William Lam, Associate Director of Fellowship Ministry (Nurture Ministry) [email protected]
This summer, our Inter-College Department continued to organize the Integral Mission Summer Program (IMSP), in which five students participated in the “Please Give Me a Cup of Cool Water Program”, four in the “Student Ministry/Media Ministry Program”, and two in the “Creation Care Summer Mission Program”. The following is the sharing of the participating students:
Please Give Me a Cup of Cool Water Program | Action of Love
In this Cool Water Program, I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of Praxis for their love, care, and patience in teaching us. Because I am a social work student, I get the opportunity to experience more of what social workers do, such as accompanying residents to look at sub-divided flats to defend their rights and interests, and going to Kwong Wah Hospital to console residents.
When I chatted with the residents, I learned that more and more of them were willing to contact Praxis because they saw good testimonies from the staff. By practicing love for each other and complementing each other, the staff are able to extend this love to the neighborhood. The residents also said that “Praxis” is different from ordinary churches. Not only do they emphasize the teaching of the Bible and the fellowship of brothers and sisters, but they also reach out to the underprivileged to demonstrate Christ’s love in action.
These are the reasons why people in the neighborhood are willing to continue to collect goods from Praxis. The testimonies of the staff are also examples for me to learn how to love God and people.Not only do they practice love in action, but they are committed to pausing and allowing God’s Word to sustain their lives every Thursday morning when they have devotional sharing time together.
Ching Yee, CUSCS student
Creation Care Summer Mission Program | Integration of academic and faith
Creation Care Summer Mission Program has been the most rewarding experience of my college life over the past five years. I major in ecology. During my semester I kept asking myself what the point of studying ecology was. I found the answer in this program; the specialties I am learning can be linked to my faith.
What I got out of this internship, however, was more than I could have imagined. I learned a lifestyle and attitude here that is pleasing to God; God created the heavens and the earth and then gave mankind the responsibility of stewardship over the creation—a task already outlined in the first chapter of Genesis. However, Christians are human beings, not perfect, and often self-centered to the exclusion of the rest of God’s creation. Creation Care is not a special concept, not limited to those who have studied environmental science, but it is an awareness that all people are capable of practicing in their daily lives; from minimal use of paper towels to environmental activities such as beach cleanups.
Creation Care and environmentalism may be similar in practice, but the motivation behind them is very different. The former is a love of God, a hopeful endeavor to fulfil the responsibilities that God has given to mankind. While not all environmentalism is necessarily Christian, all Christians should be environmentalists because of God’s love (at least that’s what I think).
Bosco, HKU student
Student Ministry/Media Ministry Program ｜A Discovery Journey
I am grateful for the eight-week summer internship in student evangelism, which has been very beneficial to me. During the internship, we have different training programs to get to know ourselves better. For the first time, I reflected on my past and made peace with the person I once was. In the future, I hope to make better use of my past experiences and attributes to “walk” with different people.
In addition, I discovered my interest in the biblical text and learned to use different spiritual disciplines to get closer to God, allowing Him to speak to us, instead of just asking Him unilaterally and incessantly. This was also my first encounter with theological reflection. At first, I thought that theology was something you had to go to seminary to study, but it turns out that theological reflection is very relevant to our lives. We can engage in theological reflection all the time, reflecting more on God’s creation as it relates to us.
Throughout the internship, I was able to see more of myself in different roles – as a fellowship committee member of the Education University of Hong Kong (EDUHK), as a representative of the EDUHK of ICCF, and as an intern. This blurring of identities, on the contrary, has enabled me to think from different perspectives, to look at things from a broader perspective, and to think about what I should do and what I should say in a further step.
