Let Your Light Shine

This month we are joining in prayer for the nation of China. Check back Tuesdays throughout April for blog posts about China and our friends serving there.

“Let your light so shine among men that they would see your good works and glorify the Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:17

It was 1985. Guided by our friends, Curtis and Mei Lin Jones, our team of four, Tim Burgan, Scott McMannis, Dave Linglebaugh, and I were setting up a massive TV camera loaned to us by Cornerstone Television in Wall, PA. Above us the famous portrait of the late Mao Zedong guarded the entrance to the Forbidden City, and before us lay the vast emptiness of Tiananmen square. The soldiers arrived quickly and waited while an English-speaking officer could be located. We tried to communicate with these young men. We were the first Americans they had seen and our freedom of speech and idea of television reporting was something they had never encountered.

The officer arrived and with great enthusiasm helped us get set up and get the shots we needed.

From Beijing, we went up to the Great Wall and shot out in the open and again enjoyed the hospitality of the army as they guided us from place to place.

We traveled from Beijing to Shanghai without payment of bribes or serious opposition. Our tapes were not confiscated and our text was not edited. It was amazing to us as our little team of six moved about with great freedom.

In the course of production, we had occasion to meet our dear friend, Pastor Wang Ming-Dao, Father of the House Church movement of China. Having spent 22 years and 10 months in prison for his faith, Pastor Wang opened our eyes to the extent of the miracle in which we were participating. At the close of the time with him, he called me out and laying his hands on my head consecrated me to a work among the Chinese people. And in fact, we have floated our boat in the river of revival among the Chinese people from that day until this. Blessed to be associated and so thankful for them.

The 28-minute documentary was released in the Spring of 1986 and response flowed in from around the world. The largest number came from the island republic of Singapore. This English- speaking modern-day miracle would eventually become our home and the birthplace of the South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC). 

In July of 1986, while entering Hong Kong with a short-term team, I was arrested, placed in a cell, strip-searched, and instructed by the officer in charge that the government of the People’s Republic of China advised that I stay out of China for two years. That was the day that I realized a fact about the nation of the PRC.

The Chinese people are warm-hearted, joyful, friendly, and the most hospitable people. They live under the cloud of an atheistic, amoral, western system called Communism which was forced upon them and continues its repressive nature.

It was 1991. Ellie, Sam, Matt and I and our little dog Fu sold our home in Virginia Beach and moved to Singapore to walk and pray for revival in that city. We were embraced by the Church of Singapore and eventually would serve as pastor of the English congregation. The warmth and love of these people made being strangers in a strange land livable. We began to realize that a Chinese person is a Chinese person wherever they are to be found. We traveled to Malaysia and Indonesia enjoying the commonality of the Chinese people and realizing their great hunger for the knowledge of Jesus and their deep commitment to Him. Medical doctors, taxi drivers, professors and students, owners and managers, all were eager to hear about Jesus and to make Him Lord of their lives.

SEAPC was born with the vision of creating new and networking existing prayer cells as we shared in so very many small groups across Singapore. Days were filled with prayer walking and evening with wonderful worship as the heart of the Chinese was fulfilled in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Born to worship, they gave it their all.

These groups were eager to hear about God using them to reach other nations. Naturally, they thought of Chinese in other nations where they could speak the language and reach out within the culture. For several years we took teams from Singapore to China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia and met wonderful Chinese believers throughout Southeast Asia.

In the mainland, the PRC, things were changing. There was an openness to the gospel. The laws against assembly remained in place and at any time officials could raid a meeting or a Christian Training Center and break up the fellowships; but in most cases, they looked the other way. If a Communist Party Leader came to town, the local police would inform the church not to meet for a few weeks and a cooperative relationship was enjoyed.

Our relationships with Chinese people continued to develop on the Mainland and throughout the Chinese world. The Bread of Life churches adopted us in Taiwan and the United States as we enjoyed wonderful friendship and fellowship. SEAPC was becoming very Chinese, adopting the principles of Chinese culture. And in the year 2000, we restructured the corporation around the Chinese character for blessing.

SEAPC is about God and, through the crucified life, hearing His voice to provide a practical demonstration of His love through health, education, parenting, and economic development. Keeping the calling of creating new and networking existing prayer cells, we see a world joined together through prayer.

With this understanding, we have engaged two very powerful health and education platforms in China at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Under our condition of freedom to present Jesus, pray with people to receive Him, baptize those believers, and form groups of people to study the Bible we launched Touching Hearts in the Tibet Autonomous Region of Tibet and over a 12-year period brought the knowledge of process and procedures to diagnose and treat congenital heart disease in that region. While doing this we saw the Lord heal several hundred children who would have died and establish His church through their families. The work continues to multiply to this day.

God provided six million dollars over a 12-year span to save lives, and to plant His church in Tibet and Chinese people from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada, and the US were major contributors of money, medical ability, and prayer in reaching Tibet. A major Christian business in America underwrote much of the cost through our partnership with Every Home for Christ and we can say now that through this combined partnership Jesus has been presented in every home in Tibet.

At one point, the government of the PRC donated $800,000 to a healthcare project in Tibet through a Christian organization.

With the success of the Tibet project, I was approached by the Central Committee through the doctor who first diagnosed autism in China to join in a cooperative agreement with the Handicapped Association of China to bring practices and protocols to those who serve children with autism. This doctor was very deeply touched by the way in which our SEAPC board member, Kim Bennett ministered to children with autism. Scheduled for a half-hour session in Beijing, Kim was pressed to spend the day and then a week and now they want her to move there. The anointing that accompanies her hard work has resulted in many marvelous testimonies of lives changed through prayer and practice.

Now in its fifth year, CARE China has resulted in 1,000 trained workers multiplying our practices and protocols throughout China. An atheist, communist, sometimes repressive government has reached out to a blatantly Jesus-first Christian organization for help in a time of need.

In the life of the Apostle Paul, we see that the greatest opposition provides the greatest opportunity where prayer is involved and we are praying this month for China. Specifically, we are asking the Lord for $500,000 to further develop platforms, materials, trainings, and support for those involved in this life-changing project.

Of course, I am aware of the global pandemic. Certainly, I understand that this is a tough time. Yes, we too feel the pressure; but, being a member of the most at-risk group, my response is to do something significant where I know the money will be used for its stated purpose and change the life of a Chinese child living as a handicapped person in an atheist, communist nation.

So, I invite you to join with me through SEAPC to fulfill the first instruction of the Lord to His disciples.