Easter in China is a very "un-Chinese" festival. The state does not recognize Easter for we have an atheistic administration in China today.

Christians such as ourselves privately enjoy the occasion with special efforts in the thousands of house churches, to testify that Jesus Christ is indeed risen triumphantly from among the dead, having put away sin forever by the sacrifice of Himself.

The official churches, TSPM, also have Easter themes and although somewhat subdued, they do bear witness to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Never in the history of China have so many been known to be seeking Christ, truth and eternal life. It is amazing that as we enter the year 2000 an estimated 50 million at least are documented as church members in China today. It is reckoned that 80 percent of those in the Christian church today live outside of the west. Christians in the world today are more likely to be Chinese, African or Asian. The good news is that the spread of the Gospel and the growth of the church continues strongly even where persecution and suffering exists.

A Beijing official has stated, in the face of millions searching for faith in something other than the Communist Party that, "if we do not want the same thing that happened in Eastern Europe, then we must strangle the baby while it is still in the manger!" Some time back an issue of one of the larger Asian publications had splashed across its front-cover these words, "GOD IS BACK". A Beijing official stated "If God had the face of a 70-year-old man or woman we would not care if 'He were back', but to have the face of millions of 20-year-olds is alarming and we are concerned."

In Guangzhou the large house meeting led by our beloved brother Lin XianGao, Samuel lamb, has a regular weekly attendance of approximately 2000. Yearly he baptizes at least 400 new believers. Another of our brethren in this same province baptizes, on an average, 200-300 annually. The same story could be repeated as we report on every major city and area in China today. The freshness and zeal together with a spirit of self-sacrifice is obvious everywhere, as people discover new meaning in life when they encounter the resurrected Christ - the living God.

Amid the spectacular growth in market and economy, China claims to have granted freedom of religion. But freedom to choose, freedom of assembly, freedom of faith and freedom to evangelise she has not. On the contrary, China's rulers have resolutely and forcibly prohibited these freedoms.

Since the lifting of the "Bamboo Curtain", Christian testimony in China has spread like wildfire. When the triumphant Mao Zedong stood on the rostrum above the gate of Heavenly Peace at Tiananmen in Beijing, October 1, 1949, he justifiably said, "The Chinese people have stood up." He of course meant from abject poverty, internal repression, civil war, feudalism, and the high possibility of foreign "carving-up" of China into foreign concessions, the Chinese nation had stood up for themselves.

The Chinese have certainly stood up and continue to do so. (Perhaps this encouragement to "stand up" will eventually come back to haunt the Communist Party!) Fifty years ago when Chairman Mao announced the People's Republic of China, led and unified by communism, the people then had faith in the Communist Party and the future.

Today, fifty years later, China has some material prosperity, but little faith in the Communist Party, in themselves, in their jobs and in their future.

The nation is facing a crisis in faith. (Crisis in the Chinese "ngai gei" is a combination of two written characters meaning "dangerous opportunity".)

"To get rich is glorious" was the stated desire and goal for all, said the late Deng Xiaoping, but many have found it to be a very numbing experience. Communism and its concordant atheism remains the state religion still, but it has failed to meet the heart's deep needs. Many Chinese are now looking to Buddhism, Taoism and other ways to worship, even brand new religions, to quench the thirst that materialism and all the "cokes in the world" will never quench.

China is very fertile ground for seed sowing at this moment in time, and we are very thankful to have a part in the wonderful quest for truth and God as we step into the new century and millennium.

Li-Dexian is a 48-year-old evangelist and preacher whose meetings in Hua Du, west of Guangzhou in the Guangdong province has about 600 attending regularly. Brother Li has been persecuted and arrested for many years, because he preaches the crucified and risen Saviour. In the last three months he has been apprehended 12 times for preaching in an unregistered house meeting. The same can be said of other faithful believers in many provinces of China. The recent conflict between the ruling Communist Party leadership of China and the Falun Gong has resulted in widespread arrests, detentions and lengthy prison terms for the apprehended leaders. This ongoing conflict between the Beijing leadership and the meditative, physical exercise group has resulted in some very ugly scenes of confrontation. Our brothers and sisters in Christ have suffered as a result of this conflict as much Christian literature has been confiscated during investigative raids.

Will there ever be a day when Christians will be free to gather together without hindrance? Will we ever be able to openly and widely proclaim the Christian message to millions who have never heard even once that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for all men to have forgiveness of sins and to rise again to justify victoriously all who believe and receive Him as Lord and Saviour?

Please pray for millions seeking truth in China today. Pray for us in the church, which is His body in China, to be bold and faithful to witness to the great Easter message. It is not an easy thing to give a strong, clear and triumphant ring to our faith when the powers that be are opposed to any active, evangelical Christian testimony.

Pray for us as you freely and openly celebrate Easter - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.

<from http://www.pastornet.net.au/fwn/2000/apr/art04.html>