Greetings and Merry Christmas from our family in Hong Kong! It is such a blessing to be writing you- our dear friends and family in Christ- as we just celebrated three years here.
Each year so far has been filled with incredible experiences which have challenged our faith, broken down our self-reliance, opened our eyes to become more aware of what God is already doing, wanting to do, and calling us to do. Hong Kong is a city where an estimated 90+% are unreached with the gospel yet we see God’s Spirit is indeed alive and moving here. We praise the Lord for that!
As most of you know, our calling is more of an unconventional one. We are not with a formal mission organization where we can neatly fall under their umbrella of well-known service to the Lord or where we can just seamlessly join hands with an already established work and feel an immediate sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. We are solely here at the calling and prompting of the Holy Spirit and from day one have sought His direction on where to be, what to do, and how to do it. It’s an incredibly wonderful place to be in the sense of hearing from Him and yet still requires a constant stream of faith to fend off fear and insecurity. Spiritual warfare has become so real to us and become a battle we are constantly aware of mentally, physically, and spiritually. We have come to realize that the mission field is not easily endured-even when the calling is sure. We have seen the refiner’s fire bring up the dross of our weaknesses, reveal our selfishness, expose our sin, and confront our faithlessness like never before. But we can honestly say that in all things we are more than conquerors in Christ and His grace is sufficient. We praise Him and count it all joy as we have fallen, stumbled, and at times just plain jumped into trials. All kidding aside, there have been tears of joy and tears of pain, moments where we were ready to book our flights back home and leave the mission field to stronger more capable people, and moments where we wouldn’t trade being here for anything as we saw people go from despair and hopelessness to new creations being transformed by the gospel.
Our calling here lately has seemed to be more relational that program orientated. But we’re more than okay with that. It’s really all about the “one” Jesus is trying to reach. Some days there are more than one, somedays that “one” is really just “one” but either way its God who gives the increase and we are just sowers, waterers, and sometimes harvesters. We aim to discern where God is at work and see how the Spirit leads us to co-operate with Him. Sometimes it is with our neighbors, people we meet in our daily travels, church family, and through planned outreaches. It’s all God’s work and it’s all for His glory.
There have been a few planned outreaches this year although some leadership changes at our local church temporarily redirected the expected mission emphasis. In response to those changes, God has directed Paul to work more with a ministry called Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor and other churches and non-profits organizations. Here’s a brief overview of the outreaches we either led or participated in:
Two week summer outreach – This outreach was birthed out of the desire to have a more collaborative effort between Hong Kong churches and Christian non-profit organizations in ministering to the underprivileged refugee community in the name of Christ. It was an English camp aimed to bolster the children’s English language skills through creativity and drama. Nine churches and non-profit organizations in all came together to serve about 90 underprivileged children. Initial relationships were built and they were also invited to come back and engage with the local church where they could get connected for further support and also introduced to God’s Love. Paul, Hannah, and Nathanael were a big part of this well received outreach. Surprisingly, even the host school which is secular was extremely pleased with the outcome and very gracious with their offer to use the facilities. The kids as well as parents were tremendously thankful and eager to engage. We hope to have a follow up camp this summer as well.
Ongoing local outreach to the underprivileged and street outreach to homeless and those in poverty – one of our desires is to see the body of Christ go beyond mission trips and “local outreach” events. In reality, we could not host enough events and do enough missions trips to meet the true need of the lost and dying world around us. With that thought in mind we take advantage of every opportunity to redeem the time here in our normal everyday life. Many Hong Kongers are open and curious about us as they see our uniqueness as a non-typical family here. Many times this alone has served as a perfect platform to share what God has done in us and for us. We are thankful that Hong Kong is truly open in so many ways. We love to tell them how the relationship we have with our God is not merely a transaction of service in hopes to gain what we desire as many of them have been taught to expect. Rather, we explain that we serve our God for who He is first and foremost, what He already has done on the cross before we ever knew Him or served Him.
Love Banquet – This amazing outreach was birthed out of a desire to fulfill the call in Luke 14:12-14 which reads ‘Then He also said to him who invited Him, ‘When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’ This month we have the privilege of co-leading our third one and we are already expecting over 100 unchurched people to come! The Love Banquet will be comprised of a wonderful multi-course catered dinner, a gospel themed drama depicting the story of the Good Samaritan updated and revised for Hong Kong, professional quality entertainment and a gospel message. We are so excited that we have even received news just this past week of a family we invited to the previous two Love Banquets recently invited Jesus to be the Lord of their lives and are now attending a local Christian Body. Although we don’t always know what our efforts will result in, it is a tremendous blessings and encouragement to hear stories like this. We give Jesus all the glory for His wonderful work!
