They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter
than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. Psalm 19:10
In 1977, Peter Xu became the leader of the Born-Again Movement—a large house
church network today in China. Ten years ago he was visiting in the United
States and shared a devotional at the Open Doors-USA office. When he saw a
sample of a Project Pearl Bible on the shelf, he became very animated. Then a
long story developed:
After Project Pearl Bibles were stored in depositories in southern China in
the early 1980s, Peter Xu sent three men every month by train to the depository
contacts to bring back about 1,000 Bibles per trip for his growing house church
movement. One month the three men were discovered with their Bible load by the
local police of the depository city. The police threw the 1,000 Project Pearl
Bibles into the cesspool of the public latrine and the three men were
interrogated and jailed for the weekend.
Monday they were released and commanded to return straight home and never
return. Instead they waited inside the latrine until darkness fell. Then they
climbed down into the filthy cesspool of human waste carefully retrieving each
of the foul smelling books. They washed them off under the local water tap and
carried them home. There they dried them out, sprayed them with perfume and
circulated them through their network. Such was the hunger and importance of
every copy of God’s Word.
Project Pearl certainly had an impact on the future printing of Bibles inside
China which continues today. Shortly after the project was completed, China’s
Three Self Patriotic Movement announced the first official printing of Bibles
inside the country. Noted author and China watcher, David Aikman, wrote in his
book, Jesus in Beijing, “[Project] Pearl had a major long-term impact on
the overall availability of Bibles in China.”
But more important are the personal evaluations from Chinese believers:
“These gifts are more precious than gold!”
RESPONSE: Today I will treasure God’s Word as more valuable than any
precious metal or gem.
PRAYER: Thank You, Lord that Your precious Word is being made available in
countries where it is not valued by those in authority.
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