DEAR FRIENDS,

I WANTED TO UPDATE YOU AS TO WHAT

HAS TRANSPIRED ON OUR RECENT
TRIP TO SE ASIA.
God used a man named Pastor Allen Yuan years ago to challenge
my life and inspire me to help the Chinese Church……I made a
promise to the Lord, after Allen’s challenge, that I would do
everything that I could to assist the Chinese Christians and bring
as many Bibles as I can to help them.
Our first stop was Vietnam, where we have been coming for
over 17 years, carrying Bibles, flannel graphs and discipleship
materials. Our team of four flew in with several hundred
Hmong Study Bibles. One of the team members was stopped,
but after we talked with them, the head Customs officer came
over and told us we could go with the Bibles.
Our contact and his grandson met us at the airport and then
we went to the contact's house to unload the Bibles. The
contact and his wife have 20 Bible students living in their
house and so they all helped us to unpack the duffels. They
were grateful for the Bibles and even more so for the
fellowship. When asked if any had suffered for their faith,
everyone raised their hand. One said they had spent three
days in jail, all have been questioned by the police and
harassed, and one Pastor has even received over 100
summons to the police station. Persecution and opposition is
an everyday experience in their lives.
After returning to Bangkok to pack Bibles, I sensed that we
should call the Intercessors in the US and ask them to pray
for our trip to China the next day. The next morning the
team was up early and we had breakfast and then packed the
duffels full of Chinese Pastor Study Bibles. There are over
400,000 Chinese Pastors and Church leaders who want these
Bibles and if possible they would pay 6-12 months salary to Kunming for many years and only once had problems and
buy one on the "Black Market." For every one of these Bibles that was with Hand Wind Tape Players, I fully expected that
distributed it is reported that at least 40 people come to faith we would sail through Customs unhindered. Our contacts in
in Jesus Christ. Kunming have been asking for these Bibles for over a year so
We loaded the duffel bags into the van and a Burmese I was glad that we could help meet the need.
brother prayed for our trip and then our Thai brother prayed Upon arriving in Kunming I was surprised to see the
for us as well. There was also a team of Intercessors from the increased security as every person had to put their bags
US who said they would be praying as well. We have never through the x-ray machine. There were more customs guards
had so much prayer cover leaving Bangkok before! We than I have ever seen before. I sensed that Forrest (78 year
checked in at the airport and were charged about $400 for old grandfather) should go first with his 15 year old
the overweight charges. Since we have delivered Bibles to grandson following him. Normally older people are respected
and given more grace in Customs. This did not happen this
time, as Forrest was immediately stopped and searched,
Stephen was stopped next and then Steve and lastly myself.
The Customs officials were visibly upset and proceeded to
bring us into their office and made us remove all the Bibles.
They then took out all my clothes and searched my personal
bag. I had a small plastic bag in my hand with personal
papers, cash and receipts. The Customs officer said to open
the bag and I refused saying it was my personal belongings -
to which he said, "You have no personal items in China, we
can search anything!"
After seeing all of the Bibles confiscated, we discussed as a
team what we should do. Since we have been hearing so
much propaganda about China, that there is religious
freedom in the country, and that the Chinese Government is
printing millions of Bibles, we decided that we would stay in
Customs until the Bibles were returned. The Customs officers
refused to return them to us, so we refused to leave. I think
this is something the Chinese government is not used to,
having people stand up to them. They were confounded as to
what to do with us, but after about an hour they asked us to
leave their office and move to the lounge where they were
couches and a television. I think they fully expected us to
back down and leave.
The team decided to fast so we only drank water for the first
20 hours while waiting in Customs. Our sleep was often
interrupted, as Customs officers kept waking us up and
telling us that we needed to leave the airport. They said we
could apply to the Religious Affairs Office to petition them to
get our Bibles back, a game the Chinese Government plays to
try to appease foreigners.
"The millions of Bibles printed by the state-permitted press in
the last 25 years are not enough to replace worn out Bibles or to
provide any Bibles for new converts. (Is your only Bible 25 years
old?) According to these regulations, rural Christians are on a
"20-year waiting list." Believers are willing to risk everything to
obtain God's Word. They are unashamed of the gospel, the
power of God for the salvation of all who believe (Romans1:16).
They are willing to lay down their lives so they can share Christ
with others. They encourage us to do the same."
We repeatedly asked the officials to show us a copy of the
law that they said we had broken. It took them almost eight
hours to show us a copy of the law and then it was written in
Mandarin. This law was approved on June 1, 2007 and
