September | 2017 | Going the Wong Way HK

Moving Forward

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Going The Wong Way HK

Dear Friends.

We’ve officially passed the 2 month mark of living in Hong Kong. Yes, only 2 months. The past 60 odd days have seemed more like 730 days. In our last blog, we had mentioned and shared some of the struggles and trials we have endured, and to be quite honest, there’s more than what we had shared. We do need your prayers – for our transition, our boys, our marriage – we are thankful to many who have partnered with us to pray and to keep us accountable.

I am reminded though of what the apostle Paul writes in Philippians, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” What is that goal? To know God, to be more like Christ. To mature in our faith, be sanctified. Our eyes should not be on the temporary, nor be short sighted. And so, at times, we must move forward, with intention, with a goal in mind.

It’s been 2 months and our family has yet to find a church to call home. We have visited many churches in Hong Kong – from Anglican to “Evangelical” to Charismatic – and still nothing. I am confident though that the Lord did not bring us to Hong Kong to be frustrated, tired, to be lacking in Christian fellowship. I do work at a Christian school, so there is a level fellowship. I teach Bible and my class has morning devotions everyday, and so, I am in the Word. Our family is back to having Family Worship as consistently as we can, and yet, we are still missing a piece to our puzzle.

We did start a Small Group here in Hong Kong. This is an answered prayer. We call this our Harvest Hong Kong Small Group. Serious. No joking here friends. Our Small Group comprise of people who have attended Harvest Durham, York Region and Brampton. We also have a member who attended a church in the Nashville, TN, area. We just like the name because of our desires, like mindedness toward Scripture.

Prior to leaving Canada, many people have asked if we were coming to Hong Kong to plant a church. Our answer was always, no … however, we were and are always open to the possibility. The longer we are here in Hong Kong, the intentional conversations that we’ve been having with friends, the reality of launching a home church is becoming more real. In fact, home churches in Hong Kong is the way to go for many people. This is definitely a mind shift from what we are used to back home in Canada.

Our prayer at the moment, to be wise with our decisions. Praying for discernment and direction. Launching a home church takes work, launching a church also takes a lot of work. Do we have enough people for a core group? I would say Yes.

My prayer is that the people of Hong Kong would truly desire to have a deep meaningful relationship with the Lord. That there would be a church that believes in Fervent Prayer, Bold Preaching, and Passionate Worship. We pray that a church in Hong Kong would be Intentional in Purposeful Disciple Making, Courageous Evangelism and be a Strategically Church Planting church. Some of you know where these characteristics come from … and I’m so excited for the days, months and years to lay before us.

Would some of you join us in prayer, petitioning before the Lord to move in ways that would have great Kingdom impact here in Hong Kong?

God is at work friends. Trusting Him to bring everything to pass, in His perfect timing.

You are loved!

When Trials Come …

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Going The Wong Way HK

Hi friends,

It’s been a while since we’ve last posted. We are well. Life in HK has been really busy with teaching, making connections, going out to eat, shopping, looking for a church (which is another blog to come in the near future) and building relationships.

Last night, our family finally returned to doing Family Worship. There have been “consequences” as a result of neglecting our precious time. I’ll be honest, the busyness of life in Hong Kong can easily suck you in. The pace of life, the weather, you name it. And so, last night we began to read James. It didn’t take long after we started to read that we stopped. James 1: 1, 2 says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” And STOP. As a family, we talked about what trials are. We shared that it’s like a test. Team Wong has gone through many trials in our new chapter. We’ve only been in Hong Kong 8 weeks. That’s. All.

It was a sweet time to hear Malachi and Timothy share. We talked about our trial of moving to Hong Kong, our boys miss our 4 bedroom home, the space, their own bathroom. They miss their bikes and having the freedom to just go outside and play road hockey with their Uncle Duncan. To be able to see their grandmother on a regular basis – thankful that my mom will be coming to Hong Kong in November. Gloria misses driving and going to buy groceries once a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Here in HK … it’s more like every other day, sometimes it’s multiple times a day. I do miss my NGP family, colleagues, inside jokes that we share. We sure miss our Harvest Durham family – SG, Ian’s preaching. Harvest Family, don’t take it for granted.

So as a family, we are going through trials of various kinds. We are encouraged though. Thankful for the people in our lives, those who live with us on the 7th Floor at ICS, colleagues – now friends who are supportive, who prayed and pray for us. God is faithful.

James didn’t start his letter by saying, “when you face trials of various kinds”, no he started by say, “Count it all joy, my brothers …”. Wow. This is where it matters. We shared with our boys, that “Count it all joy” is a matter of the heart. Malachi shared that “count it all joy” means – we need to be thankful. Are we thankful? Absolutely. God has provided for us, more than we could imagine and we are confident that He’s not finished.

As we continue to seek Christ, serve Him here at ICS, we do have a number of prayer requests: Pray for discernment regarding opportunities to lead / go on missions trips, finding a church to attend, pray for insight and wisdom in terms of what ministry we should get ourselves involved with – intentional discipleship / mentoring, Bible Study, outreach … the list goes on. It actually does. No jokes. Pray for our SG that we started leading … a couple of weeks ago. It’s good to be back at it.

Friends, we miss you. Continue to love the Lord with all your heart. We are also praying for you as well. James ends by saying, “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is our prayer, we we would continue have our eyes on the Lord. That our walk with the Lord would remain firm, that we would continue to be more like Christ.

Till our next Blog.

You are loved!