Reaching Hungry Hearts

Ian Robertson, UK Director. Posted on 15 May 2009.

The year 2008 was a busy year for us all in Antioch Missions-Chinese Church Support Ministries. Each year is busy, but with all that happened in China in 2008 it seemed busier than normal. The terrible earthquake that claimed many lives and left millions homeless gave us much to do. The Olympic Games gave so many opportunities to share the Good News, and we made sure that we had plenty of Christian teaching books available for the churches in China.

2008 was also an exciting time for us, as we heard back from many believers in China telling us just how much the teaching books that we print and distribute mean to them. One and a half million teaching books were distributed during 2008 and still we were getting requests for more.

I wish I could show you all the letters we receive, but we just do not have the space to do that, so below are just a few comments from people who write to us to say thank you.

One letter we received said, "First of all, I thank God that His love and grace came to China, and His mercy for the souls of 1.4 billion people. He called His people to care for the souls in China, and to love and save the souls of the Chinese. Through the book and disks from you, the churches in the South-west and Northern areas have been blessed, and the evangelistic work in the above areas has been extended. Currently, the Chinese Church is in the stage of establishing and developing. The books ‘Following Jesus', ‘Foundations of Christian Living', ‘The Song of a Wanderer', ‘Christian Family Handbook' and ‘Living God's Way' are very helpful for individual spiritual growth in the small fellowship groups. All of us church leaders who are being trained also get great help from them, and we have shared them with all the church members. May the Lord bless your work! May more hungry hearts be blessed through your work! From a person who is blessed by your work!"

Another person wrote, "Thank you so much for your kind heart; we appreciate your hard work. When I listened to David Pawson's preaching, it gave me great revelation and help. When he is sharing, he goes into detail and makes things very clear. I wrote down all the preaching on Jude and Revelation, and someone is making copies of that. Many people like it. It reminded us about the End Days, gave us a picture of them, and helped us to prepare ourselves, so that we can stand when the time comes and not fall down in difficult times. I like David Pawson's preaching style and braveness. He kept repeating that only those who conquer will be able to enjoy the wedding banquet, and only those who believe and live godly lives will be able to enter the New Heaven and the New Earth. These warnings are helpful for all of us. Thank you! God Bless You!"

Another letter said, "Thank you for providing those books and DVDs. We got great nourishment and help from them, especially the DVD of David Pawson's ‘Unlocking the New Testament'. Every book gave us deep blessing and help. They helped us to know the Father more deeply and also to correct previous misunderstandings about the Lord. Thank you for your hard work. May the Lord monumentalize your efforts. We don't know you, but the Lord will keep your name in Heaven because of your love and sacrifice for Him. We hope that we can get ‘Unlocking the Old Testament' from David Pawson as soon as possible, so we can understand the Bible and know our Lord more deeply."

Another said, "Thank you for giving us those suitable tools for our work - the books. We felt like mineworkers who had found hidden treasures. Reading the books helped me to realize how precious Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was. Thank you for your efforts on that!"

I could go on, but space won't allow me. These letters, and the many more that we receive, are from people wanting to thank you for playing your part in helping them know more about the Lord Jesus.

You may have heard or read of other testimonies that we have received throughout the year. It is so thrilling to see what the Lord has been doing over the last year.

So what does 2009 bring? More of the same please, Lord. We want to see many more thousands of people coming to know Him. We want to see those who already know Him grow more in Him. We want to see married couples and families have real quality relationships with each other and with the Lord.

Those of us in AM-CCSM who are responsible for the literature side of the ministry will be doing all we can to seek quality teaching books to print. We want to print as many books as possible during this year. The target we have set for 2009 is one million books. You may ask, ‘Why one million, when last year we did one and a half million?' Well, we feel we need to be realistic. At a time of world recession, people may not be in a position to give as much as they would like for the printing of books. Also the cost of paper has risen in China and the exchange rate for the RMB is not as good as it was. So we will target one million books for this year.

Having said that, we are not limiting the Lord. This is His work and it will ultimately be His decision how many books we print. If the Lord moves His people to give generously, then we will print more books.

I would like to finish by saying a big thank you to all those of you who have prayed for our work. I would like to thank you all for the gifts you have sent in for the printing of books. Without you we could not have printed one and a half million books last year. Please continue to pray for the work and for the one million book target this year. If you feel the Lord is prompting you to give towards the one million target, then please send your gift to your local base.