A First for Xining Children’s Home!

As a supporter of our Home, you too can celebrate the wedding of Zhong Linjun! She is the first orphan from our Home to get married!

Linjun wasn’t even two years old when her mother fell ill and died. Tragically, her father was killed in a traffic accident when she was about 12, so Linjun was admitted to our Home.

Because she was a normal and able child, Linjun was the first to live in our Small Group Home. She was given the privilege of being an elder sister to the little children. This was obviously a helpful move because she grew up to be a happy young woman who integrated well into society.
When she came of age she did her paid service in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and that is where she met Jie Shubin, her future husband. They have both left the army now.

Mr Jie works with the Qinghai Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau, and when Linjun terminated her service with the army, the government assigned her a job with Qinghai Pharmaceutical Factory. The staff at the Home helped them find their new home together.

They are both 23 years old.Linjun is still very attached to the Children’s Home, and to the staff, especially Mr Toi, the house father in the Small Group Home, and to Madam Li, the Administrator, who organised and hosted this very first wedding party in honour of the beautiful child given into our care as an orphan.

We pray that Linjun’s wedding on May 1 was just the start of a new life of joy as she builds a home of her own!
I feel like my own daughter has gotten married and perhaps, may be, I will be a grandma soon!

Hong Kong’s Chief Secretary Values Our Work!

I had a strange experience a few days ago. For the first time, I found myself sitting with a small group of leaders of Hong Kong charities in Government House having lunch with the Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government, Mr Henry Tang!

I sat there thinking how strange it was that only 16 years ago I was sitting in a tin shed with a leaking roof on the roof-top of the building which Christian Action now occupies. When it rained, my chair was always wet! That shed was my office when I was employed as the Vietnamese Boat People Project Manager for Hong Kong Christian Aid to Refugees in 1992. I was appointed Executive Director six months later, and the organisation became known as Christian Action in 1994.

Over the last 16 years we have been firmly committed to the people of Hong Kong. We serve the world’s displaced right here in our midst including asylum seekers and refugees, domestic migrant workers from Indonesia, ethnic minorities from Nepal, cross-border families and new arrivals from China, just to name a few. What often surprises those who don’t know about our programs is the scale of our operations in Hong Kong. Christian Action has been blest and has become one of Hong Kong’s largest providers of retraining programs for locals over the years. In a typical year for example, we conduct almost 700 classes which are attended by over 14,000 retrainees! The courses are for those who are struggling with the challenges presented by this economy.

Mr Tang wants to be in touch with charities, and I was glad to be at the lunch to speak in support of agencies who don’t receive subventions from the Government. I had the opportunity to answer questions about how Christian Action, one of only two organizations at the gathering that does not receive such government underwriting, has been able to implement so many essential projects.

I asked the Chief Secretary for the Government’s help in serving these people. Mr Tang was most sympathetic and said that the Government wants to see charities survive because our work is valued. This made me happy that I was invited to dine at Government house!
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God Bless you, Siew Mei