Report from Asia IV - Praise & Prayer Needs From David & Amy

Well I am back in America so I can dispense with the Secret Squirrel coded messages.  It is the post trip report I wanted to send out but also a request that you all pray for Amy.  I am going to be lazy and just cut and paste from my post on the Facebook group for FBC Keller Local Evangelism so if things appear a little oddly addressed well chalk it up to lack of sleep.

Also a reminder for anyone who gets convicted reading this post and wants to start sharing their faith more, I am leading the next Evangelism training course starting Wednesday night, Jan 21^st (1 week from today) at 7pm at FBC Keller.  It runs for 8 weeks.  Come get equipped and prepared to share.  And now for the report:

In a desperate effort to put off for a little while longer the arduous task of laundry, sorting through weeks of mail, and writing up trip logs, not to mention bathing two dogs without the help of my wife, I have decided to go ahead and post my trip report here. Unfortunately this is about the last thing I can think of to interpose between myself and the laundry list (pardon the pun) of things to do before Seminary starts back up Friday.

For those who hate long posts, oops. Can’t do much about it. Even though this will be the highlights only, this trip was so packed full of things that I fear this will be a long one. I will break it up into bite sized paragraphs though to make things a bit easier on the eyes. I will spare the personal details also and just focus on the missions related things. That should help also.

When we first arrived we were exhausted from nearly 36 hours of travel. We were on planes, buses and boats and the travel time plus layovers made the trip positively exhausting. I had to be careful prior to going with details but we did go into this E Asian country to a coastal city. I will still need to be a little vague on the details and will use nicknames for the people we met for their protection.

First for those who don’t know the political situation in E Asia it is a closed country to the gospel. Now it is perfectly legal to be a Christian in E Asia. There are government run “official” churches called the “Three Self” churches. The problem is that those churches are heavily monitored and censored on what they can and cannot teach on. They do provide a complete translation of the Bible though so Christians are not getting an edited version of the Bible, they just can’t preach on certain things from the pulpit and most churches will have a “fairness doctrine” kind of set up where there will be two people preaching, one will preach from the Bible and then there will be a Communist party member preaching the government version right beside them. We heard all this from Christians there but being westerners and knowing they do video tape everyone who attends a church (especially foreigners) so they can identify the foreign Christians we avoided attending the three self church.

There are also underground churches there who study and preach the whole Bible. These are unregistered churches and you can get arrested for leading or attending one of these. Also while it is legal to be a Christian, it is illegal to evangelize or prostheletize so we had to be very careful how we approached things. We could enter into a conversation and talk about things and ask questions, and if that prompted questions from the E Asians then we could legally share the gospel with them in answer to their questions. That was the approach we took. It is a fine line, however, and should the PSB (police) have taken issue with us they could have found grounds to arrest and deport us (with much more dire consequences to the E Asian nationals).

I was both amazed and ashamed when we were introduced to the translators that would go out with us. Most of these folks were only believers for less than a year yet they were putting their very lives and freedom on the line to go out and share the gospel without regard to their own consequences. When I reflect how calloused Americans are with carrying out the great commission and how sheepishly we make excuses not to share, it was very humbling to see these young Christians doing exactly what our Lord told us all to do. It felt a bit like we were back in the first century church. Persecution was everywhere and the cost of following Christ and even becoming a believer was so high yet there was such love of the Lord and such obedience that I was overwhelmed.

I was positively amazed at the power of the pure and simple gospel. We in the west are so used to people who have heard the gospel (at least think they have heard the truth of it) but it has gotten so wrapped up in denominational issues, political arguments and apologetic rhetoric that we have lost the power and the essence of the true and simple gospel. These were new beleivers still mostly on spiritual milk themselves so we had to peel back all the layers of junk we tend to pile on top of the gospel here in the west and basically reduce things to 4 simple tools we equipped them to use to share with. A little flip picture book that led them through the creation to Christ story (about 10 minutes long), a video called “The Good News” which basically was about a 60 minute compliation of the story of Creation through Christ and the gospel, a tract which led them through the Roman Road, and their personal testimony. With those 4 simple tools, these brave young Christians would set out and share their faith.

