God’s unstoppable word in China

Kua Wee Seng witnessed the stunning growth of the Church in China during his 28 years working in Bible mission in China. Kua retired in 2021 as Director of China Partnership, United Bible Societies. This is his story of Bible mission in China:

I’m amazed at the explosive growth of Christianity in China over the past decades. 

Christianity was banned with all churches shut, and Christian meetings and activities were prohibited during the Cultural Revolution years in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, over the past 40 years the population of Chinese Christians has grown to more than 46 million based on official estimates and much more unofficially. I praise the Lord for his sovereign work through his unstoppable word in China!

Testimony after testimony

During my nearly three decades of ministry involvement in China, I have visited many churches in different parts of China and I have heard testimony after testimony of the growth of the churches, especially in the rural areas. 

Very often, after a person came to faith in Christ, he or she would begin to share his or her faith with family, friends and neighbours. And they would gather at homes to pray, sing hymns and read or listen to the word of God. The home fellowship would grow and become a church. This is how churches have sprouted all over China, and thanks to your prayerful support it continues to happen.

I am reminded of Luke’s description of the growth of the early Church in the Book of Acts – how the word of God spread, increased, multiplied and prevailed mightily. In the same way, there has been an astounding growth of the churches in China, despite the constraints and restrictions. 

Besides printing Bibles for China, Amity Press has also printed more than 140 million copies of the Bible for distribution overseas, with different editions of Bibles in more than 190 languages exported to over 140 countries all over the world. Altogether, more than 230 million copies of the Bible have been printed by Amity Press since 1987. It has grown to be the largest Bible press in the world. Praise God for the amazing miracle of the Amity Bible press!

We started helping churches in China with the donation of Bible paper in 1985. Since then, fuelled by your amazing support, we have broadened the scope and range of our Bible ministry support over the past two decades, especially in initiating and supporting Bible translation projects, Scripture literacy programmes, gospel outreach materials and the provision of Bible resources and training.

Resources and preacher training

Millions of Chinese have been blessed with a copy of the Bible; millions have been reached with the gospel; and hundreds of thousands have learned to read the Bible. Your generosity has helped achieve this. Tens of thousands of pastors and preachers, parents and young people have been equipped with Bible resources and Bible training. A growing number of ethnic minority people groups now have the word of God in their heart languages.

I thank God for his providence and provision for the Bible ministry needs in China through your faithful prayers and generous support all these years. God has taken our offering of five barley loaves and two small fish, blessed them and multiplied them to feed the multitudes in China and all around the world.

Although Bible mission in China has become more challenging in recent years, there is still ‘a wide door for effective work’ (1 Corinthians 16.9, ESV). The word of God is ‘not bound’ and ‘not in chains’ (2 Timothy 2.9b, ESV and GNB respectively). 

This content is adapted from an original story published by United Bible Societies-China Partnership. This version first appeared in our Bible a Month prayer letter, which is mailed to subscribers four times a year. The following prayers were included in the latest Bible a Month:

• Thank the Lord for the millions of Christians living in China and praise God that so many are coming to faith every year. 
• Pray for the success of the pastor training programmes organised by the churches in China with the support of Bible Society so that more trained ministers will be able to serve more effectively. 
• Pray for the good health of Bible workers in China, many of whom work long hours for little pay as they try to reach as many Christians as possible.

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