Enough about us! The Church has adapted to some very unique circumstances that are found only in Hong Kong. Thousands of domestic workers (mostly female) come from Indonesia and the Philippines to work for wealthy families. They work long hours and some are treated very poorly. If they're lucky they have one day off a week, but often it's not Sunday. They spend that day getting together with their domestic worker friends at the park. They throw out blankets and spend the day eating, napping, visiting and singing until dark. One park is packed with thousands of Indonesians (above) with the Philippinas at another park.
The missionaries have brought a lot of these domestic helpers into the Church and many joined in their home country. These sisters spend their day off differently. They go to Church all day long! Their meeting day includes service projects, the 3 hour meeting block, rotation each week between home teaching, visiting teaching and enrichment meeting, attending the Temple, and often preparing and eating dinner. The above picture shows one of their dinners. The dish in front is rice with brown sugar melted on top. Thankfully they can cook at the church!
And, one more thing....since many of these sisters have a day off other than Sunday, the meeting schedule goes 7 days a week!!! There's a Monday church, Tuesday church and so on.....The Church has truly adapted to fit their needs. These sisters are the most friendly, loving people we have ever met! Their enthusiastic singing sounds like angels.
There are 10 branches of domestic workers with the unique problem that they don't have any Priesthood. Enter Senior Missionaries, the Reuschmanns and the Ellysons (above) who are just completing 2 year missions supervising the Monday to Saturday branches. Some of the best 2 years of their lives, they say! They love the sisters and the sisters love them. They are assisted by other senior couples as well as the young missionaries . Spence and I were assigned to the Island II Sunday branch and spoke in Sacrament Meeting at all 6 weekday branches.
Enough about us! The Church has adapted to some very unique circumstances that are found only in Hong Kong. Thousands of domestic workers (mostly female) come from Indonesia and the Philippines to work for wealthy families. They work long hours and some are treated very poorly. If they're lucky they have one day off a week, but often it's not Sunday. They spend that day getting together with their domestic worker friends at the park. They throw out blankets and spend the day eating, napping, visiting and singing until dark. One park is packed with thousands of Indonesians (above) with the Philippinas at another park.
The missionaries have brought a lot of these domestic helpers into the Church and many joined in their home country. These sisters spend their day off differently. They go to Church all day long! Their meeting day includes service projects, the 3 hour meeting block, rotation each week between home teaching, visiting teaching and enrichment meeting, attending the Temple, and often preparing and eating dinner. The above picture shows one of their dinners. The dish in front is rice with brown sugar melted on top. Thankfully they can cook at the church!
And, one more thing....since many of these sisters have a day off other than Sunday, the meeting schedule goes 7 days a week!!! There's a Monday church, Tuesday church and so on.....The Church has truly adapted to fit their needs. These sisters are the most friendly, loving people we have ever met! Their enthusiastic singing sounds like angels.
There are 10 branches of domestic workers with the unique problem that they don't have any Priesthood. Enter Senior Missionaries, the Reuschmanns and the Ellysons (above) who are just completing 2 year missions supervising the Monday to Saturday branches. Some of the best 2 years of their lives, they say! They love the sisters and the sisters love them. They are assisted by other senior couples as well as the young missionaries . Spence and I were assigned to the Island II Sunday branch and spoke in Sacrament Meeting at all 6 weekday branches.
1 comment:
Wow! That is really neat. I also learned the other night that Tyson's cousin is in your mission. I was talking to the missionary's older brother and he's been working with the Philippine members as well. I forgot to ask his last name so I'll have to get back to you on that. (And as a side note, great job on the post!)
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