Grace and Truth column

The clusters of 50-story apartment houses and the crush of people waiting to board the ferry were overwhelming to this country boy now from Kansas. I was accompanying Sheldon Sawatzky, director for east Asia with Mennonite Mission Network, during a sabbatical in 2007. We were in Hong Kong, a former British colony now a special administrative region of China with 7 million people stacked into a little bit of real estate: 16,500 people per square mile. (The population density of Kansas is 33 people per square mile.) Hong Kong is people, people, people everywhere.

After 40 years of mission outreach, there are three Mennonite churches in Hong Kong—Agape, Grace and Hope—with a combined membership of 125. A new church plant in the Tuen Mun area is underway. The church seems microscopic compared with the immensity of the population.

I was reminded that God specializes in microscopic beginnings. What impact could one leader and 12 followers have in the vast Roman Empire of 3 million people? Jesus explained, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” Tiny. Very tiny. The smallest of garden seeds. Yet when it grows, it becomes the biggest plant in the garden, big enough for birds to sit on its branches. Or God’s dream for the world is like a pinch of yeast that a woman works into a big batch of dough until it permeates all through the dough (Matthew 13:31-35).

God’s dream starts small. God works with microscopic beginnings that bring about great results.

I met Andy and Susan Wade from Seattle, our mission workers in Hong Kong. Andy heard God’s dream in the Old and New Testaments of people from all nations coming together to worship the one true God. He believes that God wants to make that more visible in Hong Kong. And so Andy is planting a new church called All Nations Mennonite Worship Center.

It may seem like a pretentious name for a small group of believers and seekers from many different countries meeting every other Sunday. It’s planting a mustard seed. Missional leaders act small, act now and dream big.

I also found some yeast in Hong Kong. Nora Iwarat from the Philippines and Mey Idawaty from Indonesia are Mennonite Mission Network-supported mission workers. They have a hospitality and Bible study ministry among the domestic guest workers in Hong Kong. Thirty thousand Filipinos and 90,000 Indonesians come to Hong Kong as household workers in order to send money back home. I thought these would be young girls, but many of the domestic workers are mothers who leave their families in order to help their families survive back home.

Nora and Mey are like yeast permeating this subculture of Hong Kong society with practical help and eternal hope. They staff the Cheung Chau Christian Center, where guest workers can drop in and hang out on their day off. They provide child care. They lead Bible studies.

They provide emotional support and guide workers to legal counsel if that’s needed. They know the transforming power and love of Jesus. That is God’s big dream.

Imagine with me a church where every member carried a part of God’s great vision for redeeming the world. Every Sunday we would look forward to being together and hearing or seeing another glimpse of God’s big dream for healing and hope carried forward one more step in someone’s life.

Clarence Rempel is pastor of First Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan.