In God’s Time

A letter from Myoung Ho Yang serving in Hong Kong

March 2017

Dear Friends, 

Greetings from Hong Kong!  

We often say that “time flies.” Chinese has this exact expression. It also has the expression “in the blink of an eye.” It is interesting that people around the world seem to feel the same way. Time flies! The first quarter of this year has already passed. Two semesters have passed in the blink of an eye since we came back to Hong Kong last summer. We hope all of us are living, making the most of every time in our life, as Paul encourages us to do when he says: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Shandong Theological Seminary

In March, I had a good opportunity to visit Shandong Theological Seminary in mainland China and to talk with the principal and a couple of teachers. I was invited by Rev. Choon Lim, World Mission’s regional liaison for East Asia. The school is located in the eastern part of China, three-and-a-half hours away by plane from our home in Hong Kong. Established in 1987, it has produced more than 1,000 graduates. Those graduates are playing significant roles in churches and society as spiritual leaders. This school plans to expand its educational ministry due to a great scarcity of trained leaders to serve the rapidly growing Christian population, not only in the Shandong area, but throughout China.

One of my students from the Shandong region served in five churches as a circuit preacher even before he came to the Divinity School of Chung Chi College for his master’s degree. Every Sunday, he and his senior pastor went to two or three churches to preach. Churches in China are in desperate need of educated pastors, but there’s still a serious lack of seminaries, teachers, and opportunities for theological education.

In churches and seminaries in China and Hong Kong, there is a growing need for worship education. In response to that need, in 2014, our school began a master’s program in worship and sacred music. Because Shandong Seminary also has sensed the necessity of worship education and hopes to establish a special program for worship and church music, I am building a relationship with them so that we are able to work collaboratively on worship education. I hope we will actualize this cooperative work in the very near future. I believe it will come to fruition in God’s time, just as Jiyeon and I were able to begin our ministry in Hong Kong in God’s time.

We were amazed that our ministry in Hong Kong was possible and understood better how this was so when we talked with one of the World Mission personnel at our mission co-workers sending ceremony who said that PC(U.S.A.) World Mission and Chung Chi Divinity School prayed for this ministry for three years before we were even sent. There were prayers as always! We would like to invite you to join in God’s mission by praying for future ministries in China like the partnership with Shandong Seminary. We will see the fruit of prayers in God’s time.

Every March, Chung Chi Divinity School has a special ‘Walkathon,’ which started five years ago. Students, alumni, and other financial supporters join together to raise funds for school building repair and extension projects. Because the Divinity school building was first built in the 1960s, it needs a lot of repair and an expansion of the dormitory and classrooms. All participants walked together around the campus for 30 minutes and had a concert on the grass near the dormitory where a fundraising bazaar was being held. Students sold food, clothes, books, and crafts. Jiyeon prepared Korean food for the bazaar. Thanks to such collaboration, the school has successfully achieved this year’s goal.

We want to express our gratitude for your walking together with us in our ministry in Hong Kong. Your prayers and financial support enable this ministry to keep going. We would like to ask you to continue to walk with us. Please continue to pray for us so that we can serve faithfully, powerfully, and effectively by the power of the Holy Spirit. In your prayers, please also remember the Chung Chi Divinity School, its students, and teachers; the people of Hong Kong who have just elected a new leader; and Christians in China. Please pray for much-needed justice and freedom in China. I believe that God’s grace and mercy flow abundantly into the world through our prayers.

Thank you for your love and support.

In Grace and Peace of Christ,

Myoung Ho and Ji Yeon