We are from Australia, missionaries for 58 years serving and living in Hong Kong, China. On our arrival in 1964, China was tightly locked down behind the "Bamboo Curtain." The disastrous Cultural Revolution of 1966 was about to be unleashed upon all of China and would last for ten tragic years.
Hong Kong was then a unique British Colony known as "The Pearl of The Orient" and was the great escape route for hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees. I worked in an assembly clinic in a refugee area in those early days. I pulled teeth in the mornings and learned the Cantonese language in the afternoons.
John & Karen Short
After many refusals, we were granted permission in 1980 to enter mainland China. We commenced our ministry throughout China's 30 great provinces and municipalities. What was our ministry? It was to publish and distribute hundreds of thousands of portions of GOD's Word via the Christian Book Room, a century-old gospel witness in China.
Along with others who believe in literature ministry, we knew that placing Bibles in China after the Cultural Revolution would be the foundation of future growth and lasting fruit in modern China. We have seen the Lord build a vast network of active co-workers and distributors of GOD's Word. We also print and distribute Gospel and Assembly distinctive materials. Writers such as William MacDonald, Alfred Gibbs, C. H. Mackintosh, and Harry Ironside comprise the significant source of our publications.
We reckon a day as unfulfilled (even lost) if we have been unable by the grace of GOD to sow some of the GOOD Seed somewhere, somehow, especially throughout China, but also in all of Southeast Asia.Amid current restrictions and difficulties, we can report that we completed 100,000 copies of "The Light of The World" gospel message last month and are now undertaking 10,000 copies of the "Safety, Certainty & Enjoyment" for the March project in Shandong.
Am I aware of this? The going rate for any sacrifice we make for Christ is great. The ordinary flat rate is ten thousand percent! "Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life." Mark 10:29-30
That statement -"hundredfold" in terms of present-day business is "ten thousand percent!" and the enjoyment of eternal life! Beloved friends, give us time for service, sacrifice, and suffering for Christ Jesus our Lord until He comes. (Malachi 3:16, Hebrews 10:37, 1 John 2:28)
For four years, we have not been able to obtain a travel visa to visit believers inland: we, however, rejoice to have the reverse taking place, for because of the fact we cannot go to them; co-workers and others have been able to travel and visit us. This month we have already had visitors from India/Middle East, Malaysia, Australia, and the northeast of China.
John Short & coworker Bo Suk (88)
It is a gracious provision of the Lord to have our "Timothy" brother David Wang traveling back to us after a visit to his Shandong hometown. How outstandingly rare it is to have a trained-in-China military man as a full-time worker in the CBR literature ministry. This provision blesses us.
Thankfully the draconian virus controls are mostly lifted here, and real-time distributors have re-surfaced requesting materials as seed to be sown. (We especially value distributors, they are rare!)
Spring 2023
Written by John & Karen Short - Hong Kong
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