September Newsletter 09

Africa to Asia

September 2009

An insight into the ministry of LCM S missionary Megan Birney serving Christ in Hong Kong

“Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Time always amazes me. Hong Kong is awesome! Over the past few weeks we have settled into our positions. Teaching at different locations with different expectations and staff teams is quite an undertaking but the Lord has blessed us with many helpers which has been incredibly encouraging! Our work at Lutheran Tsang Shing Siu Leun and Lui Cheung Kwong Primary Schools is a lot of fun. Some of the great things that have been happening in the primary schools this month include; teaching vocabulary about school and units of money, adapting Noah’s Ark to retell the story via stick people, animals, and a boat on a chalkboard, fellowship lunch with P.6 students (equivalent to 6th grade) at both schools and being able to connect with them on their level. Primary students (ages ranging from 5-13) are neat because they are so enthralled to come and speak English to you even if they are lost after “I am fine. Thank you.” Over the next few weeks, we will start an English kindergarten afterschool program (with over 100 students attending!), begin planning parent fellowship activities, and begin integrating Gospel into LCK’s student drama programs. These past few weeks I have spent Thursdays at Concordia Lutheran School North Point (CLSNP) and Saturdays at Abiding Grace Lutheran Church (AGLC), which is located inside CLSNP. At CLSNP & AGLC I work with Pastor Sam Yeung and Pastor Simon Kwan to help increase fellowship among Christian and nonChristian students within the school and to help facilitate discipleship training with youth church members. The students at CLSNP are under a lot of pressure with the time and energy that their studies demand. However, because of the level of English needed to pass their level exams, it is quite a draw to have English-speaking Americans roaming the halls and in their classes. At the primary schools, P.6 students are assigned to have lunch with us but at CLSNP our hour long lunch fellowship is voluntary. The first week we had over 20 students show up! Last week, we had two groups of students and my group was all girls and throughout the lunch period we discussed why I moved to Hong Kong, my family, what they wanted to do once they finished secondary school, and the conversation eventually flowed into questions about religion. One girl had read in her history book about Martin Luther and John Wesley and wanted to know why they were different and another girl was curious as to why there are so many different kinds of Christians. Please pray for these students; that God would continue to mold their curiosities into questions that they can address at lunch fellowship or by attending Saturday youth chapel. There is also a great youth leadership group at AGLC, please pray that the Lord would continue to grow their faith and through the discipleship training classes they would be enabled to courageously share their faith in a meaningful way to their classmates. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. They are an incredible asset to the ministry here in Hong Kong!

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

September 2009

LCMS World Mission

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800-433-3954 www.lcmsworldmission.com

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[email protected]

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Learn more about the work of LCMS World Mission in Asia: www.lcmsworldmission.org/asia

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Prayer Requests “For this reason, I kneel before the Father…” Eph. 3:14 That God would continue to open eyes and ears for our EFL ministry in HK; the opportunities to speak the Gospel in a meaningful way to the 1500+ students we interact with each week. As we continue to adapt to living in Hong Kong; strength, courage, and love to serve the Lord out of our cultural comfort zone and to share His grace with the people of HK. Our lunch ministry at CLSNP; that the students who come to practice conversation will continue coming and be open to learning about the Gospel. Travel & safety for our service trip October 1st-5th. That the Lord would continue to be prevalent in the lives of the Fluegge family. For their support raising efforts in USA and their transition to Pretoria, South Africa in November. For the Lutheran Church - Hong Kong Synod (LCHKS); that the Lord would continue blessing the efforts of the LCHKS in growing God’s kingdom. The students & professors at the CLET in Dapaong, Togo; that God would steady their hearts to pursue their calls to leadership training in serving the Lutheran Church bodies in West Africa. My CUNE Family Life Ministry graduate program. My fellow LCMS long-term missionaries serving internationally, for the opportunity & strength to live out Christ’s love on the mission field. For the hearts of those needing to know the grace of our great God

Contact Info [email protected] Postal mail can be sent to: Miss Megan Birney c/o Mr Ken Cheung Concordia English Center (Tuen Mun) Tsang Shing Siu Leun Lutheran School P.S. No. 5 Butterfly Estate, Tuen Mun, N.T. Hong Kong

Sunday Mornings This picture is from our second Sunday teaching English Sunday School at Holy Word Lutheran Church. I teach a children’s class with ages ranging from four to fourteen. Lynette teaches an adult class, mostly for the parents. There is also an English tutoring program for secondary students that is put on by the church and is taught by Joanne, a teaching assistant at LTSSLS. After the tutoring, Andrea teaches the Sunday school lesson to these secondary students. We are blessed to spend our Sundays working at Holy Word Lutheran Church!

Check out my blog: acrossanoceansizedlove.blogspot.com Visit my project page: www.lcms.org?13343 Download my prayer card: www.lcmsworldmission.org/prayercards Access my photo albums: picasaweb.google.com/megaroonski

If you would like to receive this newsletter electronically, please e-mail me at [email protected]!