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On the third day of the Year of the Dog, several EdUHK students and alumni attended the annual Thanksgiving Day organized by the Christian Zheng Sheng Association. After more than an hour’s ferry ride from Tsim Sha Tsui, we arrived Christian Zheng Sheng College at Chi Ma Wan Peninsula on Lantau. Although the poor condition of the classrooms, dormitories, kitchen and assembly hall built along the slope made us surprised, the warm reception by Zheng Sheng students was really remarkable.
This is a rehabilitation boarding school registered as a private secondary school and receives adolescents who are either voluntarily admitted or sentenced by the courts. Students need to stay in the college for at least two years because of various types of deviant behaviors such as gang-fighting, drug abuse, drug trafficking, triad activities, prostitution and theft. The College aims to correct students’ values of life through role model of teachers as well as disciplined life backed up by values of Christian faith. Formal academic study and vocational training are provided. It is their deep conviction that life fails only if one gives up and no one should be abandoned. This motto not only affects Zheng Sheng students deeply, but also benefits our EdUHK visitors a lot.
The students we met and talked with are all courteous. We could hardly imagine they had committed serious crimes or they had even been in jails several times.
This visit laid challenge to us whether we truly believe that people have the potential to change. We found miracles that the Christian incarnation model of life education has touched the group of young people who have lost their way. They are moved by the sacrifice of the teachers and staff there and willing to undergo a long journey of life transformation.
As our EdUHK students waved to say goodbye to the Zheng Sheng boarders on shore, I knew that our students, as future teachers, had learned a valuable lesson. A teacher's strong beliefs can affect students’ life very much and miracles can always happen.
Servant pastor
Rev. Benedict Shum
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