An international mission organization, formerly known as the China Inland Mission, announced that Dr. Patrick Fung would become its tenth general director.
Fung, a Chinese Christian, was the first Asian appointed to lead the ministry. He succeeded the general director who had served in the role since 2001.
Fung became a Christian while studying medicine in Sydney, Australia. He was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, and worked as a doctor in Hong Kong with a specialization in internal medicine. He later completed a diploma in Christian studies at a graduate school of theology in Hong Kong and a master’s degree in missiology at a theological seminary.
He joined the organization in 1989 and began serving in a Muslim context. In 1996, he was appointed director of its Hong Kong work. That responsibility included mobilizing students and graduates for mission and helping church congregations—particularly Chinese churches—consider the part they could play. In 2001, he became the organization’s international director for mobilization and was subsequently based in Singapore.
The appointment was described by the organization’s seventh general director as an important step in global partnership. He connected the transition with the mission’s nineteenth-century beginnings in China and with the growth of a vibrant, mission-minded Chinese church.
At the time of the report, the organization stated that its purpose was the evangelization of East Asia’s peoples. The 2006 press material reported a workforce of approximately 1,100 people from more than twenty-five countries.