by Liz Hogarth
As the SARS epidemic raged in parts of Asia earlier this year, the Rev Irene Mok, currently a deacon in Parramatta, felt God calling her to work where the disease had one of its strongest footholds, Hong Kong.
It is a testament to God’s powerful call on her life that she finally accepted the position as School Chaplain at St Paul’s College last May, long before the World Health Organisation withdrew its warning not to travel.
“I felt that if that is how God guides me, then he is the driver,” she says of her decision. “I think the safest place you can be is where God wants you to be.”
Irene, who was born in Hong Kong 51 years ago, is looking forward to sharing her faith with the 1300 teenage boys who will fall within her spiritual remit. “I hope to share with the youth and influence them in their beliefs,” she says. “But on the weekends I also hope to help out at one of the [local] churches.
Currently one of the ministry team at St John’s, Parramatta, she is in charge of two congregations which cater for the town’s growing Chinese population. One speaks Cantonese, the other Mandarin. Her ability to speak both languages, along with her gifts as an evangelist and church planter, makes her an invaluable asset.
“What the Diocese is doing and the Mission, my heart warms to it,’ she says. “Since the early 90s we have been trying to build more Chinese congregations and now we have around 17.”
The move is the fulfilment of a long held desire to return to Hong Kong and China. She left the former colony in the early 70s to study overseas and will therefore return to a province that has exchanged British for Chinese rule.
Irene became a Christian shortly before she left Hong Kong to study medical science in London.
“I went to an evangelistic meeting where I had a personal encounter with God,” she says. “I remember praying on the plane that I would be able to know more about God and go to church.”
She migrated to Australia in 1978 and decided, after a year working in Westmead hospital, to study at Deaconess House (now Mary Andrews College).
Her studies completed she started work as a church planter in the parish of Cabramatta and hasn’t looked back since. “I want to thank God and the diocese for giving me the wonderful opportunity to work here and see so many Chinese congregations being established,” she says. “God has blessed the work tremendously.”
Her Bishop, Ivan Lee says: “I have known Irene for about 20 years and throughout that whole time I have always been impressed with her passion for evangelism and her heart for lost people who are without Christ and without hope in the world.
“There are very few church planters and evangelists among us, and Irene will be a huge loss, not only for the Western Region, but for the whole Diocese.”
