Bibles for China Prepares to Deliver 30,000 Bibles to Eager Christians
An organization dedicated to providing religious materials to those in need is preparing for a trip to China in October to give thousands of Bibles to those who desperately have prayed for them.
Bibles for China is preparing to give Bibles to the people of rural China, where religious freedom is stifled and not always applicable to the Chinese people.
"We have about 30,000 [Bibles] that our team of four will hand out over a period of four days. It's really an exciting opportunity. When you get into these rural areas, if you find a Bible in these rural villages it was worn out tattered and about four inches thick from use," Barry Werner, CEO of Bibles for China, told Mission Network News.
The organization does get approval from the Chinese government before they leave for their trip to prevent any conflicts once they are in China.
"We get visas; we purchase the Bibles inside of China. It's the full Bible. What we would look at as the King James, but it's really the missionary version of the Bible," Werner explained.
Werner described a process that is heavily dependent on a sophisticated distribution network of international partners.
"They print everything for China in Mandarin Chinese, and they ship those out to 70 distribution points, which are all major cities. We then work with an organization that is able to purchase those Bibles through Amity, get them to the rural distribution point, and then send them out to the very remote rural areas from one of those 70 distribution centers," Werner said.
Werner's group plans on visiting more than 50 churches while in China, all of which are registered with the Chinese government. For Werner, the reaction of those Chinese Christians who have waited for a Bible of their own for so long is what keeps him going back year after year.
"People would grab me and hug me and cry all over my shirt. The emotion that was packed into them receiving a Bible after having prayed for it for years, was unbelievable," Werner said.