| Hungry for faith |
 The Bible has changed Jiang’s life: to be precise, his father’s Bible. “During the Cultural Revolution we hid it under the bed to keep it safe,” he recalls. Today, everything’s changed. Forty-five-year-old Jiang Yuchun distributes 100 Bibles each month to churches from his Nanjing-based Christian bookstore. He stocks 1,500 different titles and even on a cold winter day, people are constantly coming in to buy. He says he could distribute far more Bibles a month if only he could get a better price. The bookstore is in fact barely bigger than a store cupboard. Get half a dozen people inside and you can’t move. But no-one seems to mind. Young and old walk in on a bitterly cold Monday morning buying a wide range of books about the Christian faith. Outside six lanes of traffic rumble past. Selling the Bible in mainstream bookstores in China is illegal. Selling them to churches – and in church-based bookshops – isn’t. China’s churches are growing fast. Officially there are 28.6 million Christians in China, but unofficial figures say the true number could be as high as 90 million. Every one of these people wants a copy of the Bible. Gone are the days when smuggling Bibles into China was the only way of enabling this to happen. Today, China now prints its own Bibles, producing 50 million for its own churches since 1987. For 10 years Jiang oversaw the distribution of these Bibles across China for Bible Society’s China Partnership. Then he decided to open his own Christian bookshop, selling Christian books, CDs and even Gospel chopsticks and stickers for children. His is one of two Christian bookshops in the city of Nanjing, and represents the modern face of Christianity in China. “The government were very worried initially,” he recalls. “The security department often visited me. But after two to three years they thought there was no problem. “Both Christians and non-Christians were very pleased that I opened the store. Before that they could only buy a few books. In our bookstore we have many books about the culture of Christianity.” It all began in 1965 when Jiang was born and his mother died, sending his father into a state of deep depression. He consulted witch doctors to no avail and was planning to take his own life. Finally, when Jiang was around nine years old, someone introduced his father to the church and he came to faith. Going hungry “It was at the end of the Cultural Revolution,” Jiang recalls. “My father got a copy of the Bible, but because of this he was arrested for some months and he couldn’t get any rice from the government. We were hungry.” Jiang and his father would walk for 30km each way to attend a house church service, leaving home in the middle of the night and arriving at church while it was still dark. “It made a deep impression on me,” he says. “There were about 10 or 15 people and they all brought food to the church. At lunchtime they shared the food together. “I was a little boy when I became a Christian. I believed in God because I knew that my father was ill and no-one could heal him, but he went to the church and he became strong. I knew there was a special power and that people called this God. “Every time I sell a Bible now I remember my father’s Bible. My father had no education. He didn’t go to school for one day. But after he got a copy of the Bible every day he would sit with the oil lamp as I did my homework asking me what the words said. I had to look everything up. “Today my father still lives in the countryside. He can read the Bible now. He works and goes to churches. He spreads the gospel.  “I know the power of the Bible, that God’s word gives us life and strength and energy. “My father’s Bible gave him some trouble. But today things are open. It’s a big change,” he says. “It’s amazing. The Bible can help people find a way in life and I would like to help people look for their way. “I believe that China needs more and more Bibles. Last year we produced 4 million Bibles for China, but there are 1.3 billion citizens. In my generation more and more people are looking for where to study the meaning of life. They are looking for their life purpose. This is God’s time. “Sometimes I feel tired and weak, but I remember my father’s Bible and it gives me special power.” For more details and a video clip visit www.bibleosociety.org.uk By Hazel Southam |
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