Student stories from 2011

Koli people stir North Carolina church to action

By Alan James

SOUTH ASIA—It hangs from the ceiling near the auditorium of Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., like an overgrown spider web. It’s frayed and tattered in spots, with blue netting where it has been repaired multiple times through the years.

Pastor Michael Cloer runs his fingers along the fishing net, admiring the craftsmanship. As he inspects the net, he doesn’t miss an opportunity for an impromptu object lesson.

“You look at the individual pieces and they don’t look like much, but together they are strong. … It’s a great picture of the church,” said Cloer, who received the net in February 2011 from a Koli fisherman when his church took its first overseas missions trip to South Asia.

That Koli fisherman is now a follower of Jesus.

A couple of months later, a second team from Englewood returned to the same spot where Cloer had met the fisherman. By the end of 2011, the church will have sent several teams to engage and reach the Koli people with the Good News.

CHOOSING THE KOLI

At the 2010 annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Cloer said he became convicted that the congregation had not done enough to help reach people groups like the Koli — those unengaged with no active church-planting strategy among them and unreached with less than a 2 percent evangelical presence.

“The Spirit of God just spoke to my heart and said, ‘What are we doing about [unengaged, unreached] people?’” Cloer said.

“We had been praying for them, just as a whole, but that’s as far as we were going. I came back and … began to pray, ‘God, where do you want us to go?’”

The church soon was committed to ministering to the Koli people.

Against a backdrop of modern conveniences and technological advances, the Koli people — with their colorful boats and waving flags — represent an old way of life committed to hard work, tradition, and idol worship.

Fishermen struggle to make a living in polluted waters in a time when modern life seems to have passed them by.

Most of the younger generations hunt for new opportunities to escape the Koli’s old way of life, while clinging to the worship of more than 300,000 gods. Of the more than 283,000 Koli that Englewood is engaging, fewer than half of 1 percent are evangelical.

“We saw a people group who were mainly fishermen, and the Lord immediately struck in my heart,” Cloer said.

“God told us to be fishers of men; these are fishes, let’s be fishers of men among the fishermen.”

In the summer of 2010, IMB challenged Southern Baptists to adopt 6,426 unreached people groups based on that year’s research. At this year’s SBC annual meeting in June, IMB President Tom Elliff narrowed that focus to the approximately 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups.

The Koli are now engaged with a church-planting strategy — and the work has just begun.

Church members won’t have to look far to find challenges.

On the streets they’ll find a variety of idols — ones surrounded in fresh flowers on cab dashboards or those swinging from the rearview mirror. Some will be displayed on posters along shop walls and encased in concrete shrines. In some homes they’ll find a cross, a statue or even a picture of Jesus, but locals view these as mere additions to their idol worship.

“To the Koli, Jesus is just another god,” said Claude,* an Englewood member whom the church is supporting to lead follow-up work among the Koli with his wife, Lynne.* The couple plan to live in South Asia until the end of 2011.

“These people who live in these Koli villages along the coast are in total spiritual darkness.”

But there has been some progress.

Shortly after Englewood began sending teams to the Koli villages, nearly 20 people made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

“We had men and women pray out loud in front of other people: ‘I want Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior; I renounce all other gods but Jesus,’” Cloer said.

“We’d go back the next day, that individual had thrown out all of their idols into the street.”

The response has been an encouragement, but it also has served as a reminder of the follow-up work the church still has to do.

During the first trip, one Koli fisherman made a profession of faith. He agreed to have a Bible study at his home. But when Claude and a team returned a couple of months later, the fisherman had changed his mind. He told the team another villager had attacked his wife for her faith, and she had been prevented from using the well.

It’s slow work, said Kaleb,* an IMB representative among the people of South Asia.

“This [people group] has existed for thousands of years, but Satan has had a hold on [them],” Kaleb said. “When we go into these areas and make these big pushes just to get the Gospel out, we see Satan’s attack.”

The level of commitment needed to make a dent among people groups like the Koli is high, Kaleb said.

“I know lots of people back home who say they want to reach the nations,” he said, “but they’re not praying for the nations. They’re not going to the nations. They’re not sending others to the nations.

“Until we become doers of the Word of God and take this message to the nations, then nothing is going to change.”

Kaleb admits being pleasantly surprised when he first spoke to Cloer about Englewood Baptist Church working among the Koli. Cloer asked Kaleb how many teams he could handle and what it would take to get the job done.

