God opened another door in sharing the gospel openly in China through the Prince of Peace Forum last month and we are excited to share that with you! Ian Vickers, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partners in Hope (GPiH).
Last month, history was written at the Prince of Peace Forum hosted by GPiH in Beijing, China. The teachings of Jesus were presented openly - a big step toward religious freedom. Over 150 delegates from a variety of backgrounds, including government and education, attended. The forum opened at the Chinese Library of Congress. Shaun Bao, Executive Director of the China Harmony and Unity Center, gave a compelling plea for forgiveness and mercy and shared the story of how he found freedom in Christ from the bitterness he felt for his family's persecution.
Throughout the forum, FamilyLife representatives, pastors and GPiH staff shared how the transforming work of Jesus brings peace. Pastor Don Young ended the conference with a strong statement of truth, "This Prince of Peace has a name, and His name is Jesus!" One Chinese leader said, "I've been praying for an open forum of this magnitude for 16 years!"
Stories from the Prince of Peace Forum
-At the end of the forum, one government official asked to be involved in next year's conference and asked GPiH representatives to be bolder in what they were sharing!
-After hearing Shaun's story
of how Jesus helped him forgive those who persecuted his family, a journalist burst into tears saying she had never heard of such a moving testimony of forgiveness and wanted to know more of this Jesus he spoke of.
A prominent Philosophy professor approached GPiH staff at the end of the forum to express that he too believed that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and wanted to be taught more so he could grow in his faith.
God is doing exciting things in China and we are privileged to be part of His plan among the Chinese people.
The Lord will lay bare His Holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:10
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Prince of Peace Forum
God opened another door in sharing the gospel openly in China through the Prince of Peace Forum last month and we are excited to share that with you! Ian Vickers, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partners in Hope (GPiH).
Last month, history was written at the Prince of Peace Forum hosted by GPiH in Beijing, China. The teachings of Jesus were presented openly - a big step toward religious freedom. Over 150 delegates from a variety of backgrounds, including government and education, attended. The forum opened at the Chinese Library of Congress. Shaun Bao, Executive Director of the China Harmony and Unity Center, gave a compelling plea for forgiveness and mercy and shared the story of how he found freedom in Christ from the bitterness he felt for his family's persecution.
Throughout the forum, FamilyLife representatives, pastors and GPiH staff shared how the transforming work of Jesus brings peace. Pastor Don Young ended the conference with a strong statement of truth, "This Prince of Peace has a name, and His name is Jesus!" One Chinese leader said, "I've been praying for an open forum of this magnitude for 16 years!"
Stories from the Prince of Peace Forum
-At the end of the forum, one government official asked to be involved in next year's conference and asked GPiH representatives to be bolder in what they were sharing! After hearing Shaun's story of how Jesus
helped him forgive those who persecuted his family, a journalist burst into tears saying she had never heard of such a moving testimony of forgiveness and wanted to know more of this Jesus he spoke of.
-A prominent Philosophy professor approached GPiH staff at the end of the forum to express that he too believed that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and wanted to be taught more so he could grow in his faith.
Last month, history was written at the Prince of Peace Forum hosted by GPiH in Beijing, China. The teachings of Jesus were presented openly - a big step toward religious freedom. Over 150 delegates from a variety of backgrounds, including government and education, attended. The forum opened at the Chinese Library of Congress. Shaun Bao, Executive Director of the China Harmony and Unity Center, gave a compelling plea for forgiveness and mercy and shared the story of how he found freedom in Christ from the bitterness he felt for his family's persecution.
Throughout the forum, FamilyLife representatives, pastors and GPiH staff shared how the transforming work of Jesus brings peace. Pastor Don Young ended the conference with a strong statement of truth, "This Prince of Peace has a name, and His name is Jesus!" One Chinese leader said, "I've been praying for an open forum of this magnitude for 16 years!"
Stories from the Prince of Peace Forum
-At the end of the forum, one government official asked to be involved in next year's conference and asked GPiH representatives to be bolder in what they were sharing! After hearing Shaun's story of how Jesus
helped him forgive those who persecuted his family, a journalist burst into tears saying she had never heard of such a moving testimony of forgiveness and wanted to know more of this Jesus he spoke of.
