In the 1990s, Open Doors began supplying Bibles and literature to a house church on the eastern coast of China. The church would send Christians to Guangzhou, southern China, to pick up the Bibles.
One time, the church sent three brothers to collect a shipment of Bibles. Open Doors coworkers had prepared six bags of Bibles, four which contained small Bibles and the other two held study Bibles which were four times as large as the plain Bibles and weighed more. When the brothers saw the study Bibles, their faces held mixed expressions. Coworkers asked if they disliked these Bibles. One brother said, “We wished to see all small-size Bibles in the bags. We are happy [with the study Bibles] but wish we could bring more Bibles, so more brothers and sisters could read and have their own personal Bible.”
Such was the need for Bibles for each believer in those days. Open Doors continuously brought Bibles and literature for them until their need was eased and they were able to buy them from the Three Self Church. With the constant supply of God’s Word, their network grew to 120,000 believers in 2008.
Church Able to Donate to Earthquake Relief
When China instigated economic reform, the church began to prosper financially. As a display of God’s love, they began to serve their community. When the earthquake struck Sichuan province in southwestern China on May 12, 2008, their response was immediate. Even though they were about 2200 kilometers (or1360 miles) from the earthquake area, in the first week after the disaster they gathered 3 million CNY ($440,000 USD) to donate to government-approved NGOs (non-government organizations). After that, they gave an additional 7 million CNY, for a total of 1.4 million USD.
They also participated in a renovation project for a village where two rivers which had long been the village’s water source were shifted by the earthquake. The new location of the water was so distant that the residents of the village had to manually carry water over mountain roads full of twists and turns. Their young people could achieve this, but not the older villagers. Since much water is needed in the rebuilding process, having no local source of water would hinder progress and the restoration of normal life.
The helping church decided they needed to build dams and pipe the water to the village. The pipes had to be placed through deep forests before they could reach the houses. The whole construction required 5,000 bricks, 4 tons of cement, 10 cubic meters of sand, and more than 6,000 meters of pipes. Most of the supplies had to be delivered through manual labor. Through 10 volunteer teams, the helping church built an entire plumbing system that brought water to each house in this village.
Another project was establishing a county civic center to provide counseling and education to women and children affected by the disaster.
The Church Poised for More Positive Influence
Today approximately 5-6% of China is Christian, and in Western thinking, this is enough to cause a significant impact on the nation’s views and value systems. Historically the Chinese government has tried to suppress Christianity, but time has proven the impossibility of this action.
The Church has seen unprecedented growth in the last 30 years as greater persecution has spurred believers to strengthen their faith and outreach. According to several China researchers, the unregistered house church has become China’s largest, most organized and most internationally connected NGO. The growing Church may herald the beginning of a new system of coexistence, as the Church is large enough now to be a greater and more positive influence on society.
Following the Sichuan earthquake, about 1 million volunteers went to help with earthquake relief, according to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs in China, with an estimated 63% Christian. Christians contributed 11% of the total donations to government-approved NGOs. A year after the earthquake, most of the remaining volunteers are Christians and God’s love continues to restore a broken world in word and in deed.
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