Special Feature: The Testimonies of Lives—Secondary School Educators Who Persevere in the Narrow Gap (Issue 491)
Schools have been the first to be affected by the rapid changes in Hong Kong. Many youth workers continue to do their best to nurture students with Christian values on secondary school campuses. We interviewed three teachers and a school chaplain to see how they continue to persevere in spite of the difficulties.
Journey of Life Impacting on Life | Mr. Chan
Mr. Chan said that he entered the education field because of his A level Chinese teacher, who had a profound impact on him in just one and a half years. “He brought me to the church, and opened my eyes to the Chinese language and Christianity. He also integrated his faith and life very well, and his pastoral care for people influenced me to choose to become a teacher.” This kind of pastoral care influences how Mr. Chan mentors his students today, trying to reach out to them more outside of the classroom.
When it comes to campus fellowship, he expects student leaders to lead the fellowship and be student-initiative. Therefore, through regular meetings and skills training with the fellowship committee members, he hopes to deepen relationships, motivate, improve skills, and enhance students’ confidence, while encouraging and helping them to take the initiative in caring for their younger classmates. He expressed that students now have too many things to learn, too many options to participate in extra-curricular activities, or only see fellowship as one of those activities, or tend to choose other activities over fellowship. Therefore, Mr. Chan encourages the fellowship committee members to be proactive in caring for other fellowship members and to bring out the uniqueness of the faith community; The fellowship committee members are divided into two teams, responsible for preparation and implementation, so that more students could participate and take responsibility together.
How Mr. Chan received the pastoral care from his teacher in the past, today he is mentoring his students in this way, continuing to impact lives and nurturing students’ growth.
Efforts to Create Space in the Narrow Gap | Pastor Shek
Pastor Shek shared that as a school chaplain, many students come to her to talk, and she will care and embrace every life that comes before her. Once, a student reached out to her in the classroom and asked for her help. It was because her best friend was leaving Hong Kong the next day and she was filled with the sadness of separation. Pastor Shek comforted her and prayed for her.
She also admitted that there are difficulties in the school environment, but she would still seize the opportunity to preach the gospel. She takes advantage of the short five-minute sharing time in the morning assembly to prepare the scripture message as best she could. In her religion classes, she also insists on sharing the gospel and reflecting on faith. She also tries to open up space for students to be more involved in ministry. This past Easter service, she invited various students to share their own testimonies or those of others around them, and concluded with a teacher’s testimony, leaving the service open for them to share their faith.
What Pastor Shek has been doing is not only pastoring students, but also trying to create space in the narrow gap for students to have the opportunity to participate in different ministries.
Campus Evangelism Expansion | Mr. Yu
During his college years, Mr. Yu was involved in the University of Hong Kong Fellowship, Inter-College Christian Fellowship (ICCF) and FES. He credited FES with teaching him to think about the meaning of the gospel from the perspective of different people groups and influencing how he lives out the gospel on campus. He will observe the needs of the campus and consider whether the ministry can respond to the needs, and perhaps create new ministries. At the school where he currently teaches, he saw the need for meetings for mainland students, so he worked with the pastor of the school congregation and other teachers to set up a weekly service to equip and bless more students and teachers. The service started before the pandemic and has been attended by about 40 students and teachers.
Mr. Yu admitted that he had thought about leaving Hong Kong and going to Thailand to engage in teacher training, as well as exploring the possibility of studying abroad, but in the end, he chose to stay in Hong Kong. “It doesn’t matter where I am or what community I am in, what matters is whether you are willing to take action and live out the gospel.” He expressed his desire to stay and build sincere and trusting peer relationships with students and graduates, and to accompany them as a Christian teacher.
We see a missionary heart in Mr. Yu. No matter where he is, he will not stop thinking, and when he sees a need, he chooses to take action and live out the gospel.
Full text is available in Chinese version.