A mission field of 28,000 for one person is a difficult ratio in anyone's language. It is even more difficult when that language is Mandarin.
But Hooi Wan Cheng, the minister of the St Peter's, Hornsby Anglican Chinese Church is calling on Mandarin speaking Christians from across Sydney to help him reach out to the Chinese in Hornsby and in Sydney's Universities.
Mr Cheng's ministry to Mandarin speaking Chinese commenced at St Peter's in January this year. Although it started small, Mr Cheng says the ministry is going "very well'.
"I had four people at the first church service and now we have 40 plus. Last week we had 58 people," he says. "We have lots of visitors coming every week."
Two other effective ministries started by Mr Cheng have been a daytime playgroup and a Chinese language school.
"At the playgroup we have 20 kids. The grandparents bring them along then on Sunday have been coming to church."
"We also started a Chinese language school. We have 20 there and the majority are Chinese. I predict next year we will get more than 40 students. I need helpers for that," Mr Cheng says.
It is due to this influx of new people that Mr Cheng is calling for outside assistance.
"The church is very new with many non-believers and young Christians who have just come to know the Lord. I would like to start home Bible study groups and other ministries but I do not have the manpower to do so. We need more mature Christian Mandarin speaking adults to join the church for one or two years," he says.
Although many seniors and youth are coming into the church, Mr Cheng says the middle-aged population " the children of the seniors and the parents of the youth " are the ones hardest to reach.
"A lot of new migrants have to work weekends. That's the difficult part. Getting mature mandarin speaking Christians from other churches is the best way to reach these middle-aged people who aren't coming to church," he says.
Mr Cheng hopes that Mandarin speaking Chinese in Anglo churches will join him in his ministry, planting themselves in the congregation to assist as Bible study leaders and in other ministries where able.
"If I can get 10 or 15 in the middle-aged group, the ministry could grow very fast," he says.
