The Outreach Foundation has had a long-standing relationship with Amity Printing Company in China. Located on the outskirts of Nanjing, China, Amity Printing Company is a joint venture between the Amity Foundation and the United Bible Societies. The company was established in 1988 and prints Bibles for the world. Bibles have been sent to more than 140 countries and regions.
Read MoreHospitality and mutual exchanges of stories of God at work in China and the United States marked The Outreach Foundation’s first post-pandemic visit to the church in China. As we conclude our memorable time among friends who wish us God’s blessings and desire a deeper relationship with the church in America, we received the following official report from the National China Christian Council (CCC) office which hosted our visit. We look forward to sharing stories of our rich time in China with you soon!
Read MorePraise the Lord! The Outreach Foundation has received permission to return to mainland China from July 22 - August 1! If the past few years have taught us anything, it is not to take anything for granted and as Paul wrote, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). Therefore, we are grateful and humbled that the Lord has opened the door for us to visit our friends in China and seek understanding on how we might serve the Kingdom of God along with them.
Read MoreBook Gifting Updates
This year’s response to the COVID pandemic in China has been more unstable than ever, which has seriously affected the schedule for seminary schools. Indeed, their classes are all revolving in this loop: suspended → resumed → extra effort to catch up on the courses → suspended again……
Despite the uncertainties, 1,890 sets of books have been delivered to 29 official seminaries, Bible schools, and selected training centers. All by God’s grace!
Read MoreSince March 1, the government of China has been increasing pressure on Christians who were already facing many challenges in living out their faith. We hear from our friends that they are continuing on, and they ask for our prayers. We hear that seminaries are still meeting, though there is an alarming trend of government shutdowns in large cities. COVID is the official reason but these measures are contributing to increased pressure, especially against religious groups and minorities. Still, the church is finding ways to flourish even when it is in quiet ways. The Outreach Foundation is honored to stand with the church of China. Please read the following positive update from one of our friends who is located in the United States.
Read MoreCongratulations to Freda Li
She was given an “excellent” rating by her faculty at the University of Liverpool, Suzhou, China, and was recognized for being a faculty member of distinction. This is rarely attained by new faculty members. Freda earned this while taking care of her son as a single mother, volunteering as a preacher at her church, and serving as a small group leader. Freda was the main speaker for our last conversation with Chinese friends.
The Outreach Foundation’s friendship with China is one of our most enduring and we are so thankful for the connections maintained through this long season of not being able to see one another face-to-face. By God’s grace, our bonds of friendship continue in tangible ways and this update highlights two.
“Telling It Like It Is,” an ongoing forum on the state of Christianity in China
“Family and the church” gave focus to our conversations during our second China Forum on Friday evening, October 29. Our primary presenter was Frida, a single mother to a four-year old son who teaches Spanish full time to Chinese students at one of China’s prestigious universities in Suzhou Province. She is also a lay assistant in a local unregistered multi-site house church, with occasional preaching duties.
Read MoreYes, the challenges are increasing. No, we have not lost our hope in Jesus Christ. This was the message we heard during our first limited-audience forum on China, “Telling it like it is: the church in China now.”
Challenges are reminiscent of what we witnessed years ago. In July, the government passed a law that states what is prosecutable in mainland China will now be prosecuted in Hong Kong, which is causing the flight of many Chinese Christians. We saw pictures of registered churches being dismantled and turned into cultural centers such as the one pictured here from Jiangsu Province. If they resist, church leaders are sent to re-education camps. Tragically, one pastor committed suicide because of pressure to conform.
Read MoreIt seems so long ago that we were able to visit our friends in China. So, it is encouraging to hear from churches and individuals that with COVID-19 God has pruned many things, but the Spirit has only strengthened the resolve to deepen the bonds of friendship with our brothers and sisters in China. Though we do not envision a visit in the immediate future, we know that God’s timing is perfect and we look forward to the day He opens the way. Until then we follow friendship’s multi-faceted pathways.
First, we commit our resources and energy to the relationship. Thus we celebrate that with the hiring of Rev. Dr. Thomas Boone, The Outreach Foundation is investing deeply for China. In addition to him having been in China, Tom’s own family has had a favored relationship with many in China for over twenty years. His father, Dr. Thomas J Boone, Jr., was considered a foreign expert and taught economic law in several universities throughout China (Tianjin, Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Changchun, and Wuhan). His mother, Susan, taught English to some of our dear friends who have themselves become pastors, elders, and professors. Building on the good work of Jeff Ritchie, Peter Lim, Choon Lim, and Juan Sarmiento, Tom is committed to seeing The Outreach Foundation’s long-standing friendship with Christians in China continue and flourish to include new relationships.
Read MoreYour gifts to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal are making a difference...all over the world
When we launched this Appeal almost a year ago, none of us could have grasped what the devasting effects upon the global community would be with almost two million dead and economies devastated. Vaccines provide a glimmer of hope, but we know it will be a long time before large parts of the world can access them.
The Outreach Foundation is grateful for your faithful generosity over these past months as your gifts of over $277,000 have allowed us to respond to urgent needs in 23 countries: Iraq, Syria, Ghana, Rwanda, China, Cuba, Venezuela and so many more. These gifts have provided food relief, tuition help for seminarians so that their studies could continue, salary support for pastors in impoverished villages, and refugee relief for those whose lives were already being lived on the edge of calamity. The Global Church has used these gifts to shine the Light of Christ upon those who might not yet know of him and to encourage the faithful to “hold on.”
