October 1967.....the Hong Kong Peak is issued by missionaries of the ABFMS.

Additions to the Mission Staff

Three families have been added to the mission staff since the middle of the summer. We take pleasure in introducing: Dr. and Mrs. William D. Hackett, the Rev. and Mrs. Harold D. Schock, and Mr. and Mrs. John Reed.

Dr. and Mrs. Hackett

Bill and Marion were born on opposite sides of the world; they met and were married while training for Christian service at the Kennedy School of Missions in Hartford, Conn. Bill had been born in Rangoon of missionary parents and had his early schooling there. Following college work in Missouri, he received an A.M. from Hartford in 1941, and a Ph. D. in sociology from Cornell in 1953. Marion, on the other hand, spent her early life in Belchertown, Mass., where her father was a town official and her mother a teacher. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, and has done postgraduate work in Greek, linguistics, and New Testament at both Hartford, and Cornell.

Appointed in 1941, the Hacketts went to Taunggyi in the Shan State of Burma, where they lived among the Pa-o tribe, but worked with eight other tribal groups as well. Bill developed a Rural Christian Center with services to meet religious, educational, medical, agricultural, and social needs. He was chairman of the Agricultural Committee of the Burma Baptist Convention, and served for many years on the executive committee of the Convention. Marion gave her time to mastering the Pa-o language, and to translating the New Testament. This was an arduous task because the written language had not been standardized. She has been able to complete about three-fourths of the New Testament. About half of the translated material is now in printed form.

It is probable that Dr. Hackett will be teaching at Chung Chi College next year, and giving time to the Chek Lap Kok camping project.

Mr. and Mrs. Schock Introduce Themselves

Lion Rock rises some 1,800 feet due north of us, and it has stolen more minutes of our study time than we can afford to give. But we enjoy seeing it! It becomes a focus for our eyes as we occasionally pause in our study and think of the past.  

Until nineteen years ago, Estelle lived some 800 miles north of Lion Rock in Shanghai.  She left home to go to the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, which provided her a seminary training. There she found a mission-minded husband, from Yakima, Wash. After our marriage, we served first as missionaries to Indian Americans in Reno, Nevada. After three years, our long-prayed-for appointment by the A.B.F.M.S. came through, and from 1955 to 1966, Burma was our home.

Developing Christian center work among the Burmese, and working with Cantonese-speaking Chinese were two facets of our work in Rangoon. When the Burmese government asked all missionaries to leave by the end of May 1966, we were not surprised, but very disappointed. It was not easy to decide where to go next. After much prayer, and taking one step at a time, we came to feel certain that God wanted us here in Hong Kong. Now, after one month's study of the difficult Swatow dialect, we not sure but that someone made a mistake! But a generous welcome and frequent encouragement have been blessings beyond our desert.

Involved in our decision are three children: Judy, Linda, and Phillip. They attend a newly-opened American-type school, and are happy in an English-speaking church. So we turn again in gratitude to all who give, and pray, so that the mission in Hong Kong may be possible. We pray that it may be useful and valuable for the cause of Christ.

Mr. and Mrs. John Reed

Mr. and Mrs. John Reed have come from Iowa State University where John was working on his degree program, and doing sociological research. Kathie, who also holds a degree from Iowa State, was employed as a library assistant. They were married in the fall of 1966.

While at the university, both John and Kathie were involved in numerous activities. They helped to further Baptist participation in the newly-formed United Campus Christian Ministry. John was in charge of "Friendly Town" a special ministry developed by student congregations at the university. For three consecutive summers "Friendly Town" provided opportunities for inner city children to have a two-week vacation in rural settings.

Mr. and Mrs. Reed have started on six months of language study, prior to undertaking their assignment of social ministries. Their work may include Christian center activities, English language instruction, assisting with the Chek Lap Kok camping project, working with roof-top schools, and other much needed areas of social ministry.

Hong Kong Disturbances

Since May when the Leftist disturbances began in Hong Kong, many people have written expressing concern for friends here, and for the future of the work in which God has placed us. Of course the situation is serious, as any action which threatens life is serious. Violence shocks everyone, and when it brings suffering to innocent bystanders, it is especially abhorrent.

