HONG KONG (Mennonite Mission Network) — Nora Iwarat (right), a mission worker at the Cheung Chau Christian Center in Hong Kong, accepted ordination from the Integrated Mennonite Conference of the Philippines just weeks before being named lead pastor for All Nations Mennonite Church.

At CCCC, Iwarat works with Mey Idawaty Aruan, a mission worker through PIPKA, the mission arm of the Indonesian Mennonite Church, and a mission worker from England, running a friendship ministry to immigrant women who serve as domestic workers on Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau Island.

On May 18, Iwarat became lead pastor at All Nations Mennonite Church in Hong Kong, which she helped begin alongside Idawaty and Andy Wade (left, in photo). Richard Rancap, Iwarat’s pastor in the Philippines, attended the May 18 transitional worship service on Cheung Chau Island.

“(God) has been so gracious to me these past years while in Hong Kong,” Iwarat said. “I know God is with me, and I am willing to step forward. Thanks to him, the source of strength and wisdom and power.”

Wade, who works with his wife, Susan, in Hong Kong through Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church Canada Witness, attended Iwarat’s ordination in mid-April in Manila, Philippines. Wade said after hearing Iwarat’s statement of faith and intention, Philippine leaders asked both Wade and Iwarat’s mother, Patricia, questions about Iwarat’s commitment and calling, as well as questioning the delegates present for the churchwide conference.

“It really demonstrated that a person’s calling into pastoral ministry is not their own but is held in the community and the family,” Wade said.

The Wade family and other North American Mennonite workers will leave Hong Kong this summer, completing the process of handing over control of churches and mission outreaches to local and regional leaders.

Cheung Chau Christian Center, a sister-ministry with the Conference of Mennonite Churches in Hong Kong, is supported by Mennonite Mission Network, Eastern Mennonite Missions, Integrated Mennonite Church of the Philippines, PIPKA, and the Dutch Mennonite Mission of the Netherlands.