The response was surprising and overwhelming. God had truly prepared the fields. Again we in the west have rationalized, analyzed and stuffed that place in our hearts with anything other than God. Truth is we were made to worship and we yearn to worship, but in the west we put ourselves in that place and worship our intellect, our accomplishments, our pride. Here was a perfectly atheist society where the government had done everything possible to wipe out the belief in God and fill everyone with the naturalistic and evolutionary explanations for everything, and yet the hearts of the people were so aware of the existence of God that they filled it with everything possible from Taoism, Buddhism, ancestor worship, and whatever local made up gods they could invent. Instinctively these educated, athiestically indoctrinated people knew there was something more.

Why is it that these people who lived in what western atheists would dream of, a society without God, so yearn for the presence of Him while Westerners who have such access to Him struggle so adamantly to eradicate Him? I prayed and puzzled over this for many nights trying to understand and I beleive I have an insight. It comes down to pride. In E Asia people are taught from birth to be humble and to always put others ahead of yourself. In the west we are taught “self-esteem” and indoctrinated that we are entitled to something more and we deserved to be the center of attention and to be treated just a bit better than everyone else. There is no humility, in fact in the west we laud over our accomplishments with trophies, articles, ceremonies, recognition, etc. E Asia is the exact opposite and even the simplest of compliments is met with deflection and humility.

The Bible tells us God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, so why were the hearts of the E Asians so open to the gospel while the west is so hardened to it? Because we have embraced and idolized our pride and accomplishments to the point of being unusuable by God while the E Asians are humble and grateful for the gift of salvation.

We shared with so many while we were there, hundreds of people heard the gospel from our little group. We encouraged the Christians there and the lead professor for the trip as well as myself got to do some training of the local believers to equip them. Dr. Williams did a 4 night teaching through 1-2 Peter to prep them for living the Christian life in a world of persecution and I did a brief overview of Hebrews focusing on Hebrews 10 and the importance of gathering together as well as the need for them to step out in faith and share with others. I start another evangelism training class here next Wednesday and I can tell you I will have a thing or two to say to the Christians I will be training about leaving their excuses at the door after seeing the bravery and faithfulness of these young E Asian believers.

I also was so blessed by meeting a lady there who was a fifth generation Christian. The people we learn about in the west, Hudson Taylor, Gladys Aylward, Lottie Moon and the pioneers of Christian missions had reached this woman’s family 5 generations back and her family had perservered through all the persecution, purgings, torture, imprisonments, etc which tried to eradicate the presence of Christianity yet this woman’s family perservered. She told me there were many many Christians, millions even, that had endured the persecutions. I found out that when the missionaries were ejected and the government started the purge there were about a million Christians in E Asia and a few years ago when the doors opened enough again to resume missionary activities that there were nearly 7 million. A 7 fold increase during the worst persecution and deliberate eradication the world has ever seen. I was encouraged to know that even in its darkest hour, God never turned His back on E Asia.

This woman affected me inexplicably. Her brother was an evangelist and ran several house churches in the area. She was so blessed by our presence (she had severe diabetes and we came and prayed with her every day) that she gave us all very expensive gifts of high quality tea to take back with us. This was over $1,000 US dollars worth of tea for our group and knowing how economically depressed this area was we objected strongly to such a gift but she insisted and refused to let us refuse to take it. She said when we arrived she was about ready to have to go into the hospital because her blood sugar was so high but after we came and prayed with her every day that the day before we left her blood sugar was normal and she had not taken any medication. Please for those of you willing to do it, continue to pray for sister “Auntie” and that God will protect her health and use her in a mighty way. She gives away Bibles from her stand and the local missionary is going to get her several hundred copies of “The Good News” videos to give away as well. She can really become a super-sower of seeds from her place there and I pray God will use her in a mighty way and bless her and her family.

All in all we had 28 people pray to receive Christ while we were there. For most of the trip I felt like the flack-jacket for my team. All the spiritual attacks seemed to be leveled against me and I was coming to the field the most experienced evangelist, an evangelism trainer in the USA, and I was seeing no one converted. I kept bumping into the most hardened, resistant people ever. The local missionary deliberately sent me into the darkest, hardest areas and by the end of the trip it was wearing on me. Others in my group that I took out actually made inroads and saw conversions but ultimately everyone I talked to was placed there by the enemy to beat down and discourage me.

