China Finds Hope

…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven … All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing… Colossians 1:56-6

Ask a farmer if he enjoys plowing fallow ground in the heat of the day, and the response will likely be “it’s a job that has to be done”. As I travel from country to community, I carry seeds of faith and hope from one side of the globe to the other, scattering as I go. Work in China, where Communism has sown seeds of atheism for over 50 years, is hard labor for those in the harvest field. This is a germination story.

He continued, "Do you see how this story works? All My stories work this way. The farmer plants the Word.” Mark 4:14 The Message

On my last night in Jinan, students from the University came to say goodbye. Two of the female students took me aside and said, “We are not Christians, but we believe in what you are doing. The stories of the orphanage in Ghana really affected us. As Chinese students we have very little, but please take our money to the children in Africa, we want to help.” I was deeply moved and agreed to carry their offering to the Village of Hope in Ghana on my next trip in January 2004.

Three months later, down the road that is no road by our standards, I took their contribution to the orphanage. After the performance, we made a special presentation to the director. The children lined up, happy to sign a card filled with thanks, good wishes, and blessings for me to send to their new friends in China. Then they sang a song for us “In times like these, when I have lost my mother, when I have lost my father, when I have lost it all – I still have Jesus.” Somewhere in China two women heard a story of Africa and now children in Africa at Village of Hope are praying to meet them in Paradise – far from Communist China – far from the despair of Africa – but not too far for Hope.

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is … James 5:7