In Hong Kong, the efforts paid by Christian organizations to help South-Asian immigrants are no longer limited within the city. Their outreach is extending to the immigrants' homeland, seeking a more extensive and essential way to help the people in this non-Christian area.
Recently, the Mission To New Arrivals, a faith-based organization that offers social service and outreach to new immigrants from South Asia, started an "Attention for South Asia" project, which aims to assist in the reconstruction of tsunami-stricken areas, church-planting and elementary education.
According to Gin-wha Lee from MTNA, he saw the "revival of Indian churches" during his ten-day visit in North India, which brought him a lot of faith in South Asian mission. In his article posted on the Christian Times, he recounted his experience by stating, " the plan of North Indian church-planting impressed me a lot. There are 160 million people, eighty-four districts and 111,000 villages in this area. Their plan is to establish at least one church in each village, and they are dispatching missionaries continuously to fulfill this goal".
According to Lee, though Christians are still the minority in India, he could still see the amazing work of God through the church-planters there. Under the North-Indian church-planting plan, 2,000 family churches were established in the past two years. "Seeing their faith, I am very thankful for the grace of God," Lee said.
On the start of the "Attention for South Asia" project, he called on the Christians to pay continuous attention on South Asia. "We hope that the concern for South Asia will not come to an end as the tsunami passed, but continue as a long-term program, making South Asia a mission field of Hong Kong." On the other hand, by assisting the South Asian new immigrants, MTNA also hopes that these South-Asians can bring the Gospel back to their own people.
According to the data of 2003, there are 650,000 South-Asians in Hong Kong, making almost 10% of the whole Hong Kong population. However, many reported that they are facing unfair treatments and discrimination.
Many Christian churches and organizations have voiced appeals to their government and the society to champion for the rights for South Asians.
