Love in Action

Report from Hong Kong

by the Hong Kong News Group

On Ching Hai Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day 2004, fellow initiates in Hong Kong enjoyed the bliss of selfless service by bringing happy surprises to homeless people in two old districts of the city.

On Ching Hai Day, which fell on February 22 this year, a number of initiates traveled to the Kowloon District to visit the Yaumatei Center for the Homeless — one of three shelters of its kind run by the Hong Kong Relief Society. The sisters and brothers found great happiness in distributing clothing, daily necessities and sandwiches to the Center’s residents in this activity of love, during which the facility’s superintendent was only too delighted to help distribute Master’s sample booklets.

The second trip of the day began at Banyan Tree Park with a search that found more than twenty homeless in the Park and on adjacent roads. The initiates quickly went up to their less fortunate friends to offer gifts and express their concern.

On April 4, Tomb-Sweeping Day, the fellow initiates visited the Wanchai Center for the Homeless, also operated by the Hong Kong Relief Society, on the island of Hong Kong. It was comforting to note that government accommodation measures had caused the number of vagrants in this district to fall sharply. The initiates arrived at the facility with dozens of beautiful gift packs full of clothing, daily necessities and vegetarian food, and were warmly welcomed at the main entrance by the superintendent and a group of residents. When the Center’s occupants heard that the initiates were from a spiritual group — The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association — the superintendent exclaimed, “Your Master is very famous!” adding that one of his relatives often attended Master’s lectures. In addition to a gift package, each resident also received a copy of Master’s sample booklet, setting off a warm discussion in which many people asked questions about religious beliefs. One of the residents, who was of Mongolian descent, requested an English sample booklet.

Less than ten days after this visit, the Hong Kong Welfare Services Department announced government plans to organize three more general service teams than usual that month to secure employment and lodging for the region’s homeless. The ultimate goal was to ensure accommodations for the remaining five hundred homeless citizens of Hong Kong. For local fellow initiates, this was good news indeed and a sign of Master’s blessing energy at work!

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