The Power of the Bible: One Woman’s Story

In rural China, obtaining a Bible is very difficult for Christians. Because of this, their growth in Christ is slow and many are easily confused. The following story is from the Henan province in China, showing how important it is for these Christians to have God’s Word. Without it, they have no foundation for their faith.

In the following account, you will read of one woman’s struggle to find just one copy of God’s Word. She eventually copied half of the entire Bible by hand, since she could only borrow certain parts of the Scriptures for a short period of time. While that is quite incredible, this is not the only one of its kind. During the darkest years for China’s Christians (the 1950s through the 1980s), many Christians never had a chance to own or even see a copy of the Bible. If they were lucky, they might have been able to borrow one from a fellow Christian and write down as much as they could. Christians in other countries have been forced to do the same when Bibles are not allowed.

Fortunately, the scene has somewhat changed for the Christians in China. A small number of Bibles is allowed by to government to be printed; however, they are hardly enough to meet the growing demand. Christians in rural areas may never have a chance to own a Bible, and their spiritual growth is greatly hindered because of it. One of Gospel Outreach for Asia’s goals is to provide, for free, the millions of Bibles needed in this country, so that every Christian can have his own to read. Would you please consider partnering with us to see this incredible need filled? To learn more and how you can help, please click on the “About Us” link. Together we can see this vision come to pass.

Reagan Schrock, GOA director and blog manager

Believers in every part of Henan [province] have stories to tell about the importance of the Bible in their lives. One woman named Ying grew up in a Christian home, but when the excessive persecution of the Cultural Revolution [in the 1960s and 70s] broke out, she opposed her own mother and told her to abandon her ‘superstitious’ belief in Jesus. Her mother refused, as she was a devoted Christian. In a fit of rage, Ying prepared a list of 800 names of believers and handed it to the Red Guard, who promptly arrested many of them. Not content with that, she burned all the Bibles and hymnals her mother had been safeguarding on behalf of Christians throughout the area.

However, [God] did not abandon Ying. He reached out and saved her, causing her to repent in deep sorrow for her wicked deeds. A seed of faith was planted in her soul, but she was unable to nourish it because of the lack of Bibles in China during the Cultural Revolution. How she wished there had been just one Bible she had not destroyed!

Ying cried out to the Lord of a year, asking for a Bible so that she could learn his world. She was willing to give everything she had for a copy, but her family had become very poor. When she visited some Christians and offered them some bags of grain in exchange for a Bible, they told her that no amount of grain would ever make them part with their beloved scriptures….

Finally, after a year of seeking, her desperate prayer was answered. An old woman had hidden copies of the four Gospels and she took the risk of lending them to Ying. Like a hungry beggar she devoured the word of God, memorizing as much as she could before she had to return the Gospels to their owner. Over time, she managed to borrow other parts of the Bible, and she copied down every word by hand. After a while, she had copied down half the Bible, while another Christian had been busy copying the other half. Together, they had a complete Bible, painstakingly written out by hand.

Sister Ying, like the apostle Paul, changed from being a persecutor of Christians to being a mighty preacher. God used her throughout the Luoyang area to lead hundreds of people to faith in Jesus Christ.

-From Paul Hattaway, Henan: The Galilee of China, pages 130-131