During our daily meditations over the next few weeks, we will explore historic revivals, their beginnings, and how the Holy Spirit uses humble people for His glory.
Our first story is about Carl Lawrence's account of how God used humble, simple-hearted Christians to build His kingdom on Hainan Island, China. I quote from his book, The Coming Influence of China. Lawrence recounts that, in the mid-1990s, two young women came to faith in Christ in another Chinese province after hearing the Gospel through shortwave radio broadcasts. The two new believers received Bibles and immediately wanted to serve God wholeheartedly. A Hong Kong-based pastor met with them and tried to teach them that they should stay where they were and minister to their neighbors. The girls protested, "No! The Bible you gave us says Jesus told us to go into all the world. We want to go." Finally, the pastor, feeling ashamed of his lack of zeal, relented and told the girls there was a need for workers on Hainan Island. The duo had never heard of Hainan Island, but they were sure God wanted them to preach the Gospel there.
Two years later, the girls returned to the Chinese mainland, where the pastor met with them. He had not heard any news since their departure. The Hong Kong pastor used the meeting to introduce the girls to several visiting Western church leaders. After introductions, the girls were asked how their work had been and whether they had started any churches. Lawrence explains: “The women put their heads down and answered, ‘Oh pastor, we have only been there two years…yea, two years. Not many. Not very many.’ Their voices were apologetic. ‘We have been there only a short time. The people were not very friendly, and sometimes they became vicious. Sometimes they told us they were going to drown us in the ocean. Several men threatened us, and because we were so young, some of the ladies did not like us and called us terrible names…so not many churches…no, not many.’” Finally, after being asked again by the frustrated pastor, the girls apologized that they had only started 30 churches since their arrival on Hainan Island!
The news shocked the pastor and his Western friends. They asked how many people attended their new churches. After another round of apologies and self-effacing comments, they answered, "Two hundred and twenty." The listeners assumed this meant the girls had gained 220 converts across their 30 churches, but 220 was the total membership of the smallest churches! "How many people do you have in your largest church?" the pastor asked. "Oh…not many…Less than five thousand. Only four thousand nine hundred. Yes, less than five thousand. We have just started.”
The Western visitors were so touched by the humility and enthusiasm of the two young ladies that they began to weep. One of the visitors asked the pastor to find out how the two ladies achieved such remarkable success. “What did we do? Why, nothing. Yes, we did nothing, nothing.” The amazed onlookers protested, “You did nothing? You have thirty churches – the smallest with two hundred and twenty people, the largest with nearly five thousand new Christians! And you did nothing?” The two evangelists replied, "We just prayed, and after we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do. We would keep praying, and He would tell us what to do, and then we would do it. We would pray again, and He would tell us what to do just the same.
Note: When we first read about the two faithful girls, we were initially skeptical of the story’s accuracy because it seemed too good to be true. We sent the story to a friend who is an expert on the church on Hainan Island. Surprisingly, our informant confirmed that the story was true. These two young women had achieved great feats and planted many churches despite considerable opposition and struggle. They mainly worked in southern Hainan Island, including several counties near Sanya City. However, our friend added that due to a lack of follow-up and discipleship, much of the fruit was lost to cults, and by 1999, perhaps "only" 5,000 of the duo's converts remained true believers.
This story is taken from the series On Fire with the Spirit and is found in God Uses Ordinary Believers.
Taken from the website of Asia Harvest: http://asiaharvest.org/testimonies/#13