The following is a report from a HeartCry missionary in Asia who recently visited China and preached to hundreds of nominal Christians and animists. The names and locations are not given for security reasons, but we want to thank you for supporting this type of ministry by your prayers and your financial contributions. Thnak you!

Dear HeartCry,

Happy New Year to you! I thank God for all the wonderful things He has done for me in the previous year. I am also thankful for your prayer and support for the missions I am engaged in. It was by the Grace of God and through your partnership that we were able to preach the Word of God to many people in different places in the past months, especially to new places where we wouldn’t have been able to reach without your support.

By the Grace of God, my team and I made a successful visit to China as planned and much prayed for. We visited 4 villages and preached the Word to hundreds of ethnic people, both Christians and animists. We met with at least 9 regional church leaders and were able to share the Gospel with them and to discuss about how we could labor together in the future ministry. To my best knowledge of their situation, Christians and church leaders are nominal. The existing churches still need to hear and receive the Gospel. During our visit, we preached as many as 7 times a day at separate locations in a single village because it was impossible for people to gather in one place. It seemed that they were at first quite cautious as it was the first time they heard me preach, for both the government and church leaders have set a strict rules that no foreigner be allowed to preach in churches. Eventually, they wholeheartedly received us and we were able to preach in 4 churches too.

We also met a few church leaders from other regions. A deacon from a village insisted that I visit his church and preach (but I didn’t make it there due to time limit). There are over 400 families and 760 baptized members in his church who have never heard the message of the Gospel expounded in a way I preached it. Another member of church with 80 families, over 200 members, said he never heard a proper preaching, i.e. reading the Bible verses and exposition, in his church. Some women from another village told me that they have been Christians for decades but never heard a sermon. No preacher came to preach at the village either. The problem is that the churches do not evangelize because they are not born-again. But the opportunity we have is because the leaders acknowledge their need for more pastoral trainings in future. That’s another step we will take in near future. Please continue to pray for the work and the men involved.

Before the China trip, my Bible school team and I had visited a village of Buddhists in my hometown area and preached the gospel to over a hundred people. By the providence of God, many more villages in this region have invited us to preach in the months to come. For the next few weeks, I will be teaching in ‘Undisclosed’ Region where I will also be occasionally visiting to preach to local animist villages. Please pray for the works, for me and my family. Thank you for your partnership and support. May God bless you. In His glorious service,

Paul J.