A Typical Day Serving at YWAM Harbour City
“What do you do in Hong Kong? Do you work for a church? Do you earn a salary?
Hmmm, the best way I can answer these questions is like this: I work for an international missions organization called “Youth With A Mission”. For short, we call it “YWAM” (pronounced “WHY-wham”).
“With more than 18,000 staff and over 1,200 ministry locations, it is now one of the world’s largest missionary training and sending organizations.” Refer to YWAM’s History page for more of the incredible stories since 1956!
I serve at one of YWAM’s ministry locations in Hong Kong called “YWAM Harbour City”. I did my missions training for 6 months and later decided to join as a full-time staff volunteer. It’s been a big transition for me from studying university, working in the design industry for 2 years, and to join the mission field when I was 25 years old.
(I thought so hard to not use “YWAMese terms, haha it’s a joke for those who understand 😂)
I don’t earn a salary from YWAM, but we are funded by friends, churches, and family who believe in our mission work and partner with us! I am so thankful for my community of supporters through finances and prayer!
The day usually starts at 9:00am as we do corporate worship almost every day of the week!
We come together as the whole missions community to spend time with praise, worship, and times of prayer. It’s very encouraging to start the day with worship, which then flows through the rest of the day!
Times of prayer during our staff conference
Then we have some hours of office work.
Every staff has a specific department and roles at our ministry location. Depending on skills or experience, and even if you don’t have any experience at all, it’s fun to try out different things at our workplace! As we run our facilities, we have departments that help keep the place well! Accounting, communications, hospitality, maintenance, homeschool with children, there are many ways to serve with our God-given gifts and skills.
Personally, I’ve learned to sharpen skills that are usually not in a job description. Multi-cultural communication, growing in leadership skills or facilitating at different events, pioneering ministries and outreaches, and so much more to continue learning!
I am currently leading the department of Creative Media. We focus on creating projects that will help share about God’s character, the gospel, missions, and invite believers to build God’s kingdom!
Weekly Outreaches
We spend time praying asking for God’s heart. Especially for the people of Hong Kong and we are intentional in obeying what He guides us to do as a community! Lately, we have been building relationships with people, spending time with them and praying for opportunities to share the gospel and make disciples!
During Chinese New Year, my co-worker and I visited a neighbor. We learned to make a traditional snack called turnip cake (萝白糕 “lo bak go”) and had the opportunity to share deeper life stories about family and relationships.
Other outreach opportunities has been to do mercy ministry. We reach out to those in the city who are vulnerable and in need. Many elderly people have jobs like collecting garbage and recycling cardboard boxes and they earn very little money. We’ve spent time building relationships with the elderly, chatting with them, and praying that God continues to provide for them. Most importantly, for their salvation!
After Office Hours
YWAM Harbour City’s vibrant community loves to be in fellowship and have fun! Our staff are so creative – we often cook and eat together, play board games, watch movies, dance, jamming sessions, explore the city, try new dishes at local or international restaurants. Even though we all come from different cultural backgrounds, it’s fun to learn from each other and walk together. Working with your closest friends is truly a gift!
Playing a popular card game called Big Two (鋤大弟 “sho tai ti”).
Hosting a Mexican dinner at my house :) so blessed to find corn tortillas in Hong Kong!
Visiting beautiful gardens and parks in the city!
Maybe it’s not the usual stereotypical life of an overseas missionary – planting churches or doing humanitarian work, but often we partner with organizations and churches who are doing so!
As a young person (still! haha) serving as a missionary in Hong Kong has taught me to go deeper in my relationship with Jesus, grow spiritually and in my personal character, and loving people in different ways!