Read MoreThe Church in China is developing Chinese-language resources for training new believers. The Outreach Foundation partners with the Church at the provincial level, particularly in Shandong and Jiangsu, to make more of these resources available to them. We also work with a Hong Kong-based ministry, Christian Communications Ltd. (CCL), to ensure that graduates of each of the seminaries in China, along with leaders studying in several lay training centers, receive discipleship training materials, concordances, and other written resources as part of a “min-library” which each graduate receives. Last year alone, The Outreach Foundation made possible the distribution of study Bibles with notes by Chinese authors and books to thousands of pastoral leaders graduating from ten seminaries and Bible schools. We received this update from Matthew Fung, CCL Associate General Secretary:
May the peace and love of our Lord be with you and your family in the days of turmoil!
Christian Communications Limited (CCL) is grateful to partner with The Outreach Foundation for Christ’s kingdom over a decade with the vision to build faithful servants through book-gifting projects - the Graduates Book Package and the Servant-leaders Study Bible.
Read MoreDear friends in the United States,
Here in Hong Kong, our colleagues and families are all fine. After gradually returning to work in the office in late March, we had to resume working from home in early April. Many of the students returning from overseas after Easter break brought back the virus although they were unaware of being infected. This led to a sudden, drastic increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Although working again from home, we continue to serve churches and individual Chinese speaking Christians by conducting training and providing literature through online platforms, which has been very well received! In March we held 57 online courses, seminars, and talks.
Read MoreDear friends,
As we all join in prayer for the world community, especially the most vulnerable countries and people groups, I wanted to share a few glimpses from this part of the world:
+Taiwan has always been a mask-wearing culture. If people have a cold or are concerned about catching a cold, they will wear masks. So, this pandemic has just increased the number of people wearing masks in public to around 95% of the population. When you are in a public space, and everyone is wearing a mask, you only see the eyes. We tend to study the mouth and its expressions, but with everyone's mouth covered, you learn to study eyes. And eyes communicate a lot. They express fear when someone close to you coughs. They communicate a smile when the smile lines show at the edges of the eyes. They communicate a greeting. We are learning to read eyes here. And it is wonderful how many eyes respond to a smile with another smile. In this age of fear, the eyes communicate that we are one family on this earth. The eyes make a connection one-to-the-other. I have been grateful for the many times each day I see eyes that smile at me.
Read MoreHe said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2
“The biggest problem that we have is too many people and not enough leaders.” During a recent group visit to China coordinated by The Outreach Foundation, we had the privilege of meeting with leaders of the official Protestant Church in two of the provinces with the largest populations of Christians. In both meetings, the leaders shared how churches continue to grow in spite of the recent tightening of restrictions that religious groups in the country face. What concerned these influential leaders the most was not whether the church will survive but how to best provide sound guidance to the more than 600,000 new believers that are added to their congregations annually.
Read MoreWalking with Chinese Pastors
“The average pastor in our province has a congregation of 6,500 members.” With those words Rev. Keyun Zhang, chairman of the Provincial Committee of TSPM and president of the Theological Seminary, explained why the development of Chinese pastors is so important for the ongoing health of the growing congregations in the Jiangsu Province.
During the week that he spent in the United States last fall, Rev. Zhang led a delegation of eight high ranking leaders in visits sponsored by The Outreach Foundation to University Place Presbyterian Church (Tacoma, WA) and First Presbyterian Church (Wilmington, NC). He used the opportunity to share how even with such significantly high pastor to member ratios, the church in China is committed to improving the quality of its spiritual life and its ministries in their communities. “We have nine times as many congregations in the Jiangsu Province as we had in 1950,” he stated. “We have gone from 540 to 4,639 churches.”
Read MoreDear friends,
I began the first day of 2018 in Nanjing, China. Once again this year I am teaching a two-week intensive course at Jiangsu Seminary here. This weekend I preached on both Saturday and Sunday at two rural churches north of Nanjing.
Since I have been teaching here for a number of years, many of my former students are now serving churches throughout this big province. This year I was fortunate to visit a district where some of my former students are serving. They were delighted to be together on Saturday and Sunday. One couple drove two and a-half hours from their church to be with us. It was joyful reunion to hear their stories of both deep joy and the challenges they are facing. We worshiped together, we prayed together, we laughed and cried together. I was moved by their stories of seeking to be Christ's salt and light in the dramatic change of today's China.
Read MoreThe backbone of the rapidly growing Church in China is its lay leaders. They want continual training in how to bring the millions of new believers into mature Christian faith. Your gifts will enhance their efforts by supplying discipleship training materials and other publications for lay leaders. This year, we have collaborated in the distribution of close to 4,000 sets of materials and many other digital books. The following stories convey the impact that the work of our partners is having with 42 schools and training centers located in 29 of China’s 34 administrative units.
Qian
Qian serves in an established church located in an urban area of China. The expectations that the senior pastor has for her are high as she was trained in one of the nation’s top seminaries. Qian was tasked with providing a leadership role in the church and building up the next generation. She feels that the leadership and discipleship resource materials will be key as she works to instruct servant-leaders. Please keep Qian in your prayers that God may lead her to face those immense pastoral challenges.
Dear Friends,
We are indebted to you who have graciously supported Outreach’s mission to China. I would like to highlight the following programs, projects, and partnerships that we have had the privilege of carrying out over the last few months to connect U.S. Presbyterians and others with our brothers and sisters in China.
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