China & Bible Smuggling (Part 2 of 3)
(Continued from Part 1)… Now, you are probably thinking that if these two are true then why are people still smuggling bibles into China. Good question, right? This is where the bible smuggler pulls out the “Bible Card” followed by stories from the 1970’s. Okay, maybe there is more to it than that. I think there are genuine reasons that people still smuggle bibles into China, let me present what I understand:
- Need. The Chinese “Church” (whoever that may be) are requesting bibles and are supposedly in limited supply, unwilling or unable to buy them from the government Church. Anytime we as Christians hear someone is in “need” of a bible, we will almost always do whatever it takes to get them one.
- Availability. Not every city, town, or village has a government Church or a Christian bookstore where bibles can be purchased. A church of 10 people from a village of 150 people probably doesn’t have a local place to purchase bibles. They would have to travel to the nearest major city.
- Money. China still has many poor people, living on a dollar a day, who just don’t have the means to purchase a bible. They can’t afford to stop work for a day, travel to a large city, and find a place to purchase a bible. This person also most likely doesn’t have a computer, iPad, or internet in which he can freely obtain a copy of the bible.
So if there was a person in America who couldn’t afford a bible, didn’t have a place to purchase one nearby, and was truly in need of one, I would say let’s do whatever it takes to get them a bible. We should also do the same for China. Sounds simply enough, right? Well it is not that easy.
The logical conclusion to this would be, let’s legally buy bibles in China and give it to that person. But what happens when you have the “church” or people wanting hundreds or thousand of bibles? Can you legally buy thousands or hundreds of bibles? I have never tried this so I can’t give an exact answer, but we will assume that the government most likely will frown on this. If not, distributing them, like any Christian literature would be illegal.
Now we have a problem, and the answer seems to say, “we have to smuggle bibles into China to equip the Chinese Church!”
It sounds right, but there is one more part of the equation that many leave out.…(Continued in Part 3)
China Church Planting
My co-labourer just announced on his blog about two new churches that are being planted by two of the young men that he has trained (read below). This is awesome! We have been able to help a little with each church plant as they are getting started and it is exciting to see what the Lord is going to do through these church plants.
Also, with the launch of these two churches we are launching a “China Church Planting” Fund to help these new churches as that get started, and more churches in the future. Please read below and help us reach our goal of helping these two church their first year.
You can give online by clicking here or send all donations to Project China, P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta, GA, 30009, Note: “China Church Planting”. The rest of the information about these two churches is below.
Two young men in our church are starting new churches this month! This is so thrilling for us, and I hope you will rejoice with us. Both of these guys have been working with me closely for about three years. They have served as assistant pastors for the past year or so. They have witnessed, preached, baptized, and discipled. They have proven to be faithful men who can teach others also. When the church went through an event of persecution, they were the ones that boldly led the church through it!
This could not come at a better time for the first church, either. Our seating capacity has been stretched for the past few months, and the giving has been wonderful. So a group of the church’s most faithful members, workers, and teachers have decided to join one of the new churches. This will free up some seats at the old church as well as contribute to the health of the new churches! It is so exciting to watch this young church get involved in church-planting with finances, manpower, and prayer.
We want to give you the chance to get on board with these two young men – Ning and Cong Wei – as they plant new churches and carry the Gospel to thousands of homes that do not have it! We want to make sure that they are taken care of as their own churches mature and learn to support their pastor. The total expense for each of the new church’s rent, utilities, pastor’s salary, and everything else will be close to $7,500 a year. This is obviously a very small number compared to the cost of a new church plant in many other places! These churches will be taking their own offerings and paying all their bills they can, but it will likely be a little while before they are fully self-sustaining.
If you would like to help out financially with these new churches during their infancy, you can go to www.projectchina.org to give online. (there’s also some pics up there of the guys if you want to have a look) If you want to give by check, you can mail it to Project China, P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta, GA, 30009.
All that is received will be used 100% for the expenses of new Chinese church plants! If more is given than is needed by these two new churches, it will be reserved for the next church planted in the ministry here in Northeast China.
I can give my wholehearted approval of both these men, and I hope you will pray about helping their new churches get rolling! They have both already gathered a core of people to teach and worship with and to help them launch the church. They are ready to move to the next stage, and I can’t wait to see what the Lord will do through their labors!
Foreigners Are a Problem! (2 of 2)
Foreign Christians can’t just expect the national Christians to evangelize on their own time. If a national Christian isn’t as excited about reaching his own people with the gospel as a foreigner is, that doesn’t mean the national knows best, it means move out of the way and let the foreigner do the work.
Of course a national can do a great job, just as good or better than the foreigner but that isn’t the problem.
Christians in American and nationals of their own country need to get a heart for not just reaching “their people” but to reach the world. The goal isn’t to “stay local” but to “go global.” Foreign or national, we are joining together for the great commission.
It is like we are telling the Chinese people, “here is the Gospel, reach your people and like we come as a foreigner into your country go as a foreign into another country carrying the Gospel.”
The spreading of the Gospel will take foreigner involvement. This is not new to the Bible. In the Bible we see two main people groups, Jews and Gentiles. The Jews had to cross the boundaries of the Gentiles. Different cultures and language gaps were crossed and God did a work.
Foreigners are a problem. We don’t do things like everyone else around us. But we need to have the right mindset and not just sit on the sidelines. We need to pray that God will allow us to learn the language and penetrate the culture with the Gospel. I think we can see God do great things. We need to be willing to spend and be spent; to be willing to train those we win instead of winning and leaving. We need to teach them in all things.
I agree, we are a problem, but who else is going to do it?
07.27.11
Why no updates?
There hasn’t been any updates about the mission trip because we are stuck in Beijing unexpectedley. We are having a good time and can update about everything on Friday when we get home…hopefully.
