Bread for the Persecuted Church

                                                         

 “They asked, and He brought them quail, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.” *

 Friends from Colorado Springs, Pat and Sylvia, shared about a joyful meeting in their home recently with a pastor and his wife from Asia. Their visit inspired memories of a time in the 1990’s when Pat and Sylvia made a business trip to China with Pat’s company. But while there, Pat and Sylvia were also about God’s business.

 Before leaving, they felt impressed by the Lord to carry in Bibles, “bread” for God’s children. The first Chinese study Bible had just come off the press and contacts from the area to which they would be traveling requested that Pat and Sylvia bring “the spiritual bread” with them.

 Now, the couple probably didn’t realize that they would be given a large trunk load of Bibles.  When faced with the customs official at the airport, they knew that they were in a dangerous situation. In fact, the security was so tight that soldiers armed with machine guns lined the jetway when they disembarked from the plane.

While Pat prayed, “Lord, help!!” Sylvia was praying that he would find favor in the eyes of the customs official. As the officer looked into the trunk, Pat knew that they might be arrested and thrown out of the country. When asked what the Bibles were for, he replied, “Gifts for the Chinese people.”

“The government does not like so many Christmas stories,” said the man. And then, “You can go.” Relieved and joyful that God had answered their prayers, they went on their way. Clearly, Pat had found favor in his eyes.

During the course of a week, they were able to take backpack loads of Bibles to an upstairs apartment occupied by a man who was an English teacher, restocking his “bread closet”—a pantry off the kitchen! Pastors from all over the country would visit his apartment for prayer and Bibles to take back to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

The large trunk that was successfully passed through customs ended up in an embassy of a foreign nation there in Beijing; however, it wasn’t empty! There was “bread” in that trunk for the Mongolian people as well.

Amazingly while they were there, Pat and Sylvia met another small group of folks from a church in the States who were on a mission trip to Mongolia. Pat went to the embassy and helped fill up their backpacks with Mongolian Bibles. Miracles!

Returning to the present, the window that was open during the 1990’s and early 2000’s to take Bibles into the country is closed and they are in great demand.  Most of their friends serving as missionaries there have been forced to leave, pastors imprisoned, and people persecuted for their faith in Christ.

 The visit Pat and Sylvia had with their pastor friend and his wife was especially gratifying because in 1992 that pastor, a new Christian, received one of the very first Bibles they delivered to the “bread closet” in the upstairs apartment! He told them that he loves that Bible and still has it.

During their visit, the pastor commented that his people need to hear the message of love and grace, of intimacy with God, to slow down and not focus so much on “doing!” Sylvia responded, “So do Americans!”

Seeing the fruit of their mission twenty-eight years ago was especially gratifying! The four of them shared a joyful time, looking through Sylvia’s scrapbook of their travels to China. Perhaps Pat and Sylvia will not return, but God’s “truth, mercy and kindness flow from person to person, nation to nation…and are unstoppable.”  (Sylvia’s letter, September 2020).

What can we do? Pray for the people of China, for those imprisoned for their faith and for the church which is under strict scrutiny of the government. According to Sylvia, in countries closed to Christianity “believers are like birds in a cage. They are free as long as they stay within the cage.  The cage however, keeps getting smaller and smaller.”

            On the first Sunday in November (Nov. 1st), there will be a day of prayer for the persecuted church. More information will be shared in the coming weeks.

            Praise the Lord for Pat, Sylvia, missionaries, national pastors and others who have courageously followed God’s call to provide Bibles for His hungry children in Asia and in other closed countries. Use us Lord!

*Psalm 105:40 NIV