Quarantine: lent and beyond

by Juan Sarmiento

Lent is an opportunity to ponder anew what it means to follow Jesus in a world that is facing the realities of vulnerability and frailty. We are truly dust. The word "quarantine" comes from the Latin quadraginta, meaning "forty". It dates back to the thirteen century when the Venetians started the practice of keeping ships quaranta giorni (forty days) as an attempt to deal with the Bubonic Plague. Also known as the Black Death, the disease that wiped out an estimated 30 percent of the people then living in Europe's and a significant percentage of Asia's population in 11 years.

ChinaThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 28, 2020

A prayer from a pastor in Wuhan City, China

My Lord have mercy on our city, Wuhan, and listen to our petitions!

Lord, you hear the plea of EVERY soul in this city! People of this city are so exhausted after weeks of home isolation, so concerned about being infected at the food market and so worried about the uncertain future. May your words be the comfort of this city, and your promises our hope, then all our beings will enjoy real peace and rest.

ChinaThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 18, 2020

“Fear Not, But Believe” How to Pray for and Share in the efforts of Christians in China.

by Juan Sarmiento

China is facing a public health challenge of very serious proportions. During the last few weeks, I have been in constant communication with influential pastors who are supporting the relief efforts in the Hubei province. My previous blog post may help give an idea of the impact that the crisis is having on churches there and how they are responding as quickly and generously as possible.

Below, is a significant portion of a letter that a dear pastor penned last week:

ChinaThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 13, 2020

Loving God and the Bible with Chinese Leaders

by Juan Sarmiento

In his youth the Rev. Shan Wei-Xiang was the pastor of a typical Chinese congregation during those years: One that owned no Bibles. In fact, since the only copy of the Scriptures in town was found in the library, the congregation had agreed that nobody else but him would check the Bible out each week from the local library and they would help him write down by hand copies of the passage from which Pastor Shan would preach to have it distributed among the people.

Things have changed significantly in recent decades but Rev. Shan’s commitment to sharing God’s message remains strong. He now heads a program of the Church in China that is responsible for the distribution of the Bible inside China. Since the late 1980s, tens of millions of Bibles have been distributed inside China as the church has tried to keep up with the growth of disciples of Christ. The most conservative estimate of the number of Protestant Christians in China is 46 million, up from less than one million in 1949 when the Peoples Republic of China began.

Asia, China, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationApril 26, 2017Theological Education Centers in China

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