Great need for Bibles and Support for Leaders in mainland China – A Letter from a Graduate Student:
Great need for Bibles and Support for Leaders in mainland China – A Letter from a Graduate Student: “I Need Bibles.”
Dear Respected Pastor Dennis Balcombe and Co-workers of RCMI,
Greetings! I’m Xiao Yang, a graduate of Shiloh Bible College. My heartfelt thanks to Pastor Balcombe and the teachers of RCMI; I so much appreciate the help RCMI has given over the years! At Shiloh, we were very well trained and equipped. Now I’m married, and together with my wife I am ministering to university students in Hebei Province. By God’s grace, the churches are full of the Holy Spirit and in continual revival and many souls are being saved. We are amazed by the works of God; may He continue to do his mighty works and expand His Kingdom in this place! May he save every one of the students’ souls here; may use us to turn this place upside down for Him! Reaching university students is so strategic for many reasons: they are hungry for meaning, open to change still, flexible and mobile after graduating and can effectively plant churches on other campuses even in the Middle East!
The fellowship we belong to now mainly serves university students and has 11 churches in different provinces. All of those who pastor these churches work full-time at pastoring, including husband-wife teams with their families. Since the people we work with are mostly students, the offerings we receive are not able to sustain their families. But the co-workers in all the churches are very zealous in their love of souls, preaching the gospel every day and praying fervently, so that there are always new people coming to church each week. What every church wants most is one thing: precious Bibles to be given immediately to newcomers, so they can have the Word of God and be saved.
Our church’s name is “The Light of the City.” Our vision statement is as follows: to build a strong church that loves God and people; to be a blessing in society and to each person in it; to find a need and meet it; to find an injury and heal it. We have been working hard right from the beginning to preach the gospel and save souls. Last year we held a musical evangelistic crusade which, despite limited finances and conditions, was attended by many students.
We are also seeking regular support for the church’s finances – as I said the offerings are limited because the members are students. Despite the increasing wealth of China’s middle class, our church offerings cannot support our leaders. Many times we have the heart, but we don’t have the ability to carry out what we would like to do. Also, last May the church moved to a new location, and now everymonth we have a high rent payment and all kinds of other expenses. Most of our church members areyoung people who have just recently married, as well as some just-graduated students, singles, anddivorced people.I want to thank RCMI for the Bibles you’ve given us—after Chinese New Year we received the 600Bibles that you so lovingly sent us! It warmed our hearts to know that our brothers and sisters arewalking with us! We’ve already put some of the Bibles into the hands of our hungry and new Christianfriends, and the others we’ll distribute when we have evangelistic crusades. May God’s Kingdomincrease more and more, and may God bless your church with His overflowing blessings, with His fullgrace!
