It was a scream!

“When faced with challenges in life, we might be inclined to solve them on our own, but if we start supporting one another—as in the three-legged walk—we can work things out together and support each other. I now realise how powerful teamwork is.” Siu Yan, a Christian Action service user from a low-income background.

 

The morning of March 9, 2024 was marked by a shared sense of fear and dread for over 800 people in Hong Kong. Christian Action’s 2024 Clearwater Bay Golf Country Club 3-Legged Charity Walk was supposed to happen that day, but instead the sky was full of massive rain filled clouds and monsoon winds!

Preparations for the 3-Legged Charity Walk had totaled in the hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard work from our staff members and volunteers. In previous years their labour of love has resulted in much needed funding for our programmes for underprivileged groups in Hong Kong, as well as orphans and children with disabilities in Qinghai. 

But as so often happens when we find ourselves completely powerless to change circumstances that are bigger than we are and we turn to God for help, He strengthens our 'spiritual’ eyes so that we are better equipped to see the miracle of his hand and grace in our lives! I thanked God for Pastor Lucas Durant’s prayers in asking God to hold the rain. We held our breath as God moved the monsoon wind, blew rainclouds over the Clearwater Bay hill, and spared us from a washout! 

The day turned out to be one long joyous celebration with over 700 participants and 100 volunteers.  It included many wonderful special guests, including Ms. Sarah Lee, Hong Kong’s double Olympic bronze medalist and three-time world champion cyclist; Mr. Tony Hung, who is a well-known actor and TV personality; Mr. Gary Lock, Chairman of the Country Club Committee; and Mr. Kennedy Lai, Founder of the China Hong Kong Newly Emerged Sports Association.

This year, we added a Nordic walking component to make it more challenging for the participants. Nordic walking is a whole-body walking exercise with Finnish origins that uses walking poles that resemble ski poles. After the initiation ceremony, all the special guests were invited on stage to show the participants how to use the walking poles with one leg tied to their partner. Kennedy gave everyone instructions on how to walk with even strides, maintain a straight line, and use of the walking poles. It was a lot of fun! The event also had an array of other exciting games and workshops available at different booths, including African Drumming, Air Storm and our very own youth band from On Tai. It was truly a wonderful and meaningful Saturday with family and friends.

Let us continue to walk in love so that our disadvantaged groups no longer need to be hungry and alone!

Siew Mei

Our Extraordinary Training Services Division

“Great news and congratulations to all those involved.” Christian Action’s Chairman, Mr. Julian Walsh.

Back in 1993 Christian Action had a distinguished history serving refugees and migrants. But then we broadened our mission to include serving Hong Kong residents and the impact has been astounding! Little did I know that when I had our Vietnamese Boat People Vocational Training Manager, Nigel Preece, help me to write our first proposal to work with ERB that we would go on to become one of HK's largest ERB retraining agencies!

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Celebrating Our Wong Tai Sin Community Leaders

On March 13th 2024 Christian Action held a Chinese New Year Tea gathering for our fabulous Wong Tai Sin Community leaders, some of whom had been enormously encouraging and helpful when we first moved into our Choi Wan Headquarters and so now we wanted to show our appreciation, by honouring them!

When we uprooted our Head Office and relocated to Choi Wan in May 2019, we knew there would be challenges. But what we could never have anticipated, was that the move would take place when Hong Kong was in the throes of massive social unrest, followed immediately after by three years of pandemic-induced hardship!

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As We Run, We Become

Sometimes in life we look but we don’t see, and listen, but not hear. I believe that the American marathoner Amby Burfoot, was thinking along those lines when she said: “As we run, we become. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism and never, ever, ever giving up.” The act of running is indeed physical, but the practice begets changes on a far deeper level.

Late last year our Christian Action Centre of Refugees (CFR) co-organized a three month long community running event for Hong Kong residents and refugees. Jeffrey Andrews, who heads up CFR, saw it as a tremendous opportunity for new friendships to be made and for local runners to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges refugees face. Running would not resolve their on-going legal procedures, or resolve their fear of deportation, or the policies that prevent them from working, or help increase the meagre living allowance they receive from the government, but it could improve mental and physical health!

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Local Charity Box of Hope Blesses Our Kids!

Box of Hope is a fabulous local charity with a wonderful mission. For the last several years they have blessed each of the underprivileged children in our programmes with a box of gifts. What makes these boxes of gifts so wonderful, is that they are purchased and donated by other, more fortunate HK school children who are in turn learning about poverty and the joy of giving!

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