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Hong Kong Mennonites honor founders and look ahead
A joint release of Eastern Mennonite Missions and Mennonite Mission Network
HONG KONG, China – The four Hong Kong Mennonite churches marked special 30th and 40th anniversaries of their beginnings with a day-long celebration, November 5. It's been 40 years since the first long-term missionaries arrived, and 30 years since the first church was founded.
Ira and Evie Kurtz, of Lancaster, Pa., were special guests of honor for the occasion at the Baptist Assembly Campground in Fanling, near the border with China. They were the first long-term Mennonite missionaries in Hong Kong (serving with Eastern Mennonite Missions) and the first church planters.
But Kurtzes are quick to say that when they arrived in 1966, just eight weeks after their wedding, they had no plans to start a church. They thought they would be administering a church-run elementary school.
MCC had entered Hong Kong with relief work in the 1950s and is best remembered for hot meals served to refugee children in rooftop schools, and for a reading room that offered children a quiet study escape from cramped living quarters.
Kurtzes joined the Mennonite team in the former British colony, studied conversational Cantonese, and worked in the reading room. Through friendships, English classes, and Bible studies they helped transition Mennonite work into something more church-related.
As young people came to Christ, Kurtzes organized the first Mennonite congregation, now known as Agape, in 1976. Ira served as the first pastor. Other Mennonite workers, Hugh and Janet Sprunger, from a predecessor agency of Mennonite Mission Network (MMN) arrived from Taiwan to support the growing work in 1980. Five more families from MMN served in Hong Kong in subsequent years.
“It was a profound experience to be able to return for this anniversary,” Ira said. He explained that the youth they had learned to know through English teaching and Bible studies were now serving as leaders in the church – or had careers in business or education. “Old friends met us at the airport with a cell phone for our use, and transported us to our lodgings in a silver BMW,” he said.
“We were overwhelmed to be invited out for so many special meals,” Evie added. “When I wondered why they had all come – some who didn’t even know us – the old timers said, ‘This is small payment for all the times we ate in your home. You made us homemade cookies and pies when we didn’t have anywhere to go and had nothing to do.”
Kurtzes said that about half of “The Thirty” – kids from those early friendships that blossomed into the first church, are in full-time church service today. One is a seminary professor and two serve as missionaries in China.
“It’s a miracle that anything survived,” Ira said, as he and Evie reflected on how young and inexperienced they were, and the enormous challenges they faced as some of the first EMM workers in a complex, international urban setting.
“The churches are small and have their struggles,” Evie said, “but there’s a lot of good life, and wonderful things are happening.”
At the anniversary celebrations the reminiscing, worship, sermons, greetings, and tributes focused on “Past, Present, and Possibilities” and drew around 175 people – including international guests and past and present members of the four small Mennonite fellowships – Agape, Grace, Hope, and All Nations – which have grown from those early efforts.
Ira spoke from Ecclesiastes, inviting people to have an eternity-altering vision in their hearts. The day also included greetings from international guests including Freeman Miller, bishop fraternal representative to Asia for Lancaster Mennonite Conference, Sheldon Sawatsky, director for East Asia for MMN, and Samson Lo, director of multi-cultural ministries for Mennonite Church Canada Witness.
Glenn Kauffman, representative to Asia for EMM and a missionary currently serving with the Hong Kong churches as conference minister, spoke on behalf of the Hong Kong Mennonite pastoral group when he invited a coming together of the various congregations and ministries in order to find a greater synergism for kingdom fruitfulness.
Using 1 Peter 2:5 as a text, Kauffman said, “We have many living stones, but they are lying randomly about. God’s call for us is to have them built together as a building where God’s Spirit will dwell.”
Besides attending the anniversary celebrations, Kurtzes enjoyed connecting with many of the Hong Kong Mennonites as well as the outreach to Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers and the new Mennonite church in Macau.
The Conference of Mennonite Churches in Hong Kong partners with Eastern Mennonite Missions, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church Canada Witness, Integrated Mennonite Church of the Philippines and PIPKA (the mission agency of Gereja Muria Kristen Indonesia).
When Kurtzes left Hong Kong in 1989 after 23 years of service, they agreed to pastor Sunnyside Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa., for one year – thinking they’d soon be returning to Hong Kong. They did return – but not until 16 years later for this anniversary. A sabbatical from Sunnyside made their historic month-long visit possible, October 31 to December 1, 2006.
-Jewel Showalter
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