Hong Kong - City of Refuge

From the end of WWII until about 1984 Hong Kong could be described as a city of refuge, accepting waves of refugees from China and later from Vietnam. Before the outbreak of WWII, Hong Kong's population had already swelled to 1.6 million. At one point, half a million people were sleeping in the streets. During WWII, Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas day 1941 after a short battle. Japanese troops ran wild, raping and looting. The Japanese occupation lasted three years and eight months, during which Hong Kong people suffered deprivation and atrocities. After the war, Hong Kong's population fell again to about 600,000, but not for long.

In the turmoil surrounding the birth of the People's Republic of China (late '40s and early '50s) and the Cultural Revolution (mid '60s), there were again huge influxes of people from China. Refugees who were traumatized and lost their homes in China suffer from an underlying fear and insecurity which often results in a sense of "drivenness" in a search for security through wealth.

In the '70s and '80s Hong Kong was the destination of choice for Vietnamese boat people. Overwhelmed, Hong Kong has in recent years reclassified these people as "economic migrants," has detained them in camps administered by the Correctional Services Department and has been repatriating them to Vietnam. At the end of 1996, thousands still remained to be resettled, repatriated or released.

[Back to Please Pray for Hong Kong]

1. May Hong Kong continue to be a place of refuge for many. May those who have come to Hong Kong seeking refuge come to know the Lord in whom alone we can find a permanent and true place of safety and abode.
[Psalm 90:1-2]
[Psalm 36:7-9]
[Psalm 41:1-3]

2. May Hong Kong continue to welcome the needy, the desperate and the poor.
[Isaiah 58:6-7]

3. May Hong Kong be a place where "prisoners are set free, blind men receive sight and the dead receive resurrection."
[Isaiah 61:1-3]

4. May the church and its people enter into the Lord's refuge through seeking righteousness and humility and by turning from idolatry, falsehood and hypocrisy. May we have clean hands and pure hearts before him, so that we may escape his judgment and experience the Lord's favor on Hong Kong and its people.
[Zephaniah 2:1-3]
[Psalm 24:3-4]

Thank you for praying for Hong Kong.

Quick Scripture Reference

Psalm 90:1-2
LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Psalm 36:7-9
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God; therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Psalm 41:1-3
Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

Isaiah 58:6-12
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

Zephaniah 2:1
Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lords anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger.

Psalm 24:3-4
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

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