China/Hong Kong
Amity Printing Press in Nanjing announced in September 2007 that it had printed 50 million copies of the Bible. The press was established in 1987 through United Bible Societies with funds from churches around the world. Forty-two million copies of the Bible were distributed in China, and eight million were exported to sixty other countries.
Ms. Lin Shidan is the evangelist of the Rongsheng Church, just outside of Fuzhou in Fujian province. In the late 1990s, she spotted a homeless child who had fainted after kneeling for hours as punishment for having been caught stealing. Further inquiries revealed that both this child’s parents were in prison. Without supervision he wandered the streets and stole to support himself. This encounter so troubled Ms. Lin that she began an investigation and discovered that in Fujian province alone nearly one hundred female prisoners had husbands who were also inmates serving prison terms. Many of their underage children, who numbered more than two hundred, had no one to supervise or provide for them. With the support of her church, Ms. Lin worked to establish a home for prisoners’ children. The Kindness Grace Garden was established in June 2000.
The Garden places strong emphasis on the relationship between the children and their parents. One incarcerated mother grew so worried and depressed about the whereabouts of her two children that she attempted suicide several times. Once her children were found and reconciled to her, the mother was so encouraged that she achieved awards as a model prisoner and as a result her sentence was reduced.
These articles are excerpted from China News Update, January 2008. To subscribe to a printed version of this update, email Mimi Park of the China Program.
Presbytery Staff
Rev. Dr. Charles Traylor, executive presbyter
Elder Michael Lochow, stated clerk
William Weispfenning, treasurer
Laurie Elhard, communication coordinator
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Michael Fallon, BOP
Margaret Farmer, GAMC
Anthony Farrell, GAMC
Loving God, we thank you for a community that shows us how to care for one another. We appreciate and support people who recognize the gifts that children in difficulty have to share with us. We are grateful knowing when we open our lives to your healing and unifying love, we can also share it with extravagance. In the name of Jesus, your love made human. Amen.
Ps. 34, 146 Ps. 25, 91
Jer. 25:8–17
Rom. 10:1–13; John 9:18–41
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