The following plea for laborers comes from one of Vision Baptist Mission’s missionaries serving the Lord in mainland China.
It’s official. The Lord has answered years of prayer. As of Wednesday, March 15, 2023, China’s Immigration Bureau has re-opened its borders to all pre-pandemic visa types – including tourists. For the first time in three years, foreigners may once again come to China for work, business, study, and travel. The hold placed on visas issued pre-pandemic has also been lifted, meaning that those visas issued before March 2020 are once again in effect. Praise the Lord – China is once again accessible to many here in the States! The doors are open and gospel messengers can again come in with relative ease! The need for the gospel in China is great, and now the opportunities are great as well!
What China needs now is a surge of missionaries.
What China needs is an influx of gospel-heralding laborers. What China needs is a flood of “ready scribes” armed with the Word of God to enter preaching the saving message of Jesus Christ.
Young preacher, would you be willing to join such a surge? Would you be willing to come to China as a preacher of the cross? Would you be willing to devote your life to making Jesus known throughout China? Take a moment and consider these questions.
As you consider them, recall Ezra the priest. Described in Ezra 7 as a “ready scribe in the law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6), Ezra brought the preaching of God’s Word back into Israel post-exile. He, along with a group of some thirteen men and other Levites, “read in the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused [the people of Israel] to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8).
The task of Ezra and these other men was rather straightforward. They read the Bible, they gave the sense of the Bible, and they caused the people to understand the Bible. They read the Word, explained the Word, and helped the people understand the Word.
Young preacher, would you consider devoting your life to doing the same in China? Would you consider spending the bulk of your remaining days on this earth reading the Bible in China, giving the sense of the Bible in China, and causing Chinese people to understand the Bible?
Would you be willing to read the Word in Chinese, explain the Word in Chinese, and help Chinese people understand the Word?
Yes, it will take some time to learn Chinese. Yes, it will take some time to learn to eat with chopsticks. Yes, it will take some time to raise support. And yes, if you haven’t begun already, it will take some time to prepare yourself spiritually for such a task.
Yes, it will take time. But it will be immensely worth the preparation.
Again, I challenge you to consider Ezra the priest. In Ezra 7, just after being described as a “ready scribe”, he is noted as a man who had “prepared his heart.” The Bible says that he “prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Bible, to do the Bible, and to teach in Israel the Bible — all long before he went to Israel and actually preached it.
Young preacher, would you be willing to begin today preparing your heart? Would you prepare your heart to seek the Bible, do the Bible, and teach in China the Bible? Would you begin now to get yourself ready to seek the Word of God, to obey the Word of God, and to teach in China the Word of God?
When the people of Israel understood the Word of God after Ezra’s explanation, they made “great mirth” and were joyful “because they had understood the words that were declared unto them” (Nehemiah 8:12). Be assured, young preacher, that the people of China would equally make great mirth and be joyful if they were to have someone cause them to understand the Bible! They would rejoice if you would come and explain the Words of Life to them!
So what are you waiting for? The doors are open!
China can be entered once again! China needs gospel preaching! China needs men who will read the Bible, explain the Bible, and help them understand the Bible.
Young preacher, will you prepare your heart and come to China preaching Christ?
If you or someone you know is interested in missions in China, please contact Vision Baptist Missions to start a conversation with a missionary about how to take the next step on your path from where the Lord has currently placed you all the way to proclaiming Jesus Christ in China.
