One and one-half million Gospels is 36 tons of paper.” She persisted, “ Don’t you think that everyone that turns to Jesus Christ should have a copy of the New Testament?” I asked in turn, “ How many do you think will turn to Him this year ?” “ I think we will have 100,000 souls,” she replied. The same opinion is held by Rev. James Dickson, the great missionary statesman of the island, who has been there 27 years, and who has been co-ordinating the present work of evangelism. What a tremendous impact that will make on the island of For mosa! The Bible Societies have promised 100,000 New Testaments this year. God is at work; these are days in which He is reaping His own divinely planned harvest. While we were in Formosa, we needed a real man of God to serve as an interpreter. The prayer group with which Madame Chiang Kai-shek meets made this need a matter of prayer. Not only did they pray about it, but they also found the right man who now works with our little Youth For Christ team at their expense. Then we asked for a secretary, someone to help in our Chinese follow-up work which was also provided. We rejoice that in high places great things are being done for God and these people are working for Him. At Governor Wu’s home we found a wonderful Christian welcome. “ Tell the people of America we want the Word of God,” he said, “ I have been a Christian in lip; now I’m one in life. There are still some things in my life that aren’t right, but God is working on me.” Up in the hills of the island there are 200,000 aborig ines. No one knows their origin. They speak seven dif ferent languages and the only thing they have in common is that all were head-hunters. Their wealth consists in the heads they have cut off. Before the war, an elderly woman who had accepted Christ was led to preach among these people. Then the war came and the Japanese ordered her to stop preaching. But this dear soul had higher orders so she continued to travel from village to village. This is the way she worked: She would arrive at a village at night and then rest during the day. The next night the runners would go out and tell the people and they would all come to gether in a Bible class from one to three A.M. They would gather for the Bible study, then in time to be at their work when the Japanese officials came to check up. As a result, when the missionaries returned after the war, they found that thousands of these people had turned to Christ! There are now 15,000 Christians among them. God is at work; the harvest is taking place. What about the three million people that have just come across from the mainland? Yes, God is working among them too. I had just arrived on Formosa and was going through customs and one of the customs officials who spoke English, said to me, “ You have religious books on your application; what are they?” I pulled out a little Gospel from my pocket and said, “Why, here it it is,” and I read John’s Good News. He replied, “ I didn’t know there was any good news today.” I said, “Yes, there is good news. It was recorded by John 1900 years ago. It is the good news that God sent His Son to save us from sin’s penalty and power.” He asked me to sell him one. “No,” I said, “ I can’t sell you one. But if you promise to read it from cover to cover, I’ll give you one.” He did! I found that same hunger all over the island. The Navigators sent their President, a Biola graduate, Dawson Trotman. He went out there to help the little church. Over eighty years ago, the Presbyterian Church started a work out there and they have done a good job. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Dr. Chen, China’s Chief of Chaplains, Briefing Dr. Pearson, Dr. Lu, and Mr. Hillis. Every Creature Crusade volunteered, “We’ll pay for half of those gospels.” They have done even more; they have sent out over half of the half million that went out, and now they are working on the next million and a half. The Moody Institute of Science offered, “We aren’t going to lend you one of our films for Formosa; we’re go ing to give you one.” So they donated The God of Crea tion, with a Mandarin script. I had the privilege of taking this Moody Institute of Science film and showing it to the Generalissimo. After Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek saw this picture once, he wanted to see it again. Then he wanted the manuscript written out. Now one of our men is spending all his time going from barracks to factory to village to school showing it. We praise God that in Formosa the door is still open. When the forces of evil swept across China, God was not taken by surprise. God still had His work; God still had His program and His pattern hasn’t changed one iota. Three millions of the Chinese “ upper crust” the military, educational and the political leaders, fled to Formosa. The wife of the Speaker of the House of Free China said to me, “ You know, when we were in China, we were like the prodigal son, trying to get along without the Father; but over here, we have realized it doesn’t pay to try to get along without God and we have turned to Him.” Yes, the little land of Free China is turning to Christ, and our passes allow us to go to any place at any time, to preach the gospel there. It makes no difference where we go; it is the same in the factory, the school, the barracks, every place we are welcome and the door is open. Madame Chiang Kai-shek said very plainly, “We want you men to be careful. We want more than hand-raising in your meetings, because when these people only raise their hands and nothing happens in their hearts, and they don’t really turn to Jesus Christ, they go back into sin and disgrace the church and dishonor the Lord.” I thought, “ What a wonderful admonition!” We took half a million Gospels of John with us because we planned to evangelize only the soldiers, but we found that was not enough. Students, political leaders, everyone wanted Gospels. We need one and a half million—one Gospel for every home in Formosa. Surely that is the least we can do! “Why are you just bringing out Gospels? Why aren’t you bringing New Testaments?” asked Madame Chiang Kai-shek to which I replied, “ At the price of printing plus distribution costs, those Gospels will cost $75,000. Page Fourteen
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