May 1962.....the Hong Kong Peak is issued by missionaries of the ABFMS.

"My Help Comes from the Lord"

On a gusty day in February 1961, a group gathered on a raw hillside at Chung Chi College to witness the setting of the foundation stone for the new chapel.  On April 29, 1962, the chapel was dedicated in a beautiful and moving service.  Dr. Leslie Kilborn, vice-president of the college, and representing the United Church of Canada who gave the money for the building, was speaker.  Miss Sara Downer played the new Hammond organ, for which Loren Noren had just led in the dedicatory prayer.  Bishop Hall of the Anglican church, Mr. Yang of the Bible Society, Dr. Peter Wong of the C.C.C., and others had parts in the program.

The chapel is well located.  Classrooms and administration buildings to the right, dormitories and residence halls to the left, the chapel stands as if reaching out its hands to both.  Seated in the nave, one looks through the clear glass chancel window, beyond the cross affixed to it, to the mountains across Tolo Harbor.  "I will life up mine eyes unto the hills.  From whence does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

The chapel is built on a hillside, and had two partial stories under the main auditorium as a student Christian center.  The lower floor is a social hall; the second contains a small chapel (seating 50), offices, and class rooms.  Each Sunday evening a vesper service is held in the small chapel.  There is a religious convocation each Friday morning.  Many special meetings, concerts, and lectures will be held in the large auditorium.

This auditorium, which seats 700, is beautifully appointed.  Of unusual interest in the chancel are seals carved in wood, of the 13 Christian colleges formerly in China.  Chung Chi College feels a special kinship to them, since many of the faculty members and parents of students were formerly related to those schools in China.  American Baptists had a part in West China Union University, The University of Nanking, Ginling College, and the University of Shanghai.  There are also seals of the colleges now being assisted by the United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia, which formerly helped to support the Christian colleges in China.

Several church groups are involved in Chung Chi College.  Most of the 80 faculty members are Chinese, but others are from the United States, Canada, and Britian.  Our own representatives on the faculty are Sara Downer, head of the physics department, and Loren Noren who will serve as chaplain on a part-time basis, beginning June 1, when the present chaplain goes on furlough.

Wherever He Was, He Witnessed

In February 1962, the Rev. Koo Gek Sua retired, after 39 years of pastoral ministry among the Swatow Baptists. He is 65 years of age.

Mr. Koo’s parents and grandparents had been Christians; as a boy he attended church with them. His decision to be baptized came when he was a student in high school in Kityang. After graduation he was called to preach and teach in a small church, and he did so for two years. Further study in the Kak Chieh Theological School followed, and later, in a seminary in Canton. He was ordained in 1937.

That summer hostilities with the Japanese started. Mr. Koo worked with Rev. Bruno Luebeck, missionary in the Chao An district. One day as he waited for his co-worker, word came that Mr. Luebeck has started out to meet him, but has suffered a heart attack and turned back. Mr. Luebeck died on the way to his home.

In 1941, Mr. Koo led a group of refugees to a town in the west. For two years they struggled to make a living; regularly they worshipped God. When the Japanese surrendered, the refugees returned home again. The years passed. Once again freedom was threatened, this time by communists. In August 1953, Mr. Koo was placed in jail. For 320 days he was in jail—ill, "weary beyond words to express." Finally he was released: not guilty! One of his sons, Meng Bung, was less fortunate; he was jailed earlier than his father, and remained there longer.

Following release from jail, Mr. Koo made his way to Canton to try to reach Hong Kong. Communist permits to leave China were not easy to obtain, and he waited 5 months. Finally he crossed the border and reached the home of his son Meng Tau(Marvin) in Hong Kong. It would have been a joyous day except for the remembrance that Meng Bung was still in jail, and that Mrs. Koo and the youngest son had been left behind. Even now a daughter and her family live in Canton.

Once again Pastor Koo took up his Christian ministry. In the Mong Kok area, in 1955, a group met and prayed earnestly for a church building. By the next year, more than HK$ 10,000 had been subscribed. They purchased an apartment, and organized the Mong Kok Swatow Baptist Church. Leaving the Mong Kok church, Pastor Koo went to the chapel in Brotherly Love Village. In three years of service, 150 people have been baptized.

And so the years have passed for Pastor Koo with trials and heartaches. However, wherever he was, he witnessed. In small churches, in district work, in the offices of the Ling Tong Convention for a time, among hospital patients, among refugees—he found opportunities to witness for his Lord, and to serve his God.

"May God bless them all," says, Pastor Koo, "and be with all of His people. Amen"

Missionaries....

Miss Sara B. Downer - in West China 1920-1951 at West China University, she has been in Hong Kong since 1955.  She will be retiring.

Rev. and Mrs. Loren E. Noren

Miss Mildred Proctor

Miss Edna D. Smith

Rev. and Mrs. Hugh W. Smith - going on their first furlough in June.

New Arrivals..

Mr. and Mrs. John Espy

Rev. and Mrs. Alvin D. Koons