Thanks for the prayers.
Note: I was able to connect my iPhone to the Internet at the airport real quick to publish this.
| Posted in General, Short-term Missions | 2 Comments »
Online
We are finally back online! I ran into two problems last week. The first was our internet stopped working. We found out that payment was due. When we rented our apartment, the internet was prepaid for a year, and we paid the landlord for the reaming time, but was’t sure when it ran out. Now we know! So we had to go pay our internet bill. We payed for a year and it was about 1/3 of what we paid in the states.
The second problem was my hard drive went bad. My computer started moving slow and froze, so I restarted it and then every time it started up it showed a “your computer needs to restart” message. The hard drive started making noises and it was all downhill from there. Me and one the of Chinese guys took the hard drive to this huge multi-floor electronics mall and we found the exact hard drive just newer. I was able to get it cheaper than what I originally bought this one for in the states. After installing it, I tried a few different ways to restore my files before I finally got everything working correctly. The last back up before the crash was just a couple days before, so I had all my files except for the most recents ones, mainly a series of blog post that I wrote. I didn’t have time to rewrite them last week as I wanted to stay focused on my studies, so there wasn’t the regular posting last week.
Now, everything is back online. Updates and articles should be coming out regularly.
04.12.11
Offline
This is just a quick note to let you know I might not be able to post regularly over the next few days because our internet is down and it seems that my hard drive has gone bad. I have my files backed up thanks to time machine, but didn’t have the last series of blog post backed up.
I am working on getting the internet fixed and buying a new hard drive to get everything back up and running!
Anyways, just a quick note why you won’t see updates coming our regularly this week.
Thanks for your continued prayers!
12.31.10
Heading into the New Year!
The New Year arrives about 13 hours earlier for us this year. For the past several years at this time of year we have been at the Our Generation summit in Gatlinburg, TN (which you can watch this year’s event live at www.bcwe.org) being motivated and trying to motived others for missions. This year we are on the mission field.
And come to think of it, we have the summit for this reason. To move people from excited to action. Move them from off the field to on the field. This is the purpose of the conference to see more surrender their lives and take up residents in a foreign land for the evangelization of that people.
As we are entering our first “New Year” here on the mission field, we are not surrounded by a group of individuals who have the same passion and desire the we do to see the world reached with the gospel. There is no rallying together. We are on the other end of the missions call. The pep rally is over and we are in the game.
Three months of language school have been completed and the more I learn the more I realize I don’t know. Culture shock comes in many different forms and disguises itself so well. Stress on our marriage is different than what it use to be as simple things seem to be magnified. Sickness seems to come much easier. I have been out of commission for almost a week do to the flu or something of the like and though that doesn’t seem to be very different, my wife has been sick with something just about every other week at the least. Every time she gets on her feet is seems like she is nocked down again.
So is it worth it? Is it worth all the hype the we make about it? You better believe it. As we are heading into 2011 we are with the rest of our fellow laborers shouting to the theme of “for the sake of His name.”
12.27.10
2010 Blog Post Review
In 2010, up to this point, I have posted 225 blog post (including this one) on this blog. I have gathered and highlighted 15 post from 2010 that you may be interested in reviewing, looking through, or reading for the first time. Also, don’t forget you can choose the categories/archives drop down menu and read all the archived blog post based on the category/date you are interested in. Enjoy!
2010 Blog Post Review
01.25.10 Thank You Jesus | Romans 4:24-25
02.16.10 Please Pray for Our Baby and Family
03.17.10 Asia – Look, Pray, Go/Send!
04.29.10 Romans 8:28
05.10.10 Our Strategy: Men. Media. Materials.
06.5.10 Wesley Allen Wei Tolson
06.18.10 China’s Death Rate Per Year!
07.2.10 China Vision & World Vision
07.14.10 Saying Goodbye for Years!
07.23.10 Evangelism Tip #7: Start the Conversation
08.23.10 Twinkle Linkle Little Star
09.11.10 Foreign Friend
10.2.10 Language School Has Begun!
11.7.10 Route of Listeners (R.O.L.)
12.16.10 Quoting a Two-Year-Old
P.S. – Thanks for reading in 2010! Feel free to leave comments about other post that you enjoyed or tell us what your favorite “Ramblings” are!
12.23.10
Merry Christmas! 圣诞快乐!
As the Christmas season is upon us, we are reminded, yet again, what our lives are all about, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are so thankful for God sending His only Son, who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life and willingly died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and not ours only, but the sins of whole world. Glory to God in the highest, what great things He has done!
From our family to yours, “Merry Christmas!”
-The Tolson Family
07.14.10
Saying Goodbye for Years!
The thing about missionary life is that you leave, well, everyone. In less than thirty days we will be leaving our family, friends, church family, supporting churches, other missionaries, etc. I don’t really realize it and it is overlooked by being busy and involved in the work, but every once in awhile it hits home.
We have been traveling full time for 18 months now and we “come and go” as we present our ministry in the churches across America. But you never think when you are saying good bye, you are saying goodbye for years! You just think that you will see them again.
We have friends who left on a short term mission trip to Peru some months back and they aren’t scheduled to be back until after we leave. By our next furlough they may be arriving to their field of service, so who knows when we will see them next. The bad thing about having missionaries as friends and being a missionary, is it is hard to see each other if your furloughs don’t line up etc.
We have already said bye to friends and family in Ohio but I will be going back up just for a quick final trip as we have one more meeting up there.
Saying goodbye as a missionary is a little different than just saying goodbye. Yes, we should be able to fly home if there was an emergency, but no we won’t be home for Christmas, thanksgiving, and birthdays parties every year. I guess it is just part of the missionary life, saying “goodbye” probably means goodbye for years!