This is where God stepped in. The very last night I was asked to go with a different team because there were a couple of teachers at a university that another group had talked to but they had a lot of questions the other group couldn’t answer so they asked me to go with them. I went out with them and we met these two men. They were brilliant and they asked many questions about what we beleived and why we believed it. I took them through some of the prophecies of the Bible (Ezekiel 26, Psalm 22, etc) and answered their deepest questions. Then one of them got called away on an emergency right as we were about to share the gospel with them one last time. The other man, “Andrew”, stayed with us and I was able to share the gospel. I took him through the Roman road and God was moving so strongly in that place, we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. One of the folks with us was sitting there and just praying for Andrew while my wife and I took turns sharing with him the gospel. At the end this man broke down in tears of joy at the message we shared and wanted to pray to receive Christ. This was unheard of as E Asia men do NOT cry in public. He was crying, I was crying it was a regular mess but it was the most powerful conversion experience I have ever seen. He was so grateful that we had come halfway around the world to share this with him. We got his contact information and the local missionary team will get him plugged into a local house church there and continue discipling him, but this man was an influential leader, highly educated, and received the gospel with such gratefulness. He had never heard the gospel before and despite a lifetime of indoctrination, he readily and gratefully received the gift of Christ and eternal life. It was beautiful, powerful and yet at the same time so very saddening when I contrast that experience with the reactions to the gospel in the west. I cry tears of joy for the Andrews but weep tears of sorrow for the many on these boards and throughout the west who reject the beautiful and loving gift of our Savior. Please continue to pray for Andrew’s growth and discipleship.

Also the next night one of our team members met with the other teacher that had left. He had talked to his friend who had come to Christ and was so moved by what he said, that when our other teammate shared the gospel with him, he came to Christ as well. So now that was two influential and educated teachers that can have a profound influence on all those who come in contact with them. Their university is near a very dark part of the city, a “red light” district where the local missionaries have not been able to make any significant inroads. The day before we met with Andrew we had done an extreme prayer walk through that district asking God to give us believers close to this area who could be used to start another house church and begin to give hope to those hundreds of women who have no life other than selling their bodies for the money to survive. Within the next two days we had two educated, influential believers not two blocks from the red light district.

Now the skeptics I am certain will shout “coincidence” but the local missionaries had been trying for months to make inroads into this area and had met with hardened resistance and no success. We all asked our local churches here in the states to pray for this area and we all prayed for it and went from temple to temple, up and down streets lined with brothels and pornography stands and just prayed God to open hearts here and make a way, and the very next day we had a new beliver in that area and the following day another. “Coincidence”? I don’t think so. Prayer works! Please contiue to pray for this section of that city that God will transform it and give those women hope and direction and that the gospel of Christ can be used to transform that area from a place of darkness to a beacon of light.

I also know in addition to our church and friends and family that many of you were praying for us as well. We felt your prayers going before us and opening doors and leading us to the people God had for us to meet. I have said before no mission trip has EVER been successful without the power of prayer going before and behind it and I thank you all for lending your prayers to us.

I would ask one more thing of you though, my wife, Amy, has gone on to The Large Island to share the gospel with her family. They are all devout Taoist/Buddhists and she faces a difficult road with no one there to back her up. Please continue to pray for my wife. Pray that God will open the heart of her mother (78 years old and in poor health) to the message of eternal life and that the hearts and ears of her family will be opened to the message of the gospel. Also pray for her encouragement as she doubtlessly will meet with much spiritual attacks and discouragement from those hardened. I spoke with her this morning and she said the place was filled with darkness and hard hearts. I told her that she was only a sower of seeds and to trust in God for the increase. Once again, though, prayer is needed to open hearts and open minds so please pray for her and her family. She will be there until the 30th of this month and I sincerely thank any and all brothers an sisters on these boards who will cover Amy with your prayers.

Well that’s about it. I will keep checking this thread and answer any specific questions about trip you have (barring things too specific that might endanger the folks on the ground there). For the beleivers on this board I will have one final admonition, you have no excuse for not sharing your faith. You don’t have to go around the world to do it, go around your neighborhood, your workplace, your community. I have heard all the excuses, “I don’t know enough”, “people will get mad at me”, “what if they reject me”, blah blah blah. You are not responsible for the results, you are called to sow the seeds. And remember they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting God. Jesus told us that in the gospels. If these young Christians with barely a grasp of the gospel themselves can go out and risk arrest and imprisonment to obey the command of our Lord to share the gospel, we in the west are without excuse.

Pray!
Preach!
Perservere!

By His Grace,

David Johnson