A Brief History of

The Orlando Mission

            It was the practice of Senior Pastor Kwong-Wah Lau of The Chinese Baptist Church of Miami to propose a five-year plan to the church at every 5-year interval. In his proposal given in 1990, Pastor Lau encouraged the church to institute a mission church in Orlando within 5 years. Such a proposal met with the full support of Deacon Yu, the Mission Department chairman, as well as the entire church. Consequently, on the Thanksgiving weekend of 1995, Pastor Lau led a short-mission team to hold the first Sunday worship service and an evangelistic meeting in Orlando. The location was Deacon Yu’s Southeastern Foods branch office in Orlando. Over 70 people attended. Key workers included Pastor and Mrs. Lau, Deacon and Mrs. Stanley Yu, Music Department Head, Antonio Ngo and Mrs. Ngo, the church choir, sister Bonnie Ma, and others.

            Some of the earliest attendees who became the first group of workers for the Orlando Mission included Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Kwan, Mr. and Mrs. Chia Kuei Chung, and sister Jesse Chow. Later on, Rev. Hing Yue joined us in our ministry. Rev. Yue also helped us to find a new place for worship at the College Park Baptist Church. We rented one of their Sunday school classrooms.

            At this new location, the mother church and Coral Springs Mission jointly held a gospel drama outreach meeting – Life and Death. Following that, more brothers and sisters joined our ministry, and gave birth to a more organized workers committee. The second group of workers was appointed by Pastor Lau. They included Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Kwan, Mr. and Mrs. Chia Kuei Chung, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Li, Mr. and Mrs. Chi-Wing Ng, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lo. About the same time, under the approval of the mother church, Rev. Hing Yue was called to be our Orlando Mission part-time minister. After two years, Rev. Yue resigned due to his busy schedule. Providentially, brother Linus Lau received God’s calling to become a servant of the Lord, and began his seminary training. So Pastor Lau assigned brother Lau to go to Orlando Mission twice a month, to help with the ministry of preaching and counseling. Pastor Lau also suggested the mother church to appoint sister Lily Li as Orlando’s volunteer minister.

           After Pastor Lau’s retirement from ministry, the Orlando Mission moved to their current location (741 N. Mills Ave.) for worship services. The Council and Workers Meetings will be led by the mother church’s deacon board, while the workers have been elected by the Orlando Mission congregation. The current workers include sister Lily Li, brother Patrick Li, brother Nigel Chan, brother Jerry Hu, and Sister Shuk-Yi Ng. After brother Linus Lau’s ordination as pastor, he held the post of counseling pastor for the Orlando Mission, until the constitution of the Coral Springs Mission as a church.

The Orlando Mission website is maintained by brother Edwin Lim, assisted by brother Gene Li.