While on a trip to China, the Chairman of the Board and the President of Bibles for China spent time in China with a Partner and hired Annie as their translator. They found her to be a delightful Chinese lady who had been well trained to assist foreigners to get around in China. Their means of transportation was a “slow” train (70 mph) as opposed to an express train (200 mph). What a blessing this was as they had ample time to get acquainted with Annie and with the Partner who had arranged for the distribution of Bibles in the area that had been selected for them to serve.The plan of salvation was shared with Annie but her response seemed rather neutral. This was not surprising, considering that a large portion of the population of China does not even believe there is a God, let alone understand the sacrifice that His Son made for our sins.

As a part of the first Bible distribution of the trip, the President was asked to share. He expressed appreciation to all who helped carry out the passion of serving these rural Chinese Christians with Bibles and how the team’s hearts and lives had been touched and enriched by getting to be with them for this celebration. As he shared, he was overcome with the emotion of gratitude for all those who had provided Bibles for these precious Christians. Annie showed similar emotion as she translated his words. After the team loaded back into the van Annie was asked what her thoughts were and she replied, “I was shocked! I never knew there were churches like this in China.” The team complimented her on her fantastic job of translating even to the point of expressing emotion in the proper places. Her response was, “That was not a translating issue. I was overcome and I felt the touch of God during that time.”

That day, Annie began a journey of faith that is continuing to grow and develop. She went to her room that night and started reading her Bible. If you were given a book to read that you were unfamiliar with, where would you begin–at the beginning, of course! Although the stories of creation and the Garden of Eden in book of Genesis were interesting, it did not energize her spiritually so the next morning she was advised to begin with the New Testament. The next few days with her included the beginning of a discipling process. Today she is continuing her growth as a follower of Christ and learning the lessons taught in God’s Word.

Would you be willing to share our story with your family, friends, small group and/or church? One way you can do that is by sharing this story with others! Help us get the Word out by bringing others into the mission of providing God’s Word to others.  Each Bible is $5 and no gift is too small or too large. Please be as generous as God will allow when considering a gift to purchase Bibles.