February 2003

China Notes #8

Dear Friends,

The annual winter conference of the Amity Teacher project was held at the end of January in Xiamen, a port on the southern coast of Fujian province. This city was one of the first treaty ports open to Westerners, hence has some of the oldest Protestant churches in China. We had the opportunity to visit one of these, Bamboo Church.

Bamboo Church was first built in 1850 by missionaries from the Reformed Church in America. (Southern Fujian was the main area in which RCA missionaries worked, and was also the focus of much Presbyterian effort.) Though it has been rebuilt several times, the current church is a direct descendent of the 1850 church, thus making it one of China's oldest Protestant churches. Its Reformed roots can still be seen in its governance by a board of seven elders and a committee of fourteen deacons.

Aware of these difficulties, for the past five years Bamboo Church has administered a fund to provide assistance to poor pastors and evangelists in inland parts of the province. The fund is managed by a church committee under the leadership of one of the elders and has a formalized process through which rural pastors who make less than 500 RMB a month can apply for assistance. The fund also offers help to survivors in cases where a rural pastor or evangelist passes away. To date the fund has assisted over 100 people.

Another recent development in the life of this church is the establishment of a second fund to provide financial assistance to poor people who can't pay health care costs. China is currently in the process of moving from a socialized health care system, in which health care was essentially free, toward a system in which patients are expected to cover more of the costs. At present, those whose income is lower, especially migrants from the countryside to the city, often fall through the cracks. One woman in Bamboo Church became increasingly aware of this problem through her work on the visitation committee, and last year decided to offer the church a contribution of 20,000 RMB to establish a fund to provide assistance to those who could not afford to pay hospital bills. The church not only accepted her offer, but took her cause on as a regular part of the work of the church.

Bamboo Church is somewhat unusual both because of its long history and also because of its position in the heart of one of China's wealthier cities. However, these advantages have allowed it to become a pioneer in finding ways through which China's more established and wealthier churches can begin to assist others.

Yours,

Don and Wei Hong Snow

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 173