When train tickets for the last day before the Chinese New Year went on sale in China, the website handling the ticket sales received over one billion visits. To Chinese people, there is no more important time to be home with family. Many will travel upwards of 30 hours by train from megacities back to their hometowns.As a Christian living in China the past 10 years, when I see this—the world’s largest migration of people every year—I am reminded of just how big China is. And, of how very much the gospel is needed here.
God has blessed our family of churches in China with two new church plantings in the past year and more fruit, especially on campus. But the scale of what remains to be done is vast:
- There are over 100 cities with more than 500,000 people where we have yet to plant a church.
- The seven largest provinces where we have yet to plant a church—if separate countries—would be as large as Vietnam, Germany, France, Korea, Ukraine, Spain and Canada.
- In our most evangelized province, the ratio of members of the International Churches of Christ to the population is about 50 times less than the same ratio in the U.S. For China as a whole, the ratio is almost 200 times less than the U.S.
Change is coming to China at a staggering pace. Last year China’s economy became the world’s second largest. Buildings and even cities spring up overnight as millions move from the countryside to the cities in search of work. Will they have a chance to hear the gospel?This year, as you hear of Chinese around the world celebrating the Year of the Dragon, will you say a prayer for China?
Editor’s note: You can learn more about opportunities for English-speaking disciples to serve in China and 14 other locations around the world at Disciple Adventures.