We received the following report about book distributions in Wuhan and Hubei province over Christmas. If you would like to support this effort financially for Christmas 2020, please contact ChinaSource at publications@chinasource.org and we can connect you with the organization.
Before Christmas, we sent Christmas boxes to churches in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province. Each box contained Christian books for adults and kids, including the children’s Old Testament. We recently followed up with two of the churches that received the boxes.
One church is in an older section of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak is very serious. They received 500 books. When we spoke with a staff member at the church, she told me, through tears, of the hardships of people in the church since the city was put under quarantine. Food was becoming difficult to get; parents can’t find diapers for their children; sick people can’t get to the hospitals.
Things do seem to be improving, with the army and volunteers distributing necessities and taking people to the hospitals. However, there is much anxiety over what the future holds. They were grateful to have received the books when they did, because they were able to distribute them to parishioners before the city was put under lockdown. The books touched them deeply.
At present they are not allowed to conduct services at their church, so they are doing online worship. Even though their on-site worship services normally attract approximately 2000 people, a recent online Sunday sermon was viewed by 100,000 people. All of the people in this church have remained healthy, but a deacon in a nearby church died of the coronavirus last week.
When asked how people outside can help, she replied that their number one need is for prayer. They also need things like masks, but receiving shipments is difficult.
We also sent books to a church in another city in Hubei. They shared the books with unbelievers and many have been introduced to God and Jesus. Even though there are no church services for them to attend right now, the seeds have been planted in their hearts.
Image credit: Lubos Houska from Pixabay
Joann Pittman
Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs. Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University …View Full Bio
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