“When I heard that, I realized they are in it,” Kaleb said. “Their hearts were committed. Knowing that churches like Englewood are out there … makes me feel like I’m not out here alone.”

“WHATEVER IT TAKES”

In the coming months, Cloer hopes to mentor fellow pastors in the U.S. in how to begin work among other unengaged, unreached people groups.

Though Englewood is larger than the average church, Cloer knows his congregation — and most other churches — can’t do it alone.

“I was led by the Lord, ‘Why don’t you ask other pastors to join you in this?’” he said.

“We hear it from the national platform … but it’s another thing for a brother to look you face to face and say, ‘Brother, why don’t you get involved?’ “

Cloer said after his time on earth is done, he hopes he will have helped reach 1 percent of those people groups unreached with the Gospel.

Just like that old net hanging from the church ceiling, Southern Baptists are stronger when they are together than when they are separate, Cloer contends.

“I believe there will be someone from every people group standing around the throne of Jesus,” he said.

“To think that we could have [that] opportunity … it’s going to be worth it all. It’s going to be worth whatever it takes.”

ENGLEWOOD UPDATE

Since they began work among the Koli people in the spring of 2011, Englewood has seen approximately 35 professions of faith. They continue to build relationships and seek opportunities to start their first Koli house church.

By the end of the year, the church plans to rely more heavily on local Christians who live near the Koli. Through these partnerships, Englewood will train local believers to share the Good News in Koli villages, provide discipleship and start churches.

“I went in … thinking we’re going to get this done this year … [but] … this is [on] God’s time table,” said Allan,* who has led multiple Englewood teams. “It may be a number of years before we get a solid Koli church going. We’re here until the work gets done.”

Englewood’s pastor led a team of fellow pastors from the United States to South Asia to pursue embracing unengaged, unreached people groups. To learn more about how your church can embrace a people group, go to call2embrace.org. For more information, call IMB at (800) 999-3113.

*Names changed

FIRST PERSON: Missions trip changed my family’s worldview

By Mike Young

My wife, Stacy, and I believe that the best investment you can make in education is to go with your child on an international mission trip. Raising four children on a relatively modest income does not allow us to put much aside for college educations or retirement. Yet we believe, if it is God’s will, He will provide a way for us to be able to accompany each of our four children on an international missions adventure before they begin high school.

In the summer of 2010, our then 14-year-old son, Tim, and I had the opportunity to travel together to South Asia as part of a volunteer team from Parkway Baptist Church in Moseley, Va.

The investment of time and resources already has produced fruit in Tim’s life and for God’s kingdom. The dividends have already been huge!

The journey
Trip preparation required that Tim and I read books about missions and culture. We also practiced sharing our personal testimonies and led our group in devotions. Tim stepped out early and represented youthful enthusiasm well (as long as there were good snacks at each training session).

Traveling side by side for 25 hours (each way) gave Tim and me plenty of opportunities to get to know each other better. We shared anxious anticipation, excitement, laughter and many entirely new experiences along the way.

Sensory overload — every view was filled with people. Every breath was laced with that unique South Asia aroma. The noise of car horns, rickshaw bells and people shouting filled our ears.

Culture shock — walking through busy streets and marketplaces gave us an opportunity to see life lived in ways we’ve never experienced. We struggled to process all we encountered as the locals gathered to check us out. Because we were obviously foreigners, our presence drew much attention. Many wanted to know about us. The most capable English speaker in each crowd would engage in dialogue. After pleasant greetings, we were able to ask about their faith and ultimately share about our faith in Jesus Christ.

In the days that followed, we visited towns and villages. We shared the Gospel with individuals, families, small groups and large crowds. We visited tea stalls, temples, markets and homes. We showed the JESUS film to several hundred people in the courtyard of a Hindu temple and in the common area of a small village. We were asked by leaders to leave another village before showing the JESUS film because “there will be trouble here tomorrow if you show the film.”

Enormous task
Tim and I were able to process the encounters together and with our team. We were excited to share Christ but overwhelmed by the enormity of what would be required to truly “make disciples” in this land. Hundreds of locals responded to our presence, Gospel presentations, the JESUS film and the tracts we distributed. But the question that lingers for Tim — and for me — is what one local asked: “Who will come and tell us more?”

