China Update
Report by Anonymous Field Worker
"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." John 4:35
The work of the School of Christ in China is now eleven years old. As we reach this place we have come to a time of the multiplication of the harvest. There is a great spirit of revival which has begun in the northeast and is now spreading rapidly through out the country. The seed of this revival was original planted by Brother Clendennen in late 1998 and 1999. During those years he had the vision to bring Chinese church leaders across the border into Russia where they could have the freedom to listen to him preach the School of Christ. Hundreds of lives were transformed by the power of the Spirit during those times.
Later in December of 1999 he went to China and preached one of the state sponsored church in the northeast. He was received with great joy as the first western minister to ever preach in the church. While there he set up meetings for me in the underground church of China, usually called the house church or family church. I made my first trip in February 2000.
Over the past ten years we have been planting seed, teaching the School of Christ to every group that would listen to us, distributing thousands of audio schools, thousands of video schools, and an untold number of books. We were determined to meet with groups from all over the country-north, south, east and west.
At the present we are experiencing a massive revival in the northeast and it comes from some of the original graduates of the School of Christ in Russia. They went back to their churches and shared what God had done. Sometimes they held videos schools in their own churches, different ones learned different parts of the school and became "teachers" on prayer or faith or the Holy Spirit. Then they sent out missionaries to untouched areas of China. We are again ministering in the northeast where Brother Clendennen made his first visit. I can't tell you how many people have come to see us and to thank us for the time of study in Russia. I can't tell you how many people have some to say, "We need your ministry here, now in our church." God is moving, this is the hour for China.
The story of the northeast is similar to other places, with one exception. Some of the original students who came to Russia were not truly Pentecostal. There is an acceptance of the doctrine, but a discouragement to practice the doctrine, so that we see only a small number of the leaders who are truly baptized in the Holy Spirit. In October of last year this changed as we led a conference of 120 ministers from across the region. During our time with them over 60 people received the Holy Spirit. Later in December another 120 came and this time 40 people received. And this outpouring is spreading into their home churches. Where once there would be thirty people in the church, now there is a hundred and sometimes even more.
How did revival start? Seed planted in good soil. One of the Chinese leaders came to Russia, received from the ministry of Brother Clendennen and myself. He returned home to do a video school in his local church. One of the brothers who listened caught a vision and became a missionary to an untouched region of the north. Now 9 years later he is the leader of some 60 churches. Facing this tremendous task he searched for a teacher to help him and the other pastors under him. He found none. He lived so far north, in such a poverty stricken area, that even the Chinese leaders were hesitant to help him.
He called his original pastor and he suggested that he contact us, the School of Christ China. We readily agreed to come. In the first day of the conference we introduced the School of Christ to them. They were so blessed to hear the teaching on the cross, the blood and the person of Jesus. Then we came to the teaching on the Holy Spirit. In the past they had preached of its dangers, even forbid some to speak in tongues, but this time they accepted the preaching as truth. Of the 120 people who attended that conference, nearly 100% have been baptized in the Holy Spirit over these past four months. They have taken the teaching back to their churches and the multiplication of the revival has begun.
Just a few days ago I returned home from another time of preaching the School in China. What is happening is truly amazing. We preached to the largest crowds I have ever seen in the Chinese underground church, nearly 200 people every day. There is such a cry for God, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for revival. Those attending were the leadership of the Pentecostal church based in the northeast and they are excited for God.
I also returned to the smaller city in the far north. There we are in the second week of the School of Christ. After our great success in October, our Russian partner went back with a video school in December. Then in January we went again with the second week. (Chinese believers usually can only meet a week at a time.) The revival continues. Satan is testing them, demon possessed people are coming to disrupt the meetings, but God is delivering them of their tormentors. The authorities are watching and have told them to not have any foreign speakers, but yet they are determined to continue. Every day 120 people gathered in a small building in the poorest part of town. Heated with a wood stove, having no indoor plumbing whatsoever, no man would choose this as a place to send an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet God has! They come from all over the region and they return having been revived by the power of God. This is revival!
As we continue to see the outpouring of the Spirit in the northeast, but we have begun to receive urgent calls from other places. These calls are different from those of the past. You see, we always get calls. They set up a Bible School and they need teachers. We teach many, many young people the Word of God.
Now we are receiving calls from former students in China. The seed we've been planting for 10 years has grown and is now producing fruit. One such young man studied in central China and is now in the far west of China as a missionary. He has been planting churches and God has blessed his work. Now he needs some one to come and establish a means of training the many workers who are entering the harvest fields. Another student left his home and went to central China. He had studied with us in the east and now asking us to train his leaders with the School of Christ.
The seed is beginning to produce its harvest. We know that the School of Christ is the greatest missionary training tool the Lord has ever given to his church. We see the massive potential that awaits us in China because now the multiplication of the harvest has begun.
I personally thank you for your support of the School of Christ over these past eleven plus years. I can say to you without any reservations that the financial seed you have planted in this ministry has resulted in a multitude of souls. Furthermore this harvest has reached the second generation and is being multiplied thousands of times over by the grace and power of God.
Now is the time to invest in what may be the greatest revival of history. There are 1.3 billion souls in China, most of them have never yet heard of Jesus Christ. I believe it is as Jesus said to his disciples, "Say not ye, There are four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." The time is now for China, the harvest has begun, and School of Christ is training the workers now. Let's prepare them to enter the fields of harvest.
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