From: Su Min
Saturday 23rd November 1996
Dearly Beloved, my dear friend pastor Dennis Balcombe sends this China Ministry Report-Revival
Church which is self explanatory. Do pray for this work.
It has been several months since I have put out any report on the work here, and people everywhere ask
me for information so they can pray for us. Thus I would like to take this opportunity to briefly update you
on developments in Hong Kong and China.
The China ministry has been the busiest and most active since we started 18 years ago. One main reason
is that many people are aware of July 1997 and the handover to China, and a lot of people want to come to
participate in the China ministry while they have the opportunity. Thus daily many have crossed the
border with supplies of the Word of God to give to Christians in the mainland. Some have given out
Gospel literature as they have engaged in one to one personal witnessing, and many have responded and
written for more information. Many teams of young people have come to specifically do evangelistic in
Hong Kong. During the past few years tens of thousands of mainland Chinese have emigrated here, and
most have never heard the Gospel. Only 8% of Hong Kong is Christian.
Some people entering China have had the opportunity to travel to the rural areas, visit and share with the
home churches, and they have all come back greatly challenged and inspired. The fires of revival are
burning as strong as ever, and the converts are numbered in the hundred of thousands. Many testimonies
of miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit can be heard everywhere. For example, during August, a 52 year
old sister in Henan went to the home of a person who had died and prayed for him. After 1 ½ hours he
came to life again, completely healed of the disease that caused his death. The family and relatives had
gathered for his funeral, and you can image the great rejoicing and powerful witness this was to the whole
community. Almost everyone who has been involved in the "move of God" in China can relate similar
miracles.
However on the other side persecution of the house church movement is still evident in certain parts of
China. For example in the Wenzhou area of Zhejiang Province, where the unregistered churches have
built many buildings that seat several hundred, there have been some incidents where the authorities have
completely destroyed the church. The authorities say that these Church buildings are using valuable farm
land or land designated for other uses to build churches. It is true that these church were unregistered, and
possibly were using farm land without permission. But very few Buddhist temples met this fate, only
Christian churches.
In parts of Henan the authorities have gone into the Christian's homes in a given area and have
confiscated all the items of the believers. This includes all Bibles and Christian books, tape recorders and
other electrical items, furniture and all their money. Some have been fined for "illegal religious activities.
One Hong Kong Christian was detained for two weeks before being released. His only crime was shipping
Bibles to Christians. Few of these are given to non-believers, so is no threat to the social structure of
China. But in China Christians are often treated in this manner.
Several overseas Christians have met with similar persecution. Some, including a few Americans who
have been detained for a day or longer for questioning. Some were fined, expelled from China and
blacklisted. However these were people who went in hundreds of time, not first time visitors. The
authorities apparently knew somewhat of their activities.
In November Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited China and President Clinton gave a speech in
Australia. The emphasis was that the Americans want to develop a strong and working relationship with
China and work with China as partners and not to try to isolate or contain China. At the same time the
Secretary of State made very clear the displeasure of the American administration on China's human
rights record, policy toward Taiwan and other issues. I personally believe this approach might be a
positive one and it is very possible there will be some major changes to China during the coming years. It
has to be admitted that the hard-line approach under former administrations did not bring any
fundamental changes.
But whatever happens, we are committed to the ministry in China as well as Hong Kong, and feel perhaps
this is the dark period before the dawn of a new day. Even so, it is far better to have a nation where people
are hungry for God, where Christians are praying and united, where the Gospel is preached and miracles
are taking place in the midst of persecution and suffering than to have one where there is political and
religious freedom, but a sleeping church and populace hardened by sin with no hunger for God. We see
the former in China.
As to Hong Kong, we are not at all pessimistic about the handover to China that is to take place on July 1.
Hong Kong will be governed under a "one-country two systems" principle, and China will only be
responsible for foreign policy and national defence. Thus several thousand People's Liberation Army
soldiers will be stationed here as a symbolical force and of course we will fly the five star red flag of the
But as far as religion, churches, missionaries, evangelism, the present economic and social systems are
concerned, nothing is supposed to change. We are cautiously optimistic that this will be the case, at least
for the first few years after the takeover. Then there will be time in which China itself might change. Of
course nobody really knows what might happened, but I believe that the Chinese are sincere in wanting to
maintain the same system in Hong Kong. They know they have much to lose if they mess this up. In
addition to ruining the economy of Hong Kong that will have a devastating effect on their own economy,
world wide condemnation and so on, they will have little hope of getting Taiwan to join them based on the
same principle. A military option would be the only alternatives, something that is highly unlikely.
