Love’s Calling: How It Began

This post is dedicated to a dear partner and mentor, Mr. Wang Pei. A retired commissioner of the National People’s Congress Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, Mr. Wang has been an invaluable advisor in every aspect of Christian Action’s work in Qinghai.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Wang, was the director of the Chinese Embassy in London and my husband Marlon, was the Chairman of the Liverpool Pagoda Chinese Community Centre. Both had a heart for the overseas Chinese community and frequently collaborated on projects to help them. A friendship began and we stayed in contact even after I returned to Hong Kong in 1986.

By 1994, Mr. Wang had retired and returned to China, but continued to serve those in need. The country had two nationwide poverty alleviation projects and he was doing all he could to raise donations for the most poverty-stricken provinces. He wrote and submitted articles to international Chinese language newspapers and networked with the Chinese community in Hong Kong and overseas. To make sure that the funds raised actually reached the needy he regularly traveled to some of the most inhospitable corners of impoverished provinces to visit households, speak with recipients and identify others who needed help.

It was during this time that I, as Christian Action’s new Executive Director, had a vivid dream for Christian Action to serve the needy in China. Marlon and I reached out to Mr. Wang and he graciously arranged meetings with the relevant leaders of Qinghai and Shaanxi provinces. Eventually, I chose to focus on Qinghai, and he helped us negotiate with the Qinghai Civil Affairs Department and Poverty Alleviation Bureau.

Since then, Mr. Wang Pei has continued supporting and participating in CA’s poverty alleviation and child welfare work. In the early days, he facilitated the communication between ourselves and the Qinghai and Beijing government officials, helped building partnerships and supervised various welfare projects.

Mr. Wang is now well into his retirement but his selfless drive and passion to help CA in Qinghai and all of Chinese society shows no sign of slowing. Thank you, Mr. Wang Pei!