As many of you know, in China, Christians are persecuted
pretty heavily for their faith. If a Chinese person desires to buy a Bible in
China, they are put on a government list and kept track of closely. It is
illegal for them to bring any Christian material into the country unless it is
in Mandarin and, even so, they are limited to a small amount of literature they
can bring back to China.
Many Chinese families come to Pattaya between November and
March for vacation and for the Chinese New Year. While a missionary team was
here several years ago, they found that these Chinese tourists were very open
to receiving Christian tracts and Bibles. So began a ministry
focused on getting Mandarin Bibles into the hands of as many Chinese people as possible.
So, 2 weeks ago, our team spent the day putting together Bible packets to hand
out to Chinese tourists in Pattaya. We went through box after box of newly
printed Bibles…opening them up, putting information in each one and packing
them back into boxes to take out to the Pattaya Pier.
It occurred to me while I was packing each Bible back into
the boxes that these Bibles would be literal life lines for some of the Chinese
population. I couldn’t help but get slightly emotional and pray for each Bible
as I put them away. They may be the only source of knowledge of the 1 true God
that these people will ever see. And I held the Power of life and death in my
hands. In those moments, I realized how much freedom I had in my life. Not only
governmental freedom, but freedom in Christ…freedom that could be given with
each word held in the books that passed quickly through my hands. I prayed…and
prayed…and stronger than ever before, I knew the love God had for these
people and I experienced the extent to which He wanted to reach out to them and
speak His truth.
We took a short break for the afternoon and met at the pier
to begin handing out the Bibles. I began, with Kelly, on a prayer walk along
the pier and ended the night personally handing out Bibles to so many of the
tourists. Some people refused to take them or even acknowledge us. But then
there were true seekers…those who were curious as to what we held in our hands
and took one, whether they were skeptical or not. Then there was another group
altogether…the ones who lit up as soon as they saw what we were handing to
them. The excitement shown all over their faces and the joy overcame their
demeanor. Some came back for more Bibles while others continued coming back just
to thank us more and more. We watched some wives slap husbands and some
husbands slap wives as their spouse took a Bible in hand.
But more than anything, we handed out life to those who
wanted to take it. We may never see the
impact it makes in God’s harvest field,
but I trust that God is faithful and that His word does not return void. I’m
grateful to be able to hand off the word of our Living God to those who have
never heard the name of Jesus. I’m excited to one day step foot in Heaven and
hear the stories about how this ministry changed lives, brought about freedom
and provided hope and life to so many!
