Bible Smuggling
PostPosted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:38 pm
Well, I suppose this might be a good time to write a thing or two about what God did this summer.
During this semester of Bible College, there was a group started that met weekly called "missions fellowship," where students would get together and talk about missions: the needs of foreign countries, how to pray for them and what God is doing. I had the feeling that I should be going, but I didn't start to go right away.
The semester before that, I was spending some time in prayer and God was putting China on my heart. I wouldn't have been thinking about it so much, except my sister-in-law's brother and his wife are missionaries there. I felt as if God was somehow calling me to China.
Last semester, China was further pressed on my heart as I read "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret." Hudson Taylor is a vessel that God used to spread the gospel in China and a large amount of Christians are related to people who were witnessed to by Hudson Taylor in the old days.
So, back to missions fellowship. I heard one morning in the anouncements that someone was going to give a testimony about China in missions fellowship. Since it was about China, I went without hesitation. A man's wife gave her testimony about a mission trip where they smuggled Bibles from Hong Kong into China. After the testimony, the man invited me to go on a trip that they were going on during the summer to smuggle Bibles. Excited, I agreed to go. I learned later that they had been praying that God would send whoever else that was supposed to go on the trip before I came.
So I went. It was amazing. It was such an awesome opportunity! It's an opportunity for nearly everyone. It's completely safe for anyone to do it except for the Chinese. A Chinese person caught trying to smuggle Bibles would be arrested, beaten, tortured or possibly killed. This is why we go.
The Chinese people need the word of God. The production and distribution of Bibles is completly under the government's control. The only legal church in China are the churches that are under the control of the government. This makes it extremely hard for anyone who is part of the underground church to get Bibles. The government's church outlaws the teaching of certain books of the Bible and there are many other restrictions placed on "legal Christianity." Because of this, the real work of God that is going on in China is happening in the underground church movement. These churches need Bibles. You can't just go to a government church and ask for the great number of Bibles that the Chinese people need. They must be brought in. The people that have these Bibles delivered to them are getting a Bible for the first time.
As I was crossing the border, I was definately not as nervous as I thought I would be, but this was to my disadvantage. I had kind of a "whatever happens, happens," attitude about getting across and wasn't so serious about my prayers. I might have prayed something like "God, if it's Your will, please get me across, but I know that if I get stopped, it's okay." The first week of crossings was terrible. We were getting stopped extremely often. One day, after our group was frustrated, our leader encouraged us to pray and to have faith. After this I realized that I wasn't praying fervently. I was praying as if it didn't matter at all if God's word got accross that border, but it does... it does so much. My prayers changed to something like, "God, please grant me the grace to get across this border to bless Your people with Your word!" We had tremendous success after that.
However, the last week, I took ill. I came down with a high fever and was sick in bed for 8 days. It was then that God essentialy told me, "Now, be fervent in Your prayers." He spoke to me and said that even though I can't see what's going on and even though I may not be able to be part of what's going on, I have to labor in my prayers to the same intensity. This is true with us here in America. We should always remember to pray for what we can't see, whether it's work for the kingdom of God oversees or whether it's the unseen spiritual battle going on all around us.
Well, despite the length, I hope you were blessed. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate your prayers for those of you who might have remembered me, even though I often leave for long periods of time.
During this semester of Bible College, there was a group started that met weekly called "missions fellowship," where students would get together and talk about missions: the needs of foreign countries, how to pray for them and what God is doing. I had the feeling that I should be going, but I didn't start to go right away.
The semester before that, I was spending some time in prayer and God was putting China on my heart. I wouldn't have been thinking about it so much, except my sister-in-law's brother and his wife are missionaries there. I felt as if God was somehow calling me to China.
Last semester, China was further pressed on my heart as I read "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret." Hudson Taylor is a vessel that God used to spread the gospel in China and a large amount of Christians are related to people who were witnessed to by Hudson Taylor in the old days.
So, back to missions fellowship. I heard one morning in the anouncements that someone was going to give a testimony about China in missions fellowship. Since it was about China, I went without hesitation. A man's wife gave her testimony about a mission trip where they smuggled Bibles from Hong Kong into China. After the testimony, the man invited me to go on a trip that they were going on during the summer to smuggle Bibles. Excited, I agreed to go. I learned later that they had been praying that God would send whoever else that was supposed to go on the trip before I came.
So I went. It was amazing. It was such an awesome opportunity! It's an opportunity for nearly everyone. It's completely safe for anyone to do it except for the Chinese. A Chinese person caught trying to smuggle Bibles would be arrested, beaten, tortured or possibly killed. This is why we go.
The Chinese people need the word of God. The production and distribution of Bibles is completly under the government's control. The only legal church in China are the churches that are under the control of the government. This makes it extremely hard for anyone who is part of the underground church to get Bibles. The government's church outlaws the teaching of certain books of the Bible and there are many other restrictions placed on "legal Christianity." Because of this, the real work of God that is going on in China is happening in the underground church movement. These churches need Bibles. You can't just go to a government church and ask for the great number of Bibles that the Chinese people need. They must be brought in. The people that have these Bibles delivered to them are getting a Bible for the first time.
As I was crossing the border, I was definately not as nervous as I thought I would be, but this was to my disadvantage. I had kind of a "whatever happens, happens," attitude about getting across and wasn't so serious about my prayers. I might have prayed something like "God, if it's Your will, please get me across, but I know that if I get stopped, it's okay." The first week of crossings was terrible. We were getting stopped extremely often. One day, after our group was frustrated, our leader encouraged us to pray and to have faith. After this I realized that I wasn't praying fervently. I was praying as if it didn't matter at all if God's word got accross that border, but it does... it does so much. My prayers changed to something like, "God, please grant me the grace to get across this border to bless Your people with Your word!" We had tremendous success after that.
However, the last week, I took ill. I came down with a high fever and was sick in bed for 8 days. It was then that God essentialy told me, "Now, be fervent in Your prayers." He spoke to me and said that even though I can't see what's going on and even though I may not be able to be part of what's going on, I have to labor in my prayers to the same intensity. This is true with us here in America. We should always remember to pray for what we can't see, whether it's work for the kingdom of God oversees or whether it's the unseen spiritual battle going on all around us.
Well, despite the length, I hope you were blessed. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate your prayers for those of you who might have remembered me, even though I often leave for long periods of time.
). The smuggling took place behind the Iron Curtain. It didn't know stuff like that still happened... wow!
