Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China says economics could be a major factor. “In every conversation, we have with our folks in China, that’s part of what we talk about. Life is a lot harder in China than it has been in the past. Many people have got to stay home and take care of their families, even though the call of God is very strong.”

“The obligation to provide for your family and those kinds of things needs to be considered as well.”

China’s zero-COVID policy has kept many citizens quarantined for months or even years. Officials have shown no sign of changing the restrictions.

Travel remains incredibly difficult, Rovenstine says. “One of our primary contacts there was finally able to get out. She planned to visit four cities, meet with leaders, continue to develop relationships, and share our greetings. She was only able to visit two cities.”

Lay leaders

Rovenstine says while long-term seminarian numbers have dwindled, many leaders continue to take shorter programs. “We would probably call them lay leaders in the United States. It’s somebody that would serve as a local church pastor. Lots of people are getting grassroots training in seminaries through one-year programs. That seems to have a little more traction.”

Celebrate the continued growth of the Church in China. Ask God to strengthen Chinese Christians as they work creatively in difficult situations.

Header photo courtesy of Bibles for China on Facebook. 

Many people in Zimbabwe live on subsistence farming, providing only for their own needs and not producing extra.

Christian World Outreach has worked in Zimbabwe since the year 2000. Greg Yoder says the financial crisis makes it difficult to plan. “Even looking at, ‘Okay, we’ve got this amount of funds we had available. It’s going to do less now than we thought it was.’”

Yoder recently spoke with the CWO Zimbabwe National Director, Onias Tapera. “He made the comment that it has a negative impact on staff morale. Because they always feel like they’re putting out fires and trying to help people with their physical needs.”

CWO’s work in Zimbabwe

CWO works with pastors and lay leaders in Zimbabwe to raise Jesus-centered churches.

This is all the more important because prosperity gospel teaching (saying Jesus will give people money) has become quite common throughout parts of Africa. Yoder says, “They’re begging us to come back. They make comments like, ‘I didn’t realize that the Bible applied to my whole life.’”

“And here’s your pastor, your lay leader making that comment.”

Out of that ministry grew a need to help orphans whose parents died from AIDS. Yoder says, “Now we look at it more as vulnerable children. We have the Our Kids program, where we’re helping keep the kids in school but also helping them find foster parents.”

The training has gone on long enough to see some of the kids graduate from college.

Ask God to give the CWO team wisdom as they serve churches and kids while navigating the economic crisis.

The header photo shows farmers in Zimbabwe. (Header photo courtesy of Domikatema, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Their teaching teams went to Sichuan province to help with Bible training at one of the lay training centers. "We had the privilege of training 270 lay pastors and lay leaders. And while we were there, we had the opportunity to do a two-day session with seminary students." 

The training of the younger emerging Christian leaders, who primarily come from poor rural areas of China, need significant help. Most of these leaders will never have the opportunity to attend a regular Bible school or seminary. But each of them has the desire to be better equipped for ministry.

The team also held Pastoral Training Seminars for the Sichuan Seminary in Chengdu. 

Burklin says their team's main focus was to give the students practical training in the areas of discipleship and Christian leadership. "Discipleship is tremendously needed in China because there are so many new believers coming to faith. Because there's a lack of leadership and the lack of trained pastors, they're not being properly followed-up with and cannot be properly followed up with."

There are multitudes of registered and non-registered lay leaders' Bible training schools throughout the country.  There are also 18 theological seminaries and Bible institutes.  The need for proper training, along with faculty and staff, is evident.

Pray for safe travel home for the team, and that the Holy Spirit leads and directs the newly trained in ministry.