Documentary: The Cross – Jesus in China
Almost four hours covering 50 years of Christianity in China, this four part documentary called “The Cross” brings history to life. Interviews with those who have been through the persecution and decades later are still loyal to the Lord Jesus. If you have read anything about the the history of Christianity in China then this documentary will help bring color to those black letters of the page.
With the documentary being four hours long, it does get repetitive in style. For the student of missions, you could watch the first part, but for those really interested in learning about missions in China, I would recommend watching all four parts.
I watched part of this before reading the book, Jesus in Beijing, but watch the majority of it after I finished reading that book. The two work and re-enforce each other.
Here is part of the editorial review:
This documentary, The Cross: Jesus in China, portrays the little known history of a remarkable people; it is the turbulent 50 year history of Chinese Christians on screen! For the first time, the history of Christianity in China, especially within the House-Church movement, is given in an honest and comprehensive account. The film answers the question raised by many people outside China: how did the number of Chinese Christians increase from 700,000 in 1949 to approximately 70 million today despite communist control? Using live footage and interviews, the film captures the true stories of many people and seeks to answer the most common questions: how does the Chinese government deal with Chinese Christians and vice-versa? How have Chinese Christians developed, survived and grown? What kind of people are they and what influence have they had and will they have on Chinese society? The documentary film consists of three episodes and one short subject. It lasts about four hours. The episodes are: Seeds of Blood, The Bitter Cup, The Spring of Life, and The Canaan Hymns.
I thought this documentary was encouraging, helpful, insightful and taught me many things as well.
Note: There are two parts of the documentary that seem unnecessary but for some reason were included in the documentary therefore some viewer discretion is advised.
Global Day of Prayer for the Chinese
I want to challenge you to get involved in this year’s “Global day of Prayer for the the Chinese.” We are changing the day from being on Chinese new year to being on the last Sunday in January every year. We want not only you but churches to get involved also. More about this event:
A “Global Day of Prayer for the Chinese” is a day in which we are reminded and encouraged to pray for the largest nation and largest people group in the world today!
We need to pray for the over 1.3 billion in China and the millions of Chinese that live outside of its borders. It is a day for you and your local church to say a special word of prayer for the souls of China and the Chinese community all around the world.
Pray that the Lord will send forth laborers, that the gospel will be boldly proclaimed, and that God will be glorified among the Chinese people!
This coming year the day is: Sunday, January 29, 2012.
What can you do? Here are a few ideas:
- Get your local church involved and have a special time of prayer during the main service or during Sunday school.
- Make it a point to invite a Chinese friend to church.
- Find a Chinese restaurant near you and give them the Gospel.
- Pray and get involved in Chinese church planting!
Resources:
- Order Chinese tracts from here.
- Click Here to visit a website where you can click on a map of China and pray for different regions.
- Send your Chinese friend our evangelism website: www.tedaxixun.com
- Contact a missionary working with the Chinese and ask for specific prayer request that you can pray for.
10.7.11
How to Type Pinyin on a Mac
I am a fan of pinyin and a fan of my Mac, so if you happen to be in this minority as well then this post could be helpful to you.
First, you need make sure you have the right input source checked and you can do that by following this path Apple > System Preferences > Language & Text > Input sources > U.S. Extended - and make sure this box is checked!
Once you have that activated as your current source you can start typing in toned pinyin by using the following key combinations:
1st Tone | Press option + a and then any vowel = ā ē ī ō ū
2nd Tone | Press option + e and then any vowel = á é í ó ú
3rd Tone | Press option + v and then any vowel = ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ
4th Tone | Press option + ` and then any vowel = à è ì ò ù
To type the special ü, with no tone marks type alt+u and then u
To type ü with tone marks, use the same alt+(a e v `) then type v
For example, to type ǚ, type alt+v then v or to type ǖ is alt+a then v
I hope that is not too confusing! If you have any problems let me know.
08.12.11
“The Gospel in China” Blog
My co-laborer writes the Gospel in China blog. His articles about China and Missions are helpful and encouraging. He tries to present all information “as openly as possible in an effort to paint an accurate portrait of the spiritual condition of China.”
We have been able to learn a lot while we are in language school and working in the ministry they started from scratch several years ago.
Here are four blog post concerning the recent situation here in China.
Non-Negotiables for Believers in China (8/10/11)
Police Situation Update – Released (8/8/11)
Police Break Up Our Service (8/7/11)
The Police Meet Our Church (8/4/11)
Also, you can Subscribe to The Gospel in China by Email or use the RSS.
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Some Practical Missionary Resources
There are several resources that I have come across that have helped me a long the missionary trail. I am always getting different request for the services and resources that we use, so I thought I would pass these along. Here are some things we use and recommend:
Prayer Letters – A ministry called “CalvaryStand” prints and mails out our prayer letter every month.
Luggage – This is the best carry-on I’ve used. We used these bags, Parachute & Sport Duffel, to pack and move all our stuff to China.
