－The Philly Ministry in CBCGB
By Rudolf & Edith Cheung
But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Luke 18:16)
In 2011, CBCGB children minister Pastor King Fai Choi started Philly Ministry to provide Sunday school for children with special needs in our church. These are children with developmental disability mentally and/or physically, with autism living in their own world, having difficulty in communication. These children need extra help and care.
To accept a child joining the Philly Ministry, the children minister would visit the child’s home and learn from the parents about the child’s needs. Then the pastor would arrange teachers to teach the student. The program is designed in a way that each student would have a teacher to lead him/her on a 1:1 ratio. In a whole year, we need four teachers for every student. It is because there should be two sessions for Sunday school: 9:30am-11am and 11am-12:30pm. Each teacher only serves one session for a rotation of three months. Two teachers are needed to take turns teaching one student in each session; so, every teacher will serve six months in total per year. Thus, if the student attends both sessions of Sunday school, in a year, we need four teachers to help that student.
Since many children with special needs are afraid of crowds and loud noises, Philly Ministry was given the old 151 building as classrooms. When 151 was demolished to build the current campus, we moved to carriage house until now. We have reserved several parking spaces for the parents of these children so that they can come to the classroom directly without going through the crowds.
On Sunday morning, when the Philly students arrive at carriage house, they would have about half an hour one-on-one time with their teacher engaging in activities of their choice: drawing, making crafts, reading stories, playing board games, etc. At 10am we would start the Circle Time – the children worship. Teachers would lead the students sitting in a semi-circle in the living room of the carriage house. We sing hymns, pray and have Bible story time. These seemingly ordinary worship programs are quite challenging for our students because their attention span is very short. Some of them are autistic, living in their own world. However, under the patient guidance of our teachers, over the years, slowly and gradually, they are able to engage in these Sunday school activities.
Thirteen years ago, the Philly Ministry began with just 3 to 4 students. At its peak, we had 8 students. From the spring of 2020 to the fall of 2021, church gatherings were conducted online due to the pandemic, and the in-person Philly Ministry was put on hold. Classes resumed when our church reopened in the fall of 2021. Currently, we have 6 students, ranging in age from 9 to 23. We have 9 regular teachers who take turns, along with two backup teachers who assist when a regular teacher is unavailable.
At present, our Sunday school only has one session from 9:30 am to 11:00 am because we do not have enough teachers. To resume the second session, we need a total of 24 teachers for 6 students across both sessions. Currently, we have only 9 teachers rotating. Therefore, we are having a serious shortage of teachers.
Over the course of these thirteen years, Philly Ministry has had 18 students in total. There is one student who joined us since the beginning and is still coming today. All teachers are volunteers who demonstrate lots of love and patience for the children.
Philly Ministry is not merely a Sunday school, we are also a big family. Teachers and parents work closely together to help our students learn about God’s love and salvation. We empower our students to grow up at their own pace. For instance, a girl who couldn’t speak when she first arrived can tell you her name now and express herself with hand gestures, facial expression and single words. There’s a girl who loves to draw and she can illustrate the Bible stories she learned the same day at Sunday school. Once, her teacher taught her to write “God is love” next to her drawing. She thought for a moment, then wrote “Jesus is love” on the paper.
There was a boy who was very shy when he first arrived. However, with the teachers’ encouragement, he began participating by taking on small tasks such as distributing song sheets and instruments or collecting the offering. Now he has become the “big brother” to the other kids in the class. Not only does he take his role seriously by helping the teachers set up the room for Circle Time, but he also looks out for others, takes care of newcomers and volunteers to lead prayers during Circle Time. His faith and confidence have clearly grown significantly. We give him the title “teacher’s assistant” and “class prefect”. 😊
With the permission of the pastoral board, Philly Ministry had baptism twice: in June 2022 and 2023. We used The Gospel Story as the textbook. Through the stories from both the Old and New Testaments, we helped students preparing for baptism learn about Christ’s love and salvation. Pastor Steven Bowman would make home visits and interview the students to make sure that they understand and accept Jesus as their Savior. Last two years, we baptized three students. The baptism ceremonies were conducted at the carriage house, officiated by Pastor Bowman and witnessed by the Philly Ministry family. Surely, these were our times for celebration! To encourage students to read the Bible, I gave each student a copy of 365 Bedtime Bible Stories and suggested that they read one page or one story a day. To help the students accomplish the reading assignment, I also enlisted the support from the kids’ parents. For the three students who were baptized, not only had they completed the assignment, but they also came up to us and said proudly, “I finished the book!” We did not hesitate to reward them for their efforts.
Most of the parents of our students are Christian. However, sometimes we also have parents or grandparents who are not Christian but are willing to participate. Gradually, they would be invited to join our family fellowship activities. Then they became seeker of the gospel truth and finally accepted Christ as their Savior. Therefore, Philly Ministry is not only teaching students about Christ’s love, but we are also a ministering channel to their family members.
These are the teachings from the Gospel:
But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Luke 18:16)
“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
And we are all familiar with a children’s hymn that says: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world……”
The children of God include those with special needs. The mission of Philly children Ministry is to use all kinds of wisdom to bring these children to Christ, helping them understand His love for them and accept His salvation. It has been truly amazing to witness the budding and growth of simple faith in these children over the past decades. We are both touched and thankful. We truly believe that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. May our Lord be praised!
Rudolf is the coordinator of North Andover Cantonese Fellowship and co-worker at Table Tennis Outreach Fellowship. He started serving in the Philly Ministry in 2011. His wife Edith joined the Philly Ministry in 2012. She also serves in the N. Andover Cantonese Fellowship, the Wednesday Sisters Fellowship, choir and church organist.
Edited by Hongxing Zhang