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by Christine Hobson |
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Reflections from Christine Hobson, who has
served in AM-CCSM for almost 15 years.
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Over recent months I have been contacting a
number of the AM-CCSM family to ask for their stories for this special
21st anniversary edition of the China Challenge magazine. We have
contributors from Australia, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore,
South Africa and the UK. They are a diverse group of people. The oldest
is in her seventies; the youngest his twenties. Some have been to China
for the very first time on a two-week short-term team; others have been
living in China for a number of years. Some are students; some are
teachers; and there are also a biologist, a former farmer, a lawyer, an
ex-social worker and a computer expert amongst them. I count many of
these people as my friends and consider them all part of the family of
AM-CCSM.have been part of that family for nearly 15 years. I cannot
claim to have been there at the birth of AM-CCSM but, other than Ross
and Christine Paterson, I have the privilege of being the
longest-serving co-worker in the ministry. When I first joined AM-CCSM back in June 1992, the ministry was very different. Though we had mostly graduated from using a typewriter to the computer, emails were as yet an unknown entity and I can remember the great excitement of first experimenting with the Internet some years later. In 1992, communication was still done by fax or snail mail! At that time, AM-CCSM was run from a small office in York, UK. An older couple sent out a few prayer letters for us in Australia and another lady gave us some help in the United States. The ministry’s main role was the production of materials to encourage prayer for China, and we had just begun to print our first Christian teaching books in Chinese. As I reflect on all that has happened in the ministry since those early days, I can only give thanks and praise to God. Today, 15 years later, we have co-workers serving in more than ten countries around the world and I myself have been based in Asia for the last few years. How could I have imagined that by the end of 2006 over seven million books would have gone into China through AM-CCSM to encourage and build up our Christian brothers and sisters there! The testimonies from three of those brothers and sisters (on pages 9, 18, and 19) can only reflect in a very small way the real difference these materials have made for the church in China. And who could have guessed how many hundreds of people would have gone to China on short-term teams through the ministry? The regular intercession , mercy and courier teams, as well as the occasional English teaching and the more recent pastors’ teams have impacted not only the team members themselves but more importantly thousands of people in many different parts of China. Support for the ministry from Asian countries is growing and we now have
increasing numbers of ethnically Chinese people serving on our
short-term teams, sometimes together with Westerners and sometimes on
specifically “all-Chinese” teams. |
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We are also seeing a growing number of long-termers serving with us in China. Many, such as ‘E’ (page 8) and ‘L’ (page 16) have gone through our Antioch School of Missions’ course, where our co-workers have done a great job of preparing people to serve in a very different cultural environment.
A number of our long-termers have a heart for various Tibetan people groups; others are reaching students, caring for handicapped children and training house church believers. I am well aware that every single aspect of this growth is a result of the faithful prayers of other members of the AM-CCSM family. As I look through the names of our prayer supporters, I know that some have been standing with us in prayer throughout the past 21 years. Thank you so much! Others have joined us more recently. We hope you will stay with us for the next 21 years! We are particularly grateful to those who are not only receiving our monthly China Prayer Update but have also committed to pray for the ministry on a regular basis through our Prayer Support Team and 24-hour Prayer Network. We have seen real breakthroughs as you have responded to the urgent prayer requests we have sent out. What a joy it was, for example, to have our brother Ben giving his excellent Bible survey and overview of mission history to our ASM students in China at the end of last year! Just a few months earlier he had been told he would not be able to travel to China again because of ill health, yet the Lord had brought real healing in response to prayer. We could also not have done all this without our faithful givers. Printing books in China is cheap in comparison to printing in most other countries but it still costs money, as does the mailing of our prayer materials and the organisation of the short-term teams, amongst other things. Thank you to all of you who have stood with us financially over the years. You too have made a real difference.
As we look to the future, much is unclear. The situation in China is constantly changing, yet the needs of the church continue to grow. We know that AM-CCSM still has a vital role to play in supporting China’s ever-expanding church. The believers still ask us, “Please pray for us,” “Please bring us more Bibles and Christian materials,” and “Please help us train the church.” A few weeks ago a Chinese house church leader told me, “In our eyes you are angels.” We as an AM-CCSM family want to continue to be a blessing to our brothers and sisters in China and we trust that you, as a vital member of our family, will continue to play the part that our beloved Father has planned for you. May God bless you abundantly. |
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The AM-CCSM family is now a world-wide one and we
will never be able to have a “family gathering” that everyone attends
this side of heaven! Nevertheless, we do consider each one of you a
vital part of that family and we want to extend a big thank you to you
all for playing your part over the past 21 years.