A New Beginning
Happy New Year to you! As we move into 2022, the Chinese Language Service thanks you for your prayers, interest, and support in the year gone by. Furthermore, it is our prayer that our Lord seeing our unwavering dedication to better programming and our faithfulness to the mission of Christ will lead us in ways beyond our requests and imagination providing more listeners with better services than ever before.
Yes, Coronavirus continues to be a threat to our routine ways of life. Yes, more challenges are emerging domestically and internationally, as challenges of 2021 remain unresolved. As the world is struggling with patience, direction, and hope, we are heading into 2022 with greater energy and clarity due to the Holy Spirit, because the world unfolding before us had been prescribed by Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation. Therefore, we know exactly what our responsibility and our mission are as witness of Christ Jesus. We are honored and grateful to serve with you together. Please continue your prayers for us.
A New Challenge
As the United States and China move further into a relationship with more challenges, China becomes more certain to maintain authoritarian rule over her people. Chinese government is positioning herself into the operation of private companies, such as Alibaba and many after school learning centers across the country. Chinese government prohibits students now playing online video games during the weekdays. Youngsters are allowed to play one-hour online game only during the weekend. Chinese governing authority demands the entertaining industry that male artists can’t dress up or sing like females.
The same regulation takes place in the area of internet which affects our Chinese website. We have heard about new regulations that Christians inside China are no longer allowed to post public teaching material online. Along the same line, Chinese citizens might not have access to Christian websites managed outside of China that which we are. The day after Christmas 2021, we observed a drop of two hundred website visitors daily. Last month we had an average 650-700 visitors daily, this week our website visitors are about 450-500. Whether this is a coincidence or the exact reflection of this new regulation remains to be seen. But, surely a new challenge is ahead of us. Please pray for the Chinese leaders, the church inside China, and pray for God’s guidance to our Chinese staffs.
The prophet Isaiah foretold the people of Israel to anticipate a new thing which they have never heard of. A Savior is coming, for them and for people all over the world. When the Savior arrives, the captive and the oppressed will be freed. As we witness the coming of Christ, one way we tell our listeners that Jesus comes into the lives of people today. An interview with Alethea Short Gurabardhi last December is an example.
Alethea is a public-school teacher in Nashville, Tennessee. As a language specialist she helps many children of immigrants from South and Central America and Congo of Africa. Almost all the parents of these school children work hard and still struggle to provide enough for their kids. During the peak of the pandemic when students were asked to attend virtual classes, immigrant children were completely lost and didn’t know what to do with the laptop computer they brought home from school. Alethea noticed her students missed the virtual classes, then visited them at their apartment where she saw the poverty that confronted her students.
In short, Alethea reported to her church. The church donated funding with which she purchased food for these families in September 2021. In addition, God enabled the church to donate many toys which allowed her students to experience surprise and gave Alethea an opportunity to witness Christ Jesus in this time of Christmas. For the first time, these immigrants from South and Central America and from Congo could sense the love of God and how it feels when Christ Jesus comes into their lives. This is indeed a New Thing in their lives. The interview of Alethea Short Gurabardhi is one of our feature stories during the Christmas season 2021.
As the new year is unfolding before us, once again we thank God for you, our old friends and supporters. It is you who allows us to experience the New Thing of Christ in our ministry. It is your prayers with which we head into the new challenges with confidence that our Lord will show us the ways to connect with listeners in China. It is you with whom we join hand in hand, heart in heart to witness Jesus in a world with increasing anxiety and hopelessness. Thank you, and may God bless your family.