Technology and helping the poor – We all know how easy it is to let technology become an avenue to distraction, but we are excited that Paul has become a part of an effort to use it to more easily reach those in need. This year God has continued the partnership of Paul’s IT skills and meeting the needs of the less fortunate by teaming up with Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor. He is donating his skills to write a wide spread application that will help people find restaurants who are friendly to the poor and have a desire to give back to the community. This will promote better support for participating restaurants as well as allowing patrons to have an easy way to help those in need by buying and sponsoring meals for the hungry. The longer term vision with this project is to enlarge this platform to include more restaurants and allow the greater community to micro fund ministries to the underprivileged community.
A word from Heather: This year has been probably the toughest yet for me personally. As Cyrus has grown into a toddler, the challenges of having so many people and homeschooling in a small house had become a tough obstacle to maneuver most days. Also, Paul’s parents moved into a nursing home which was a huge change for all of us. We felt very much called to support and comfort his parents during this transitional year. Their move to Tai Po spawned our own move since they strongly desired us to be closer to them. Although moving is never easy with a big family, God has blessed us tremendously in bringing us to a less conjugated environment than Sham Shui Po and we now live in a two level village house with lots of green trees and bike trails around us. It has refreshed us and renewed us in more ways than we expected to be out of the hustle and bustle of Kowloon. During the hardest moments I felt God reveal to me that I had been leaning on my own strengths and determination to accomplish all the tasks required of me. Life in Hong Kong is still quite a bit more challenging than in the States, in my opinion, because of the lack of owning a car, and the added logistics of shopping and day to day life. In His mercy though I felt distinctly that God was breaking me so that I would allow His strength to flow through my weaknesses. He comforted me with Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Currently my days are filled with maintaining the homeschool with Hannah in her senior year, Nathanael starting high school, and Ellie in 2nd grade. Cyrus is turning three in February so hopefully the challenges of the terrible twos will soon be dissipating. Please pray for my continued strength to be the manager of our home and support Paul in his ministry. And for my time with the Lord to be fruitful and refreshing.
A word from Paul: This year has been one of much discouragement and trials, but God’s faithfulness and your prayerful support has continued to spur us on in faith to follow Him regardless of our own weaknesses. One of the burdens I feel the Lord has placed on my heart in coming out to Hong Kong is not only one of mission to the lost and underprivileged but also to the body of Christ. The main reason I didn’t feel God was leading us through a mission organization was because there are lots of missionaries who are already doing that very well. I believe my family and I have also been called to be a voice that cries out to our fellow brothers and sisters to live more fully for our Lord Jesus. Being able to continue to tent-make gives me a different platform in which to speak into my fellow believers’ lives, and we have engaged this year in many one-on-one discipleship and mentorship relationships.
I was reminded by the Lord recently that our labor to Christ is never in vain and always in His timing. We just hit our 3-year mark, and I was reflecting on the last 3 years and the cry of my heart was to ask, “Was it, and is it, worth all the sacrifices my family has made to come on this journey for the Lord?” I know things have been done and hearts have been converted, but the yearn of my heart was for more. I wanted to see more and expected more work to be done. On one particular day I was quite discouraged, and in a moment of weakness in my faith I wondered whether the Lord was pleased by what we were accomplishing. A few days later, as I was plowing along in preparation for our Love Banquet outreach, I was speaking to the wife of a family we have built a relationship with and have invested in many times over the past two years. Today, she excitedly reported that she had something to tell me. She was so happy to share with me that her and her husband had both accepted Christ! A wave of God’s comfort came over me, and I sensed Him say back to me, “Is it worth it? Are these souls worth it?” Immediately, of course, I knew the answer.
I learned a new word this week: “gobedience.” Can you guess what it means? Yes, it means obedience in going wherever or to whomever the Lord sends you. I need to be content and faithful to do what He is asking of us and leave the rest to Him. Sometimes the plowing of the ground takes years. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Some days we will get to see those who are lost come to know our risen Savior Jesus, but in the end, the most important thing is to be obedient to His call. I want to encourage all of you to continue to be faithful, and I challenge you to serve Christ and share His awesome message of love and redemption with those He has placed in your lives.
May the Lord richly Bless you all and thank you all so much for your prayers and support in gifts and through shopping on http://www.loveasia.org/shop/ .
In Christ’s Love,
The Ling Family