Author: China Partnership

This week’s way to pray for China may strike some people as funny. Find joy in it! Apparently some rice farmers in northeastern China have started to make 3D art out of their rice paddy fields. Using a variety of rice colors and breeds, the farmers have taken the time to make beautiful and creative pictures. In addition to bringing China’s needs before the Lord, we encourage you to take time this week to praise God for China and its fascinating culture.

Last Wednesday, June 17th, started Ramadan. For one month, Muslims across the world will observe this religious fast. Ramadan is one of the most important tenants of Islam and it unites Islam’s ethnically diverse adherents across the globe. China has fifty-five official ethnic minorities, and many more that do not have their own official status, but consider themselves linguistically and culturally separate. Of China’s officially recognized minorities, ten are Muslim.

On June 9th, high school students across China started a two-day national examination called the 高考 (gāo kǎo, or “high test”). This brutal test serves as the national college entrance exam for China’s universities and all college applications are judged by it alone. This year, over nine million students sat for the exam, and as always, the pressure was high. As economic disparity grows in China, the gāo kǎo is not only a matter of honor and academic success, but it is seen as the sole chance for poor families to improve their situations. Due to the intense pressure placed on students taking the exam, the gāo kǎo has been linked in the past with rashes of both suicide and cheating. Take time this week to pray over this national phenomenon. Below you can find prayer points and links to helpful articles.

On June 1st, China suffered its largest peacetime boating accident in fifty years. The Dong Fang Zhi Xing cruise ship capsized on the Yangtze River with roughly 450 passengers on board. Fewer than two dozen people were rescued and most of the passengers were elderly and on vacation. Take time this week to pray over this tragedy. Below you can find prayer points and links to helpful articles.

This ministry creates awareness in the church of the diversity in our population and helps to break down the distinction between our active overseas missions program and the local work that is right among us. It has also attracted more internationals to the church when they see they are not the only ones who look different or speak differently. People have become more involved with outreach locally, causing spiritual growth in ways that giving money to missions never has provided. So prison ministry is thriving, as well as work among the poor of our city. There are so many ways our ministry can inspire and cross-pollinate work in God’s kingdom.

As we do the work to make disciples every week, we are teaching and re-preaching the gospel message to ourselves and seeing the reality of the Holy Spirit’s power to do unexpected and wonderful things. So our faith explodes and is more experiential and dynamic as we experience the winds of the Holy Spirit being poured out through us and these people. We are all changed together! Praise the Lord!

Get to know Trinity Park Church and the unique and wonderful things God is doing amidst their multi-cultural community. Visit www.trinityparkchurch.org to learn more.