Macau

 

John and Suzanna Hyrons are with Christians In Action Missions International the Headquarters of which is in Woodlake, California. www.christiansinaction.org

 

John and Sandra Levy first opened the work in Macau in November of 1973 and John Hyrons went to join them in January 1975. Suzanna, who John Hyrons later married in 1981, was born and raised in Macau and was one of the Levys first converts. She went through the missionary training at Thornton Heath and is now a licensed missionary with their organization. In 1979 John and Sandra Levy left Macau to open a new work in Taiwan.

 

About Macau

 

Macau is a little peninsula coming down off the mainland of China, just 40 miles west of Hong Kong and was a province of Portugal for about 400 years. But in 1999 the Portuguese gave the land back to China and now along with Hong Kong is considered a special administrative region, meaning they have their own government ruling system, etc.

 

Hong Kong was given back to China in 1997. They have the freedom to preach the Gospel, but are still ultimately under the Beijing government. When Macau went back to China in 1999 they promised no changes for 50 years, and that includes Hong Kong as well. The population in Macau is about 650,000 according to the government statistics.

 

In Macau there are textile factors that make garments for export to other countries. Also one of the other main businesses is tourism. People from different places of the world visit Macau, and many from the mainland of China.

The gaming industry is big in Macau. There are about 25 casinos in a land area of about 8 to 9 square miles, which includes the two outer islands. More casinos are projected in the near future. The year before last the Macau casinos took in more revenue than Las Vegas.  

 

How John and Suzanna serve the Lord in Macau

 

John and Suzanna have a church that was dedicated to the Lord back in 1983. Three years ago it was turned over to David Wong, a Chinese Pastor who now leads the church, with John and Suzanna acting as advisors and assistants. The church’s website address is www.m-ccc.org/wg/

They also have a non-profit children's day care centre, which was established in 1997 with the help of the Macau Social Welfare department, who have been helping them with about 70 percent of the monthly expenditures. This is for inmate's children from the Macau prison and for under privileged children. Although since opening up 11 years ago, only a few families have come from the prison. Their main purpose is to not only help the children and families in a practical way but also share Jesus with them. The ages of the children in the day care centre are from 1 and a half up to 3 years old. After they graduate from their day care they go on the kindergarten. Since opening up in 1997 they have had about 190 children come through the centre.

 

John is also a volunteer in the Macau prison. They have two meetings every Saturday morning in the men's prison and two meetings every Monday morning in the women's prison. John only goes into the prison once a month now, usually the 4th Saturday, because they have enough volunteers to take the meetings each week.  Tim and Linda Ng are in charge of the prison work there in Macau. Tim is Chinese and Linda is from England. Tim is their Executive director.

 

Suzanna also works at the Hope Medical Clinic, which was established by Dr. Bill Swan of the American Southern Baptist Mission.  Suzanna orders medicine, does public relations with the government, and sometimes does translation for the western doctors who cannot speak Cantonese. The Hope Medical Clinic also reaches out to cancer patients in the government hospital. Many have been led to Jesus because of this work!  

 

John and Suzanna want to open an elderly home for the senior citizens of Macau, primary a nursing type of a home. There is a big need for this and they have asked us to pray that one day this elderly home will come to pass!

 

July Update in Macau, 2008