Our first stop was Vietnam, where we have been coming forover 17 years, carrying Bibles, flannel graphs and discipleshipmaterials. Our team of four flew in with several hundredHmong Study Bibles. One of the team members was stopped,but after we talked with them, the head Customs officer cameover and told us we could go with the Bibles.Our contact and his grandson met us at the airport and thenwe went to the contact's house to unload the Bibles. Thecontact and his wife have 20 Bible students living in theirhouse and so they all helped us to unpack the duffels. Theywere grateful for the Bibles and even more so for thefellowship. When asked if any had suffered for their faith,everyone raised their hand. One said they had spent threedays in jail, all have been questioned by the police andharassed, and one Pastor has even received over 100summons to the police station. Persecution and opposition isan everyday experience in their lives.After returning to Bangkok to pack Bibles, I sensed that weshould call the Intercessors in the US and ask them to prayfor our trip to China the next day. The next morning theteam was up early and we had breakfast and then packed theduffels full of Chinese Pastor Study Bibles. There are over400,000 Chinese Pastors and Church leaders who want theseBibles and if possible they would pay 6-12 months salary tobuy one on the "Black Market." For every one of these Biblesdistributed it is reported that at least 40 people come to faithin Jesus Christ.We loaded the duffel bags into the van and a Burmesebrother prayed for our trip and then our Thai brother prayedfor us as well. There was also a team of Intercessors from theUS who said they would be praying as well. We have neverhad so much prayer cover leaving Bangkok before! Wechecked in at the airport and were charged about $400 forthe overweight charges. Since we have delivered Bibles toKunming for many years and only once had problems andthat was with Hand Wind Tape Players, I fully expected thatwe would sail through Customs unhindered. Our contacts inKunming have been asking for these Bibles for over a year soI was glad that we could help meet the need.Upon arriving in Kunming I was surprised to see theincreased security as every person had to put their bagsthrough the x-ray machine. There were more customs guardsthan I have ever seen before. I sensed that Forrest (78 yearold grandfather) should go first with his 15 year oldgrandson following him. Normally older people are respected

God used a man named Pastor Allen Yuan years ago to challengemy life and inspire me to help the Chinese Church……I made apromise to the Lord,after Allen’s challenge,that I would doeverything that I could to assist the Chinese Christians and bringas many Bibles as I can to help them.

DEAR FRIENDS,I WANTED TO UPDATE YOU AS TO WHATHAS TRANSPIRED ON OUR RECENTTRIP TO SE ASIA.

and given more grace in Customs. This did not happen thistime, as Forrest was immediately stopped and searched,Stephen was stopped next and then Steve and lastly myself.The Customs officials were visibly upset and proceeded tobring us into their office and made us remove all the Bibles.They then took out all my clothes and searched my personalbag. I had a small plastic bag in my hand with personalpapers, cash and receipts. The Customs officer said to openthe bag and I refused saying it was my personal belongings -to which he said, "You have no personal items in China, wecan search anything!"After seeing all of the Bibles confiscated, we discussed as ateam what we should do. Since we have been hearing somuch propaganda about China, that there is religiousfreedom in the country, and that the Chinese Government isprinting millions of Bibles, we decided that we would stay inCustoms until the Bibles were returned. The Customs officersrefused to return them to us, so we refused to leave. I thinkthis is something the Chinese government is not used to,having people stand up to them. They were confounded as towhat to do with us, but after about an hour they asked us toleave their office and move to the lounge where they werecouches and a television. I think they fully expected us toback down and leave.The team decided to fast so we only drank water for the first20 hours while waiting in Customs. Our sleep was ofteninterrupted, as Customs officers kept waking us up andtelling us that we needed to leave the airport. They said wecould apply to the Religious Affairs Office to petition them toget our Bibles back, a game the Chinese Government plays totry to appease foreigners."The millions of Bibles printed by the state-permitted press inthe last 25 years are not enough to replace worn out Bibles or toprovide any Bibles for new converts. (Is your only Bible 25 yearsold?) According to these regulations, rural Christians are on a"20-year waiting list." Believers are willing to risk everything toobtain God's Word. They are unashamed of the gospel, thepower of God for the salvation of all who believe (Romans1:16).They are willing to lay down their lives so they can share Christwith others. They encourage us to do the same."We repeatedly asked the officials to show us a copy of thelaw that they said we had broken. It took them almost eighthours to show us a copy of the law and then it was written inMandarin. This law was approved on June 1, 2007 andstated that any foreigner coming to China is only allowed tobring one piece of religious material for their own personaluse. If a foreigner brings more than one piece it must be pre-approved by the Religious Affairs Office (they will neverapprove Bibles being carried in). Our goal in bringing Bibleshas been to help the Underground Church in China whichnow numbers over 130 million people and is growing bymore than 30,000 people daily.God used a man named Pastor Allen Yuan years ago tochallenge my life and inspire me to help the Chinese Church.Pastor Allen had spent over 22 years of his life in prison forthe cause of Jesus Christ and he said, "Please bring us Bibles--we are desperate for Bibles!" I made a promise to the Lordafter Allen’s challenge, that I would do everything that Icould to assist the Chinese Christians and bring as manyBibles as we can to helpthem.Our intention was notto cause trouble, butrather to help theChinese Christians, aswe have been doing forover 20 years. We talkedto a Chinese friend inthe US who encouragedus to stand our groundand he e-mailed a press release to major news companies. Weprayed that God would somehow use this situation to bringglory to His Name, and that the Truth about religiouspersecution of Christians would be brought out to the world.We were amazed at how God used this situation to cause astir throughout the world. We received phone calls from allover the USA, The UK, New Zealand, Columbia, the majornews networks and newspapers, and radio stationsworldwide. We never expected that this would be called an"international event." Almost everyone was supportive andwe were able to tell them why we were in China and refusedto leave. We shared that our ordeal was minimal compared towhat many of our brothers and sisters in China face everyday because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

WE HAVE HEARD REPORTSTHAT MANY PEOPLE WEREPRAYING FOR US,BUT EVENBETTER THAT THEY AREPRAYING FOR THE CHINESECHRISTIANS AND ARE NOWAWARE OF THEIR PLIGHT.

"Thehuman rights record in China is one of the worst in the world.Its system of "re-education through labor" detains hundreds of thousands each year in work camps, without even a courthearing. Again in 2007, church property and Bibles wereconfiscated. Christians were harassed, questioned, arrested andimprisoned. More Christians are in prison or under detentionin China than any other country. The house church movement(unregistered churches), which comprises approximately 90percent of China's Christians, endures unimaginablepersecution, yet stands on its commitment to preach the gospel,no matter the cost... Christians in prison are routinely beatenand abused." Voice of the Martyrs, Jan 2007.The US Embassy Staff in Beijing were unaware of this newlaw in China and offered to come to our aid. They called theCustoms office and requested to see the law that they claimedthat we broke. After interpreting the law into English, theytold us that we had broken a law of China, and that Customsrefused to return our Bibles to us while we were in China, butthat we could get them back when we left the country. After26 hours of intermittent sleep, tired and battle weary- wedecided as a team to go to a hotel and get a decent meal, ahot shower and some sleep. The phone continued to ring forthe next several days as we did more interviews with peopleall over the world who wanted to know what is reallyhappening in China.