The ministry was first started in 1977 by Hung En Lutheran Church, Grace Lutheran Church, and Grace Lutheran Church (Tsuen Wan) under the name of Joint Mission Ministry Among Three Lutheran Congregations. Several other congregations joined this ministry afterwards. In 1987, the ministry was re-named to Overseas Mission Committee of ELCHK. Since July 1993, the Committee has officially become independently as the Overseas Mission Department of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong. Executive staff was employed at that time particularly in running the ministry.
In 1982, an agreement was signed by the Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM) and ELCHK to form the Lutheran Mission in Thailand (LMT). In 1987, we began to provide financial support for Lutheran mission works in Thailand. By 1988, we sent Evt. Anita, Chan Wai Ling as the first missionary. With God’s blessings, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thailand (ELCT) was set up in 1994. In 1999, we sent Rev. Ip Ching-Wah and his family serving in Thailand. In 1998, we sent Rev. Ian Cheung and family to serve the Chinese community in Germany. Missionaries and believers have been sent to various missionary fields including Thailand, Germany, Fiji and Cambodia.
The work of the Overseas Missions Department is to promote mission work in the congregations, organize mission fellowship, arrange short mission trips, form prisoner concern groups and oversee a host of other programs. We also encourage congregations to collaborate with mission fields to become mission partners, and provide the different age groups from kids to the elders involved in God’s Kingdom as a witness to become missionaries in our generation.
