St. Barnabas Society



Passing out candy to the elderly people at
St. Barnabas' Society

 On December 18th, I accompanied people and teachers from my school to St. Barnabas's Society. It was sort of a Christmas celebration, and my fellow students and I passed out treats and food to the elderly people there.

St. Barnabas' Society (HK) was formed by Jackie Pullinger, and is ministry of outreach to street sleepers, the poor, and the homeless in the Western and Kennedy Town districts on Hong Kong Island.

While we were there, students from ICS formed a worship team and sang hymns and Christmas carols with the elderly people. Then Mr. Tim Wong, the elementary principal, shared something about how God is merciful. Then another elderly man shared about how he had turned to Jesus, and it was a joyful time for everyone. We served food, drinks, snacks, toys and soup to all the elderly people there.

At first I only went because it counted as a MAD project, and I was a bit unhappy that I had to "waste" a day of my vacation serving these elderly people I didn't even know. But I found that serving these homeless and poor was very gratifying and satisfying, in a way. I saw those elderly people smile as I passed out plates of food and bags of toys. I found myself having fun attempting to talk to these elderly people. Instead of the boring trip I expected it to be, I had a great time serving those who were less unfortunate than me.

This was a great experience, and I don't regret going at all.

Wealth Disparity in Hong Kong



The beautiful city of Hong Kong, its wealth disparity hiding behind
the facade of glittering skylines and expensive cars.



Hong Kong is internationally renown for its skyscrapers, expensive cars and pricey real estate, which gives people all over the world an impression that Hong Kong is a rich city. Indeed it is, but most of the wealth is concentrated/spread through a small part of the population. Put simply, a small number of people at the top of the social ladder hold most of the wealth, and a large number of people towards the bottom of the social ladder have little wealth. This in turn creates a huge wealth disparity, or the gap between the rich and the poor. Hong Kong actually ranked No. 1 amongst the world's most developed economies for income inequality.

The Gini coefficient is widely used measure of income disparity. In 1996, the figure stood at 0.518 on a scale where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 complete inequality.Hong Kong's Gini coefficient has increased to 0.533 in 2006 from 0.525 in 2001, the last available figure. It showed that Hong Kong's working poor were getting poorer or had not broadly benefited from the city's overall economic recovery.

Check out more information about the wealth disparity in Hong Kong here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSHKG22425220070618

What is Service?

Service is something that we do in order to benefit our community. I think that it is our duty to serve our communities, as we are part of the community and have a role in serving it.

In order to encourage students to partake in service, our school (International Christian School) has taken part in the MAD  (Make a Difference) program.

MAD projects are a component of our Bible 9 course this year, and the purpose of these projects is to promote service and to broaden our wealth of experiences. This is an example of service learning, a teaching method that combines service to the community with classroom curriculum, and also includes reflecting on service.

These service opportunities helps to increase student's sense of civic responsibility, and also encourages a student's probability to be engaged in service to the community in the future. I feel that it is wise that the MAD project is a graduation requirement at ICS, because it is beneficial to all those who partake in it.

Bring Me A Book!

 

My friend SoHyun and I reading to kindergarten kids

On Novemeber 2nd and 9th, some friends and I went on a school service trip to The Salvation Army Jat Min Nursery School. The activity was called "Bring Me A Book!" and our service assignment was to read books to nursery school kids.

The school had kids from aged 3-7, and my partner and I were assigned to read books to the youngest of them all, the ones aged 3-4. In the beginning I thought that this would be quite hard, since they were so young they probably would not understand any of the books I was reading. But I was quite surprised at how much the little kids actually understood! They were so adorable and they recognized me when I went back the second time (:

 

Myself and one of the nursery kids



I really like kids in general, and this activity was very enjoyable. I was able to actually engage in conversation with these kids, and they were quite intelligent, not to mention extremely cute! After I went the first time, I was looking forward to the second time a week later.

I hope the ICS Service Department orgaanizes more trips like these!