(From The Quarterly, July, 2007)

My name is M. C. Leung. I came to the United States in 1974 at the age of twenty, just in time to go to college, which I never had the opportunity in Hong Kong.

I was married to my sweet wife before I graduated from a college in Illinois and earned my engineering degree. We came to Fort Worth, Texas in 1981, where I worked for General Dynamics in the F-16 fighter plane project as a propulsion engineer. In nine months, we bought our first house and in the next four years, our two sons were born. I completed my American dream in less than ten years. I am now fifty some years old and have been retired for almost 7 years. It was a good “dream came true”, especially for a foreign immigrant like me.

I met Jesus when I was in a winter camp for Chinese students in Whitewater, Wisconsin, 1975. My wife and I were baptized on the same day in a Chinese Church in Chicago before coming to Texas. After arriving, we joined a Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX in 1981, and served in the same church until now.

After working as volunteer administrator for two and half years in our church during the pastor office was vacant, I went to China in 2001 and started discipleship training center in various locations as an outreach program for our church. With the experience of working with a Chinese underground church, God started installing a vision in my mind: a Bible school in the capital of a poor province with sound structure and a good management system. There was no Bible school in the whole province at all including the officially recognized churches. This vision became clearer and more obvious. However, I never had any formal theological training, not to mention that I did not have a graduate degree from a seminary; how could a person start a Bible college with a background like me? Incomprehensively, the feeling of building a Bible school continued to become stronger and stronger in my heart and I just could not stop of thinking towards that direction. The need of a Bible school in this area was so real, and I knew that it was what God wanted me to do. So, I prayed to Him and asked for a co-worker with a strong academic background in theological teaching. In the meantime, I went to Hong Kong and talked to one of the seminaries and told them my plan of a Bible school and the need of curriculum. I began the Bible school with only one class. I recruited teachers from local churches and let them teach the fundamental courses that they could handle. For those courses that they could not handle, I recruited Chinese ministers in the United States and asked them to volunteer to teach our class in front of the camcorder. After converting the DV tape into video CD, I brought these lectures into China and let my students study in front of the TV with the video player connected to it.

Our fresh, newborn Bible school survived the first semester, lacking even in face-to-face teaching, and was ready for the second semester. One day, I found Rev. S. Chan in my phone book. I met him in a couple of pastor conferences when I was serving in my church as an administrator. I called him and asked him to teach a course for me. I shared with him about my vision and goal of the Bible School when I was recording his sixteen hours of teaching on the Book of Revelation. His heart fell in love with the Bible School. He believed that it was what he was waiting for. He had ministered in churches, worked with Para-church organizations, served as a staff in denomination conventions, and ministered in student ministries at local universities, but he seemed to not fit into, and did not find satisfaction, in any of these categories. With his undergraduate study in Bible colleges in Illinois, two graduated degrees and PhD candidate from a Seminary in Texas, he wondered why God had put him in studies in seminaries for over 13 years… but never heavily used it as a resource in his position. When this concept of teaching in a Bible School struck and woke him up, he was ready to join me in this mission project before the course he taught was over.

After reaching an agreement with my church, we formed a mission board named Apostrophe Mission Foundation (AMF) to manage and fund the Bible School and named it Apostrophe Bible College and Seminary (ABCS). Rev. Chan now is the vice president of the AMF and the president of the ABCS. I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors, President of the AMF and the Chief Executive Director of the ABCS. Today, we have ten members in the board of directors of AMF; they are deacons and ministers from different churches, director of Denomination Convention and professionals from DFW, Austin, Houston, and Okalahoma areas. All our directors and the two keys persons, Rev. Chan and myself, are volunteers and draw no salary from the organization. On top of that, all of us travel at our own expense, including trips to China. In February 2006, we obtained the 501(c)(3) approval from the IRS as a non-profit organization and all donations to the foundation are tax exempt.

Until this time, all our classes are in different apartments in different parts of the town. In August 2005, when I was looking for another apartment for our fourth class, God led me to a brand new three-story building which was perfect as a school, located in a concealed location. In order to put all these classes together under one roof, it would be suspicious to the public safety department and create tension to the local government. Therefore, we have a business as a cover. Last year, we moved into a 5-story building with a total of 80 full time students and about 500 corresponding students. In the seven classes, the highest grade is in their fourth year.

The curriculum consists of 192 credit hours in which the first 48 hours are in high school level, the second 48 hours are in Junior College level and the last 96 hours will complete the bachelor degree. 90% of our students are middle school graduates, 5% below middle school and 5% above middle school. They all have decided to serve the Lord for the rest of their lives. They come from the poor rural and mountainous areas and most of them are children of ministers who received no pay from their churches. We do not charge tuition or room and board; we furnish everything for them, from three meals a day to toothbrush and pencils. The only thing we required them to bring with them is their own Bibles.

If we equip our students but give them no battlefield, it would be wasting our time and theirs as well. To provide practical training we now have a new vision. Apostrophe Mission Ministry (AMM) has prepared our first mission team. We want to send more students to the field, but we just don’t have the budget. Our short-term goal is to give more opportunities to our graduates so they can plant their own church in the northwest part of China, where the Muslim population is the majority. To do that, we want to open up businesses such as stationary stores, bookstores, and even English teaching centers with American teachers. These businesses shall give a platform to our students as workers and to evangelize. I believe that with the help of the American Churches, with their provision of English teachers and financial support, our students can evangelize the customers of the businesses and the students who come to learn English. Our mid-term goal is to build a new campus in the northwest part of China, where there is a large Chinese Muslim population. Our long-term goal is to send our students to the Muslim world and evangelize the lost souls in these countries. Before we start this major step, we want to first evangelize our Chinese Muslims in the northwestern part of China, and then train these new Christians who have Muslim backgrounds. When they are ready, China will become a mission country that sends well-trained missionaries to the Muslim world.

Thank you for allowing me to share my testimony and the vision of AMF. Please remember us in your prayers and support our ministry. Thanks again! And may our Lord richly bless you, your family, and your church.

(Due to security reasons, some personal information has been blocked intentionally. M. C. Leung is the Founder and Chairman of Board of AMF)