Four of 10 million Bibles Amity Printing will print this year!

Our group had two visits today. The Rev. Chen, Xiang Sheng, Associate General Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Christian Council, picked us up at 9:00 AM and took us to the Amity Printing Company, where over 10,000,000 Bibles are printed each year. Our group saw an introductory video highlighting the overall work of the Amity Foundation, which includes education, health, development and other social ministries in addition to Bible printing. We then took a tour of the marvelous facility that keeps updating its ability to make the Bible available. In addition to printing more than 3,000,000 Bibles for distribution in China, Amity prints Bibles for over 90 countries around the world. We saw Bibles being printed in South Asian languages, Spanish, and King James English, each for a different continent!

After lunch we visited the national seminary of the China Christian Council, the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. Its campus has had a number of upgrades since 2012, but the real “upgrade” was increasing the quality of students it trains for ministry. As part of our briefing on the seminary, we had the chance to meet four senior M.Div. students. Dr. He, a physician from Henan Province, told us that she received her call to ministry while treating patients in a community clinic. “I found that they had spiritual illnesses in addition to physical ones. We have many doctors for the physical ailments, but not enough pastors to address the spiritual needs of the people. So my husband and I felt led that I should prepare for ministry.”

Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, with the new chapel under construction in the background

Another student, Mr. Liu, was a chemical engineer in Liaoning Province. Quite active in his church, he was noticed by the leadership who urged him to consider full-time pastoral ministry. He prayed about it and said yes to the call. His focus is on developing small group ministry in the churches upon his graduation.

Professor Wen Ge, Director of Overseas Relations for the Seminary, told us that the seminary is located in a university district of Nanjing. He said that several of the students at Nanjing Seminary have ministries on the campuses of some of the universities even as they prepare for future service. The temporary chapel of the seminary is overflowing on Sunday morning with students from these campuses. As we left the Amity Printing and the Seminary, we couldn't help but be aware of the great passion of Chinese Christians for sharing God’s Word with the world, and for their personal commitment to engage in this ministry in their daily lives.

God's blessings to each of you, The 2014 China Discovery Team

China Day 2: Nanjing