A NEW PAGE IN THE FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM -- Meet the New Generation of PRC Christian Leaders Samuel Ling Yesterday -- or today -- you, the mission-minded Christian who loves the Chinese, were reading about mainland Chinese intellectuals (PRC’s) searching for truth ... arguing about Christianity ... coming to faith in Jesus Christ. In prayer letter after prayer letter you received from dozens of PRC ministry workers, you rejoiced as one PRC here, two there, commit their lives to Christ. And you gave thanks for prayer answered. As your “family photo album” of PRC Christians began to fill, you also read about, and prayed for, the spiritual growth and development of PRC Christians to serve Christ. Turn the page ... welcome to a new chapter, a new page in the family photo album of PRC Christians in America. Come, meet some of Christ’s servants whom He has raised up, among PRC’s, to reach PRC’s: evangelists, pastors, apologists. Do you recognize these faces? Can you rejoice and give thanks to the Sovereign Lord of the Church for them? Will you love and pray for them? Like Barnabas, will you encourage them, and get out of the way so they can grow in their ministry? A son of Christian parents in China, J. is a tentmaking pastor in the western states. Having made an all-out commitment to serve Christ, he and his wife support themselves in order to shepherd and evangelize PRC’s. And they do it in harmony and partnership with the non-PRC’s in town. J. is a passionate preacher with a clear vision of the kind of corporate testimony the Lord wants to raise up among the PRC’s -- a vision he has held for 15 years. A scientist by training, Y.J. now pastors a congregation of PRC’s in Canada. Passionate to preach the Word of God, he knows that it doesn’t matter whether one calls a church “PRC” or whichever label ... the crucial question is: is the Word of God there in the church? Is the Word of God there in the worship service? A researcher, X.A. is helping Christians in the West understand the true face of Chinese thougth and culture. Can Confucianism (including New Confucianism) be representative of Chinese culture? Or should we listen to what scholars in Beijing are saying about China’s political culture... Chinese local society ... and make a Christian response? X.A. is furthering his research and theological studies in western Canada. Having been converted in China, J.J. today pastors a growing group of PRC converts in the south. His home church (a major Caucasian congregation in a campus town) has been very supportive of his efforts. On one occasion, almost half of the PRC’s in his town came to an outreach event--something the church will not forget! J.J. reaches more than intellectuals: he knows just about every Chinese restaurant in town. Y. is a doctoral student in the Great Lakes States. He is the chairperson of the Chinese students’ fellowship on campus, and is doing apologetics on the Internet with Chinese -- Chinese from China, Taiwan and North America. His challenge to us: engage Chinese intellectuals with a defense for the gospel now, on the front line -- on-line! H. has taught the history of art and literature, and is well versed in film criticism. Today he is reaching his campus in the midwest with a unique ministry. He is producing a video to challenge North American Christians to get involved in China. X. was an expert in mythology, East and West. He belonged to the generation of elites in the 1980’s on the eve of Tienanmen Square. Having spent some time in prison in China, he has come to the West. Today he has become a Christian after an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit in his life, and is pondering the Lord in his prayers and meditation... daily, constantly. Not ready to publish his works lest they be too immature, he has purchased an entire set of Christian classics (in Chinese) to equip himself. He lives on the east coast. Uncle Z. knows Christians persecuted in China... today. He knows their names, their faces. He weeps when he prays for them. And he has done something about China’s great need for the gospel... he produces radio programs. A dream he has dreamed since he began to listening to Christian radio broadcasts (in China) 1972. A dream which began to come true in 1983. Today, his passion for radio evangelism is as strong as ever. Then there are names you know: Pine Wang, author of a book on the Chinese and Christian concepts of man, and his wife Esther; they are committed to serve Christ in Asia. Daniel Su, with wonderful gifts of organization, on staff of China Outreach Ministries. Yuan Zhiming, who has committed the next 4 years to quiet reflection, reading and prayer. Welcome to the next stage of PRC ministry: the emergence of a movement of PRC’s who are in the pastorate, campus ministry, literature and media, with gifts in writing, film, and Internet ministry. Many of them have received some theological training, and are now in the full-time ministry phase. With intense love for their motherland and their fellow-Chinese, they are committing their lives, energy, heart and family to the ministry. Together, they are creating a new force for God’s kingdom. Together, they are growing in their prayer life, in the ministry. Together, they will come to us -- the non- PRC Christian community who cares -- to ask us to partner with them. They need our blessing, encouragement, love, prayers, support, participation, advice, and love. (And for some of them, we will encourage their growth best by now exposing them as celebrity speakers too early on. We serve Christ’s cause best by just praying ... loving... encouraging them.) As God turns a page in his history book -- as a new stage is reached in the ministry among PRC’s -- it is our privilege to walk with God, and with them, our fellow workers. They are energetic, intense, keen, passionate, in the peak of the growth years of their ministry. They will learn, grow, mature, and become powerful servants of the Word of God. And more than ever, they are family. November 17, 1996