May 1975.....the Hong Kong Peak is issued by missionaries of the ABFMS.

Rev. Lee Chun Tsek "Retires"

Probably no other Swatow Baptist Minister has had the breadth of experience working with Swatow (Teo Chiu) speaking people in China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia as Pastor Lee, as he is affectionately called by many. On December 29, 1974, the Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church, where he has served for the past 21 years, hosted a retirement dinner in his honor. Pastor Lee spoke movingly and with good humor about his more than 40 years ministry in Swatow Baptist Churches.

He received his training in the University and Theological Seminary in Cheeloo, Tsinam, Shantung, China, graduating in 1931. He then returned to Swatow, Kwangtung Province, where he taught in the Ashmore Baptist Theological Seminary, conducted Laymen's Training, and served as the Pastor of the Baptist Church in Kachieh, the one at the Swatow Christian Institute, and Trinity Baptist Church in Swatow.

In 1947 he was called to be the Minister of the Thomson Road Swatow Baptist Church in Singapore, a Church founded in 1937 by Christians who had migrated there from the Teo Chiu (Swatow) district of China. Following a fruitful and effective ministry there, he was called in 1953 to be the Minister of the Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church in Hong Kong. This Church, founded in 1938 by Swatow Christians who had migrated to Hong Kong from China, had grown rapidly to several hundred members and had just completed its new church building in 1952. During Pastor Lee's ministry the Church has grown to almost 3,000 members, has established other churches and now operates five additional chapels or missions.

Rev. C. T. Lee attended the first Consultation on World Mission at Green Lake in 1957. There his contribution and warm spirit was so impressive that everyone began calling him "Dr. Lee". Over his protests' the group "conferred" on him the title, "Dr. Lee". The following year and again in 1973 he did advanced study at Berkeley Baptist Divinity School.

No sooner had Pastor Lee "retired" than he was invited to become a kind of coordinating Pastor for three Swatow Baptist Churches and six Chapels who wish to do more joint ministries in sharing the Gospel with the Swatow people in Hong Kong. -Loren Noren.

A New Pipe Organ

At the regular Sunday morning worship service in the Chung Chi College Chapel on February 16th, the new pipe organ was dedicated.

Built in Germany, it is equipped with 18 stops, two manuals and a pedalboard. It is specially designed for tropical climate with all the pipes being metal, all moving parts of aluminium, and the tracker action and windchests of synthetic materials. The purchase and installation costs (about US$50,000) were fully met by donations from interested friends of the College, predominantly living in Hong Kong. That it is a valuable asset for the whole community was evident by the packed Chapel for the first recital. The Music Department of the College, with over 50 students, will make much use of the organ in teaching and recitals, and needless to say worship services and assemblies will be enhanced. Early in March an assembly demonstration compared the new pipe organ with the former electronic organ. The electronic organ was better in only one aspect-noise!

Perhaps it should be added that, although the organ represents a considerable initial investment, conservatively estimated it has a life of at least 150 years. Due to its construction, maintenance costs will be minimal.

-John Olley

The Asian Baptist Fellowship

The Asian Baptist Fellowship Provisional Committee hosted a consultation meeting in Hong Kong on December 1, 1974. More than. fifty participants joined the one-day meeting. Five new Baptist Unions were received into membership, bringing the total number of Asian Conventions and Unions in the ABF to 21.

Since December, the Malaysia and Singapore Baptist Conventions have been welcomed. We hear also that Baptist groups in Thailand are moving toward the formation of a Thailand Baptist Convention and when this is finalized they will seek membership in the ABF.

The stated purpose of the ABF is to be incorporated as a region within the proposed new structure of the Baptist World Alliance. A meeting of the ABF Committee will be held in connection with the Baptist World Congress in Stockholm to complete the work of this incorporation.

-Hugh Smith

Braille

During the. past year two of our missionaries have become involved in the brailling of textbooks for Hong Kong students. Ruth Espy started her training course in October 1973, and Elaine Olley entered the training program in October 1974. Ruth has completed the brailling of five volumes (out of six) of her first textbook to be transcribed. Next fall both will be quite fully committed to the program, proofreading the work of other braillists and assisting in other details of processing books for the blind people of Hong Kong. Next fall, too, Estelle Schock hopes to learn Cantonese braille in order to help with the books in Chinese that are needed. The Hong Kong Society for Blind is the umbrella organization under whose auspices the braillists operate; the American Women's Association in Hong Kong contributes volunteers to the work and a sizable monetary gift each year for braillon and Perkins machines.

People sometimes ask why Hong Kong doesn't order books already brailled from the Library of Congress or from London's Royal Society for the Blind. The fact is that the schools here use textbooks that are written especially for Hong Kong. The same title by the same author in a London edition will be somewhat different from the Hong Kong edition, because the author will have inserted material of local interest and relevance. The braillists here are transcribing books for use in the schools of Hong Kong, and our Mission is glad to be able to participate in this work.

