East Asia Update

UPDATE ON CHINA

Balancing Act
China watchers will tell you that anything that is said about China is true. The nation is so vast, her history so rich, and her populous so enormous that somewhere in China, anything is true! China is an ancient culture and a modern country. China is exceedingly progressive, but still harbors elements of extreme suppression. China has citizens of great wealth and many who are greatly impoverished. It's all true!


Acrobat
China can be compared to one of its gifted acrobats who can balance spinning objects on his forehead while contorting his body into extremely unlikely poses. Just when the observer thinks the performance cannot possibly be more intricate, then the acrobat flips backward or forward into another improbable position. Consider China's recent shooting down of its own satellite, its long silence afterwards, and finally, its denial that the action was related to an outer space arms race.

High Wire Artist
China is also like a high wire artist, walking a tight rope strung between its ancient past and its modern realities. Witness the ongoing debate by officials of Beijing's historic Forbidden City over whether the Starbucks shop located within its walls should be shut down. Observe the 80-year old women whose feet were cruelly bound in infancy hobbling along in the very country that will welcome world class runners of both genders to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Read of the 700 ancient tombs that were recently unearthed on present-day construction sites by those entrusted with erecting modern state-of-the-art Olympic venues.

Weight Lifter
China also bears similarities to a weight lifter. Already impacting the world's economy and influencing international politics, China is increasingly being referred to as the world's next super power. As it hoists heavy agendas front and center on the world stage, its muscle-flexing presses and lifts hold the rapt attention of much of the world.

Tipping the Scales
Hanging in the balance of China's intricacies is her most precious resource: her 1.3 billion people. With the rapid church growth in recent years, it is estimated that as many as 120 million may now be Christian. But that still leaves more than one billion who don't know Christ. With all of the incredible progress being experienced in China, salvation of her people remains her greatest need. Please join us in tipping the scales as we seek to reach China for Christ.

Praying for China
Pray that every man, woman, and child in China will have opportunity to hear of the Savior's love.
Pray that all who share Christ in China will do so in bold and effective ways.
Pray that many millions of new Chinese believers will enter the Kingdom this year.
Pray that Chinese leaders and influencers can be impacted by the gospel.
Go to: http://www.peopleofchina.net/to find out more about how to pray for China.

Quote From A Front Line Worker

"We are thankful to be a part of the harvest here. Another month has passed and
the Good News continues to spread. Recent follow-up activities in two areas have
been very fruitful. We have seen more people come to faith in both places. The
most exciting thing that we are seeing is simple child-like obedience to go and
tell others. It is neat to see their relationships come into the picture. These
areas are full of lost people. Family, friends, fellow villagers, and in reality
everyone they know is lost. Their testimony and sharing of the Good News is very
effective. The resources are indeed in the harvest. For the great things He is
doing we are ever giving thanks"

Good news from Ecuador and Guy Muse

The rest of the story -- some of our "unsung heroes"
I'd like to pick up on something I wrote in my previous post below about our very first group that we trained in church planting in response to the ten2b virus. Towards the end of the article I state...
To make a long story short, within eight weeks that unpromising group of believers had begun SIX NEW WORKS!!! Today seven years later, four of those still are active NT churches!I thought it might be interesting to share a bit about the "rest of the story" of these four unknown heroes of the faith who are out there making an impact on the lostness of their communities.

MANUELA. Is an older single mother who has a great pastoral heart. She never quite grasped the house church methods we taught, but did understand the part about evangelizing the lost around her community. Almost from the beginning she set out winning her lost neighbors to Christ. Everyday after work she hurries home, cooks supper for her kids and then rushes across the street to where the church she planted seven years ago continues to meet. The church meets 7 days/week and she never misses. Over the years Manuela carefully saved every extra dime she could and slowly began to remodel and expand the tiny building where they were meeting to be able to accomodate more people. With her own hands she has personally laid a cement foundation and built the walls and roof to, what is today, a modest temple for the growing group of believers she helps to shepherd.

