Workers Trained for the Harvest

***report***
***to be published in December's TTB***

Last summer’s 2008 Beijing Olympics proved to be a visual spectacle. Spending billions of dollars and enlisting the skills of over 15,000 Nationals, the Chinese nation won international recognition for its creative genius and economic affluence.

Behind the enchanting exhibition, China’s Communist government intensified its persecution against Christians by beating, imprisoning and evicting church leaders and their families. Many Christians suffered as China sought to present itself to the world as a controlled and united country.

One circulated account is the story of Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan, an outspoken evangelist known for sharing his faith and passing out literature while riding his bike. Days before the Olympics, one report cites that Public Security Officials used iron bars to beat Bike’s eldest son for 25 minutes. PSO then evicted Bike’s wife out of their home, throwing their furniture out the window and onto the street. During the games, Bike, his wife and a coworker were imprisoned.

Since the summer, the number of human right violations against Christians has increased as the government has made a concerted effort to put a stop to the house church movement. While the underground house-church movement remains nearly impossible to monitor, some speculate the growth has escalated to numbers reaching over 60 million people. Like in many nations in the ARNA, in China, Christianity is deemed as a religion that threatens the unity of the state. While the government allows for state controlled churches, it is illegal to make converts.

Through its China and Beyond (CAB) program Ethnos Asia Ministries works to carry out the vision to “strengthen the church in China to fulfill her calling for world mission.” Working mainly in the Southwest China region in the Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan, Guanxi, and Guangdong provinces, CAB has implemented the School of Workers (SOW) program to equip the nationals for ministry.

The SOW training consists of a two-part program, where participants learn everything from Bible basics to prayer to evangelism to spiritual gifting. After taking the first session, participants are required to go out and convert as well as disciple five people. Once a leader reaches 5 disciples they are allowed to return for the second session. After graduating from the second session they are then required to get 10 more converts and disciples. Afterwards graduates can teach their own SOW programs. With basic training and a simple faith, believers leave SOW training ready and energized to put what they learn into practice.

Filled with the characteristic zeal and a simple faith, SOW trained believers have been telling others about Jesus. A woman named Yude (pronounced “eedee”) from the Lisu tribe left the first session and returned in six months with 80 converts. She is now the pastor of a church movement that has been graciously increased and includes over 1,200 people in 35 house groups. CAB co-director Margaret Austen states the explosive growth in the house-church movement has created a tremendous need for trained teachers.

In 18 months SOW program has met the call by training over 200 Chinese from seven provinces. “[The SOW program] has proven itself. Time and time again. We need more and more SOWs,” Austen said.
SOW administrators project that in three more years, 30,000 nationals will be trained through the program.

SOW graduates serve the tribal people of China- many of whom live in mountainous regions that have not been visited in over 20 years. For many of these tribal believers having a Bible is a luxury that very few can enjoy. Bible couriers testify that in one village, tribal Chinese tearfully received a single Bible. The Bible was soon divided into parts so that it could be circulated throughout the village.

“It is our desire to conduct SOW in the whole of Southwest China- in every city and to every tribe,” said See, director of CAB. “[We want] to train leaders so that they can train their own people in their own language and share the Gospel.”

As EAM works to strengthen the church in China, key leaders foresee a new struggle more pervasive than government persecution. As China continues to develop, believers face the temptation of turning away to materialism.

“The danger in China now is materialism in the church. Communism is no longer the danger,” said Austen. “Let us pray that their commitment [to the gospel] remains the same.”

As government persecution persists, one Chinese pastor is not praying for God to remove the persecution. When visitors promised him that they would pray God to take away the persecution he gave a surprising response. The pastor asked the visitors to not ask God to remove the persecution.

"Because where there is no persecution the church sleeps,” he said. “It’s only when persecution comes that the church wakes up and does what it’s called to do.”

A popular Chinese proverb says, “Pure gold fears no fire”. While believers in this restricted country continue to undergo trials and intense persecution, their circumstances has allowed them to receive a treasure greater than gold.

1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Through its School of Workers program EAM will continue to equip the body of Christ to serve the unreached people of China. Pray for the strength of believers in access-restricted China.




Pastor Bike, his wife and coworker were arrested two days before the beginning of the Olympics. According to the China Aid Association, they were kept under house arrest at a resort so that they could not speak with media. They were released 21 days later with testimonies of how they shared the gospel with officials and guards.