China (MNN) — Back in the 1980s, there was a big push for smuggling Bibles into Communist China to meet the needs of believers there.
But is Bible smuggling still necessary in China today?
Rev. Jason Woolford, President of Mission Cry, says, “You look at the restrictions that the [Chinese] government has on the Bible, the amount of printing that they allow…of the Bible, with much oversight, is about 150,000 copies annually.
“So can you imagine the billions of people there that are waiting or wanting the Bible and are in secret sharing one page of the Bible amongst each other? There is a desperate need.”
Mission Cry works with Chinese nationals to smuggle in Bibles from Hong Kong. These local believers have good scores on China’s social scoring system and can travel within the country. They are willing to risk it all for access to more copies of God’s Word.
(Photo courtesy of Mission Cry)
Woolford says, in Hong Kong currently, “There are 6,000 Bibles. We’re purchasing those and we’re bringing our folks back down from the north and bringing them into Hong Kong. Then yet again, they will be risking their life and everything that they have to smuggle these Bibles back into Communist China, into the thick of the wickedness of it to those that have no Bible and/or are secretly underground.
“We know that every time that a book is given to somebody, over its life cycle it will be read by 20 people. So you take that 6,000 and times it by 20, that’s 120,000 people that will have heard the Word of God through this operation.”
You can support this critical Gospel work at Mission Cry’s website here.
Woolford adds, “My hope is that people will pray for our team. Pray for them [who] are willing to risk all to do this.
“Pray for the rest of the funds to come in for the purchase of these Bibles, and then also the money that we’re paying too for our team to bring them down their travel expenses and send them back.”
Header photo of Chinese Bible. (Photo courtesy of Chris Liu/Unsplash)
