Mainland China
(Saturday Sept 16, 2006)

The Lord work me up at the usual time, about 2:00 AM. His presence came in the hotel room very strongly, and I just sort of worshipped for a while. They He began to speak to me about what He wanted to do there. He said it would be a lot more training, equipping and encouraging the pastors and leaders, and a lot less of the signs and wonders. He said that I was working with church leadership for this trip, and to focus on them instead of on the lost. In other words, I was not there to witness to unsaved Chinese people, I was there to strengthen, encourage and build up the Church leaders, who would in turn build up the believers who were the everyday witness.

As I thought about it, God's agenda really made sense to me. I spent a long time worshipping. Then I think I went back to sleep for about an hour. I woke up again about 5:00 AM and dawn was just starting to break outside. I jumped out of bed and I began to pray, "Lord, can You believe that I am really in Mainland China!! I am so excited." I tried to pray out loud and that is how I discovered that I had completely lost my voice. The sound coming out of my mouth did not sound like my own voice at all--it sounded like a frog croaking. My voice was so hoarse that my words were barley understandable.

Right about then is when it hit me how sick I felt. I also started to cough a lot. My cold had gotten very bad very fast because I did not have the right medicine to suppress it. I realized that there the interpreter would not be able to tell what I was saying and I would not be able to speak at this leader's meeting.

I remembered that sometimes when you are hoarse, your voice clears up if you keep talking. So I tried to do that. I spent about 30 minutes verbally reviewing my teaching material. Unfortunately, my voice did not clear up at all. If anything, it got worse.

Then I felt impressed to pray a simple prayer, and to pray it out load. It started as a barely distinguishable croak, but I knew God would understand it. "Lord," I prayed. "You sent me to China to help train and encourage the pastors here. But my voice is gone and in order to teach them I need to be able to speak. Lord please help me!" By the end of that prayer, my voice had returned completely to normal and I spent the next hour thanking God and worshipping. (I did not lose my voice again for the rest of the trip.)

Soon it was time for breakfast. Another lady who spoke fluent English (let's call her Sue) came to the hotel to collect me for breakfast. She had wanted to come the night before, but her car broke down. The interpreter also joined us for breakfast. We had a wet-noodles breakfast, a form of hot soup that I hoped would help my cold. Then it was off to the first meeting.

The meeting was held in a high-rise apartment complex. A church had rented an apartment there and gutted it to make a meeting hall. Believers had to arrive a few at a time, so they had started coming for the meeting about an hour before it was scheduled to start. We arrived 10 minutes before the scheduled start time and worship was already going. The door was kept locked and you had to ring the bell to be let in. Someone was appointed as the door keeper. When you rang the bell, they would look out a peephole to see who was there before letting you it.

The city I was in is supposed to be one of the most "open" cities in all of mainland China with the most religious "freedom." But even in the midst of this relative "freedom," the church had to be very careful.

The meetings went well. I never told a total head count of the number of churches represented there, but there were about 70 people crammed into the small room. Some of them came from as far away as Beijing, which they said was a 27 hour train ride.

The Lord showed up with His usual anointing for the activations and it went very well. The people were very excited at what God was doing in their midst. Apparently the Church in China is very mature in some areas, such as evangelism and faith for the supernatural. But they were weak in other areas, such as the prophetic, hearing God's voice, etc. They also tended to be weak on intimacy with God. I think that is a natural fall out of their culture. In China the family unit is run more on fear and respect than on love/intimacy. Children respect their parents more than in my culture, but they play with them less. Most of the Chinese believers who I met don't know much about personal intimacy with God the Father. That is an area where God is wanting to show Himself to His people. The idea of God speaking directly and personally to them (as opposed to speaking ministry direction) was a bit new, and they loved it.

The Lord had me do more personal prophesy during the seminar than I usually do. The Lord wanted to encourage his people, and He also commissioned a few of them into five-fold offices, gifting and anointing.

We had a morning and an afternoon session, and then we had a dinner with about 20 of the senior pastors. The interpreter I had been had another commitment and they give me a different man to interpret for me. This man would let them talk for 15 or 20 sentences and then give me a one sentence summary of what was said. Since translation was weak, I missed a lot of what was shared. But each of the 20 different leaders shared briefly who they were and what God was doing in their church.

Many of them were from other cities and some of them brought reports of intense persecution. Once city had multiple factories where all the worker had been saved and the factory was also a church. Someone became jealous of one of the churches and reported them to the officials. The government moved in and shut down all the factories. This closed the churches, but it also took away the believer's livelihood, their ability to produce an income. They don't have welfare in China, so a lot of these families were in danger of starving. Apparently underground churches in other cities were helping with food/clothes/etc to keep believers alive, but the church as effectively shut down and the believers were completely isolated form each other. That was happening only an hour train ride from where I was sitting. My heart really went out to these people. I know God is in control, but I felt powerless to help them. We did pray for them, though.

At one point during the meeting, the leaders starting discussing this project they wanted to do. One of them had a vision to hold a peaceful assembly in a public park. They want to have 1,000 believers gather together and sing five or six worship songs and silently pray blessings on their nation. They felt that would be a powerful testimony. They began discussing the issues, the concerns of participants being beaten or arrested. They came up with the conclusion that if they could get 1,000 believers to assemble peacefully, that would be too many for the police to try to arrest people. They might beat some of them to scatter the group, but they did not think very many would be arrested.

I can't give you the details (like where or when they are planning this) because I don't want to endanger them in any way.

I remember the translator speaking these words on behalf of pastor Ann. "I know it is scary to look at the policemen and the big clubs they carry. Some of us will be beaten. But it will be a powerful testimony of the love of Jesus to publicly sing worship songs on Christmas day."

The leaders began discussing this and decided to set up a prayer and fasting chain. I was very moved as I listened to their plans. I do believe that God wants to begin releasing His blessing on China, and I believe that one day the government leaders will realize that the Church is not a threat to them because the bible teaches us to obey the laws of our land and pray for our leaders. As soon as it is "legal" to be a Christian, the church will begin turning out some very law abiding citizens. But for now, the church is forced to break the law to worship God.

There is so much more I could share, but I have to be a bit caution as I write this testimony. I can't share any details that might put anyone in danger. The Lord really gave me a heart for the people who He sent me to work with. I always love the people who God sends me to minister to, but it was even deeper with the Chinese church. I had a strong sense that God would be sending me back to them again.