Health Insurance – We use Good Neighbor Insurance. We are covered by the Global Navigator 2500 Plan.
Life Insurance – We were approved and have life insurance through Prudential.
Retirement – We invest for retirment (in Roth IRAs) using a Dave Ramsey E.L.P.
Emails – We use MailChimp for all our emailing campaigns.
Phone – We use Vonage to stay connected with family, friends and churches back in the States.
Bank – We use First Citizens Bank of Georgia for our banking needs. Our mission board uses this bank and of the one benefits for missionaries is that all ATM fees are reimbursed. Since I have to use an ATM here to pull my money out, which takes several trips to the ATM, this saves money in paying all the ATM fees.
Program – We use a database program for Mac called Contactizer to keep track of all our churches and contacts.
VPN – We use Moca (Freedur) as our VPN to access blocked websites.
Question:
What are some other great resources that you use?
06.24.11
The Missions Conference Series (5 of 5) Final Questions
Final questions and ideas to consider when planning a conference and wanting to be a blessing to missionaries:
Atmosphere:
- If the people are well informed about the missionaries and already have been praying for them and anticipating there coming, Oh, what a blessing!
- To put it plainly, there are dead churches and exciting church, which are you?
- Decorations, maps, flags, displays.
Speaking Time:
- Of course this is the pastor’s decision. But here are a few thoughts:
- The missionary traveled to deliver a message, will he be given adequate time to do that?
- Will he have time to represent his part of the world?
- Please inform the missionary about what your desire is during his speaking time, if it is burden, presentation, preaching, etc.
Media Presentations:
- Please test and/or have time for them to have a practice run on their media presentations.
- Do as much as possible to help them have a smooth presentation, they don’t know how your system works. This will be beneficial for both.
Church Family Questions – You can ask the church family a lot of the same questions when planning a conference and wanting to make it a blessing for them:
- Does your church family enjoy hosting missionaries? Or is it more of a burden on them.
- Does your church family enjoy cooking meals for the conference? Or is this a burden on them?
- Does your church family enjoy giving gifts, gift cards, money, or going shopping? Is all four acceptable. Are you focusing on one area. Do they get to be involved in more than a “drop money in the plate” type of way.
- What can be done to create an environment where they will want to, need to, and enjoy being at the conference?
- Will they have some type of scheduled time to speak with the missionary more than after and before the services?
- What kind of media presentation do they seem to really enjoy?
Conclusion: Study the missionaries. Study your people. Enjoy a great conference.
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The Missions Conference Series (4 of 5) Questions Continued
More questions and ideas to consider when planning a conference and wanting to be a blessing to missionaries:
Gift Baskets:
- Will it contain their favorite treats or is it your favorite treats?
- Ask them what are their favorites and give examples so they know the type of items your are looking for.
- Don’t fill it full of “leftovers that a missionary could use.”
- If you received the gift basket, would you be blessed by it?
- Can the missionary use the items given?
Meals:
- Meals are always a good time to get to know the missionaries.
- Home cooked meals are usually good after lots of travel and eating on the road.
- Are there any allergies? Or special needs?
- What are their favorite foods and deserts?
- Would they prefer not to eat so many times during the week? Are some meals optional?
Gift Cards vs. Gifts vs. Money vs. Going Shopping:
If giving gift cards:
- Make sure the store/restaurant isn’t only in your state.
- Make sure they can use the cards when they leave your conference.
- Ask them what gift cards would be a blessing to them.
- Gift cards are good when you want the missionary to spend money on something they normally wouldn’t but would be blessing to them.
- Are they leaving for the field soon? So the cards wouldn’t be helpful?
If giving gifts:
- Ask the missionary and family what he needs/wants and give examples so he knows the price range you are looking for.
- If the missionary is not local, will be they be able to transport the gifts back home?
- Are they leaving for the field soon? Can they take the gifts with them?
- Do they have a home, or will that gift just go in storage?
If giving money:
- Money seems to be the most generic, but it doesn’t have to be. Find a way to give the money that is meaningful in the way that you give it.
- Money is a blessing because it goes right where the need is.
- Money can also be given towards something specific.
If going shopping:
- Does the missionary know the amount they are to spend?
- Do they have to buy something at that store, even though they can’t find anything they like/want/need?
- Do they really need what you want to buy them?
- Have you asked them where they would like to go shopping? Or will they have options?
Next Post: The Missions Conference Series (5 of 5) Final Questions
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The Missions Conference Series (3 of 5) Customizing
After knowing the purpose of the conference, two further good questions to ask when trying to figure out how to customize your missions conference for the benefit of those attending can be focused on two different groups:
1) What do the missionaries that are coming want/need/enjoy?
You may have asked missionaries last year what they thought about the conference and to have input from them, but that might not be very helpful for the missionaries coming in for the upcoming conference.
If you want to design the conference to be a blessing to the missionaries then communicate with the missionaries that are coming and find out from them what they prefer.
2) What does your church family want/need/enjoy?