stated that any foreigner coming to China is only allowed to
bring one piece of religious material for their own personal
use. If a foreigner brings more than one piece it must be pre-
approved by the Religious Affairs Office (they will never
approve Bibles being carried in). Our goal in bringing Bibles
has been to help the Underground Church in China which
now numbers over 130 million people and is growing by
more than 30,000 people daily.
God used a man named Pastor Allen Yuan years ago to
challenge my life and inspire me to help the Chinese Church.
Pastor Allen had spent over 22 years of his life in prison for
the cause of Jesus Christ and he said, "Please bring us Bibles--
we are desperate for Bibles!" I made a promise to the Lord
after Allen’s challenge, that I would do everything that I
could to assist the Chinese Christians and bring as many
Bibles as we can to help
them.
Our intention was not
to cause trouble, but
rather to help the
Chinese Christians, as
we have been doing for
over 20 years. We talked
to a Chinese friend in
the US who encouraged
us to stand our ground
and he e-mailed a press release to major news companies. We
prayed that God would somehow use this situation to bring
glory to His Name, and that the Truth about religious
persecution of Christians would be brought out to the world.
We were amazed at how God used this situation to cause a
stir throughout the world. We received phone calls from all
over the USA, The UK, New Zealand, Columbia, the major
news networks and newspapers, and radio stations
worldwide. We never expected that this would be called an
"international event." Almost everyone was supportive and
we were able to tell them why we were in China and refused
to leave. We shared that our ordeal was minimal compared to
what many of our brothers and sisters in China face every
day because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
WE HAVE HEARD REPORTS
THAT MANY PEOPLE WERE
PRAYING FOR US, BUT EVEN
BETTER THAT THEY ARE
PRAYING FOR THE CHINESE
CHRISTIANS AND ARE NOW
AWARE OF THEIR PLIGHT. "The
human rights record in China is one of the worst in the world.
Its system of "re-education through labor" detains hundreds of
thousands each year in work camps, without even a court
hearing. Again in 2007, church property and Bibles were
confiscated. Christians were harassed, questioned, arrested and
imprisoned. More Christians are in prison or under detention
in China than any other country. The house church movement
(unregistered churches), which comprises approximately 90
percent of China's Christians, endures unimaginable
persecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel,
no matter the cost... Christians in prison are routinely beaten
and abused." Voice of the Martyrs, Jan 2007.
The US Embassy Staff in Beijing were unaware of this new
law in China and offered to come to our aid. They called the
Customs office and requested to see the law that they claimed
that we broke. After interpreting the law into English, they
told us that we had broken a law of China, and that Customs
refused to return our Bibles to us while we were in China, but
that we could get them back when we left the country. After
26 hours of intermittent sleep, tired and battle weary- we
decided as a team to go to a hotel and get a decent meal, a
hot shower and some sleep. The phone continued to ring for
the next several days as we did more interviews with people
all over the world who wanted to know what is really
happening in China.
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We played tourists for the next two days, and when we prison in China for
returned to the airport, three hours early the Customs their faith, there is
officials were waiting for us. They had been following us no religious
around for the last two days. I saw a man come out of our persecution in
hotel room after searching it; he was surprised to run into China, you can
me. A Chinese lady posed as a radio reporter called us twice believe whatever
and asked us leading questions to discover who our contacts you want and please
are in China: she received no information. There were 10 don't bring us any
Customs officials at the airport along with two video cameras more Bibles: we
and one still camera, but when we took out a camera, they have enough
threatened to take the camera away. We were given the Bibles Bibles!" I would
back and watched constantly, and then escorted to rather believe a Chinese Pastor who spent more than 20 years
Immigration by security so that we couldn't turn back We felt in prison for his faith than some government puppet who lies
like we were being deported,. We felt like we were being and tells a compromised Church what it wants to believe.
treated as criminals - just for carrying in Bibles to a country The True Church in America and around world needs to
which claims to have religious freedom. stand together and help each other and not put our heads in
the sand and act like it's not our problem. The True Church
A couple years ago, I heard on the radio in the US a Chinese
will hear the call and go to prayer and will act on behalf of
woman from the Three Self Patriotic Movement (The Chinese
our persecuted brothers and sisters!
Government Church). She stated, "There are no Pastors in

The True Church will hear the call and go to prayer and
will act on behalf of our persecuted brothers and sisters!