How can a country as large and diverse as China—from tropical to sub-arctic climate, with heavily populated areas and remote sparsely populated deserts and mountains, with 1.4 billion people of 55 officially recognized “nationalities” speaking 296 languages—possibly be reached with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ?

 

If we focused on the challenges, we might draw back from the task. But God has a plan, and it is the same plan that He has for reaching anyone, anywhere, at any time: Do what He gives us to do, however small or large it may seem, and trust HIM for the harvest.

God has given World Missionary Press the privilege of providing His written Word to individuals and ministries He has moved to take that written Word to the peoples of the world, China included, through various methods of His design.

Wesley S. and his mission teams not only took copies of Simplified Chinese How to Know God Scripture booklets into China, but also facilitated printings in China. Before doing this, Wes approached Robert M., who had lived in China for decades, for his evaluation of How to Know God. He was told, “This is the booklet for China.” About the Chinese people he said, “They are very willing to read a booklet that says ‘How to know God.’ They want to know God! And this little book, I feel—I’ve seen, I’ve experienced—has made the difference in hundreds of thousands of lives. How to Know God tells them in a simple way, without any doctrinal or denominational interpretations, just right from the Word of God.”

Kendall C. contacted World Missionary Press in 1998 about opening a resource center in Chiang Mai, Thailand—a hub for hundreds of missionaries working there and in the surrounding nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam as well as China)—where WMP materials could be easily obtained. He himself had lived in Hong Kong for nine years, taking Bibles into China. His family’s home church in Florida had seen How to Know God, and in due time his father printed 1.5 million copies of Simplified Chinese How to Know God Scripture booklets in Thailand. That was the beginning of Asia Communications & Training Services Co. Ltd. or ActsCo for short. ActsCo has become a major first-class printing enterprise in Chiang Mai and serves as WMP’s national coordinator for Thailand.

Through Kendall’s family, Peter and Rosemari M. “discovered” WMP Scripture booklets and were hooked. They carried them into China, India, and the Philippines before they went to be with the Lord. Pat S., a WMP volunteer receptionist now with the Lord, faithfully made 24 annual trips with missions teams to carry Scriptures into China until almost the very end of her life.

One group focuses on the predominantly Muslim areas of China’s northwest provinces. In the past eleven years Dennis G. and his teams have distributed 445,000 WMP Scripture booklets. He and Cal Z. organize several trips a year, increasing the number of Scripture booklets needing to be printed for these teams.

Another major WMP partner includes Simplified Chinese Scripture booklets and Bible studies in “gospel bags” for tourists coming into Hong Kong from mainland China. They now use 4 million WMP Scripture booklets a year as well as 3.7 million in neighboring Macau. A reported ideological disillusionment among many Chinese has led to a significant turning to God (Operation World). As these Chinese tourists have opportunity to sit and read a Scripture booklet, the Spirit of God reveals truth and presents the claims of Christ as the One who can be trusted with their lives and their eternal souls.

The “famine of the Scriptures” in China, with some Chinese Christians sharing one Bible with 10 or even 100 members, has resulted in an almost insatiable demand for Bibles and Christian literature for outreach and equipping the Church (Operation World). WMP Scripture booklets and Bible studies on John and Genesis in Simplified Chinese are one answer to this urgent need. God has provided seed and seed sowers. As each obeys His call, He will bring in the harvest and make the improbable possible.

Cal Z. recently reported: “As the moon phase became full in January, fourteen evangelists were using God’s nightlight to distribute over 50,000 Scripture booklets in unevangelized Muslim villages in western China.  God answered the prayers of His people as none of the evangelists were caught, arrested, lost, or injured…. Some seekers have used the information stamped on the back of the booklets to get more information about Jesus. May the Lord continue to water His Word that was widely spread. May the Lord of the Harvest call forth more laborers so that all twenty-four million unevangelized Muslims in western China will hear/read the gospel of Jesus Christ! Thank you, beloved saints at World Missionary Press, for covering us in prayer and equipping us with so many copies of God’s Word.”

Visit vimeo.com/253611199 or scan the QR code on the right to view Cal sharing during WMP’s 55th anniversary celebration.

[You can help supply How to Know God and other Scripture materials for use in China. A gift of $50 will provide for the production of 1,300 booklets; $200 will help produce more than 5,000 booklets!]

 

———

 

Grateful Quotes

 

“My daughter gave her life to Jesus”

 

In the African nation of Lesotho, Every Home for Christ teams go from house to house, sharing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ along with WMP Scripture booklets in English and Sesotho. Team members bring back encouraging reports like these of hearts touched and lives transformed:

“ ‘This booklet named The Way to God—I have it, but I don’t have this one, A Bible Study on Matthew.’ said a lady we met, pushing a wheelbarrow. ‘I extremely like it, and I am going to read it. These booklets helped my family so much. My daughter gave her life to Jesus through these booklets. Now she is a child of God. I thank this ministry so much [for] visiting every home with the gospel.’ ”   —Mathato

“Praise God one of the EHC workers visited my family, telling us how Jesus Christ loves us. We were very surprised by a visitor like him. He witnessed to us and distributed gospel literature to us. We decided to follow Jesus and take Him as our Lord and Savior. Then he prayed for us. Now we are children of God who are willing to tell others about Him. We are very excited to be called His children.””  —Lebo F.

