From China to Pakistan

28 March 2010

Dear Phyllis,

I’m sure I have told you this story before, but it is so good it bears repeating. Last summer I went on an extensive 15, 000 km trip clear across China to the Pakistan border. From Chiang Mai, I went to Laos to get a visa for China and take the bus from Vientiane to Kunming, China. I had bought my bus ticket through the guest house where I was staying, but when I got on the bus, the man taking the bus tickets said to me, “This is no ticket.” The bus was leaving in ten minutes and that was a bit of a problem. I replied, “Where do I buy a ticket?” Apparently he didn’t speak much English and just kept saying, “This is no ticket.” We had an interesting two sentence conversation where both of us kept repeating the same line. Fortunately, there was a girl on the bus that overheard our discussion and came to my rescue. I don’t know what happened other than she politely told me to sit down and not worry. Somehow the ticket I bought was valid.

Twenty two hours later we were just inside China at the border town of Mengla for a two hour noon break. I was walking up and down the main street looking for a restaurant when I saw the girl who had helped me the day before coming the other way. I told her, “If you can find a good restraint, I will buy you lunch.” It was a terrific relief to be with a bi-lingual Chinese who knew where to go and what to order.

When they served the food she turned to me and asked, “Are you a Christian?” Needless to say I was stunned by that sudden remark.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I am a Christian and we always pray before we eat.”

That is how I met Rosy. When I told her who I was and where I was going she said, “You must visit my brother who is a pastor in Kunming.” I told her, “I will buy you a ticket to Kunming if you will go with me and introduce me to your brother.” The next day I found myself staying in the home of a house church pastor in Kunming. This was a tremendous break, and while there, I had the rare privilege of attending a house church Sunday morning meeting.

I asked this pastor, “Do you need any Bibles?” He replied, “I could use 300 here in Kunming, but the other churches in our group could use 3,000.” I promise him that I would do what I could to get the needed Bibles to him and the other churches associated with him. Since last August this has been a major project that I have been working on.

Chiang Mai is one door that we use to get Bibles into southwest China, but we are limited to what can be carried on an airplane. That would be extremely expensive to try to get 3,000 Bibles that way. For large quantities, the eastern door is the best avenue. But to get those Bibles to the brethren in southwest and central China proved to be almost impossible. I wrote several letters, but nothing ever materialized.

Then about a month ago I was talking with some Mennonite boys who were going to Hong Kong and indicated that they might be able to get the job done. My heart soared.

The code word for Bible couriers is “donkey”. That is exactly what they are. These boys are just dumb donkeys who use their backs and legs to carry millions of copies of the Scripture through customs in suitcases into needed areas. You won’t read about them in magazines. You don’t see pictures of them in missionary prayer letters. They are the unsung heroes who are doing a heroic work in being the lifeline for millions of Christians who have no hope of ever holding a copy of God’s Word in their hand except someone carries it to them. I can’t say praise enough for these young men who are doing this incredible ministry and seldom get thanked. They are just a vital link in the supply chain carrying Bibles from point A to point B, but seldom ever meet the people who are the final recipients of their ministry.

As soon as I learned that these fellows might be able to pull this one off, I immediately contacted Rosy in Vientiane asking her to get in touch with her brother in Kunming and set things up. E-mails flew but the response was too slow. Unfortunately, the Mennonite boys were only going to be in HK for ten days and had a large quantity of other jobs to do. Finally I got a letter from the top three people in this entire supply system advising that the window was too small and the boys couldn’t get my job done in the short time allotted.

I wrote Rosy telling her that it couldn’t be done. When I sent that letter off, another e-mail came from the main man living here in Chiang Mai saying that there was an outside chance that they might be able to do it after all. I can’t imagine what happened other than I know two weeks ago I got a chance to hug the heroes who did the impossible, and the much prayed for Word of God is now in southwest China.

 Last week I wrote a letter to Roald Lidal, the director of New Life League. The copy is as follows:

25 March 2010

 Dear Roald,

I just received word today that the 3,000 Bibles you gave us have safely arrived in Kunming. Little can I express the joy this has brought to thousands in southwest China.

On the behalf of Christ, I want to thank you for the splendid decision you made to allow us to send 3,000 Bibles to Yunnan and Shaanxi area of China. I am keenly aware that these Bibles are not free, in the sense that someone has to pay for them. I know your printing in Japan is probably some of the least expensive in the world on the basis of mass production with amazing Japanese hi-tech. But still in all, paper and ink are not free. What you gave us was probably between $7,000 to $8,000 worth of Bibles.

I can understand your policy of charging organizations who are raising funds for Bibles to pay for them in order to defray the total cost of your entire operation. But to allow someone outside of your organization to have access to your stock is as fine an example of the function of the Body of Christ as there is.

When people ask me what organization I am with, I reply, “I am not with an organization but an Organism – the Body of Christ.” That Body is wonderful. It transcends organizations and unites for the single purpose of promoting the work and ministry of Christ.

I don’t know how many different organizations were involved in this project, but there must have been well over half a dozen. First there were the people probably in several countries and many denominations who gave money to TBL for these Bibles. I know that The Bible League is one of your main partners in ordering and funding a significant portion of your total production in Japan. Then there was NLL that actually printed them. Next were the Mennonite boys who paid their own expenses and spent several days physically carrying them into mainland China. Then there was another fellow with a different organization who was responsible for getting them sent to Kunming. In the middle of that there was my contact in Vientiane, Laos, who had to coordinate everything to get the information of where to ship the Bibles. Without the cooperation of this vital coordinator in Laos, nothing would have been possible. Once they got to Kunming, they were received and distributed to an autonomous Chinese house church group that were waiting for Bibles. And somewhere in all this mixture there is Neil Verwey and the Japanese church in Nara that support me to live here in SEA. Without their support I wouldn't be here. No one organization could possibly do that by themselves, but the Body of Christ working together did a spectacular undertaking to get the Word of God to thousands of Christians in southwest and central China.

Brother, I am tremendously humbled to be a very small link in the chain that the Lord used to meet this serious need. I will write you later explaining the most unusual way the Lord led me last summer to get in touch with this house church group. I am a very small segment in this miracle, but it was through my relationship with you all that these people now have their Bibles. And this would have been impossible if you had not been so Christ oriented to release these Bibles for the Mennonite boys to carry into China.

Lord willing, I will be traveling up to China in June to visit the areas where these Bibles went. My main contact that made all of this possible is setting up this trip and will be going up there with me to introduce me to the leaders in various cities who actually received the Bibles.

 Although the part that I played was extremely minor, yet this was perhaps the greatest achievement of my life. And had you not been willing to let us have these Bibles, they would still be setting in a warehouse and the people in China would still be praying for Bibles.

 Thank you for the great privilege of your fellowship;

In our worthy Lord Jesus,

                                                       bill