Cross-Cultural Missions in Hong Kong

“Why are you serving in Hong Kong? You should go serve somewhere else!”

I come across this question a lot! I thought of writing down the “why”!

When people ask me where I am from, I respond: “I was born in Venezuela but I’m Chinese.” I come from a family that immigrated from Hong Kong to Venezuela in the 1970s. Growing up, I wanted to embrace more of my Chinese culture but often, I felt distant from it. I could easily adopt the ways of eating and different perspectives like believing in 熱氣 (“yit hei” in Cantonese) which are foods that are considered “cool” or anything deep fried or spicy.

It wasn’t easy for me to embrace the Cantonese language. In my childhood, I was often laughed at for looking Chinese and speaking the language in front of people. That caused me to drift away from Cantonese and even become scared to speak it in front of others. If I spoke Cantonese in front of other native Chinese speakers, they would say “oh, you weren’t born in China, right?” If I spoke in front of certain people, some would make fun of the sounds. There was no way of pleasing both sides. I felt embarrassed and shy to speak this language. For the longest time, I didn’t know how to relate to the native language of my parents.

A call to serve my own people.

Throughout the years of building a foundation and identity in Christ, I’ve been on a journey to heal from these past traumas: the desire to run away from certain aspects of my culture, especially my Chinese culture. I felt a strong calling to serve in the mission field after doing my DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM in 2019. I decided to step into my missions journey with YWAM Harbour City and join their community in Hong Kong to learn and grow as a missionary.

Reaching out to “my own people” is actually very cross-cultural for me! I grew up with Venezuelan and American culture, so the only things I knew about Chinese people were things I learned from my own family. Moving to Hong Kong opened my eyes to more of my cultural roots. I’ve learned a lot by interacting with the local people and observing cultural values.

So, why Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is a very international and diverse city where people from many nations have settled down here. I’ve been able to meet people from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia, Samoa, Fiji, Spain, France, England, and many more! With our missions organization, we often reach out to people from other countries and share about Jesus! It definitely takes more time to build relationships and adapt to other cultures, it’s so enriching! There are countries where sharing the gospel comes with great persecution and punishment, but we are able bring the good news of Jesus to them while they live in Hong Kong.

At times I still find it challenging to speak the language of my family, but in a way, I have seen God working through redeeming this cultural side of me. Instead of seeing it as a burden or as an impossible task to learn Cantonese, I can see that it is bringing me closer to my family and connecting me again with my cultural roots. I’m passionate about meeting overseas Chinese people like me, who come from families who immigrated to other countries long time ago. When in their own home country, it’s basically illegal to share the gospel, God uses situations and circumstances for the gospel to reach to Chinese immigrant families!