Grantee Organization: Ambassadors for Christ

Fund Type: Project-based Fund

3-year Granting Plan: 

Table 8: Bedrock Foundation’s 3-year Granting Plan to The Ambassadors for Christ

Grantee Organization Introduction

Ambassadors for Christ (AFC) is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and focuses on reaching Chinese intellectuals for Christ. 

AFC is called by God, in cooperation with local churches, to evangelize and disciple Chinese students and professionals in the United States and other parts of the world, to motivate and equip them to impact the culture for the Lord, and to mobilize and channel them into the service of Christ as a vital force for God’s Kingdom.

Like so many powerful Christian ministries, Ambassadors for Christ began as a meeting of concerned people. In 1956 Rev. Moses Chow and Ted, and Leona Choy met with Christiana Tsai, the “Queen of the Dark Chamber” in Paradise, PA. The Choys, who worked at that time with International Students Inc., invited Rev. Chow to participate in an upcoming Chinese Bible Study. The event gave birth to ongoing activities, including the initial publication of Ambassadors Magazine in October 1957. Chinese student ministries gained in urgency, and after much prayer for guidance from the LORD, Rev. Chow and the Choys founded Ambassadors for Christ on May 6, 1963.

In 1969 Rev. Moses Chow became Executive Director of Ambassadors for Christ. Under his leadership, AFC continued outreach to students and Chinese Bible Study Groups. In addition, outreach was launched directly into Europe and Asia via funding and short-term mission projects. On June 15, 1974 AFC Headquarters relocated from Washington DC to Paradise, PA, the property having been donated to AFC as a faith step by Christiana Tsai and Mary Leaman in 1966. Over the years, the facility has expanded to accommodate the growing Mainland Chinese Literature and AFC Bookstore operations. In addition, the Christiana Tsai Retreat Center, located in the farmhouse at the same location, has been continuously updated to house seminars, workshops, and retreats. 

The following decade saw God’s continued blessings on AFC’s ministries. Ambassadors Magazine began more frequent bi-monthly publication. In 1977 Rev. Hoy Him Chan, became Executive Director when Rev. Moses Chow pursued missionary work in Southeast Asia. Under Rev. Chan’s leadership, the first Directory of Chinese churches, Bible Study Groups, and Organizations in North America was published in 1980. Also, during this period, the Ambassadors for Christ Bookstore was established.

In 1983 Rev. David Chow was affirmed as Executive Director. That December, Chinese Mission ’83, the first triennial Chinese Mission Convention, was held in Washington DC. Under Rev. David Chow’s leadership, the Mainland Chinese Ministry Department was established in 1985.

During the following years, AFC focused on establishing campus ministries all across the U.S. in cities such as Dallas, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In addition, the Chinese Christian Faculty Network is establishing relationships between College and University professors to coordinate outreach ministries to students in a much wider sphere of influence.

Recently, Ambassadors for Christ has launched into such forward reaching ministries as the development of a training and discipleship ministry, ministry in Europe, and a Chinese Mission Convention on the US West Coast and in the South (Houston, TX).

In years to come, the focus is sharpening upon ministry opportunities based in Europe and increasing influence in university campuses around the US. 

AFC Official Website: https://www.afcinc.org/en-us

Grantee Project Introduction

The Bedrock Foundation plans to provide three gifts in the total amount of 300,000 US dollars to AFC between 2021-2023 for AFC US Campus Project.

Figure 22 shows the primary location where Chinese students and scholars are located. States where AFC currently has active ministries include California, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Tennessee. 

Figure 22 Heat Map Population Density of Chinese Students and Scholars in the US

There are currently more than 60 project workers on campus, including part-time professors. Several of AFC campus ministry staff workers also provide family and marriage counseling.

AFC takes four modules of strategic initiatives to fulfill its mission, including Campus, Training, Mission and Literature. There are four major sub-projects included in the Campus project, including I-9095 Network, C.A.T.CH, B.I.C, and Morning Devotion, which support students and young teachers on their academic achievement, career development, and social development relationship, mental health, and Daily Life (Figure 23).

   Figure 23 Four Modules of AFC Strategic Initiatives 

Granting Description

Bedrock Foundation believes that religion is also one of the important forces of holistic humanities education in addition to modern subject education. Due to the neglect of humanistic education in China’s overall education system, when Chinese international students encounter life and academic pressures and cultural shocks during their study in the United States, they generally encounter problems with values, psychological and mental health, etc. The Bedrock Foundation believes that AFC may be one of the better funding targets to solve this problem.

On August 24th, Feng Dong, the founder of Bedrock Foundation, and Daofeng He, the founder of Daofeng and Angela Foundation, visited the AFC headquarters together to express their funding intentions （Figure 24）. The two parties also discussed the possibility of cooperation in the Bethel Series project. 

At present, the funding of AFC is still in the stage of intention negotiation, and the formal inspection process has not yet been initiated.

 Figure 24 Bedrock Foundation and Daofeng and Angela Foundation visited AFC on Aug. 24, 2021.