Dr. Patrick Fung
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OMF International (formerly the China Inland Mission) has announced that Dr. Patrick Fung will become the tenth general director of the mission. Dr. Fung, a Chinese Christian, is the first Asian to lead the ministry, and succeeds the Rev. Dr. David Harley, who served as general director since 2001.
Dr. Fung became a Christian while a medical student in Sydney, Australia. He was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and served as a doctor in Hong Kong specializing in internal medicine. He later received a diploma in Christian studies from the China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong and a masters degree in missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary.
He and his wife Jennie, a consultant gynecologist, joined OMF International in 1989 and began working within the Muslim context. In 1996 Fung was appointed director of OMF Hong Kong. This role included mobilizing students and graduates for mission and training church congregations, particularly Chinese churches, for the role they can play. In 2001 Fung was appointed OMF's international director for mobilization. He is currently based in Singapore.
Dr. James Hudson Taylor III, the seventh general director of OMF and great-grandson of its founder, said, “In the providence of our sovereign God, it is marvelous to see his hand raising up within OMF a godly leader from the Chinese church. One hundred and forty years ago God brought the China Inland Mission into being to share the gospel with the unreached peoples of China. Now, coming full circle, [God is raising up] a leader from a vibrant, mission-minded Chinese church and OMF [is taking] a step in global partnership in world evangelization.”
The goal of OMF International is to glorify God through the urgent evangelization of East Asia's peoples. OMF currently has around 1,100 workers from more than twenty-five countries.
The Fungs have two children, Elaine and Samuel.
This article is edited from an OMF International, http://www.omf.org/, press release.