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Analysis of recent government statistics reveals a widening gap between Hong Kong's rich and poor. Over the past 10 years, Hong Kong's wealthiest are enjoying a 61% increase in income (after accounting for inflation) while incomes of the poorest have risen only 20%, to HK$5,500 (US$705) per month.
Costs for basic services such as food, housing, transportation and education have skyrocketed. For example, the lowest bus fare in Kowloon was $.30 in 1979. The present fare is $2.80, a nine-fold increase.
The poorer half of Hong Kong's households share only 19% of its gross income, while the richest 10% hold 42%. Since poorer Hong Kong households usually include extended family members, the true gap is probably wider than these statistics suggest.
With land prices and rents among the highest in the world, families not living in government subsidized flats spend a high proportion of their income on housing. Space is a luxury few can afford. Recent reports reveal that after paying rent, Hong Kong's elderly poor are going hungry, with as little as $600 (US$75) a month to spend on food. By contrast, ordinary dinner entrées in Hong Kong hotel restaurants usually cost more than HK$200 (US$25).
The Hong Kong Social Security Society has stated that Hong Kong is a Third World city when it comes to wealth disparity and describes Hong Kong's social policies as weak.
Many Hong Kong people, including Christians, are either caught up in the search for satisfaction and security through economic advancement or preoccupied with the struggle to make ends meet. While some ministries are leading the way in ministry with the poor, the wider Hong Kong church has yet to become involved.
[Back to Please Pray for Hong Kong]
1. May the Hong Kong church have God's compassion for the poor and underprivileged.
[Psalm 82]
[John 6:1-13]
2. May the Lord have mercy on the people of Hong Kong and bring us to repentance over our greed (idolatry).
[Colossians 3:5]
[Acts 17:29-31
[Acts 3:19]
3. May Christians truly make Jesus Christ our Lord and King by putting him and his kingdom first.
[Matthew 6:24]
[Matthew 6:33-34]
[Matthew 7:21-23]
4. May Christians move out in action, caring for the poor and needy.
[Isaiah 58:5-12]
[Luke 14:13-14]
[James 1:27]
[Acts 20:32-35]
Thank you for praying for Hong Kong.
Quick Scripture Reference Psalm 82
GOD standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
John 6:1-13
AFTER these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peters brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
Colossians 3:5
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.....
Acts 17:29-31
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and mans device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Acts 3:19
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.....
Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:33-34
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matthew 7:21-23
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Isaiah 58:5-12
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? 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? 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? 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. 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; 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: 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. 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.
Luke 14:13-14
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Acts 20:32-35
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
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