-Ruth Espy

English Classes (Tailor-Made) in Hong Kong

English classes taught by missionaries in Hong Kong are tailor-made to suit the needs of each student in his own situation:

-Teaching English continues to be one of the attractions at the Chuk Yuen Christian Center. Harold Schock has two classes per week, about two hours each, the concluding half-hour for discussion of some Bible subject. His current classes have ten members each, about half of whom are Christians. This mix not only helps to stimulate discussion, but also gives a valuable opportunity for Christian witness.

-June Sutton teaches an English class in the Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church each Sunday morning. The course is based on The Christian and the Bible, The Christian and Witnessing, and The Christian and Prayer. The class meets a real need for young people who no longer fit in the Chinese class for high-school students and who still do not want to be Sunday-School teachers.

-Ann Smith has seen progress in her students in Bible and English conversation.

-June Gates tutors several students, two of them new arrivals from China.

-Ruth Noren has thirty English students (20 hours weekly) in various combinations of Swatow youth, young career women, Housewives and students. They study current events, occupational topics, seasonal Bible lessons, Christan family life and communication in the home, essays about Christian values. They have fun with role-playing, sentence pattern games, blackboard cartoons, and many other kinds of group sharing.

Our experience is that both students and missionaries gain new understandings through "dialogue". It is through these new understandings that the Holy Spirit achieves conversion. Students who are already Christian have found in these classes more effective ways to apply the Bible to daily living in this complicated city.

-Ruth Noren

* * * *

In a recently published history of the Church of Christ in China, entitled Adventure in Unity by Dr. Wallace Merwin, mention is made of two outstanding Baptist leaders who were involved in ecumenical work, Dr. T. C. Bau and Dr. Chester Miao. Dr. Miao, formerly Secretary of the Christian Education Department, National Christian Council of China, is the father of Estelle Schock.

Kindergarten Education in Hong Kong

One of the greatest needs in Hong Kong is for the education of children at the pre-primary level. What may be a luxury in the States is considered a necessity here. Before a child enters first grade he is expected to have attained a certain level of knowledge. Although the Primary one written entrance exam has recently been abolished, a child still must pass an interview in competition with many others in order to gain a place in a good school.

At Christ Church Kindergarten there are more than 1000 applicants for 100 places for 4-year olds! Two hundred children are enrolled in two grades there and all of them are scheduled to have one period each week for a Scripture lesson. This represents a rare opportunity to share the Christian faith, for the large majority of the children come from non-Christian homes. Trying to present the Bible message through activities that are creative and interesting is something of a challenge, and much use is made of pictures, handwork materials, music, and roleplaying.

It is interesting to note that Kowloon Union Church has recently approved plans for the establishment of a similar kindergarten and it is possible that this program may be started by the fall of 1975.

-by Am Smith

Relationships With Hong Kong’s Business Community

For several years John Espy has served as Associate Director of the Lingnan Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), a graduate division of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. During this time, one of his major concerns has been to establish arid strengthen relationships between LIBA and the business organizations which employ its graduates. John has found that one of the most effective means of making contact with business executives at all levels is by offering to teach courses sponsored by the Hong Kong Management Association. His use of the "case method" in teaching business subjects has proved popular in Hong Kong, and he now teaches two courses each year, each course meeting one evening a week for four weeks. His most recent course, "Case Studies in Business Policy and Strategy," drew twenty-one participants from a wide variety of Chinese and foreign companies. Participants in these courses frequently show an interest in the work of LIBA and are invited to visit the campus and meet other faculty and students. Some of them eventually offer employment to the Institute's graduates or assist LIBA in other ways. John feels that these activities are essential if LIBA is to establish a reputation as a source of highly qualified young people who have good potential as managers.

-John Espy.

Ling Ling Say Say - which, broadly interpreted, means Miscellaneous

After serving as a lecturer in Sociology at Chang Chi College since coming to Hong Kong from Burma in 1967, Bill Hackett has been invited to be Senior Lecturer and Head of the Sociology and Social Work Department at Hong Kong Baptist College. He and Marion will move to an apartment in Kowloon during the summer, although he is already involved in the work of the Department.

Prayer is especially requested for preparations for the visit of Billy Graham to Hong Kong. Evangelistic meetings are planned for November 12-16. Hugh Smith is one of the Crusade Executive Committee members.

Missionaries....
Mr. and Mrs. John Espy (Ruth)
Dr. and Mrs. Elbert E. Gates (June)
Dr. and Mrs. William D. Hackett (Marion)
Rev. and Mrs. Loren E. Noren (Ruth)
Rev. and Mrs. John Olley (Elaine)
Rev. and Mrs. Harold Schock (Estelle)
Rev. and Mrs. Hugh W. Smith (Ann)
Miss June M. Sutton