Evangel Children’s Home has taken care for children and teenagers from broken families for 67 years, serving more than 1,400 people and 1,300 families. There are many touching stories among them. Some children who were adopted and started a new life overseas, came “home” when they grew up. They did remember their first home in Hong Kong and came back to look for “footprints of home”.
Fung Sai-ming, who was adopted to live in Australia at the age of 9, started a new life. Thanks to God’s protection and guidance, he settled down in Australia, met his wife and built their sweet home with children. Everyone was very happy for him.
Little Sai-ming
Sai-ming and his family
Footprints of Home
Every once in a while, Sai-ming visited Evangel Children’s Home and get with the Superintendent and staff. The pandemic has passed finally. Sai-ming made a special trip and took his family back to this “home”. He introduced his childhood life to his sons and relatives. Sai-ming, who is quite romantic, proposed to his wife under the big tree outside Evangel Children’s Home more than 10 years ago. This really showed that this “home” did play an important role in his life. As a father, Sai-ming likes to bring his children to this “home” and let them learn more about his childhood life. “Oh, this corridor…, and that hall…” – all places brought back many memories. Returning to the scene of the marriage proposal, he even told the children about their parents’ love stories and interesting things.
HK Visit in year 2007
“Home” Visit with his family in year 2023
Embrace his past and live a better tomorrow, Sai-ming always shows his positive attitude and energy. Through different eras, Evangel Children’s Home has expanded to provide comprehensive care and services for children from broken families or with special needs. We believe it is going to pass on through generations.
Due to drug abuse and negligence, Connie’s (alias) family failed to take good care of her. She had to move into a small group home at the age of 4, where regular caretakers (including a couple) worked on shifts to provide her a stable childhood. Soon after adolescence, girls of similar age left one by one, leaving behind the younger children who were incompatible with her. Even worse, this situation triggered her hidden sense of loneliness and helplessness. She threw temper tantrum at those who cared about her.
For Connie’s emotional issues, her SWD caseworker assisted with referral to a clinical psychologist (CP) and helped her move to a new environment. At the age of 16, she moved into a girl’s hostel for high school students. There she met new friends and had a little more freedom but the rules still need to be followed. For example, she used to sleep with the lights on. Now she could only use a little night light instead.
Good Character and Academic Performances still not enough?
Without support of the original family, Connie’s relatives and friends urged her to succeed in her studies so she could transit to independent living smoothly. Throughout the years, she set high standards for herself. Living up to all expectations, she is excellent in both her character and academic performances. She is good in literature and sports, and has a solid foundation in art. She is sportive and a member of the school running team. She knows Judo, table tennis, swimming, canoeing and other outdoor sports. She is tanned, and should be displaying limitless youthful vitality… However, in front of us is a petite and a bit hunched young figure. She lacks the brightness and positive energy that is anticipated at this age. It turned out that when everything seemed fine, her sense of inadequacy and inferiority lingered. This time, she was concerned about her appearance and considered her body shape sub-standard. Indeed, she is not fat at all but she used extreme methods to help herself “lose weight”.
Right Care Right Time for Priceless Health
After the summer holiday, SWD CP diagnosed Connie with anorexia (a form of eating disorder). The Hostel in Charge referred her to Project 3R* which is supported by The Hongkong Bank Foundation through The Community Chest of Hong Kong and provides medical and counseling services for assessment and follow-up. Shortly after, 3R family doctor referred her to 3R psychiatrist and nutritionist for evaluation. 3R specialist doctor gave her medication and conducted blood test immediately. She was grateful for the timely help which made her feel more relaxed. Various professionals also gave her valuable advices. While her condition was stabilizing, out of everyone’s expectation, she continued to participate in the running competition and fainted during the 800-meter run on the School Sports Day. Ambulance was called for immediate treatment. In the hospital, SWD caseworker asked for referral to public medical services so as to ease everyone’s concern. However, Connie did not seem to learn from the experience and continued to participate in the dragon boat training afterward. As a result, she fainted again and was sent to the hospital for recovery.
