THE FRAGRANT HARBOR
Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, CHINA

ITS PEOPLE
Although Hong Kong is not large geographically (426.4 sq. mi.), it ranks among the top three geographic areas in the world in population density with an average of over 6000 people / km. The overall population of Hong Kong is estimated at over 7,000,000 with about 96% of Chinese descent. The majority of those of Chinese descent are Cantonese speaking. The need for sound Bible teaching churches is great.

ITS CULTURE
Hong Kong is often described as a city where East meets West. This is reflected in all aspects of the culture. To all appearances, Hong Kong is more Western than Eastern, but it takes only a little time to realize how Eastern the culture is. The majority of Hong Kong's population practices ancestor worship due to the strong Confucian influence. There are also followers of Buddhism or Taoism. Probably less than 5 percent could be considered to be conservative, fundamental Christians. Historically, most schools and many social welfare facilities in Hong Kong are affiliated with a church and, for that reason, many people in Hong Kong have had some exposure to Christianity. This exposure has, for the most part, been superficial, and there is an odd mix of both traditional Chinese religions with Christian practices. There is a crying need for sound, Bible teaching churches that will proclaim the Gospel message clearly to the Chinese in Hong Kong. With the transfer of Hong Kong to the PRC, there were significant concerns over religious freedom in Hong Kong. So far, this has proved mostly unfounded.

ITS HISTORY - POLITICS
Hong Kong was a British colony from 1842, until its sovereignty was returned to China (PRC) in 1997. It is governed as a special administrative region under the Basic Law of Hong Kong. China has promised that Hong Kong will enjoy autonomy (hence, Special Administrative Region) until 2047, fifty years after the 'hand over.' Hong Kong retains its own legal system, currency, customs policy, cultural delegation, international sport teams, and immigration laws, and freedom of religion with China representing Hong Kong diplomatically.

ITS ECONOMY
Hong Kong is China's richest region in terms of GDP per capita and gross metropolitan product figures. Its economy, however, has not recovered from the return to China in 1997. There have been increases in unemployment since the '97 handover, but more recently the unemployment figure has lowered some. However, there are longer working hours, and tremendous competition for jobs. The competition filters down into the education system, to students who also have tremendous pressure to constantly work harder to prepare to achieve greater and greater success in the market place.

HONG KONG AND BMW

TARGETED AREAS
Biblical Ministries Worldwide-Hong Kong is involved in church planting in the New Territories region of Hong Kong. With a hope toward planting local Chinese churches along the train line that runs through the New Territories, two works have been started.

The first, Hebron Baptist Church, was opened in 1992 in Shatin, one of the 9 districts located in the New Territories. Shatin has a population of over 600,000 with about 27,000 living in indigenous villages and the remaining living in public housing estates. The work is located in Tai Wai New Village, an indigenous village of about 1,500 residents.

The second work, Tuen Mun Faith Baptist Church, is located west of Shatin in Tuen Mun (population about 520,000), another of the 9 districts of the New Territories. The work was opened in 1994 and currently is located in Tuen Mun Towne Center, adjacent to the district's government offices and also the largest shopping mall in the northwestern region of the New Territories.

FIELD GOALS

• Hebron Baptist Church established by 2012
• Tuen Mun Faith Baptist Church established by 2010
• To initiate 4 additional church plants by 2015 along the KCR train line

BMW missionaries are involved in church leadership, evangelism and discipleship, with the hope that these activities will provide local Chinese believers who will be trained to assume leadership roles in the church plants over time.

EVANGELISM
Our methods of evangelism are varied, in an effort to reach people where they can be found and to bring them into closer contact with Christians from our two church plants. Currently we are using all of the following:

• tract distribution
• outdoor preaching
• personal evangelism with training of believers through example and through courses
• community center outreach
• homework helps with local Chinese co-worker providing help for primary and secondary students
• special English courses and English corners - to reach secondary students
• community outreach activities to reach the families of our students
• Good News Club
• Outreach to men through sports activities
• Parent/pre-schooler art classes

DISCIPLESHIP
New believers are discipled from the time they receive Christ, with the goal of preparing each believer with the skills needed to lead another to Christ and to disciple them. In addition to this personal discipleship of believers, our team, in cooperation with missionaries from mission boards with similar doctrinal positions to Biblical Ministries Worldwide, is involved in providing more formal training for church workers through the Chinese Fundamental Baptist Institute. This school was established to train men and women to be effective workers in our church plants.

PERSONNEL NEEDS
The field's most pressing need is to increase outreach and evangelism efforts that will provide contact with a larger number of Chinese men in Shatin and Tuen Mun. We are praying and asking the Lord to send us 3-4 spiritually mature, 25-35 year old single men who have training in teaching, preferably in teaching English, but, more importantly, who are also gifted personal workers with ministry experience in evangelism and discipleship. These men need to be committed to reaching and mentoring young Chinese men 15-30 years old. We are looking for men who will help us reach our goal of equipping, teaching and molding young men who, in the future, will provide Chinese leadership for the Hong Kong church plants. Men with these qualities will need to commit to 2 years of such a ministry.

Long term, the BMW Hong Kong field also needs 2 couples who are trained to evangelize and disciple in a new church-planting situation. Such people will need to have experience and training, along with finishing deputation and 3-4 years of language study by 2015, in order to help begin the projected 4 new church plants. Training in EFL (teaching English as a foreign language) is also a must, as the field plans to use community English centers as a method of making initial contacts.

If you have the above qualifications, are focused and willing to come alongside of the Hong Kong team to help reach young men with the Gospel, disciple them within the ministry of a local church plant, we would like you to consider Hong Kong as a place that the Lord may be leading you to serve Him.

For more information, contact BMW's International office at bmwhq@biblicalministries.org or Roger Perrott, Field Leader, in Hong Kong at rperrott@biblicalministries.org.

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