CONNECT 2019-2020 : Diakonia–A Meaningful Experience

“Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, you did it unto me” (Matthew 25:40b) This was one of the teaching that Jesus taught us before he went back to heaven, asking us not just only care about ourselves but also care about others who are in need. This is how I feel after joining the “diakonia” in September, held by other congregations of ELCHK.

Before sharing my experience, I would like to introduce Eternal Life Lutheran church. The church was built in 1989. Their founder pastor saw that there were lots of workers in Sham Shui Po, and he wanted them to listen to the Gospel. So he built up the church and invited them to come after work and on Sundays. Later in 1990, the factories had been moved to mainland China. But more grass-rooted families began to live in the district. The church sensed the changes, and started their social-caring works in order to spread the gospel. Now, they still continue their work, and always co-operate with ELCHK to have more resource to help more people. What I am going to share is one of the events that they have co-operation.

About 1:15 in the afternoon, I arrived the church in Sham Shui Po. 15 minutes later, they had a briefing for the event: the locations that different groups would go, and some advices on our contact with them. Then, we started to go out and distributed the anti-virus packs, which contained serval masks, noodles and other stuffs. The pack also included a leaflet that have information about different gatherings of the church and their time schedule. We went back to church at 04:15, and have a debriefing and prayer for 15 minutes.

I have talked with the pastor of the church, asking about what pushes him to continue to serve this community. He replied me with the script from Matthew, which I’ve written right at the beginning of this article. “Every time when I feel helpless and uncertain about the church’s future, I always read this biblical passage. It reminds me that I’m not just doing for them, but also doing for the Lord.” he said. This also reminds me a lot. Sometimes when I go to join different “diakonia”, I will think, “Oh, how poor or helpless they are, I’m doing something good to them.” It’s actually another way of discriminating them. A servant’s heart should not be like that, it should always think about serving others, no matter who he or she is.