Lay Solid Foundation for the Future
Connie considers herself as a bit stubborn and likes keeping her own opinions. On one hand, she is self-demanding and always pursues excellence. On the other hand, she has low self-image and always thinks she is not good enough. She also has sleep problems. Perhaps the little night light beside her bed could give her a bit of warmth, comfort and companionship. Pray that Connie will recover with the help of various social welfare services. So she could lay a good foundation of health, persevere for the things she loves with unparalleled sportsmanship, no longer live under the eyes of others, cherish priceless physical and mental health, and welcome a bright future.
Evangel Children’s Home has being run the service for children through decades and is carrying children through their different wonderful journey of life on our “Train of God’s Grace”. Former superintendent David Chan Man Yiu (usually be greeted as “Man Yiu gor”), visited ECH a few months ago and had a reunion with old friends after he emigrated to overseas for many years. All colleagues, no matter former or current, together counted the blessings we had in different “space-time” but under the same roof of ECH. Back to the eighties, our former Superintendent, served the children in needs humbly because of Jesus’ love. He saw the urgent necessity of school bus for the children and thus raised money for a new school bus – the children called it “The Hallelujah Van”, and there was a story of love behind it.
David and his brother were the first pair of children to live in the ECH in 1956. They were the first generation of children nurtured and raised by the founder, Ms. Ruth Sundquist. In 1982, he graduated from the Department of Social Work in the United States, he returned to ECH to serve as the superintendent for 15 years. Later on, he went to Canada to work as a missionary and a counselor as well. David does keep ECH in his heart. He paid a visit to ECH with his wife Annie a few months ago – their visit was filled with warmth, just felt like soft breeze blowing from the ocean, with love and praises in our Lord’s grace together.
“The Hallelujah Van” – Supply of confidence in Him
In late 1980’s, among 60 children in ECH, 50 of them were under the age of 12. They attended 7 primary schools and 2 kindergartens respectively. The 7-seat minibus, which had been used for 9 years, had to go back and forth over ten times each day, this really could not meet such heavy demand. Therefore, 35 years ago, ECH needed to raise HKD250,000 to buy a 16-seat minibus. When only HKD100,000 was reached, ECH went ahead to pay the deposit by faith, meanwhile kept praying and waited for God’s provision. All co-workers also participated in the donation and David asked the children to donate their pocket money as well, and the response was unexpectedly enthusiastic. In just a few months’time, with the dedicated support of the church members and the concern of everyone, the brand-new school bus (minibus) was put into service, testifying that God’s provision was sufficient.
Dribs and drabs of Love
A new 16-seat minibus was into service after fund was raised and procurement was done, then another difficult task was to employ a right driver. So, an extra-ordinary captain of the minibus was stepped in.
David shared and said, “When we bought this Toyota Hiace 16-seat minibus (the children called it “The Hallelujah Van”), everyone was very excited. At that time, I acted as a temporary driver to take the children to and back from school. This is the most enjoyable time among my works, much happier than sitting in the office.”
“Once I remember, a teacher asked a child after school, “When would your driver arrive?” The child replied, “He is not the driver, he is the superintendent!” During driving, the little space in the van was the best place for me to establish relationships with the children, not as a superior ‘superintendent’, but me, David Gor, blessed with grace from the Lord.”
“The Hallelujah Van“was named by children. No wonder David was so grateful. He also encouraged current and former colleagues to believe in God firmly in all kinds of resource provision.
“This van also represents our caring Heavenly Father, who has shown His faithfulness and provision again and again.”
“Train of God’s Grace” – The Inherit of Love
Although David had a broken family when he was young and was arranged to live in ECH, he has a big family with children and grandchildren now. He receives God’s love, upholds the selfless spirit of Ms. Ruth Sundquist in Christ, and is willing to obey in Him and becomes a channel of love and life, passing on His blessings from one to another generation of children.
The inheritance of Love can be witnessed in the continuous development – from the first-generation ‘school-bus’ in more than 60 years ago, to the nowadays “nanny vans” and children are picked up and dropped off by co-workers nearby.
“The 16-seat van does not have the words “播道會兒童之家” on it indeed.” David added. “Regard the word “” (home) painted on the van body, the indexing component ‘宀’ means a house, its bottom part ‘住’ means that the Lord ‘主’ who is the head of our home and man “人” stands aside to the Lord. This was a deliberate creation of a Chinese word and it could not be found in the dictionary. When the van was driving on the road, peoples often asked what the character ‘’ was and how to pronounce it. The old character ‘’ was used for many years, and then it was changed back to the common character “家”.