My heart swells with pride when I think of my son sharing the Gospel with folks in a village on the other side of the world. I still marvel at his question for a Hindu swami: “But when do you know you’ve prayed enough?” I smile each time I think of the crowd that was attracted to his muddy soccer game. Every father should experience moments like this with his son or daughter.

There are peoples, places and cultures that can be most effectively reached by men who are willing to set aside the American dream for kingdom pursuits. I challenge men in this country and around the world to measure their manhood against a biblical model rather than contemporary culture. Men must set the standard and lead by example. When men become spiritually alive in Christ, they will invest significantly in their own spiritual growth as well as the spiritual growth of their wives and children.

New view
At the conclusion of our father/son missions adventure, the men on our team joined me in praying over Tim; seven men praying over one young man. We agreed to encourage him and stand with him in his walk with Christ.

We know that Tim’s view of the world and his faith were forever impacted by our trip. We don’t know what God’s plan is for his life, but Stacy and I pray we will release him to whatever that call might be.

For the rest of our lives, Tim and I will share a special bond and great memories of traveling together to the other side of the world.

Tim’s younger brothers — now 10 and 12 — have pretty adventurous spirits and are looking forward to their missions adventure with Dad. At just 6, who knows how his sister will react.

In our home, we now have a greater level of awareness regarding missions. We pay closer attention to what is going on in South Asia and around the world. We even invited some international students from the Middle East to join our family for Thanksgiving last year. Tim now has personal experience and a new boldness to talk about spiritual things in secular environments, even in school in a world history class.

Now, the world is smaller and God is bigger for Tim — and for me. His mom is a little anxious, but I am excited when I hear him say, “I want to go back and talk about Jesus with people who have never heard of Him.”

Mike Young is founder of Noble Warriors, an organization focusing on men’s ministry, and a member of Parkway Baptist Church in Moseley, Va.

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VIEW AN INTERACTIVE TIMELINE: Explore Southern Baptists’ legacy in Vietnam through the eyes of emeritus missionary Sam James.

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New hope dawns for Vietnam

By Don Graham

Tears streamed down Sam James’ face as he stared into the abyss outside his airplane window. Somewhere in the darkness below lay the country he risked his life — and the lives of his wife, Rachel, and their four children — to save. But unlike so many American men and women who came to Vietnam, James wasn’t a soldier. He was a missionary.

It was April 1975 and Saigon would fall to North Vietnamese forces within a week. James had spent the past few months bargaining with God for more time, but there was no more room for negotiation. Two weeks earlier, his family had flown to a safer place; James would join them there.

“I had a tremendous urge to try to stop the plane and go back to the place that I loved so dearly. …” he says. “I remember lying in bed at night and saying, ‘Lord, if you just let me live until tomorrow morning, I’ll get out. … And then the sun would come up, the birds would sing and everything looked nice. And I’d say, ‘OK Lord, [give me] one more day.’”

Waves of doubt — and regret — flooded the North Carolina native’s heart as his plane circled Saigon and turned toward the South China Sea. How could he abandon the Vietnamese people after pouring nearly 14 years of his life into theirs? What would happen to the newborn churches he helped start? Or to the Vietnamese Christians who filled them, some of whom he had led to faith?

Torn apart
These converts weren’t notches on a belt to measure evangelical worth. To James, they were family. They had laughed together over dinner at each other’s homes while their children played outside. They had carried one another’s grief when the horrors of war came close and the sadness seemed too great to bear. James had taught them, baptized them, discipled them, counseled them, officiated marriages and led funerals for them, all the while sharing the most sacred and intimate aspect of his life — a relationship with Jesus Christ.

But God had a plan to safeguard the seeds that James and his fellow missionaries had planted through years of sweat and sacrifice. Their efforts freed thousands from a centuries-old cycle of spiritual slavery to ancestor worship and Buddhism, spawning dozens of new Vietnamese churches.

Only one of those churches — Grace Baptist in Saigon (today, Ho Chi Minh City) — would survive the dark years that followed Vietnam’s communist revolution and eventually give birth to a vibrant network of Baptist churches that are today making Christ’s name known throughout Vietnam.

All of this was possible, James says, because Southern Baptists were willing to answer God’s Great Commission call. Their prayers and giving supported more than 50 missionaries who served in Vietnam between 1959 and 1975 — including the Jameses. In 1969, Southern Baptists also provided the $50,000 needed to buy the land and building for Grace Baptist — where the church remains today.

