Our Trip to China

I was greatly encouraged to hear that my church was praying for both my wife and I, even people whom we hadn’t met were praying for us! I can assure you that we needed all the prayer we could get. My wife and I made it our goal prior to going to China to share the gospel with numerous people our first encounter at sharing the gospel was at our wedding reception. I had prayed considerably for God to grant me the words to say to these people (of course my wife would translate this). I had written enough down but I couldn’t finish my speech at all, this is not uncommon for me. I was praying on the night before our reception and then it hit me hard. We shared the parable of treasure in the field (Matthew 13:44). We preached a hard word and called people to repent of their sin and turn to Christ.

I would have to say 99.5% of people at the restaurant hated what we had to say. We were sharing the gospel with 150 people and I have to admit I was terrified! I had no idea what would happen in sharing the gospel in a closed country. There was the fear of being arrested for what we did and even the fear of my in laws being in trouble by the authorities as well. The fear increased when I heard that a communist party member was at our reception who also gave a speech! I was praying constantly, reminding myself of the fear of God! Praise be to God, who withheld the restraints of the wicked and allowed us to share the gospel openly!

This was not our only opportunity to share Christ in China; we had many more that followed! During the reception I met two women who were my wife’s uni friends (Li Ling and Shichong). I got onto talking to them about the gospel and the history of the protestant church. They were both interested to know more of Christianity so my wife and I arranged with them to meet at a coffee shop. We met up with them and we also met a fellow who said his name is Bruce. He overheard us talking about a topic on children’s autism in Australia. He asked us what we were doing here and we said that we were here to share the gospel with Liv’s uni friends. He asked if he could join in the conversation, he too was interested to know more about Christianity.

So we chatted with the three of them for a few hours. We exchanged email details and gave them the option to contact us if they had further questions regarding anything to do with Christianity. I was gratefully encouraged to see how much they wanted to know more about Christ! The thing I found about China’s culture and the religions there, is that the religions (Taoism and Buddhism) focus on the self. I said that Christianity is different; Christianity is about glorifying Christ and not the self. I was deeply angered when I heard that the prosperity gospel had already taken its toll in China. Plus I heard also from non-believers that many cults had arisen in Jinan (North China) out of Christianity. So I had to clear the air a bit before I could begin sharing the gospel with these people.

My wife and I had opportunities to share the gospel with her immediate family aunts, uncles and cousins. We shared the gospel with one of her aunties and her daughter, she really seemed unsettled when we mentioned hell, but we preached the gospel uncompromised. Not everything went smoothly though, one night we shared the gospel with my wife’s parents. My father in law was so angered by it, he started accusing my wife of believing in a false religion. He was angered that he ended up having to go for a walk just to calm down. We preached the gospel lovingly to my father in law; he was offended by God’s word.

 In Jinan the people are known for drinking very heavily. This made me and my wife quite uncomfortable since we both don’t drink that much. Our last night in Jinan was when my father in law’s cousin (Jun) became incredibly drunk. The next day he sobered up and apologised for his behaviour and as a way of saying sorry he gave me a gift. Liv and I had been handing out bibles to friends and family so I asked him if he had a bible and he said he didn’t have one. So we gave him and bible and proceeded to share the gospel with him. He looked like a broken man when we mentioned sin and that it needed to be condemned but when I mentioned the grace of Christ he assured me that he would read the bible.

After our time in Jinan we took a plane trip to Shanghai and I have to admit that we were both very uncomfortable in this city. Everywhere you go is advertising, shops that appeal only to the wealthiest people! They had speciality shops everywhere such as Prada, displaying handbags worth $12000 Australian. I felt spiritually sick in Shanghai, I missed my church greatly. We met with Ying and her husband (Ying is my wife’s friend). I met Ying for the first time in Sydney where I first heard that she was a Seventh day Adventist. I got onto sharing the differences of the doctrines of grace and what she believes. I encouraged her to read Romans considering Romans is the perfect exegetical letter regarding the gospel in such perfect detail.

Whilst we were in Shanghai my wife called her grandparents just to say hello. She and I were both encouraged to hear that they were already reading the bible we gave them. Our trip to China was filled with many opportunities, and I was so encouraged to see so many people who were hungry for real Christianity. It is so vital for us to know scripture in a way that Christ desires us to know, so that if or when we are called either overseas or closer to home. We can preach the uncompromised word of God with absolute confidence despite whatever may occur.