In the early days, the full Chinese name of ECH was “播道會兒童之家”, but later the word “會” was deleted, which was aligned with the names of Evangel Seminary and Evangel Hospital (in Chinese).
David Chan is on this “Train of God’s Grace”, being His servant from the 1950’s to the 90’s. When he had reunion in ECH, for what he recalled was all about gratitude; for what he showed was all about caring – selfless Love is passing on.
Amber participated as a singer in ECH 65th anniversary theme song in 2022, which matched with her study of musical production. She deeply feels that the lyrics are like a portrayal of her childhood: “Obstacles are all around the dark abyss. Settling down is already difficult. How can I climb up?” Even though there are many obstacles, it did not hinder her enthusiasm for music. Moving around for 10 years, she finally settled on the happy road of music and started a brilliant second life
How to climb up while settling down is already difficult?
Due to the unstable mental condition of her parents, 3 sisters including Amber were admitted to ECH successively. At one time, Amber was the youngest in the girls’ house. She was so loved and brought happiness to everyone. They thought by arranging the 3 sisters together in one room would let them take care of each other. However, even small things like who should turn off the lights led to arguments that persisted until dawn. On the contrary, in order to get the long desired reward – 2012 Flying Project, they could also do their best after encouragement of the house parents. They were awarded to a trip to Korea for cultural exchange which broadened their horizons. Ordinary care homes cannot guarantee one fixed caregiver to one particular child, the change in caregivers left profound impact on Amber – it was like losing a relative. She was unable to adapt to these changes at a young age, so she went on her way and disregarded the house rules. Eventually, due to long-term conflicts with the house parents, she left this home before 18 when our youth home was not yet established.
Ideals vs. Reality
Amber is very talented in music. She could instantly play the musical notes she heard on the radio. When she was a child, there were not many choices of after school activities. She either read comic books or novels quietly, or played on the piano randomly. ECH discovered her talent and looked for resources that allowed her to receive formal musical training starting at the age of 6. Since then, she had the opportunity to study music formally. However, when it came to the idea of pursuing music as a career, there were only objections. Upon 16 years old, she returned to an inappropriate home – her original family. Due to violent behavior of family members, she was forced to stay temporarily in a youth hostel, giving her some peace and quiet time for a few months. In the end, she completed public exams with some difficulties. Her grades were not good. With the help of some friends, she travelled to Taiwan and learned Music. The work-study life was difficult and the amount of homework required for the subjects increased in the 2nd year. If she continued to work part-time, she could not complete her studies. At the same time, her father’s health deteriorated, so she had no choice but to return to HK before graduation.
Photos with ECH Superintendent 20 years apart
Life Coaches Altered Life Path
Amber returned to HK for work. ECH superintendent and ex-house parent (Ms. Chak) both invited her to serve in the church. While working, jumping musical notes always call to her. Gratefully, she met some life coaches over the years: Mr. Luke – a doctor she met through work and David and Agnes – a church couple. Based on their life experiences, they guided her to step out and follow God’s lead, strive for her dreams and embark positively on a music career. In between, she returned ECH and teached piano, hoping this passion of pursuing dreams could be passed on! She started with classical music in ECH and studied pop music afterward. She said it was a process. Never thought that as long as she has determination and enthusiasm, a young lady with mixed emotions and misfit in traditional education can overcome all difficulties, aim at the target and break through her boundaries. With the support of ECH scholarship fund, she successively obtained musical achievements – including grade 8 piano exam, bachelor degree majoring in music, performing with instruments and her voice at different concerts, and was recommended to be interviewed on TV with outstanding performances.
After passing through the twists and turns, Amber strived to move forward with her eternal musical dreams. No matter where she goes, she shines brightly and can face new challenges optimistically.
” (home) painted on the van body, the indexing component ‘宀’ means a house, its bottom part ‘住’ means that the Lord ‘主’ who is the head of our home and man “人” stands aside to the Lord. This was a deliberate creation of a Chinese word and it could not be found in the dictionary. When the van was driving on the road, peoples often asked what the character ‘