Thus we do not expect any major changes, but all the uncertainty has made people more responsive to the
Gospel than before. Also due to fears of the loss of freedom, several notable anti-Charismatic church
leaders have immigrated overseas. Thus most Churches in Hong Kong are now more united than at any
time, and even most evangelical churches are now open to the work of the Holy Spirit, worship and praise.
There has been a notable move of the Holy Spirit and church growth during the past year, and also many
leading evangelists have conduced crusades and seminars here. In November the German evangelist
Reinhard Bonnke sponsored a city-wide evangelistic outreach in which an excellent full-color Gospel
booklet was mailed to every home in the territory.
The only negative development was that of the city-wide publicity given to a church called, "Church of
Zion," that has been declared to be a cult by the 1,100 Protestant churches in Hong Kong. The main
reason is the leader, a Leung Yat-wah, has been urging his congregation of over 1,000 people to orally
ingest hydrogen peroxide as a miracle cure for all diseases. There are many other aspects of their doctrines
and practices that are in serious error and thus they are truly a cult. However it is sad, as they are also a
"Charismatic" church, and in fact some of the leaders left our church 12 years ago to join Leung Yat-wah.
I believe they were deceived. Recently the police have arrested several of these leaders for illegally storing
large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, which is classified as a poison here. They police are looking at
ways to take more legal actions against this group, lest they continue to damage the health of their people.
There is also concern that there might be a mass suicide, as the leader admires David Koresh and the
"Branch Davidian" cult in which he and his followers died in an inferno in Waco Texas a few years ago.
But even this has had it positive benefit for we have had the opportunity to identify with the evangelical
and Charismatic churches who hold fast to solid doctrine and stand against this church that uses
"revelation and gifts of the Spirit" to promote heresy. The Charismatic churches like ours who have taken
this stand have received great respect from the evangelical community and thus our voice is stronger. Also
the people in the community will respond to Christ more readily when they know you support solid
Biblical teaching and condemn heresy and cults.
We are very excited for the Lord has provided the opportunity to purchase a new building, a vacant movie
theatre. The building is only 10 years old. We have already obtained a loan from a bank (a mainland
Chinese communist bank) and have received the keys to this new building, that can easily seat up to 800
in addition to a lot of room for offices, Sunday School and so on. It is about 15,000 square feet compared
to less than 5,000 square feet in our present church. The price for Hong Kong, which has about the
highest property values in the world, is reasonable. It is only US $ 1.9 million, a price that is close to what
some people pay for homes of less than 2,000 square feet. Also the location is excellent, right across from
a main artery of transportation, and close to the new airport that is to go into operation in 1998.
Though the overall price is reasonable, it is a great challenge for our people, and most of our people have
given much of their life savings so we could have sufficient funds for the down payment of US $388,000.
Now we are looking to the Lord for funds to remodel the building, a project that could cost up to US
$500,000. We want to do a good job, that this can be a center of revival and evangelism. All churches in
Hong Kong have a hard time in finding meeting places, and we want to make the building available to
other churches for seminars, special meetings, prayer conferences, and so on. Also being close to the new
airport and the involvement of RCC in China, it will be used to continue our outreach into China after
1997.
For the past 18 years since China opened, our church has devoted its workers and resources to reach the
people in this great nation. We have provide tens of thousands of overseas Christians the opportunity to
enter China and participate in this ministry. We of course have been greatly benefited by this, and now
hope that churches overseas will help to invest in our church here. If you know of anyone who would be
interested in helping, we could send more detailed information about needs in this area.
Some people have said that we are "crazy" in making such a major investment knowing 1997 is on our
doorstep, in which everyone agrees there may be major changes. But we have done this partly as an act of
our commitment to Hong Kong and faith in the future. The main reason is we expect a great harvest
during the coming months and years. After the handover, without a doubt the 6.5 million people
remaining here will be more responsive to Gospel than ever, as is true in mainland China.
A few other items of information:
Thanks for your prayers and do contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. God bless you.
Pastors Dennis, Kathy Balcombe
Subject: China Ministry Report
Su Min
PRC. Obviously political activities against China will probably cease and most of the political dissidents
who escaped from China are planning on leaving. The flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan) will not be
allowed, which can be seen now.
For any comments or enquiries please write to Dr. Lim Su Min
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