The Road to Hong Kong

With apologies to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, this title seems like a fitting description as I write this on my journey back from Hong Kong and China. The “road” included direct flights between Chicago and Hong Kong – 15 hours to travel to the other side of the world – another miracle of God’s creation!

The long and winding roads of Hong Kong weave around bodies of water, up hills, through tunnels, and on crowded streets. If you haven’t been there, imagine New York on steroids, with awesome hills and mountains on all sides. What a place! One of the great financial centers in the world, Hong Kong has beautiful high-rise office buildings and apartments and masses of people everywhere. The energy level of the city is off the charts. A state of the art mass transit system is particularly impressive. I was able to check my bag and check-in for my return flight at a train station in the heart of the city before hopping on a train to the airport. I hope someone in authority at O’Hare airport is reading this!

The road that brought me to Hong Kong from Wheat Ridge Ministries’ office was our Center for Urban Education Ministries, a part of our program services dedicated to encouraging new models for Christian education in our cities. The Center’s work includes a lecture series named in honor of Dr. Mel Kieschnick, a leading Christian educator in the Lutheran church for over 60 years, and a man with a special heart for ministry in the city. Early in his career, Mel served as a missionary in Hong Kong. He remains highly respected among the Christian community of Hong Kong and they invited him to come to Hong Kong to serve as the speaker of the lecture series that bears his name. Wheat Ridge Ministries also has a strong history of seeding new ministries in Hong Kong and China, so we were also invited to promote and encourage support for Wheat Ridge and for the Center for Urban Education Ministries.

The road in Hong Kong led us to Hong Kong International School, one of the premier American schools in the world, and owned by the Lutheran Church. With over 2,400 students from countries around the world in grades K-12 on three campuses, this school is a model of excellence in education in the Lutheran Christian tradition. Dr. Kieschnick was the founding board chair for HKIS and his lecture to the faculty was a powerful reminder of what God has caused to happen over the years, as the school overcame tremendous obstacles to become the great institution it is today.

The road trip continued as Mel also delivered a lecture at Concordia Lutheran School in Kowloon, where he served as principal for many years. Concordia is another school of distinction, serving over 1,000 local students in a beautiful new facility. It is one of 34 Lutheran schools operated under the banner of the Hong Kong Synod of the Lutheran church. I met principals and teachers from several of these schools. As is the case in the U.S., these teachers are filled with a passion for sharing God’s love with children as they provide an excellent academic environment. And, as in the U.S., these urban schools are much more than academic institutions. They are ministries of human care that serve the needs of students, families, and the larger community.

I’ve known and respected Mel for many years, but I was still overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for him and his wife, Jane, by people in the Lutheran community in Hong Kong. A beautiful garden was dedicated in their name at Concordia Lutheran School while we were there. And a large number of school alumni, many of whom knew Mel as their teacher and principal, gathered for a great party one evening to honor them. Among the reasons these people praise God for Mel and Jane is that many of them came to know Jesus through their witness.

After this wonderful occasion, I took a left turn from Hong Kong to visit mainland China to see firsthand work being seeded by Wheat Ridge. There are 31 cities in China with a population of over 1 million. There are also thousands of rural villages like the Miao (Hmong) village of Long Tan. This village of 120 people is tucked away in the hills three hours northwest of Kunming in the Yunan Province. I met the people of this village thanks to a wonderful organization, Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation. Through CWEF, Wheat Ridge is helping seed a program that equips people from churches in villages like Long Tan to serve as health educators. The hard working people of Long Tan are representative of millions of people who live off the land in China, earning a meager income and living without basic resources many of us take for granted such as clean water, modern sanitation, and access to medical care. It was inspiring to meet several of the people who have been trained as health educators. These are full-time farmers who work hard just to provide for themselves and their families. Yet, they care so much for the people of these small villages that they take time to become trained as volunteer health educators in order to promote good practices that reduce illness and premature death. They are, indeed, sharing health and hope in Christ’s name! I’m thankful for the great food and hospitality provided by the people of Long Tan, who were so generous to this strange looking very tall (by their standards) white guy who is the poster child for Mandarin language deficiency!

Contrary to what many Christians in the U.S. assume about the ability of people to practice their faith openly in China, the church is growing rapidly. While denominations do not exist as such in China, the Chinese government supports the establishment of non-denominational Christian seminaries, and pastors establish churches that are organized into regions. Mr. Long, who traveled with us to Long Tan, supervises pastors and lay evangelists in one of these regions. On the way back from Long Tan, we stopped to visit an evangelism training class. We were treated to several hymns sung beautifully by those in the class and accompanied by a man playing, of all things, an accordion! We came to learn that evangelists are taught how to play this very portable instrument so that they can accompany singing during worship services. What a creative and practical idea!

The road back to Hong Kong led us to one more unique and exciting experience: 250 Lutheran educators from a variety of Asian countries were gathered for a conference sponsored by the Asia Lutheran Education Association (ALEA). Did you know that there are over 150 Lutheran schools in Asia? I was thrilled to see that the focus of this conference was “service learning.” This is an intentional process, also used by many schools in the U.S., designed to help students become aware of the needs of underserved people and become involved in acts of service. I learned that virtually all of the Lutheran schools in Asia include service learning as a significant part of their curriculum … a wonderful way that these schools are helping students share God’s love with others.

So now it’s time to hit the road toward home. I return to the states reminded once again that the more I learn, the less I know. I’m in awe of the beauty of God’s creation in Asia, God’s love for His people there, and the impact of Christian congregations and schools, including the significant presence of Lutheran Christians. I’m made aware again that God’s Spirit has no boundaries. And, I’m so thankful for the opportunities that God continues to provide Wheat Ridge Ministries to encourage and assist leaders in places like Hong Kong, Kunming, Long Tan, and even Chicago, Illinois, as they respond to God’s call to develop new ministries that share health and hope in the name of our healing Christ.