CARLOS AND MARIA. Carlos was the man who showed up for the training in the previous post whose home burned to the ground leaving him, Maria and their children with nothing more than the clothes on their back. He slowly began going around the neighborhood collecting a board here and there, borrowing a sack of cement, receiving donations from neighbors, and with the help of the Lord rebuilt a semblance of a house for his family. From the very beginning both Carlos and Maria decided that they would use the ground floor for the church to gather. They themselves occupy the floor above the church for their personal use. Over the years this church meeting in their home has baptized dozens of people. They too meet seven days a week and are big on prayer, rising every morning around 4am to pray to the Lord. Recently they noticed a starving young boy wandering around their neighborhood. Carlos and Maria have never been able to find the child's parents (who apparently abandoned him to the streets) and have since taken him in as their own child. Yet another mouth to feed, and yet as they say, "The Lord always provides..."MARIANA. Mariana is another single mother advanced in years whose husband left her many years ago when he gave her the ultimatum of choosing between himself or the God she served. Mariana chose the Lord and her husband left never to come back. Every weekend Mariana travels out on a bus to Kilometer 16 outside of the city where she shepherds a small group of baptized believers won to the Lord through her witness. She has been faithfully going now every weekend for nearly seven years and considers it her calling. Mariana does not have a very high education but has managed to work her way through to the second level of the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program we offer our servant leaders.

VICENTE. Vicente's wife left him several years ago as an unstable drug addict. Vicente has done everything in his power to win his wife back, but to no avail. He continues to try to work full time, raise his children, and function as a missionary out in the neighboring provinces round Guayaquil. When Vicente came to us as a 2-month old believer he lied about the amount of time he had known the Lord, thinking we would not allow him in the training if we knew how young he was in the Lord! As he received the training, Vicente went out and promptly started meeting on the street with a group of prostitutes. He would bring them food and then sit out on the sidewalk with them and share with these ladies and their families how much God loved them. In another group he worked with, out in a dangerous part of the city, they would meet openly out on the street. One time one of my fellow IMB missionaries went to visit one of their "street services. " Suddenly a man began shooting a pistol at another person right near where they were meeting. Vicente calmly got up, went over to the guy shooting, and invited him to the sidewalk Bible study. My missionary colleague was quite upset and afraid to say the least, but not Vicente! Over the years Vicente has been used by the Lord to open many new works. For a two-year period he left all behind and felt called of God to go into the countryside to plant churches amongst the rural provincial people. There he started several works and with the help of his brother Felipe, still continue to this day to stay in contact with the believers there. Vicente feels a strong call to serve as a missionary. Right now he is a tent-making missionary supporting himself and his children while continuing to try and open works out in the provinces.Would you pause right now and pray for Manuela, Carlos and Maria, Mariana, and Vicente? All these live very difficult lives and yet are joyfully serving the Lord where He has planted them. Who knows, maybe God is calling YOU to plant a church in your community as well. If they can do it, why can't you?

News from the Big Country

The following is taken from reports from China (the Big Country) published by the IMB.

PREACHABLES Volume 79: February 8, 2007

CHINA. “See this is the Bible you gave me! I have read it many times over. The Lord has helped me plant new churches!” So exclaimed the Chinese man as he welcomed back to his city the house church trainer who had given him his first Bible six months earlier. He could hardly wait to tell the trainer that through the power of the Holy Spirit, he had since begun six new congregations. He and several dozen others in his training group baptized 1,000 new believers in 2006.

CHINA. Most of the members of a particular house church were elderly. Although they worshipped together regularly, they weren’t very evangelistic. They hadn’t added to their numbers in quite some time. One day their gathering was interrupted by authorities who made them promise never to meet together again. So they didn’t. Seven of their members went out and started seven new house churches! Those unfriendly to the gospel had inadvertantly catalyzed its spread.

CHINA. Last Thanksgiving a worker in China looked forward to hearing from all 14 of her family members. She knew that they would call her after their traditional Thanksgiving meal at her parents' house. But since China time is a half day ahead of U.S. time, she wasn't expecting the call until that evening. In the meantime, she eagerly joined in a Thanksgiving outreach to 30 lost Chinese friends. During a time of decision, 14 of them accepted Jesus. The young worker was touched to realize that the Father, who knew how much she missed her large family back home, had given her just as many new family members that very day.

CHINA. In his work as a health professional, the Chinese man heard a recovering patient singing. He made a point of talking with her and she invited him to church. He accepted Christ, became active in a house church, and later on even began to co-lead the group. When he heard a presentation on the importance of exponential church growth, he was inspired him to leave the house church to start new worship groups. Within four months time, he helped start five new house churches in a previously unreached area. What started with a song has grown into a chorus of congregations praising Him.