——–

 

Meet the Team

 

Herb and Norma Jean A.

Volunteers

Herb and Norma Jean’s association with World Missionary Press goes back even longer than they’ve known each other. Herb first learned of WMP when it was located in Winona Lake, Indiana, and his church volunteered once a month. (WMP moved from Winona Lake to New Paris in 1970.) Norma Jean remembers that when WMP’s co-founders Watson and Rose Goodman came to speak at the church she and her mother attended in South Bend, their youngest son Harry, 5 years old at the time, came to the Sunday-school class she taught—accompanied by his mother Rose! Norma Jean also came along when her mother’s Sunday-school class regularly volunteered at WMP in the evenings.

Herb had retired after 29 years of educational work, much of it guidance counseling, when Jay Benson called him, asking if he would consider being his assistant. He and his family lived “practically in the backyard of WMP” and his wife had passed away 1½ years before. As Herb puts it, “I told him if I could do anything to help him, I would. So I came over and spent 10½ years by his side. On my first day of work, I was surprised to find my desk was right there in his office! We had great times together.”

Norma Jean had been a bank secretary and customer-service officer for 45 years when she signed up to take her mother to a Christian Association of Primetimers event in Gull Lake. There she met Herb! When she asked him where he was from, he said, “Goshen,” as most people don’t know where the little town of New Paris is. Then she asked if he knew World Missionary Press! They were married September 16, 2000, and honeymooned in Switzerland and Germany. She loves having the family she never had—Herb’s four sons and a daughter (who works in WMP’s Prepress department) and seven grandchildren.

Norma Jean became a volunteer receptionist after she married Herb. Now the two of them volunteer together, stuffing newsletters into envelopes once a month. What Herb loves most is “the environment—being able to do something extra for the Lord while I’m still able. It’s like coming back home, and I enjoy the fellowship with interesting co-workers.”

Herb likes to read when he’s not working. He has developed a card ministry to encourage the people he can no longer visit. And he still plays the organ at church as he has done for 49 years.

—

WMP Partners Around the World

 

Feed the Hungry Worldwide

Since 1987 Feed the Hungry has taken the love of Christ into 92 nations through feeding programs primarily for children. Today 180,000 children in nations from Cambodia to Nicaragua receive daily nourishment through its programs. Roger W., who recently joined Feed the Hungry to focus on extending these programs to meet spiritual as well as physical hunger, visited WMP to share his vision and strengthen an already-existing partnership.

WMP: Roger, can you give us an overview of your work at Feed the Hungry?

Roger: Feed the Hungry has a three-fold vision: Feed those who are hungry, Empower the Church worldwide, and Engage the Church in evangelism. My new responsibilities lie with the last two challenges—providing evangelism tools and training to help our partners in the feeding programs reach out to their communities with the hope that comes through Jesus Christ.

WMP: What brought you to WMP?

Roger:  One day my wife suggested that I contact WMP since we are in the same area, and they could possibly be a source of supply as I developed my programs and established ministry partners. That very day, when I arrived at work, someone suggested WMP, because Feed the Hungry is involved in an ongoing joint project to provide A Bible Study on John in the Chichewa language for Malawi. I took the two suggestions as from the Lord and called WMP! When I spoke with Helen W., she replied that the Chichewa project was on her desk, as material from the translator in Africa had just arrived! I made an appointment to visit WMP and talked to Helen about that project and other resources that WMP offers for Kingdom work.

WMP: The Chichewa project is very exciting as it is the first WMP Bible study to be offered in this language spoken by 9.6 million people in Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. What was the reaction when you shared the news about the Bible Study on John with your contact in Malawi?

Roger: After reading A Bible Study on John, I contacted our partner in Malawi, suggesting he check out your website, telling him that A Bible Study on John would soon be available in Chichewa.

Ten minutes later, he replied with great enthusiasm—overjoyed with the expectation of such literature being available. We both agreed that this was PHENOMENAL and praised the Lord for re-energizing the partnership of Feed the Hungry and World Missionary Press for such a time as this.

I look forward to working through WMP’s national coordinators in the nine countries where we have our larger feeding programs—to encourage our partners by equipping them with the seed of the Word of God.

Feed the Hungry responds with emergency food and relief during disasters, and over the years World Missionary Press has been blessed to provide Scripture booklets and New Testaments in many of these crisis situations—providing Scripture booklets for Japan after a tsunami, Kreyol New Testaments and Scripture booklets after the earthquake in Haiti, as well as material for Kenya, Albania, Indonesia, and Mexico at other times. We praise God for new opportunities to work alongside Feed the Hungry in following the Lord’s call to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people in crisis.