EMA staff have been working with underprivileged, abandoned young people and those with disabilities in China since 1994 when they first visited an orphanage in Central China and Southern China.
Through that experience, they saw many needs of the children and felt compelled to let them know the unconditional love of God. Over the subsequent 3 years they made many more short term trips to be an encouragement to those young people and to build deeper relationships with them.
In early 1998 they were given a vision to enable these underprivileged young people to learn of more of the world around them and to experience joy, love, comfort, friendship and receive encouragement that builds confidence.
In 1999 they were able to hold their first activity for 15 children from Southern China Although this was a small beginning the impact on those 15 young people was immense.
It proved to be a glimpse of the vision that lay before them.
Since then the number of activities has grown each year with opportunities to reach more children in both Central China and Southern China. In January 2005, EMA was registered as a Hong Kong charity with the intention of reaching more children in China.
In 2006 it also registered as a Charity in the United Kingdom.
This is only the beginning of the story as the team continues to press on towards the vision of building a dedicated inclusive activity centre for many more young people to be able to take part in like changing experiences.
This centre will enable a greater variety of activities and establish vocational training opportunities.
It will also be used to train teams of local staff so they can be better equipped to reach out to a wider network applying similar programmes.
The EMA logo is literally the Chinese character for life (ming). This individual character encapsulates a wealth of meanings including life, destiny, vitality, decree or heaven's mandate, among others. It represents to us the diverse opportunities we seek to provide for each camper to experience the vast measure of life to the full, just as every one of us was created to have in Christ Jesus.
The red signifies the heart of Christ being at the centre of EMA and the entire ministry, while the yellow represents an invitation to each one to soar on wings of eagles and rise to greater heights.
As a whole, the image also illustrates a person standing by a mountain. While this implies the nature of our work as being adventurous, it also serves as a constant reminder of God's love and faithfulness to the campers, regardless of abilities.