HFA Quarterly Newsletter

Q4 2021

Dear church and friends, happy new year!

In times of Covid, we remember and pray for you. Thank you for actively serving and participating in our ministries and letting newcomers feel valued, welcomed, and seen in the community.

This time, we have collected several heartfelt stories and prayers from our church and hope to share with you what marvellous deeds God has done in our lives and what it means to be the followers of Jesus in different stages and walks of life.

We also have exciting news about the One-On-One mentorship disciple program that has just started in our church. Praise to our God for his abundant blessings for our beautiful community!

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Praise report from our Christmas Eve
service and outreaches

Early December 2021, we kickstarted the month with an intercession prayer meeting where God spoke to us about who to serve and how to celebrate Christmas! We received a picture: giving all we have: our insufficiencies, our gifts, Jesus wanted them all. We are a small church, but God still used our offerings to bless children and families in Kowloon.

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On the 24th Christmas Eve, we celebrated a blessed Christmas service at a kindergarten in Cheung Sha Wan. We did skits, carols, shared gospel message cultural dances and shared packaged food to share the love of Jesus with those who came on that night. It was a blast of an evening where 108 people came to attend the program. A mother of an autistic child was so thankful that day hearing a similar testimony from one of our young adults. A big thanks to all church friends who poured their time, effort and donations to make this happen.

It was a time of fun service and an invitation: many left their contacts and were willing to hear more about Jesus. In such a time as this, we see many needs for the gospel of Jesus. Let us pray for their hearts to be softened and comforted.

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– Evangelism –
 Testimony of entering University
from Sanisha

In September 2021, Sanisha enrolled in Fashion Design and Textiles at Polytechnic University HK. We are very grateful for God’s provision for her education at the University. She has received her first year of education fee fully funded by our donors! After months of being in her school, she would like to share her journey and Call.

“I always had a lack of self-confidence throughout my life. I’ve learned to believe all the lies and false accusations about myself from a very young age because I grew up in an abusive household. Don’t get me wrong; there were good times too.

“My biggest worry was always regarding my education and future: the constant worries and fear of not being good enough. God had placed a community in my life that always prayed for me and supported me in every way possible. When God opened a door for me to be where I wanted, I felt a roller coaster of emotions with all the excitement and fear, the fact that I was going into this all by myself with no friends. I experienced difficulty adjusting to the new subjects, friends, and environment. I cried a lot during this time. All I felt was emptiness and loneliness.

“However, it was also the time I leaned on God the most. It was the time I started to seek friendship with God which made me realize that I was never going into this alone in the first place. He has placed good university friends in my life now. He has strengthened me. I came to know that Jesus does know how to position people in one’s life at strategic points in time. I wouldn’t have the strength if it weren’t for the struggle God put me through.”

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– Evangelism –
Testimony from sister Amrita Rai

Amrita Rai serves at Hope For All church as a councillor and a Missional group leader for the Nepali community. She shares how she came to Christ and overcame her brokenness.

Jai Mashi (Praise the Lord!)

I grew up in a beautiful place called Dharan in Nepal. As a daughter, I was well aware of my parent’s joy, and pain and the rest of my sibling’s burdens were upon me.

Since we grew up practising the Hindu religion, I immersed myself in it, seeking meaning and purpose for my life. I began to study “Gita” (secret book of Hindu practice) called “Kiriyati.”

Yet, I struggled with ever-increasing questions and uncertainty in all these. In the end, I became a “moralist”: trying to be good practice what is good for myself and others. But, I became even more frustrated seeing that all my effort wasn’t doing any good, wasn’t bearing any good results in my life. I was experiencing brokenness inside.

In 2014, my friend invited me to a church where I came to learn and fell in love with Psalms. On 24th August, I decided to give my life to Jesus in the same year. As a single mother of two kids, life wasn’t easy, but the words of Psalms became a blessing and a source of strength in my life. It is so much miserable to be hopeless in life. If I hadn’t found hope in the Lord, all my effort would be in vain.

Today we have pain and suffering, but we rejoice in hope. It is both mystery and beauty; I have come to appreciate beauty and completeness in the Lord. I found my answers in Christ. I believe that my life’s journey will be complete in Christ, in joy. And the hope I have found will be indeed goodness to those who are hopeless. (Mathew 11: 28-29)

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– Discipleship –
A sharing from Tryfina for the one-on-one
mentorship programme

What’s new?

“I am thrilled to be intentional about making disciples of Jesus. Mentorship One On One will allow me to focus on individuals and their gospel growth.”

Starting with a small team of sixteen, Mentorship One On One started from Chinese New Year 2022 with a simple desire to see people grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

The goal is to “feed” and “tend” disciples of Jesus on an individual level (John 21:15-17) by “admonishing and teaching them with all wisdom to present everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:9-14, 28).

I request your prayers for this small team of 16 people that God would give us unity, wisdom and grace.  

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A heartfelt prayer from Cecilia for the church
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Dear Father God,

We thank you for Your life-giving love, spirit-lifting, strength-building, and hope renewing. Lord God, we adore You; even though You formed the universe with just a single word, You know and care about each of us intimately – our joys, concerns, struggles and desires. Please forgive our little faith over many areas of our lives instead of trusting and obeying You. Yet You are always faithful with Your perfect plan for each of us. 

Our Lord and merciful God have pity on us as we live under the fear of Covid, the fear of sickness, job security, finance, relationship, and so many cares of this world. Oh Sovereign God, grant us the hearts of the first apostles to come together as a body of Christ to take up the cross to follow Jesus single-mindedly, on your excellent word says that “seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness”. Bind us together in the Hope for All family and increase our joy in serving You by giving the talents You have entrusted us generously. Almighty God, teach us to have the faith like Joseph to receive Your blessing of success even in all kinds of adversities, trials and disappointment. Lastly, may your Spirit remind us to put on the full armour of God to protect us against the lies of the enemy and the weakness of the flesh. 

(Palm 91:14)

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. 16 With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

In Jesus’ beautiful and victorious name, 

Amen

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Upcoming directions: more discipleship!
 

We all need someone to walk with us. We believe that God has called Hope For All Church to “stay”, build relationships, encourage one another in their faith journey and help them mature in their faith.

The One-On-One mentorship program has started and will continue as we enter our new season in 2022. We want to grow deeper in relationships by encouraging mentors and mentees to connect and do life together walk the talk together. 

Like a vine and the branches, mentors will guide their mentees, mentees in return, will grow in their faith, passing on the same to others. 
 

Financial updates and prayer requests

We thank God for his financial provision that allows us to do ministry operations of the church. We thank our dear church members who give continuously and serve the church in many capacities. We are also thankful to other churches and individuals who have partnered in God’s mission with us.

We thank our dear mother church, Community Church Hong Kong, for your financial and ministerial support.

May God bless you all in this kingdom and in the kingdom to come.

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Thank yous and prayer request:

Thank you to our monthly donors for your constant support and offering to the church. It is a huge blessing to have your gifts to support more low-income families, missionaries and discipleship programs. Like in the book of Acts, when it says, “Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor”: Acts 10:31. God has used your gift to bless many in our community. So thank you for your love generosity that allows us to do what God has called us to do. May Jehovah Jireh, the God of provision, continue to be faithful to you and provide your needs as well. 

Please pray for us for support and coverage to all our mentors and mentees in the church. 

Vigilance: we may be aware of our Call to make disciples despite what is happening around us. Even in times like now where churches in HK were desperate for solutions to maintain relationships and freedom of sharing their faith in the increasingly suppressive political atmosphere, we hope to see our church members be deeply rooted in faith and support each other as brothers and sisters to be bold followers of Jesus.