Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Shenyang, China! It has been a long time since I sent out a newsletter. In November 2000, Shenyang Teachers College moved to a spacious new campus north of the city. The new apartments for the foreign teachers were modern and attractive, but, unbeknownst to us, they harbored a toxic substance. The fumes caused serious health problems for some of the foreign teachers, but it was many months before we figured out the source of the problems. Finally, I moved to a hotel for a while and then, last October, to an off-campus apartment complex where the Chinese teachers live. It is good to be living among my Chinese colleagues now and to share their lifestyle rather than to live on campus in a compound reserved for foreigners.

There are lessons to be learned from this most difficult experience, lessons of patience and faith and trust in God, but quite honestly, I find I am still too close to the events to be able to speak thoughtfully about them. I would ask your prayers for continued physical healing and spiritual renewal.

Each week I look forward to Friday, when, having completed my British literature classes, I am free to visit Northeast Theological Seminary. In this officially atheist country, the seminary and its 160 students (about equal numbers of men and women) are an island of faith surrounded by a very materialistic society. In fact, passing through the gate of the seminary, I breathe a sigh of relief. This is God’s place, a place where the Holy Spirit is at work, and I need to be there. I need to be with the students and learn from them about grace under pressure and thankfulness even under difficult conditions.

One of the seminarians is a 26-year-old man named Yao Jiawei. Last month he invited Dean Zhang of the seminary and me to visit his home church on the outskirts of Shenyang. As we bounced along the impossibly rutted back road, we could see Yang Shi Church from quite a distance. It stands apart, on a small rise, its cross a beacon to all who would worship there. We in America take the presence of churches for granted, but in China churches are an uncommon sight. Many are hidden away in back alleys by accidents of land ownership and development. A highly visible church building is definitely a form of witness.

Yang Shi Church, like so many Chinese churches, has no ordained clergy on staff. Some services are conducted by a preacher who has seminary training but is not ordained, and others are conducted by elders and lay leaders. Elder Wu, Yao Jiawei’s mother and a trained lay leader, is effectively in charge of the church. After Yao Jiawei graduates from seminary and completes the required period of working in the church, it is expected that he will be ordained and gradually assume leadership of the church. This is the custom in China: churches support their own seminarians and then, after graduation, the seminarian usually returns to his or her home church to become the pastor.

I asked Yao Jiawei and his mother what challenges they saw facing Yang Shi Church in the future. He commented on the need to repay the money that was borrowed to construct the new church buildings. The congregation, though poor, raised about half of the funds for the buildings, but half was borrowed from another church and must be repaid as soon as possible. Elder Wu, in her answer, focused on the church’s need to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. She emphasized that China is modernizing and changing at an incredible rate of speed, a process that she feels will speed up now that China has become a member of WTO. If the church is to continue as a viable institution it too must change—not its beliefs but the way it does business, the programs it offers, and the way it relates to the community. She pointed out that one form of Yang Shi’s outreach is offering English classes to prepare people for China’s growing openness to the world.

Unlike most Chinese Christians who are first-generation believers, Yao Jiawei comes from a Christian family. His maternal grandmother was a Christian, and his mother, brother, and sister are Christians. Even with this Christian background, his journey to faith was not easy. Like many college students, he wanted extra spending money and, during his third year in college, became involved in something that sounds like a pyramid scheme. Such schemes are illegal in China. The university discovered his involvement and he was expelled. His parents were very angry and he was ashamed that he had wasted their money. It was during those dark times that he accepted Christ and resolved to commit his life to God’s service. Today he is zealous about his seminary studies and absolutely determined to master English so that he can speak to the foreigners who come to his church. In this he reflects a growing awareness among seminarians and pastors that they need more training in English so that they can speak directly to the increasing numbers of foreign visitors who come to urban Chinese churches.

As we begin the year 2002, let us give thanks for the incredible growth of the Christian church in China and let us hold in our prayers the seminarians all over China who have committed themselves to a life of Christian service.

In Christ’s love,

Barbara Maynard Penney

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 180