CATALYSING COMMUNITY CARE

One of our CATALYSE initiatives is Partnering with Global NGO. The whole intent of this is to collaborate with like-minded ministries to better serve the communities.

This article features an update of a recent forum and what one HIM church is doing in the area of community care.

Inaugural Community Care Forum at the Global Conference
We had our first-ever forum to discuss community care initiatives of the HIM family of churches at the recent Global Conference held in Chiang Mai during January 2012. It was exciting indeed to meet passionate brothers and sisters with a heart to reach out to the disadvantaged through their churches. HIM churches in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Chiang Mai, Singapore, Adelaide and Brisbane were represented at the forum. Some churches are more advanced in their community work undertakings whilst others are seeking for ideas to start a project. All in all, it was an inspiring and useful exchange of stories about what each of us have been doing to reach out to the disadvantaged in our cities! The following story is one example shared at the forum.

It was very exciting to begin networking of community care ‘champions’ amongst HIM churches. We look forward to more opportunities, such as at future Global Conferences, to network, brainstorm, coordinate, synergise HIM’s community care work, and see what God does through us all!

Victory Learning Centre, Hope Kuala Lumpur church

Life for asylum seekers and refugees is challenging in Malaysia. Malaysia laws do not recognise asylum seekers or refugees and therefore do not provide protection for them because Malaysia not party to the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Refugees and asylum seekers who end up in Malaysia are not allowed to work, and have no access to decent housing, healthcare or children education.

Thank God for the Victor Learning Centre (VLC), a school for Burmese refugee children. VLC has close to 120 students and 7 teachers – and all of them are Burmese refugees. VLC serves the children proper meals when they are at school. They also provide clothes, toys and school supplies for the children.

Hope Kuala Lumpur has been helping VLC over the past few years through providing food, beverages, and also helping to collect clothes, toys and school supplies for the children, which are kindly donated by members of Hope Kuala Lumpur (See pic 1). Fundraising events have been held by various life groups to raise funds for VLC.

Hope Kuala Lumpur hopes to create a greater awareness and understand about the refugee children and teachers, in the hope that more people would support those less fortunate around them.

Passionate about reaching the disadvantaged? Contact us!

If you would like to share stories of what your church has been doing to reach the disadvantaged in your city, or if you are looking at starting a project and would like some ideas, we would love to hear from you!

Contact Ms Lisa Leung, Hope Church Brisbane, at lisamtoh@gmail.com

Written by Lisa Leung-Toh

For more information write to us at

spt@byhim.org

HIM Corporate Communications