Fun fact: Did you know the NOW District has a congregation all the way over in Hong Kong? President Mike Von Behren and his wife, Jennifer, recently visited and shared stories and photos (below) from their travels.
Since its start in 1962, Church of All Nations has continued to connect the community of South Hong Kong Island to this fundamental source of life in Jesus. After five years of gathering for Bible study and worship in a reading room at the Repulse Bay Hotel with fellowship following in the restaurant upstairs, the innovative gathering of global business leaders and their families worked with the Board of World Mission of the LCMS and the Hong Kong government to start Hong Kong International School. The school began in 1966 and moved to its current location a year later, in 1967, opening with more than 600 students.
That school became the permanent location of Church of All Nations. Today, the school serves more than 3,000 students and is one of the most prestigious international schools in Asia.
Our Northwest District congregation, Church of All Nations, continues to meet within the school, gathering weekly for worship in the chapel and bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the families and kids in the school community, to the business community, and to the domestic workers who serve behind the scenes in that high-end society. It is a unique place where people from all over the world and from the extremes of the socio-economic spectrum gather on equal footing as sisters and brothers in Christ.
Because of Hong Kong’s role as a hub for international business across Asia, and Repulse Bay’s stunning landscape, the area is home to an affluent multinational community where wealth and status are often seen as markers of good fortune. Yet believers in Jesus know “though he was rich, for [our] sakes he became poor, so that [we] by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9) in what are true riches. Not in wealth, not in status, but in what Jesus called in Matthew 6:20, “treasures in heaven.”
Church of All Nations is a congregation whose story can encourage its sister ministries in the NOW District (and across the LCMS) to see what is possible when the faithful in Christ Jesus do three things:
– Gather together around His Word
– Join together in prayer about how to bring God’s love in Jesus to the community around them
– Use the ingenuity, networks, skills, and abilities God has given them to engage the community with the Gospel
We give thanks for our faithful brothers and sisters in Hong Kong! We invite you to click here and join us in prayer with the Church of All Nations.