“When the end came and South Vietnam collapsed, this church was here,” James says. “And it became the identity of Baptists in Vietnam. … 48 years later, this church building stands as the home of the [Vietnamese Baptist] convention, as a training center for the [Vietnamese] Baptist Bible Institute, as the home of Grace Baptist Church and as a source of church planting in this country.”

Communist crucible
But that victory came at a heavy price. The decade that followed South Vietnam’s collapse was a crucible for Vietnamese believers suddenly forced to survive in a society that demanded loyalty to the Communist Party. And Hanoi’s Marxist ideology made little room for faith.

“We were threatened, we were questioned, interrogated and some people in our churches were persecuted. Some were put into jail. Some were beaten,” says Huy Le, who today pastors Grace Baptist Church.

Huy was just 6 when the North Vietnamese army captured Saigon. He vividly remembers the moment when he knew the city was lost — besieged by the incessant drone of helicopters, bright red tracer rounds cutting “beams of fire” through the night sky and the rumble of North Vietnamese tanks outside his bedroom window.

Huy’s father, Chanh Le, embodies the genesis of Southern Baptists’ work in Vietnam. Chanh was the first Vietnamese led to Christ by one of the first Southern Baptist missionaries to Vietnam, Lewis Myers. Chanh was subsequently discipled and baptized by the first Southern Baptists missionary in Vietnam, Herman Hayes. In 1970, Chanh became Grace Baptist’s first Vietnamese pastor, succeeding Sam James. Chanh turned down multiple opportunities to flee the country before its collapse, choosing instead to shepherd his congregation as they endured countless interrogations, harassment, forced-labor “re-education” camps, food shortages and economic depression.

“[Our] faith in Christ was the reason for us to live,” says Huy, who began pastoring Grace Baptist in 2010 following his father’s retirement after 40 years of service. “Thanks to God’s grace, we could suffer and keep our faith.”

New revolution
Today Grace Baptist is again facing revolution. But instead of political dissonance, this new wave of change is driven by economic aspiration. Vietnam’s government is opening the once-isolated nation with the aim of transforming it into Southeast Asia’s economic powerhouse. And as better education and more lucrative jobs lure young Vietnamese from rural rice paddies to urban offices and factories, the standard of living continues to rise. According to Vietnam’s General Statistics Office, the average monthly income more than tripled between 1999 and 2008 and the nation’s average urban population jumped by at least 25 percent.

Reaching this young, career-focused and typically more materialistic demographic with the Gospel presents new challenges for churches like Grace Baptist. Much like their Southern Baptist counterparts in the United States, Huy believes Vietnamese Baptists must be willing to change in order to remain relevant to future generations, repackaging timeless truth in more contemporary ways.

“Young people have more opportunities … and, at the same time, more temptations,” Huy says. “In the past, people had nothing … and they longed for some god up there to lay their hope on. Now, people have so many things to follow.”

But as more Vietnamese move from poverty to prosperity, some are already recognizing that money isn’t an end unto itself.

Smashing idols
Lam Quach is a 35-year-old husband and father of two rambunctious boys who lives in a modern home not far from Grace Baptist Church. Despite a successful career as a manager at a Saigon chemical company, Quach knew something was missing in his life. He heard about Jesus through a friend, and with guidance from the wife of a Vietnamese Baptist pastor, Quach and his wife, Hanh, believed.

“I believed there was a great God who was over everything … but I didn’t know anything about Him,” Quach says. “It was only when I began to experience prayer and experiment with the Christian life that I really began to understand who God is and read the Bible.”

Perhaps the most tangible expression of the couple’s new faith was their decision to destroy an altar they’d used for ancestor worship, a common fixture in Vietnamese homes.

“It was just a little altar with two pictures. One is the god of the earth … and the other was the god who brings blessings,” Quach says. He invited Pastor Huy to their home to help remove the altar. Huy read from Psalm 115, illustrating the differences between false idols and the one, true God.

“I took a hammer and smashed it to pieces,” Quach says, explaining that he wanted to make sure the altar would never be used again, by anyone. “I felt like I’d been set free.”

Quach and Hanh now attend Grace Baptist where they were baptized in the fall of 2010.