At the same time, however, it would be wrong to exaggerate the situation, as many news reports have done. Life goes on. Factories are busy. Exports are up over 1966. The ordinary people have shown courage, patience, and good sense, and have rejected the methods of force and intimidation. The government of Hong Kong has carried out its responsibilities to the full in maintaining law and order. We are confident that industrial and social advance will continue.

The doors of opportunity for Christian work are wide open. Chinese Christian leaders have been challenged by the situation, and are determined to establish a strong basis for continuing work in the years ahead.

W.C.C.E. Institute

Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, was the meeting place of 350 Christian Education leaders from 75 countries, for the quadrennial institute of the World Council of Christian Education. They came from all over the world to share ideas, to discuss common interests and problems, to find guide-lines for new ways ahead, and together to discover God's will. Mildred Proctor was one of four to go from Hong Kong.

She says, "The discussion groups held a more central part in the conference than the lectures, excellent though they were. Each delegate was assigned to one of seven commissions, all within the theme 'God's People in God's World: Living, Learning, Teaching'. My commission discussed the tensions between generations, a situation common to all people, but with different patterns. We came to know the people in our commissions, and the Christian Education patterns as well as the cultural backgrounds from which they came. We learned, incidentally, how to work in groups of varied cultures. I came to a great appreciation of the ability and vision of African leaders, of whom I had not known many previously. My admiration for leaders from other areas grew as well.

"Our present approach and program in Christian Education are inadequate to reach the 'whole man' and all of society! There is an urgency in the task to find new and more effective ways, which sent us home- not only challenged, but almost overwhelmed. In the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick:

'Set our feet on lofty places.
Gird our lives that they may be
Armored with all Christlike graces
In the fight to set men free
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee!

Surveying Our Work

A Consultation on World Mission was held in Hong Kong at the end of l963, bringing together representatives of Baptist churches with which American Baptists are directly related. The group recommended "That an objective study be made of our whole program to determine whether the Types of work being carried on at present represent the best use of the limited funds and personnel, both national and foreign, now available to us

Self-studies under the guidance of evaluation teams are now being conducted in Okinawa, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, South India, Northeast India, and Bengal Orissa-Bihar, as well as in Hong Kong. To Hong Kong came a team composed of Mrs. Rebecca de Leon, the Rev. Edward Singha, and Dr. F. G. Dickason, Sept. 8-15. They saw many projects and churches, and had extended conferences with the Joint Committee of Swatow Baptist Churches, the Swatow Baptist Women's Association, the mission staff, the Baptist Association, and the Hong Kong Christian Council. Their report will be issued in due course.

Moon Lok Community Center

When the Moon Lok Kindergarten was opened in Tsuen Wan in 1965, everyone hoped that it was but the first step to a community center program. A report made by chief staff worker, Mr. David Chih, shows that the staff, though small, is moving toward that goal.

The Kindergarten classes, this fall, enroll 318 children. A youth club enjoys a varied program, largely recreational. Young people come for sewing classes, for typing classes, or to use the Center piano for practice. Movies are shown once a week, out-of-doors, for an average audience of 450 people of all ages. The Kowloon City Swatow Baptist Church, having long wanted a chapel in Tsuen Wan, has adopted this Center as a "daughter", and Sunday School classes, and worship services have been held regularly since November 1966.

The compact little building used for these activities, is in the center of a housing project comprising 967 apartments. Other large apartment buildings bring the total population in easy reach of the center, to 25,000 or 30,000 people. The name "Moon Lok" means "full to overflowing with joy". We are reminded of Jesus' saying, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Missionaries....
Mr. and Mrs. John Espy 
Rev. and Mrs. William D. Hackett (Marion)
Rev. and Mrs. Frank Knight (Joyce)
Rev. and Mrs. Alvin D. Koons 
Rev. and Mrs. Loren E. Noren (Ruth)
Miss Mildred Proctor
Mr. and Mrs. John H. Reed (Kathleen)
Rev. and Mrs. Harold D. Schock (Estelle)
Rev. and Mrs. Hugh W. Smith (Ann)
Miss June M. Sutton