One of the most remarkable
stories of how God is using humble, simple-hearted Christians to build His
kingdom on Hainan Island was related by Carl Lawrence in his book “The Coming
Influence of China.” Lawrence recounts how, in the mid-1990s, two young women
came to faith in Christ in another Chinese province after hearing the Gospel via
shortwave radio broadcasts.
The two new believers received Bibles and immediately wanted
to serve God with all their hearts. A Hong Kong-based pastor met with the two
and tried to teach them that they should remain where they were and minister to
their neighbors. The girls protested, “No! The Bible you gave us says Jesus told
us to go into all the world.
We want to go.” Finally the pastor, feeling ashamed
at his own comparative lack of zeal, relented and told the girls there was a
need for workers on Hainan Island.
The duo had never heard of Hainan Island before but were
certain God wanted them to preach the Gospel there.
Two years later the girls returned to the Chinese mainland
where the pastor met with them. He had not heard any news since their departure.
The Hong Kong pastor used the meeting to introduce the girls to several visiting
Western church leaders. After introductions, the girls were asked how their work
had been and whether or not they had been able to start any churches. Lawrence explains, “The women
put their heads down and answered, ‘Oh pastor, we have only been there two
years...yea, two years. Not many. Not very many’. Their voices were apologetic.
‘We have only been there a short time. The people were not very friendly, no,
not very friendly. Sometimes they became very vicious. Yes, sometimes they told
us they were going to drown us in the ocean. Several men threatened us. Oh my,
and because we were so young, even some of the ladies did not like us. Yes, some
even called us terrible names... so not many churches... no, not many’.”
Finally, after being asked again by the frustrated pastor,
the girls apologized that they had been only able to start 30 churches since
their arrival on Hainan Island!
The pastor and his
Western friends were taken aback by the news. They asked how many
people attended their new churches. After again going through a
process of apologies and self-effacing comments, they answered, “Two
hundred and twenty.” The listeners presumed that meant the
girls had won a total of 220 converts in their 30 churches, but 220
was the number of members in the smallest of their churches!
“How many people do
you have in the largest of your churches,” the pastor demanded to
know. “Oh...not many.... Less than five thousand. Only four thousand
nine hundred. Yes, less than five thousand. We have just started.”
The Western visitors were so touched by the humility and zeal of the
two young ladies that they began to weep. One of the visitors told
the pastor to ask the two ladies how they managed to achieve such
great results.
“What did we do? Why nothing.
Yes, we did nothing, nothing.” The amazed onlookers protested, “You did nothing?
You have thirty churches – the smallest with two hundred and twenty people, the
largest with almost five thousand new Christians! And you did nothing?”
The two evangelists simply
said, “We just prayed.... After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly
what to do. We would keep praying and He would tell us what to do, we would do
it. Then we would pray again and he would tell us what to do again.
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Note: When we first read this
story of the two faithful girls, we were not sure of the story’s accuracy, as it
almost sounded too good to be true. We sent the story to a friend who is an
expert on the church in Hainan Island. Somewhat surprisingly, our informant
responded that indeed the story is true, these two young women had done great
exploits and planted many churches in the face of great opposition and struggle.
They primarily worked in southern Hainan Island, including several counties
around Sanya City.
However, our friend also added that because of a lack of
follow up and discipleship, that much of the fruit had been lost to cults, and
that by 1999 perhaps “only” 5,000 of the duo’s converts remained true believers.
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Source -Harvest Asia
source - harvest asia ministries
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