New openness
Vietnam’s economic ambitions have also helped win unprecedented freedom for religious groups, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City where police shakedowns might draw the eye — and ire — of the city’s growing international business community. In 2008, the Vietnamese Baptist Convention was legally recognized by the Vietnamese government, a move that legitimized the church’s presence in the country while allowing greater freedom to share the Gospel. Though the government still tightly regulates religious activity, Grace Baptist’s church-planting network is spreading to villages formerly bound by bureaucratic red tape that seemed unbreakable only a few years ago.

Dien Nguyen pastors An Phuoc Baptist Church in Cai Lay, a town roughly 50 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta. Last year, Nguyen approached authorities in the Tien Giang province for permission to start new churches in four nearby villages. To Nguyen’s surprise, An Phuoc Baptist was instead authorized to work anywhere in the entire province — a chance to reach more than 1.6 million people with the Gospel — no strings attached.

“This was a miracle,” Nguyen says. “We didn’t dare to even dream about it.”

But such miracles are still only a beginning. Despite the legacy of missionaries like Sam James, today evangelical Christians make up less than 2 percent of Vietnam’s 91 million people. Most have yet to hear the Gospel.

“I believe there is hope for Vietnam,” Huy says. “It’s just not easy. Some … have said that [our] people have hard hearts. That might be true, but there are seekers out there. … The question is whether churches are willing to take opportunities to win these people.”

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Thai youth try to earn merit for families’ eternity

By Caroline Anderson

The razor rests on a banana leaf, waiting to shave the heads of future monks seated in a row of blue plastic chairs.

In a village near Mae Hong Son, Thailand, Tui Montri* and his friends scrunch their noses as they anxiously await their turn for the painful shave. The ritual, part of a three-day festival known as Poy Sang Long (pronounced Boy Sawng Long), will begin their journey to becoming men.

Poy Sang Long, an ancient Buddhist ordination ceremony, allows the boys to earn good karma (merit) for their families by becoming novice monks. To prepare for the initiation, the boys spend time learning prayers and chants.

Tui, 12, and his family are Shan. It is customary for boys his age to enter the monkhood for a period of two weeks to two months. They spend much of their time in the temple, the core of Shan religion, learning the teachings and rules of Buddhism.

The Shan believe earning merit atones for sins and ensures a better reincarnation. They believe the amount of merit they earn determines where they go when they die. They strive to earn enough merit to break a cycle of reincarnation and enter nirvana — a place of nothingness to be free from greed, hatred, delusion and human suffering.

“I know that we will get a lot of merit by [Tui’s] ordination,” Maem Montri* said of her son.

Earning merit for his family is a big responsibility but one Tui accepts willingly.

“It’s my duty and I really wanted to do it,” he said.

During this rite-of-passage custom, Tui and the other boys wear bright makeup — pink eye shadow, rosebud red lipstick and bright blush. They also don headdresses of flowers and sport colorful costumes. They are treated as princes, mirroring the path of Buddha.

Because of this honor, Tui’s feet must not touch the ground during the festival, which is held every year between March and April. The Shan believe the boys must be carried by family members throughout the festival because the ground is considered unholy.

On the third and final day of Poy Sang Long, Tui receives his orange robe, signifying he is ready to enter the monastery as a novice monk.

Maem is proud of her son. With the merit he’s earned, she is glad to be one step closer to nirvana … one step closer to what she believes is freedom.

*Names changed

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Lone tract brings Chinese woman to faith plus many others

By Sue Sprenkle

THAILAND – No one notices the young, Chinese woman silently crying in the back pew. It’s the only place she finds solace from her deep depression and fear of death.

She’s not even sure why she sits in this church every afternoon; her communist education and Buddhist religion teach against a belief in God. Yet something keeps drawing Lily Wang* here.

She pulls a Bible from the pew. It’s not in her native Mandarin, but she flips it open anyway. She learned to read a little Thai after moving to Thailand a few years ago, but not enough to really understand this.

So many questions cloud her mind that she finally musters enough courage to talk to a man carrying the same book. He brushes past the petite woman and goes about his business. The rejection reinforces everything she’s feeling — no one is interested in her; no one cares.

Distraught and angry, Wang walks to the foot of the cross and screams, “Are you real?

“I don’t want to die. I want to live,” she cries. “Please give me a way.”

Wang storms out, vowing never to return.

