“Teaching is a noble occupation, and I am proud of being a teacher,” said Raymond, a teacher who has taught for five years in one of our missions schools in Hong Kong. “However, working as a teacher in Hong Kong can be very stressful, and not everyone can do it.
I wake up every morning to rush to school. I spend time with my students, drill them and play sports with them.Then I spend time marking papers and preparing lessons for the next day. Oftentimes, it is late at night when I leave school. I go to church on Sabbaths because my headmaster and my students expect me to be there, but I often do not have any energy to participate. I often feel that I am taking care of other people’s kids, and I tend to neglect mine and my spiritual needs.”
Raymond’s voice was echoed by many fellow teachers who were present at a spiritual retreat organized by the education department of Hong Kong and Macao Conference (HKMC). In attendance were 118 Adventist teachers who were there to revive their spirit and pledge their commitment to saving souls. The teachers were from five Adventist schools in the Hong Kong and Macao territories, namely, Kowloon Sam Yuk Secondary School, Tai Po Sam Yuk Secondary School, Macao Sam Yuk Middle School, Yuen Long Sam Yuk Kindergarten and Hong Kong Adventist Academy.
The total enrollment of these schools had reached 2,500 students in the current school year. These schools were established in Hong Kong and Macao regions by our church as mission schools, and the majority of the students were from families with no religious backgrounds. All of these schools, with the exception of Hong Kong Adventist Academy, were receiving public funding to support school operation, so they needed to comply with the funding requirements of the government as well as the operation standards of the community.
“Secondary school campuses are a great place to do mission work because the money we spend for Week of Prayer and gospel camps at a school can bring many times more souls to Jesus than the same amount of money spent to do a crusade in the community,” asserted Pastor Chiloe Fan, HKMC president, who also met Jesus when he was a student in Tai Po Sam Yuk Secondary School.
“However, we need to recognize that doing gospel work in school is very different from running a church. For example, in a school, chaplains have to work with the teachers in order to reach the students because it is much easier for the teachers to bring students to the church than the chaplains themselves. Therefore, we treasure their contribution and recognize the difficulty of teaching and doing gospel work at the same time.”
“Teachers in Hong Kong face many challenges, and Adventist teachers face even more challenges when they work in our Sam Yuk schools,” exclaimed Pastor Isaac Foo, who has served as a chaplain for 10 years and was the feature speaker for the morning session.
“In order to survive, our schools need to meet parents’ expectations by producing products of good quality, which means good results in the public examination. We need to cater to students’diverse learning needs, plus everything that a normal public school will do,”he continued.“In addition, Adventist teachers need to do more because we are driven by the mission of saving souls for Jesus.”
Article by Frank Tam, HKMC Education Director and Principal of HKAA