All praise to the Father for His provision and protection. The China missions trip went well and seeds were sown far and wide. Below are three notes from team members. The first two are from my sons, Caleb and Christian and the last is from this years team leader.
There are many stories I could share and will be happy to do so as we speak face to face. I have heard numerous stories of Yah's faithfulness in answering specific prayers that were lifted up in the States at the exact moment they were needed most. Friends waking up in the middle of the night or being strongly impressed to pray for us during the day just when we were facing a huge challenge is very common.
One night I and my son were caught and as we sat in the police station across from an officer who searched through our wallets I was (unknown to him) praying fervently that he would be distracted and not find the bundles of tracts we had in our vests. He sat looking at us after giving back our wallets and motioned for Christian to show him what was in his bulging pockets. It was obvious what he wanted but I told Christian to give him his passport again. The officer shook his head and patted his sides and motioned for Christian to empty his pockets. We just sat there and prayed that he would get distracted. He did and gave up the search.
A brother from N.Y. told me he was strongly impressed upon to pray for me during the same time and day that I and Christian were caught by the police an taken to the station. Who knew the great need we had at that moment but our loving and caring Father. He is faithful and it is He who wants to see the Gospel delivered to the lost sheep of China.
Thanks for your prayers and support.
From Caleb
We had a great time in China and were able to get all of our tracts and bibles out without any major hangups. My fellow subteam member was Nathan Tyler from Florida. For a while it looked as if it would be a miracle if we made it back to Beijing{the capitol} with the clothes on our backs so fast were we losing our posessions.
We had two very interesting nights over there and I will recount one of them here.
About 10:30 in the evening we arose and began to get ready for our nights work. Walking down to the lobby of our hotel we were stopped by some of the workers there and they would not let us out. We showed them in our phrasebooks that we would like to go out for a walk. After a while of arguing with them they finally agreed to let us out, but only with an escort. We were hoping he would lag behind and then we could lose him in some way. But he stayed right next to us so we decided to go back to the hotel and try to sneak out at a later hour when the employees were asleep. So about an hour later we again left our hotel room and tried to sneak out the main doors. There were too many people awake in the lobby to do so. We then spent about an hour trying to find some other way out, in the process of which we climbed out onto the roof and opened a few doors that we were not supposed to. After things settled down we went into the lobby but the doors were locked. There was no way out but through the lobby so we decided to try to check out about 4:30 in the morning and then get out our tracts. So at 4:30 we went down into the lobby making as much noise as we could to wake the workers. We yelled and shouted banged on all the doors that opened into the lobby but no one woke up. I went over to try the doors again and found that we probably could squeeze through even though they were locked. We were forced to remove our jackets to get through but we made it, only to be confronted with another set of doors. These were sliding doors with sensors like we have in the states but they were turned off for the night. We tried to pull them open but could only move them a few inches. On the wall in this outer lobby there was a panel with a row of switches and since there was nothing to lose, Nathan went over and began to switch them one by one. After going through several that turned on various lights in the lobby we heard a noise in the door. But even though we jumped up and down the door still would not open. Then we found there were two little boards holding it in place. After removing these, the door opened and out we went.
We got all of our tracts out and then returned to the hotel to pick up our luggage and check out. Right after we came through the first set of doors a LED light illuminated us from the balcony. The security guard came down the stairs and unlocked the door so we could get in. While he was doing so Nathan scrambled to turn off the security system. We could tell he was very perplexed as to how we got out there. After waking the other employees he kept motioning to the door and {we assumed} telling them where he found us. We were then able to check out and catch the first bus out of town.
From Christian
Thank you for the prayers and donations that were sent for the mission trip. We were blessed during the entire trip. We flew into Beijing and went to cities in three provinces. In one of the towns my Dad and I were picked up by the police and spent several hours in the station but none of the tracts were taken.
On the last day we went to an orphanage. We did some work there and were able to visit with some of the children which was fun. Everything went well with all of the sub teams. Over 63,000 tracts were distributed and according to the organization we worked with, from that many tracts there are usually about 9000 responses. Again, thank you for your prayers and support.
From another team member
Glory to God in the highest!
We have safely returned from our mission trip to China. For those of you who prayed for us, thank you! God used you powerfully.
Two Australian men joined up with our team of nine men (one was a fourteen-year-old boy who behaved like a man) from the U.S.A. to distribute over 63,000 Chinese Gospel tracts to homes. We strategically covered forty unreached towns and numerous villages. None of us got sick, hurt, lost, or arrested.
For tens of thousands of people, this was the first time that they have ever heard of or read the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, for thousands of years, most of their ancestors have never even had access to the Gospel. How many more years have to go by until the Church obeys the Great Commission and presents the Gospel to every person?
How many more millions will go to hell having never even had an evangelist preach a sermon or bring tracts to their neighborhoods?
Our host ministry estimates that they get up to one request for more information per seven tracts distributed. People use the contact information on the tracts to ask questions or express the need for a Bible. The unregistered Chinese churches then send materials in the mail and often evangelists contact interested people, supply them with Bibles, lead them to Christ, and plant new house churches. Even some members of the national government admit that there may be more than 100,000,000 Christians in China. So many people are very hungry for the Gospel over there! More people are coming to Christ annually in China than anywhere else in the world, in the history of Christianity. It is harvest time.
Is God calling you to go to China? Perhaps you could move over there, learn the language, and start making disciples.
My sub-team, the Revival Team, was walking up a dark street one night and saw some police ahead of us just as we crested a hill. They weren't looking for us, just conducting a checkpoint. We couldn't turn back, or they would know something fishy was up. If we kept walking toward them, it appeared that they would stop and search us - finding hundreds of tracts. There were no other pedestrians or vehicles around after midnight. It was early afternoon in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan at that very moment. A friend had an intense burden to intercede for us. He did so. While we were about forty yards from the police, two motorcycles come up the hill, passed us, and were stopped by the Communist police. While they searched and talked to those two guys, we walked by on the sidewalk without anyone paying attention to us. The next day, in another town, some other police came and knocked on our hotel door. Smiley and Smokey were just curious because foreigners rarely come through there. They left us alone after photocopying our passports. We saw police patrolling in cars that night, but they didn't see us as we got out over 2,000 tracts and covered most of the homes in that town.
One night, somebody was following us holding a tract that he had picked up. The Lord provided a taxi cab just before this person caught up to us.
The devil doesn't want China evangelized. Jesus does. The spiritual battle rages.
Since my first trip to assist the persecuted Church in China, I've been sickened how Americanized China is becoming. Chinese MTV plays on some of the buses. Some of the new billboards display people being very immodest. Saddest of all for me was seeing so many young Chinese women trying to dress, paint, and pierce themselves to look like American prostitutes instead of modest Asian ladies. The Chinese government is allowing the message of Hollywood to spread while still trying to stop the Gospel of Jesus Christ in most areas.
Lastly, we also delivered over 400 lbs. of Chinese study Bibles, apologetic teaching materials, and Bibles to the unregistered churches. Although some Bibles are printed and legally sold in China, the demand for them makes them merely a token amount. Although the Chinese Christians evangelize by passing out tracts, they are sometimes imprisoned, tortured, or killed when caught. The worst that has happened to Westerners caught with tracts is arrest and deportation.
[url=http://www.lifeandlibertyministries.com/archives/000367.php#more]Life and Liberty Ministries[/url] _________________ Dennis Green
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