Decades Come and Go

by Dennis Balcombe with comments by Bill Bray

HONG KONG – How time flies. Ten years have gone by since Hong Kong reverted to the rule of China. In July 2007, Hong Kong celebrated her tenth anniversary of the handover. And for two months in June and July, it was gala time all over the territory.

A full decade just slipped by. As people rejoice over the past, they will invariably think of the future. What will the next decade be like? Many changes took place over 10 years, Hong Kong and Mainland China alike. What changes do we hope to see in Hong Kong and the mainland in the coming decade?

“For the Bray Family Missionaries, we thought Hong Kong ‘97 might be our last big CIS Chinese Bible Delivery Mission from Hong Kong,” says Dr. Bill Bray, “and in a sense that was what it became.

“My wife Ivy, son Jon and I led the team to a people and place we had come to love...and from which I had based most of my first media missions as early as 1967 when I first began my bi-vocational Christian Information Service mission to Asia.

“So 1997 was a time to pray and be part of history in the making. No one really knew what it would be like when the British left the Colony—or what kind of future the churches in Hong Kong would enjoy under the new Chinese government.

“Along with other missions to Asia, Hong Kong ’97 forced us to make decisions about the future. How would we invest in the future of Asia and how would we structure our responses in the USA and in Europe?

“Would we stay in Charlottesville and rejoin Christian Aid as Dr. Bob Finley wanted? Would we move our base to California and join World Vision or World Children’s Fund on a full-time basis? The events of 1997 in China were critical to the other decisions we were making that would affect the whole next decade. In fact, it took us to the place where we are today.

“So we ended up taking one of our largest teams ever to ‘pray-walk’ the cities of Hong Kong and Kowloon, and to be there to encourage the churches and witness across the boarder. We made almost daily Bible delivery trips into Canton at that time.

“Looking back, it was a critical turning point for us—and for Nora Lam Ministries which was our partner in Bible distribution, and other indigenous partner agencies in India and Southeast Asia.”

Hong Kong before 1997

In 1997 as Hong Kong was readying for the reversion, China was still very guarded in her experimental open-door policy. People found China’s political and management style perplexing. They failed to understand China and Chinese society. This led to a lack of confidence about Hong Kong coming under China. This was especially so for the Hong Kong residents themselves.

The 1980’s saw a steady exodus of Hong Kong people migrating to more conducive habitats elsewhere. They settled down in countries like the United States of America, Canada, and Australia, causing an influx of Hong Kong people in their China towns.

Meanwhile, China slowly carried out her open door policy and economic reformation. Priority was given to developing special economic regions like Shenzhen and Zhuhai of Guangdong, and Xiamen of Fujian. Development also centered on municipalities like Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. And with Hong Kong acting as China’s window for export, economic growth was taking place steadily in China.

With Hong Kong’s reversion, China looked upon Hong Kong and other overseas cities as models for her experiment on economic development. This has led to Beijing and Shanghai becoming international-grade cities. Meanwhile, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are fast becoming like their neighbor, Hong Kong. Not surprisingly then, Hong Kong people are increasingly making their ways to Shenzhen for entertainment and food.

Post-97 changes

In the initial period after Hong Kong reunited with China, the Hong Kong people were largely unaccustomed to calling themselves Chinese. This had also to do with the fact that Hong Kong people have grown up without adequate understanding of their motherland. During the last decade China increasingly opened her door to the outside world, there were frequent interactions between Hong Kong people and the mainland Chinese. Little by little, the I-am-a-Chinese consciousness started to dawn upon the Hong Kong people.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing in the last 10 years for Hong Kong, though. There was a financial crisis in 1997 and the ARS epidemic in 2003. A flashback of major events over the last decade shows that negative news was very dominant. One encouraging observation: Hong Kong people are increasingly more united. If they were previously self-centered, the Hong Kong people today are more concerned with current affairs affecting their society.

