October 1965.....the Hong Kong Peak is issued by missionaries of the ABFMS.

June Arrives in September

     Miss June Margaret Sutton arrived in Hong Kong on September 6, to become a part of the American Baptist Mission. June is an Australian, her home being in Melbourne, and she comes by arrangement between the Australian Baptist Mission Society and the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

     These a-e the facts, but they in no way express the delight of the mission and our Chinese co-workers as we welcome June. Her out-going friendliness and sincere Christian witness have already won her a place in the work. She has started to study the Swatow dialect, attacking this long and tedious program with zest. Later June will work with the Swatow churches and the roof-top schools.

     June herself says: "In these first weeks in Hong Kong, as I have visited some of our mission work, it is with thanks to my God who has called me here.  The challenge of the work is tremendous. I look to God to accomplish His plan for me in this place. 'He who calls you is reliable, and He will accomplish it."' (I Thess. 5:24 Berkeley Translation)

The Knights Due in December

     The Rev. and Mrs. Frank H. Knight and their two children are due to arrive early in December. The Joint Committee of Swatow Baptist Churches, representing all the churches and chapels, welcome them to work among the Swatow-speaking people of the colony. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have been serving in North Attleboro, Mass.

Moon Lok Kindergarten

      Tsun Wan is a rapidly growing industrial community several miles west of Kowloon. Tens of thousands of people have been settled there in the past few years. According to official government estimates, by 1970 there will be one million people in this satellite community. A large percentage of those already living in the area are Swatow speaking, and the prospect is that the number will increase as government resettlement plans proceed.

     For many years the Swatow Baptist Churches of Hong Kong have felt a keen need for beginning work in Tsun Wan. The spiraling price of land and of construction have made this hope seem vain. 'imagine our interest when the Hong Kong Housing Society extended a public invitation to organizations such as ours to use a beautiful two-story building which the Society had erected in the heart of an immense housing estate in Tsun Wan. More than four thousand families live in the huge blocks of flats which encircle it. The building was offered for a kindergarten program. We applied, and our proposed program was selected from among 27 applications. In June the building was turned over to the mission.

     Three hundred and twenty children have been enrolled in kindergarten classes. (More than eight hundred applied.) Only a handful of these children come from Christian homes, but all of the teachers are Christian, quietly witnessing to the joy and fulness of the Christian life. The name, Moon Lok, or Full of Happiness, is a descriptive one as well as a promise for the future.

     The program which we envisage for this center will be broad, to serve creatively this community. Swatow Baptist church leaders are making plans to use the premises for Christian worship services, and Sunday School. It is hoped that later we can organize youth recreation activities, classes in handwork, English conversation, typing, and other programs of community development.

     The project is under the direction of the Rev. Hugh Smith.

Music Training Conference

     Summer is a busy time in Hong Kong, for there are many youth assemblies and conferences. This year, for the first time, a music training conference was held.. Over 70 members of 11 Swatow Baptist youth choirs gathered at Chung Chi College for four days of training in church music. Mr. Gabriel Chi was chairman of a planning committee which was composed of representatives of the various choirs.

      Courses were offered in voice training, the reading of music, choir conducting, the leading of congregational singing, and playing the piano for church services. In addition to Mr. Gabriel, Chi, the teachers were Mr. and Mrs. James Coe' Mrs. David Shen, and the Rev. Loren E. Norei. Mr. David Shen, the head of the new Department of Music at, Chung Chi College, lectured each day on music in the life of the church. Mr. Charles Kwok led the morning devotions and the Rev. T. K. Chiu of the Christian Study Center at Tao Fong Shan, spoke each evening on the personal life of a Christian.

     Following the conference the young people gave a concert in the Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church. Not only did the group sing well together, but two of them spoke of the benefits they had received from the training. It is hoped that a similar conference may be held next year.

Training the Leaders

     Preparing Sunday School lessons is one thing, Mildred Proctor has learned, and helping teachers to know how to use them effectively is another. Mildred edits Sunday School lessons for use in Chinese churches, in an interdenominational project. In July and August, on a 30-day trip about South East Asia, she participated in a leadership training institute, in several shorter conferences, and held numerous consultations regarding the us.- of the lessons. After a week in the Philippines she went on to the North Borneo part of Malaysia: to Jesselton, Kuching, and Sibu. The institute brought together 175 Chinese Sunday School teachers from all parts of Sarawak for three days of inspiration and practical demonstration of teaching procedures. Later she went on to Singapore, meeting with concerned persons there, and still later to Thailand.

     The need for leadership training in Sunday School teaching is very great. Most of the teachers are young people, many of them high school students who have been challenged to bring the message of Christ to children. The pattern seems to be that 'they teach until the responsibilities of a home bear down upon them. Thus, the group of teachers is constantly changing, and the need for training never ends. A few people here and there are doing good work in the field of leadership education, but there is much more to be done. If only there were three or four teams which could go from place to place helping the young teachers to know how to teach well!

     The Christian Education Committee of the Hong Kong Christian Council conducts each year a four-session institute with this purpose. This year the institute is being held in September, October, and November.

Sharing the Feast

     Though an apartment building houses many people, it does not usually foster a sense of community living. Neighbors may speak, but often do not become friends, or share in each others' lives and activities. But in the Hing Yan Mansion, a twelve story apartment building on Yuet Wah Street in Kwun Tong, there is evidence of real neighborliness. And all because of the building's caretaker, Mr. Chen.

     Mr. Chen not only watches the building but takes time to know those who live in it. His friendliness and interest have made him well-liked by all the children. Not long ago, Alvin and Barbara Koons, who live in one of the apartments, received an invitation to a feast to celebrate his 71st birthday. Some forty-eight people including the Koons, joined to wish him good luck and many more prosperous years. At the round tables laden with delicious Chinese food, sat a cross-section of the community, people living in the building and those related to it. A night watchman, a business man and his wife, an aeronautical engineer, a missionary, all drank tea with the little shoe repair man who sets up shop out on the sidewalk. A woman tenant who owns a fashion shop, the grocer across the street, and the newspaperman chatted with the owner of the restaurant where the feast was held. And sitting beside them was the street sweeper. "There were no social barriers, for we all were celebrating together the birthday of a friend. It was a true experience of community living," report the Koons.

Chung Chi College Bursar

      During the past summer John Espy, our American Baptist missionary at Chung Chi College, was asked to assume the position of Bursar, a post once held by Loren Noren, As the name implies, the Bursar is responsible for all financial matters relating to the operation of the college. He also supervises all building projects and maintenance operations, and the work of all non-teaching personnel. As Chung Chi is continuing its rapid growth in personnel and facilities, this new position requires considerable time and effort. John is also a lecturer in the chemistry department and is giving a special course in Business English. He will be more than busy during the coming year! Nevertheless, the work offers many, challenging opportunities for service, and is a worthwhile contribution to our over-all mission effort in Hong Kong.
Ruth Espy continues to give full time in the college library.

Mr. Charles K. W. Kwok (the name is spelled Kueh in the March 1964 Peak) returned from a year of study air Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Charles is pastor of the Homantin Swatow Baptist Church.

Missionaries....
Mr. and Mrs. John Espy
Rev. and Mrs. Alvin D. Koons
Rev. and Mrs. Loren E. Noren
Miss Mildred Proctor
Rev. and Mrs. Hugh W. Smith 
Miss June M. Sutton