICE

Four more young people were baptized in January, 1977, bringing the Chinese membership to nine. [Annual Reports 1976, p. 22; MM (9/77), 8] Luke Beidler, who with his family stayed in Hong Kong while awaiting visas to enter Indonesia, described the second baptismal service:

A high school classroom, with the desks moved to the sides of the room, and with the upturned chairs on the desks sprouting their four legs into the air, was the humble stage for the second baptism of the Hong Kong Mennonite fellowship of Christians.

The service began with the eighteen adults and two children present singing a mixture of Chinese and English songs of praise, accompanied by a guitarist. We all felt the joy of the Lord and our singing reflected our joy.

After the sermon each candidate gave his testimony. Excerpts from the testimonies show the seriousness of the young people: “I thought the Word was only written, not living or present, but as I began to read daily, I began to realize that God was talking to me.” “Suddenly I had to know the truth of the matter. I began reading the Bible earnestly and it was no longer boring. . . . Learning a lot in Bible class, I decided that I wanted to follow Christ.” “The idea of a good Creator of all things was really new. It excited me because I had never thought of men and the world as having a Creator, rather it was just science. This started me reading the Bible in earnest.” [MM (2/77), 18; (4/77), 17]

NEW CHRISTIANS WITNESS

The small group of young men and women attended Sunday morning services regularly. [MM (2/77), 18-19] One Sunday Duane spoke about the mustard seed, telling them: “We are ten people. If everyone brings one, and that person becomes a Christian, we will be twenty. If those twenty bring one more next year, we will be forty. In five years there will be three hundred.” After that Sunday, the attendance jumped. [MM (9/77), 18]

Even after ten years in Hong Kong, when they could read several thousand Chinese characters and understand 90 percent of a conversation, the Kurtzes felt a language barrier in attempts to witness publicly. But they rejoiced to see the Gospel spread as the young people witnessed to others. A girl who thought she was the only Christian in her class at school gave a tract to a fellow student and learned that he already was a Christian. Then several others in the class revealed that they were Christian too. One young man asked for a clear explanation of Christ’s stoning death so he could answer the questions of a classmate who had seen him thank God for his food. Another told about sharing his testimony with the tutor who helped him in math. [MM (9/77), 8; (3/80), 13] An evangelism-training class taught by Ira gave the young people new zeal to reach neighbors and friends. The Kurtzes also tried to help them to be aware of the needs of other groups such as the Vietnamese refugees in camps outside Hong Kong. [MM (10/79), 20; (3/80), 13]

GROWTH THROUGH BIBLE STUDY AND PRAYER GROUPS

Bible study and prayer groups continued to be very important to the young Christians because the busy life and crowded apartment living in Hong Kong made it difficult for them to spend time in individual Bible study and prayer. ]MM (12/78), 9] As the group studied together and shared their understandings and talked about their struggles, the Kurtzes gave strong support without dominating the activities. In individual counseling sessions, they worked with the problems young Christians faced. “They really care,” said one member of the group. [MM (3/89), 13] When the young people decided to discontinue their Saturday evening Bible study and instead have a youth meeting to attract their unsaved friends, the missionaries were somewhat concerned because the young Christians knew so little of the Bible. they need not have worried. the group decided of their own accord to crowd a Tuesday night meeting for Bible study into their busy schedules. [MM (9/78), 20-21]

PUBLIC MEETINGS

In 1978 the believers’ group began to hold public meetings in an effort to reach the Lok Fu community. In December they held the first meeting for a large group, a Christmas program to present the meaning of Christ’s coming. They got permission to use the roof top, scrubbed walls, swept up glass, borrowed chairs and carried them up eight flights of stairs, and decorated the meeting place. Several weeks later they planned a special visitors’ Sunday in the worship service. The Kurtzes planned to show the film “Queen of the Dark Chamber,” but discovered that the two sound tracks were in English and Mandarin Chinese, not in Cantonese. The church group, some of whom understood Mandarin, made a Cantonese sound track. They felt repaid for their evening and all-night work sessions to prepare and synchronize the new sound track, when seventy, instead of the usual twenty-five, people packed the meeting room and heard in Chinese the claims of Christ. [MM (2/79), 21]