China’s churches reflect history

It is said that churches reflect the conditions of their society. We thank God that Hong Kong churches are today much more united than before. Often we saw churches from a certain community coming together to hold blessing and gospel activities including big revival meetings which built up one another. Hong Kong churches no longer confined themselves within their four walls. For the sake of the gospel, the churches imitated Jesus and stepped into the community to win people for Christ.

On the other hand, following increased contact with mainland Chinese and mainland affairs, the Hong Kong churches gained opportunities to visit mainland churches. Although persecution against churches still went on in some places, the Hong Kong churches took opportunities to minister to Three-Self churches open to the teaching of truth. This was done in anticipation of serving all Chinese churches in the future.

Hong Kong, from a colony under British rule, was reunited with China and became part of its landmass. Once with little self-knowledge, the Hong Kong people are slowly calling themselves Chinese. And the Hong Kong churches, previously resisting China, are now envisioned to evangelize their motherland.

Are Chinese churches ready?

In the last decade, news about church revival in China had markedly dwindled compared to the previous period. Meanwhile, as reported in our previous issue of The Challenge of China, there was an increase in cases of indigenous Chinese co-workers giving up ministries due to financial difficulties. Mot of the church revivals in China took place in the rural regions several decades ago.

Those were the days when preachers armed with simple faith went from village to village spreading the gospel. God blessed them with miraculous power of healing and casting out demons. Revivals came upon every county, every village and indeed, every home.

Beginning 10 years ago, China house churches realized the need to bring revival into urban churches and the message of salvation to city folks: Hence, the start of rural preachers moving to cities to conduct urban evangelism. It was a very tough undertaking! As rural migrants, these co-workers needed places to stay and employments to cover their true identity.

They found urban culture vastly different from rural culture and that living in cities was much more expensive. With a one-off subsidy of several hundred Yuan from the sender church, the co-workers had a tough time in the cities.

Praying for opening doors in China

Spurred on by ambition to become a world power, China will undoubtedly open her door wider and wider. Many are becoming concerned with a fully-open China where foreigners and foreign funds have easy movement. This means the hitherto deprived Chinese house churches will all of a sudden have access to sizable help from outside sources. Is this a blessing to the Chinese church?

God allowed the Chinese house churches to grow up under great difficulties and persecution, during which they persevered in preaching the gospel. This has resulted in the number of Christians to make up some 7% of China’s total population. With an open China, the preaching of the gospel could be carried out much more easily.

Given that Satan always uses easy life to discourage Christian from being on fire for the Lord; will the Chinese churches still be able to hold fast to their love for God? Besides, there is also the Satan-inspired work of destruction against the Chinese churches through false teachings by heretical groups. It’s difficult to speculate when China will become a fully open country. The question is: How can we help Chinese churches to help themselves before the time comes?

What must our missions become?

The mission of Revival Ministries in Hong Kong and the mainland is “to see China reached with the gospel and help the Chinese churches fulfill their call from heaven – to be a blessing to all nations.”

To help the Chinese churches fulfill their calling, we shall continue to conduct leadership training (to equip) supply bibles and spiritual books (to empower) and visit (to encourage) the body of Christ in mainland China.

We shall continue to operate bible schools to equip mainland co-workers because of systematic and effective training is still highly desired by the Chinese churches. As we’ve been doing all along, we will continue to bless the mainland believers with Bibles and spiritual books, particularly for those who could not enroll into bible schools. Also, we shall continue to be a bridge for the Chinese churches, to link with the outside world and to connect each other domestically for unity.

“For CIS Missions,” adds Dr. Bray, “we will have to mentor a new corps of media missionaries who will use the World Wide Web in Chinese and English to facilitate revival and evangelism.

“We have to recruit and support Chinese staff in broadcasting and other traditional media as well; helping to mentor Chinese, Indians and other Asian media workers so that they can reach their cultures for Christ.”

This is our ministry plan for the next decade. What’s yours in the coming ten years? Are you considering joining hands with us to bless the mainland churches?

Tax-deductible contributions for the support of Bill & Ivy's Missionary Ministry may be given online, or should be sent to CIS, INC. MISSIONS, P.O. Box 6511, Charlottesville, VA 22906. THANK YOU.