What a Difference 30 Years Makes

Our former Director of Literature writes about how the CCSM literature programme got started in 1990… 

“I remember on my early trips that we used to carry books and Bibles across the border into China because most of our books were printed outside.  I used to dress in a suit and tie and go into China as a businessman.  I would carry a suitcase and holdall, and these would be filled with books and bibles.  I even put small books down my socks to try to maximize each trip across the border!  We would do many border crossings and take the books to a hotel where they would be stored until we had enough to move on to other parts of China.”

[The literature border crossings – which over the years were done by countless foreign volunteers - were accompanied by amazing miracles and very few deliveries did not make it through.]

“In that first year we printed twenty thousand books but later this would grow to one and a half million in one year! 
This was only possible because we started printing inside China.

I remember those early days of meeting our contacts as we handed over the bags of books.  On one occasion a young student girl had travelled hours to meet us.  She looked so small when we met her outside the hotel that we wondered how she would get them back to her hometown.  But when she saw the books, she was overwhelmed.  She wept and thanked us over and over again. I will never forget this reaction, though as time went on it happened many times over.

 By the way, she got the books safely back to her hometown.

On another delivery trip our contact was a street cleaner.  We arrived at his home around midnight under cover of darkness.  We took the bags of books into his house and helped him store them in cupboards and under the beds.  As we drank tea together, he asked us if we would do a Bible study with him and his wife.  This was in the early hours of the morning and he had to be up at 4am to go to work.  Such was his hunger for the Word of God!”

In 1990 we had just 40 book titles.  In 2021, through our SD card and app, we now offer over 1000 book titles.  Through this same microchip technology, we can now provide on the same card audio tapes, videos with preaching teaching and praise and worship etc.

We no longer need to courier large bags of books across the borders.

Much has changed but some things haven’t.

Believers in China still treasure the Bibles and the literature we provide them.

And the hunger for God’s word is still apparent.

The young girl and the street cleaner have many counterparts today!

Prayer Points

How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey. [Psalm 119:103]

Thank You Lord for your Word that directs our steps, gives understanding, comfort, wisdom, promises and life.

As intrigues, conspiracies, wars and rumours of wars increase, pray that the love of the church will not grow cold for their brothers and sisters under the shadow of persecution.

Pray that we will not grow discouraged or weary of fishing, but that the Lord will show us where to cast the nets.