HOPE COMES

A few weeks later, Wang is sitting at her desk preparing lessons when a student rushes into her international school’s classroom.

“Teacher! Teacher!” the girl exclaims. Wang jumps up, startled and concerned, until she hears, “I found your book.”

The student hands her a soiled booklet. She found it in the trashcan on the playground. Wang scrunches her nose against the stench and explains it isn’t hers. The girl must throw it back in the trash.

“But teacher, it must be your book,” the girl insists. “It’s written in Chinese.”

Wang quickly scans the first page. Her heart leaps. The story is about Jesus’ death and resurrection. She thanks her student for the book and sits down to read. The booklet, or tract called “Song of a Wanderer,” answers every question she whispered in the church. The information is shocking. Her education since childhood taught only evolution, but this booklet claims life started from a complete human form, not a single cell.

“This has to be true,” she mutters to herself.

The book opens a new world for Wang as she discovers a Creator-God. She stuffs the booklet in her back pocket and takes it everywhere, spending every spare second reading and rereading.

For weeks, her whole world revolves around the torn book. Finally, Wang decides she needs more. The booklet quotes Scripture throughout; she wants a Bible. But, she has no idea how to find one. In her home country, China, you can’t just go out and buy one at the corner bookstore. Wang decides to write to the address on the tract requesting a Bible.

“No matter the cost, I will pay for the Bible,” she adds to the letter, fearing the Christians might reject her again.

“I don’t really believe anything will happen,” she thinks, preparing herself for disappointment. “It will be just like when I prayed in the church — nothing. God isn’t interested.”

Wang can’t help herself, though. She watches the mail daily, but nothing arrives. Just as she’s about to give up hope, a woman speaking Mandarin calls. Southern Cross Project, a Chinese Bible distribution ministry, received her letter. The woman offers to deliver the Bible in person.

Over coffee, Wang learns that as she was screaming at God months ago in the church, some American mission volunteers were distributing Mandarin Bibles and Christian literature packets to Chinese tourists. Somehow, one of these books made it across town to her.

“I’m in God’s hands. He does care about me,” Wang admits. “I need to accept these teachings.”

HOPE SHARED

After her meeting, the teacher rushes home to call her mother in China. She excitedly recounts her new discovery and urges her mother to tell her sister.

“How can I share if I do not understand it myself?” her mother asks.

It hasn’t occurred to Wang that her uneducated mother might not understand the tract. It speaks to educated Chinese, those who learned about evolution and were taught to doubt God’s existence. Wang wants her family to find the same Creator-God, so, she calls everyday, reading from the tract and talking about God. By the end of the book, her mother and sister also decide to follow Jesus.

The first time Wang visits a Chinese church in her city, she notices everyone gathered around two women. The discussion about God heats up but the two remain stone-faced, unbending in their denial of God’s existence.

Wang pulls the precious tract out of her purse and discreetly hands it to the women. They read parts of it together and discuss it with the young teacher. Both ask Jesus into their hearts.

Everywhere Wang goes she takes the soiled booklet. Even when she goes to England to work on a master’s degree, she slides it into her carry-on. While in Europe, she uses the tract to lead more than 20 to Christ during her two years of study — not to mention 20 others in Thailand.

When Wang goes to China for vacation, her childhood best friend, Chen Wu,* notices something different. Wang starts to tell Wu about the change in her life but her friend stops her mid-sentence. Wu doesn’t want to hear; she thinks God is only for lucky people. Rather than argue, Wang comes up with a compromise.

“If you promise to read this book, I promise not to talk about God until you bring the topic to me,” Wang says, inwardly grimacing about leaving her precious, worn-out book in China.

Her friend agrees, not really believing something that looks like a piece of trash really holds answers for her life. It’s months before Wu opens the book. But when she does, Wu reads the entire thing in one sitting, then immediately calls Wang. They kneel together — one in Thailand, the other in China — and Wang helps her best friend invite Jesus into her heart.

“Isn’t it amazing how God uses a piece of trash to call people to Him?” Wang asks about the 70-cent tract. Then adds, “Now, give me my book back.”

Wu ignores her. She now uses the booklet to tell others in China how her life changed. She’s lost count of how many have prayed with her to receive Christ.

For additional information concerning the Southern Cross Project and how you can get involved, please email scptravel@pobox.com.

*Name changed

Sue Sprenkle lives and writes from Southeast Asia.

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