Engineer has come a long way, baby

Joseph Smith | 27 March 2007

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When the previous Chinese minister left St James’, Minto’s Chinese congregation, a lay member of the congregation had to step up to fill the gap. Raymond Leung did just that, and now three years on, he is studying full-time to be a minister.

The 51-year-old came to Australia in 1991 with his wife Jessie and they joined the Chinese congregation at Minto in 1994. Twelve years later, the former electronic engineer is now in his second year at Moore College as an ordination candidate, training so he can better lead the congregation of almost 60 adults and 25 children.

“College is improving my skills for ministry and biblical exegesis and is shaping my mind and my heart,” he says.

Mr Leung actually wanted to study at Moore eight years ago, but postponed that decision out of consideration for Jessie, who at the time had mixed feelings about her husband becoming a minister.

“I had thought of College for quite a while. But at the time, Jessie was hesitant about being a pastor’s wife, due to the perceived pressure she felt,” Mr Leung says.

“However, when we took over the congregational leadership at Minto after the last pastor left three years ago, Jessie had a solid experience of the role of pastor’s wife. I applied to study at Moore as soon as she felt comfortable.”

Mr Leung’s journey with Christ began in Hong Kong almost 40 years ago. He moved from China to Hong Kong with his family when he was three years old, attended a Christian school and received Christ at an evangelistic assembly at the age of 12.

“Due to family pressure I could only start going to church at 15. I was baptised at 16,” he says.
The Chinese congregation meets Sundays at 11:15am in the St James’, Minto building and Mr Leung leads the congregation under the supervision of Minto rector, the Rev Chris Hanger.

The service is bilingual, conducted in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Once a month, Mr Hanger leads a Holy Communion service where his words, preached in English, are translated into Mandarin.

As one of the few Chinese congregations in the south-western Sydney sector of the Wollongong Region, the service attracts Chinese-speaking members from as far as the Glenfield and Campbelltown areas.

The church is effectively reaching out to the Chinese community, running a Chinese weekend school and badminton mornings which are attended by Christians and non-Christians.

“These have given us very good contact points with the community. But I think we don’t have enough manpower to explore the evangelistic opportunities provided by these contacts,” Mr Leung says.

However, he is still very excited by the conversion growth that the congregation has experienced.

“In the past year, seven adults from the Chinese congregation were baptised. About half of them were newcomers.”

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