CHURCH EXTENSION

By 1978 the Lok Fu Mennonite Church had worship and Bible study at three locations in the city. [Annual Reports 1978, n.p.] The Sunday School classes were being taught by Chinese Christian teachers from other missions and churches. When some of the “borrowed” teachers resigned because they were too busy to teach, the missionaries decided to discontinue one of the Sunday Schools. But the young believers said they would be responsible for that work, and operated the Sunday School with real energy and concern. After a few months, on their initiative, they decided to take a teacher training course. [MM (9/78), 20-21]

THE CHURCH ORGANIZES

In 1979 a number of new believers were baptized, and in 1980 the group elected a church council. [MM (3/80), 13] By 1981 there were twenty-five members, all young people in their teens and twenties-no families except those of the missionaries. The group elected two young men to study theology in Chung Chi College. They also sent a young woman to study in the Mennonite seminary in Taiwan. Two other young people were in MCC’s one-year training program, one in Canada and one in the United States. The group was planning to start two new fellowships and hoped to work among elderly people in one of the housing blocks. They are planning for the future, hoping that the church will be firmly established, since no one knew what would happen in 1997, when Great Britain’s lease on the colony expired. [MM (3/80), 13; EMB Exec Com Minutes, 11/4/81, Exhibit VI]

Hong Kong Mennonite History

Check links on the right for specific history pages

Hong Kong Mennonite Time Line

The Mennonite Church in Macau welcomes you

Grace Mennonite Church welcomes you

Hope Mennonite Church welcomes you to join us

Meeting time(s) - cell gathering every Saturday
7:30 to 9:30pm at Yau Ma Tei
Contact: Rita Au (9195 3010) / Hui Siu Che (9600 0947)

Helping Hands Centre, Tuen Muen
89-91 G/F Chi Lok Fa Yuen,
Tel:2426 3664
Email Helping Hands Centre: helpinghands@biznetvigator.com

Sunday Service: every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month
3pm to 5pm

Women Bible Study: every Thursday
9:30am to 11:30am

All Nations Mennonite Church welcomes you to worship with us:

On Cheung Chau Island the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month

In Central at Healthy Lane Cafe the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the Month, 11 AM

For more information and directions, please contact:
Pastor Andy Wade - 6376 4209
Pastor Nora Iwarat - 9546 6691
Mey Idawaty - 9207 8924

Email us

Printable map and directions (PDF)

Map to Healthy Lane

Agape Mennonite Church welcomes you…

Welcome!

We invite you to join us for worship on Sunday mornings!

Please phone the contacts below for times and directions or visit their webpage for more information.

Agape Mennonite Church, Tai Wai, NT, Pastor Jeremiah Choi - 9286 6524

All Nations Mennonite Church,
Kowloon/Hong Kong Pastor Andy Wade - 6376 4209
Cheung Chau: Pastor Nora Iwarat - 9546 6691, Mey Idawaty - 9207 8924

Grace Mennonite Church, Ho Man Tin, Pastor Alde Wong - 9754 3700

Hope Mennonite Church/Tuen Muen Centre,
Contact: Rita Au -9195 3010, Hui Siu Che - 9600 0947

Macau Mennonite Church/Family Life Centre
Pastor George Veith - (853) 6643 6411

Welcome to the website for The Conference of Mennonite Churches in Hong Kong (CMCHK). Currently there are four Mennonite Churches in Hong Kong: Agape, Grace, and Hope are all Cantonese-speaking churches, and All Nations which is a multinational fellowship primarily using English but reaching out to people of all languages and nationalities. In addition to these four churches is a new ministry in Tuen Muen, Helping Hands Centre, which is being developed as a community and family centre providing tutoring, English classes, and other events.

The Family Life Centre in Macau is a sister church reaching out to the local residents of Macau.