The beginning – 1975
The Cardiff Chinese Christian Church started as a small students’ Bible study group in 1975. Initially, there were 5 or 6 people. Tom Lee from Singapore and Patrick Lee from Hong Kong were the main leaders, and they met at a student hall of residence every other Friday. Auntie Esme, an ex-ballerina and lone evangelist, joined later that year. We started our own Sunday afternoon service in 1977.
Early blessings – 1975-1983
The students’ fellowship continued to grow, and the Lord blessed us with good leaders. The first few chairpersons were solid Christians with many going on to become pastors, missionaries or lecturers in a Bible college.
The post-war period in Hong Kong was difficult, and many citizens, especially those in rural areas, emigrated to the United Kingdom. The church organised regular visitations and gospel meetings to reach out to them. In 1978, we started the Chinese school through which we have had regular contact with unbelievers. Vietnamese refugees started to arrive in Cardiff, and we started our Cantonese service.
At this time, the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission (COCM) were sending workers to the various young Chinese Christian churches to support their ministries, allocating retired OMF missionaries to different churches. Hence, Annette Harris came to our church in 1980, at the age of 67. Fluent in Mandarin, she was a faithful servant of God and a woman of prayer. She stayed with our church for 17 years before moving to the OMF retirement home. At her farewell service in 1997, she shared her regret that she had not made an effort to learn Cantonese. I was shocked to hear that, for who would expect a 67-year-old to learn a new language? Annette showed us that you are never too old to learn and serve.
Years of Turmoil – 1984-1988
Almost inevitably, be it in the life of a Christian or a church, early blessings are often followed by a period of trial. Our church is interdenominational. We were not a planted church from a denomination, and we didn’t have a full-time minister. The turnover rate is high, especially among the student population, so we welcome Christians from different backgrounds and denominations to join us. However, such a setup, together with the flaws in human nature, is something that Satan can easily exploit.
During this period, problems arose between the Cantonese and English sections of the church, debates between Calvinism and Arminianism, different modes of worship, evangelism and types of leadership. In fact, almost everything became an issue.
Our church often laments the fact that we cannot keep many of our mature Christians, as most of them will return to their home country after a brief period of work or study. Yet this also saves our church from division, as by the end of the 1980s most of the protagonists in the various debates had moved on.
A renewed vision – 1989-1995
Of course, whatever the cause of disagreement, the ultimate result is always a stagnation or even a reversal of the gospel ministry. Thankfully, in 1989, Jimmy Ng became the chairman of our church, and the church had a renewed vision. In 1990, we revised the constitution, registered as a charity, raised sufficient funds to purchase a house as a manse and started actively looking for a full-time minister. Pastor Sam Wong and his family arrived in Cardiff in August 1991.
We had no permanent home, meeting in various places over the years. In 1995, we were meeting at a college which suddenly became unavailable, but within months, we were able to purchase what was then the Llandaff Road Baptist Church. Surely God prepares the solution before we have our problem!
Maturing as a church – 1995-2020
Pastor Dick Lee served at our church between 1998 and 2002, and we started an English service in 2000. In the 2000s, there was a large influx of students, scholars, professionals and workers from mainland China. They were very open to the gospel, and many professed faith. We started our Mandarin service in 2005.
With the expansion of our church, we needed more space. In 2010, we had the opportunity to purchase a property opposite our church, the Canton Labour Club. Our Mandarin and English services moved to the new site. We appointed Rev. Peter Lee as our English minister in 2014 and Rev. Chian Hong Tan as our Mandarin minister in 2015.
Current blessings
Cantonese section
The UK returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, and there has been political unrest since, which came to a head around 2020. Many citizens of Hong Kong decided to emigrate to the UK. Chinese churches, especially those in major cities, have seen a significant increase in congregation sizes. The Cantonese section of our church has tripled in size, and has a congregation of about 300, of which about 60 are young people aged 11-18. Some of our Cantonese members came to the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Some are high school and university students, and we have a few young families who have settled in Cardiff after graduating. We have various Bible study, fellowship and outreach groups to meet the needs of our members and non-Christians from different backgrounds. We still run a Sunday afternoon Cantonese Chinese school and Bible class and have about 70 pupils, a significant number of whom are from non-Christian families.
Mandarin section
The Mandarin section consists of members who originate from China or Malaysia. There are about 200 people at our Sunday service, of which about 100 are under 18. The Mandarin section runs a Mandarin Chinese school and Bible class with about 100 children and young people attending. They also run a Boys and Girls Brigade with 40 young people attending. They have been on mission trips to Malaysia, and several of them confirmed their faith in baptism in the last couple of years.
English section
The English section consists mostly of second and third-generation British-born Chinese and those who came from Malaysia to work or study. A reasonable proportion are young working adults and students, so the turnover rate tends to be high. In the last few years, several new Hong Kong immigrant families have joined our English Section. Currently, the congregation size is about 80. As part of the afternoon Chinese school and Bible class, we have a youth group with about 30 young people, and most of them are from non-Christian families.
We would value your prayers. Please pray for the leadership teams – the pastoral team and the Church Council, that we might be given wisdom, faith and unity, and to walk humbly before God. There are a number of needs in our various areas of ministry, but pray that our church might be a church of prayer, as Charles Wesley said:
Of all thy gifts we ask but one,
We ask the constant power to pray;
Indulge us, Lord, in this request,
Thou canst not then deny the rest.
To close, I would like to quote this hymn by Joseph Hart:
How good is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable friend!
His love is as great as his power,
And knows neither measure nor end!
‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
We’ll praise him for all that is past,
And trust him for all that’s to come.
Soli Deo Gloria!
