Missions work
For the last nine years I have been working as a missionary in China. My outreach has been through teaching business at a Chinese University and supporting and assisting the Harvest Book and Coffee Shop
The Harvest Book and Coffee Shop, which is similar to Starbucks, is my main avenue for reaching the Chinese students. Thousands books are available for the students, both in English and Chinese, and WiFi internet service is provided as well as a computer for the students’ use.
The outreach is set-up as an English corner where students come to practice their oral English with native English speakers. The coffee shop is open from 9:00 AM – 11:00 PM with the English corner during the hours of 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM. We have between 60 and 100 students in attendance and between 10 – 15 Westerners. We talk about anything the students are interested in, always trying to direct the conversation toward a Christian perspective. We celebrate all of the Christian holidays including a presentation on the significance of the events.
In the six years the outreach has been in operation over 1,000 students have come to the kingdom. The people of China, especially the students, are very open to the gospel all that is needed is someone to tell them.
In addition to the outreach, I work with and train church leaders to further their understanding of the scripture and provide them with reference materials.
Since the house church is illegal in China, the leaders are continually at risk. During the last two years two have been arrested and are currently serving prison sentences. One is a twenty year old student who was arrested for leading a bible study at Nankai University. He is currently in the second year of a two year sentence.
I am hoping with God’s help to expand the outreach of the Harvest Book and Coffee shop as well as the work with the House Churches. I would like to add English classes two evenings a week, a literature class one evening and Saturday afternoon, and a movie night on Saturday evening. I believe that this would give Harvest the opportunity to reach a larger audience and thereby increase the opportunity to present the Gospel to an ever increasing group of young people.
The literature classes would require the students to read selected Western literature and discuss the books’ meaning and message. The English classes would greatly increase the number of students attending, since there are so many wanting to improve there use of the language, and would also increase the number who would be exposed to the Gospel. Movie night we would show Western movies and discuss the meaning and message of film. The literature and films will be chosen with the idea of opening the way to discuss varying aspects of Christianity. These may not be specific Christian literature and films, but will have a message related to Christianity and Christian thought.
I am also going to expand the teaching and training of Chinese pastors, missionaries and Sunday school teachers. This will be accomplished with the assistance of a network of Chinese leaders and the Samuel Theological Training Center. It is the goal of the church in China to send out 100,000 missionaries to foreign countries, directing their efforts over the three ancient silk roads which lead from China to the East.
