This is my story - Hong Kong/Taiwan -78

78 – Friends of The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army all over the world has benefited from the support given by our Advisory Boards. These friends of the Army provide valuable assistance and advice to our leaders. Members are carefully chosen from local community leaders who are willing to volunteer their time and services to The Army.

In Hong Kong, we were blessed with an excellent Advisory Board and during our term there we had two excellent Chairmen both bankers and community leaders – Mr. David Li Kwok Po of Bank of East Asia and Mr. John Strickland of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.

Working directly under the elected Chairman are chairmen of sub-committees like Property, Finance, Social, Community relations, Personnel etc and these meet regularly to discuss items submitted by the leaders for their advice and consideration.

When we first arrived in Hong Kong, we faced the problem of finding somewhere to put our youngest daughter Dora Poh Chin. The ‘Home of Living Faithfulness’ where we had planned to put her turned down our request for admission. The committee had their reasons for their refusal.

The Advisory Board members heard about it and they voluntarily contributed to pay for a lady to look after Poh Chin at home, thus releasing my wife to see to her duties in the office. This went on for several months until we found a Day Care Centre for the Handicapped which accepted our Poh Chin.

Every morning on the way to office, we dropped Poh Chin at the Centre and at 4.00 p.m. a Rehab Bus picked her up and took her to our Salvation Army Lai King Home for the Handicapped. Poh Chin was too severely handicapped to fit into our Salvation Army Home at Lai King which catered for the less severe. Then after office, on our way home, we would pick Poh Chin up. Thanks to one of our staff in the Social Department who made all the arrangements. This went on till 1988 when Poh Chin returned to Singapore and was placed in our then Lee Kuo Chuan Home for the Aged in Singapore thanks to the arrangements made by the then Officer Commanding, Lieut. Colonel Moira Wright.

Everywhere The Salvation Army is in operation we work with members of other denominations. The Army is a member of the National Council of Churches. In Singapore and Malaysia my wife and I always took an active role in the ecumenical activities. She always served in the Women’s committees, like World Day of Prayer,  Fellowship of the Least Coin etc. while I became involved in the executive committee and took an active part in the activities of the council.

The General Secretary of the National Council of Hong Kong, Rev. Kwok Nai Wong and a number of representatives from other churches were present at our welcome meeting. As leader of The Salvation Army in Hong Kong, I attended the Annual General Meeting and was elected to the Executive Council. They always arranged for someone to sit beside me to interpret for me as my knowledge of Cantonese was quite limited.

We received good support from the Council. In one of the Annual General meetings, I was invited to give the opening address and someone very kindly interpreted into Cantonese for me. As a member of the Council we were given the privilege of conducting broadcasts in English.

Whenever leaders from mainland China visited Hong Kong, the Council would arrange welcome dinners and we would always be included. This provided valuable contacts for The Army. We always attended in our Salvation Army uniform even to dinners. The Army is remembered in China and well respected.

I received an invitation to join the Rotary Club of Hong Kong. I must confess I did not quite cherish the idea, but weighing the benefits the Army would receive and the contribution we could make to Hong Kong, I accepted the invitation. Soon I was elected to the Social Committee. This gave me an extra avenue of service in contributing to a larger community in Hong Kong.

Every year during Christmas time, it fell on my lot to give the message during their Christmas lunch. What a great opportunity to present the word to this august company of people many of them non church goers or even Christian.

One day we were invited to the Singapore Consul because the Trade Minister George Yeo was visiting Hong Kong and would like to speak to Singaporeans. We were invited to this special dinner. We were then requested to join the Singapore Association. For a small fee which we paid personally each year we became members and were invited to special functions organised by the Singaporeans working in Hong Kong. We joined their regular monthly luncheon meeting and thus kept up to date of events happening in Singapore.

The Salvation Army is well respected in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We do appreciate the support given by our many friends.