Missionary are blessed when they meet people who enjoy them being there. If the missions conference becomes something the church family has to do or just going through the motions, it doesn’t benefit either side.
The goal is to consider both sides + the purpose of the conference to = the maximum blessing.
Let’s continue with some specific questions and ideas to consider when planning a conference and wanting to be a blessing to missionaries:
Orientation Meeting and Schedule
- Have a orientation meeting to kick off the conference with the church staff and missionaries. Can everyone be there on time for make this happen?
- Try to give a detailed schedule so the missionaries know what is expected of them throughout the week. Are you planning the conference and be a good steward of everyone’s time?
Staying in Homes vs. Staying at a Hotel vs. Staying in a Prophet’s Chamber
- Are they comfortable staying in someones home?
- Do they have any allergies to pets?
- Could they use the privacy of the hotel?
- Is the prophet’s chamber clean, comfortable, and convenient?
- Would you stay with the person/hotel/prophet’s chamber you are asking the missionary to stay with/at?
- Can they have a choice to do one or the other?
Activities vs. No Activities
- What is the purpose of the activities?
- Do the families that have children need to homeschool?
- Will there be any free-time?
- Does the activity help build relationship with your church family?
- Does the activity help build relationship with church staff?
- Is the activity enjoyable for the missionaries? Children?
- Are the activities optional or required?
- What is unique in your part of the world to do?
- If you don’t plan anything, will the missionary be bored, stuck in a hotel room with his whole family until the conference that evening? (Not always a bad thing, since the man can usually work or make deputation calls)
- Can activities be optional? Sign up for them?
- Can you offer some kind of teaching/classes that would be beneficial to the missionaries?
Next Post: The Missions Conference Series (4 of 5) Questions Continued
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The Missions Conference Series (2 of 5) First Things First
Before we get into looking at the questions and ideas that will help you get a better perspective on customizing your missions conference, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind.
That fact that a church is willing to have missionaries into their church and to hold a missions conference should be humbling in itself for any missionary.
We are thankful that churches are different and that missions conferences are different. Some conference are extremely busy and others are laid back. Somehow, they all work together for a good balance.
The “perfect missions conference” doesn’t exist on paper. Why? Well because missionaries are people and everybody likes different things and has different needs. If you were to survey missionaries every year you would get different answers from each missionary who are in different life stages. (And to be honest, if the missionary isn’t supported by your church yet, then they like everything you do!)
A successful missions conference would simply be humble missionaries meeting together with a humble church family in order to encourage and enable each other in making the name of Jesus know around the world all for the glory of God!
Now let’s get started…
Of course, the first thing to be discussed when planning a conference is the purpose of the conference.
- At the end of the conference what did you want to accomplish?
- Increase giving to missions? Specific amount? Fund a missions project?
- See young men surrender their lives to be missionaries?
- Raise up new prayer warriors? Strength those already praying?
- Recruit new missionaries to support? New missions projects to support?
- Encourage missionaries and the church family? Create a passion for world evangelism?
It is good to have these goals written out so you are not just going through the motions of this is what we are suppose to do. When you have this figured out, you will need to decide what you can do to accomplish those goals. If it doesn’t work towards one of your goals, then don’t do it.
Next Post: The Missions Conference Series (3 of 5) Customizing
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The Missions Conference Series (1 of 5) Perspective
Awhile ago I was asked to write down some ideas concerning missions conferences to help give a missionary’s perspective. (I have been around when missions conference were being planned at our church and helped plan them. Then on deputation we participated in several different missions conference. Each one of them were very unique.)
When I was asked to write some ideas, I realized that if I just gave what were the pros and cons in my opinion it wouldn’t be very helpful (as I wasn’t going to be in the conference since I was already on the field). I could give a perspective on what we personally liked but that could be the opposite of other missionaries. You can’t fit all missionaries into the same mold.
Also, I realized that a missionaries perspective and a church’s persecutive are totally different. The church does a conference once a year whereas the missionary participates in a conference every week or month. What the church gets excited about once a year the missionary has to weekly be excited about. This is just something that the missionary has to learn to deal with.
Therefore, when I was thinking through our experience, I tried not to just give what our favorite things were, but to give advice and list questions for churches to ask themselves and the missionaries coming to the conference.
As I put these thoughts together for this series I wanted it to be more useful than an average list of generic things you can do at a missions conference. I didn’t want to give outdated ideas and tacky themes. Nor did I want to complain about bad past experiences. There are plenty of others who write about that. I wanted to arrange these thoughts into something useful.
I would say that it would be better to customize the missions conference every year based on your church family and the missionaries that are going to be involved, rather than have the same plans year-after-year and just changing who the missionaries are that attend. Otherwise you will find that missionaries that come to the conference aren’t always going to fit the mold of what you have done. What was a blessing in times past is not always a blessing to the missionary who is coming to your next conference.
Next Post: The Missions Conference Series – (2 of 5) – First Things First
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