Story number 2 for 5 Apr 2001

(China)–Next, the Chinese government continues to strictly monitor religious groups and their activities. Bible Pathways Ministries’ Karen Hawkins says they’ve not only lost contact with one of their translators, but they also know they’re being watched. “The Chinese have enlisted 300-thousand ‘cyber-cops’ to start checking the e-mails and things coming and going to China. People there have told us that we need an encryption program. They know that their e-mails have been checked. It is a crackdown on Christianity.” However, Hawkins says a unique partnership between several mission groups made it possible to get Bibles to a group of students studying in Europe. “We turned around and sent 30 Chinese Bibles and 30 Chinese Bible Pathways to Belgium to be handed out to these university students who were coming all the way from China. There is absolutely no way we would have ever been able to figure anything out like that. But, God wanted the Bibles and the Bible Pathways in the hands of these young people.”