The one thing that impressed me the most when I first arrived in China was the masses of people. It is not like I had never been in a large crowd before, but in China the large crowds are everywhere you go. You might as well abandon the love of personal space if you decide to travel to that part of the world.
It is really hard to grasp the number of people that live in China. 1.4 billion is a number too hard to wrap one’s mind around. Breaking it down into more manageable parts helps a little. Think of a city with a population of one million, and then imagine 1,393 of those cities. In each of them there are a million personalities; a million souls for whom Christ died. From that perspective, the scope of the need seems overwhelming. In many missions-minded churches you’ll find a wall map with pins showing where missionary families are working. We have to be careful not to let that pin distort our perspective on the proportions of the need. One thumb tack can cover an area of several million people. No wonder Jesus said to his disciples,
“…the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
(Matt 9:37-38 kjv)