-A prominent Philosophy professor approached GPiH staff at the end of the forum to express that he too believed that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and wanted to be taught more so he could grow in his faith.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
House Churches
"Come, follow me...and I will make you fishers of men." Mark 1:17 God wants all Christians to be fishers of men...but, God has given the Chinese Christians a specific vision and it is called, "Back To Jerusalem." It refers to a call from God for the Chinese Christian church missionaries to preach the gospel and establish fellowships of believers in all countries, cities, towns, and ethnic groups between China and Jerusalem. Within those regions lie the three largest spiritual strongholds that have yet to be conquered by the gospel: Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The reference to this effort is called the 10/40 window, the areas of the world that lie between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the Equator. All fifty of the worlds least-Christian and least-evangelized countries are located within this region!
The leaders of this movement teach others through meetings in house churches...they have not had seminary training, but many have been trained in the Holy Spirit Personal Devotion Bible School (prison) for many years. Listen to what they say about their training. In this prison seminary, we have learned many valuable lessons about the Lord that we could never have learned from a book. We've come to know God in a deeper way. We understand his goodness and his loving faithfulness to us. The men and women of the Chinese churches have little money, no fund raising plans, no newsletter mailing lists or investment portfolios, but they already have a rich inheritance stored up in heaven and are sharp arrows in the hands of God. Oswald Chambers once wrote, "If you give God the right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God's experiments always succeed."
Some of the strengths of the house churches:
The leaders of this movement teach others through meetings in house churches...they have not had seminary training, but many have been trained in the Holy Spirit Personal Devotion Bible School (prison) for many years. Listen to what they say about their training. In this prison seminary, we have learned many valuable lessons about the Lord that we could never have learned from a book. We've come to know God in a deeper way. We understand his goodness and his loving faithfulness to us. The men and women of the Chinese churches have little money, no fund raising plans, no newsletter mailing lists or investment portfolios, but they already have a rich inheritance stored up in heaven and are sharp arrows in the hands of God. Oswald Chambers once wrote, "If you give God the right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you. God's experiments always succeed."
Some of the strengths of the house churches:
- House churches are indigenous...freedom from institutional and traditional bondage.
- They are rooted in family units.
- They are stripped of inessentials.
- They emphasize the lordship of Christ, and have confidence in the sovereignty of God.
- They have been purified by suffering.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16
Dear Family and Friends,
We ask you to join us in prayer as we prepare to encourage our precious brothers and sisters in Christ in China. As Christians our most powerful resource is communion with God through prayer. God's power is infinitely greater than ours...and we must rely on it. It is through prayer we express our dependency on God...and it is the crucial avenue by which we express the reign of God in our lives. Prayer is fundamentally intimacy with God. Your intersession for Global Partners in Hope and us, as Team China, is desired as we plan purposefully to extend love, hope and joy in Christ to our Chinese Christian brethren.
Napoleon once said: "When China is moved it will change the face of the globe." Today those words are becoming a reality through the powerful spiritual vision of the Chinese church to send 100,000 missionaries across China's borders to complete the Great Commission, even in this generation! As God told Habakkuk, "Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it." (Habakkuk 1:5, NLT) from Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
We ask you to join us in prayer as we prepare to encourage our precious brothers and sisters in Christ in China. As Christians our most powerful resource is communion with God through prayer. God's power is infinitely greater than ours...and we must rely on it. It is through prayer we express our dependency on God...and it is the crucial avenue by which we express the reign of God in our lives. Prayer is fundamentally intimacy with God. Your intersession for Global Partners in Hope and us, as Team China, is desired as we plan purposefully to extend love, hope and joy in Christ to our Chinese Christian brethren.
Napoleon once said: "When China is moved it will change the face of the globe." Today those words are becoming a reality through the powerful spiritual vision of the Chinese church to send 100,000 missionaries across China's borders to complete the Great Commission, even in this generation! As God told Habakkuk, "Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it." (Habakkuk 1:5, NLT) from Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
All glory be to God
"Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask or even dream of -- infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." -- Ephesians 3:20
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