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language training. This is to be welcomed. However, some involved have warned that BTJ in China has much more contact with groups in the States than in the Middle East. If tens of thousands of young Christians in China are to obtain serious language training in Arabic, Turkish, etc it will need more than a handful of Middle Eastern Christian teachers to go to China. Indeed, hundreds will be needed. One Christian lady of Arab extraction recently left China after attempting to give Arabic lessons. She had to reject 90% of the house-church BTJ candidates who approached her for training as unsuitable. Only one couple showed promise and sufficient perseverance. One large US church has already arranged for missionaries and Middle Eastern Christians with many language and cross-cultural skills to form an international team to help one house-church movement’s missionary training center. This has two full-time house-church teachers. However, the few dozen overseas missionaries and specialists are expected each to spend between one week and one month with 30 Chinese missionary candidates. This is a good start, but one wonders if much more long-term specialist training is needed.
One OMF worker with a burden to reach the Hui (Chinese Muslims) pointed out to me recently that there about 1 million Hui in Henan the cockpit of house-church revival for 30 years. Yet to his knowledge there is NO systematic outreach to the Hui by the flourishing Han Chinese house-churches there and NO known fellowship of Hui people converted to Christ. If the house-churches so far have made minimal efforts to reach the Muslim neighbors on their doorstep – Muslims who speak Mandarin and are in all ways (except religion and some customs) largely assimilated to the Chinese way of life- then how on earth do they hope over the next 5 years to suddenly make meaningful evangelistic inroads in the hostile Muslim countries of the Middle East?
EVANGELISM, EMIGRATION..OR WHAT?
Let us suppose thousands of young Chinese are successfully smuggled into Turkey, Egypt etc. How will they make a living in these countries? They will be from a rural background. It is highly unlikely they will end up in a rural situation in the Middle East. Moving to a Chinese urban environment is a huge cross-cultural experience for them. Moving to Cairo or Istanbul will be mind-blowing without proper training not only in evangelism but in practical business skills.
Remember they are without passports and legal papers. Life would be tough in the liberal democracies of the USA or Europe (see above what can happen in the UK) but in the Islamic world?!
They may be able to do unskilled laboring jobs or set up small shops. Women could work as maids. But we have been told (see Vart Land article above) that no money (of the huge sums collected by the BTJ movement overseas) will be forthcoming.
Financial support will be impossible from illegal house-churches in rural China to the BTJ missionaries in the Middle East. They will be on their own. The Chinese have a long tradition of emigration and landing on their feet overseas. The first generation struggled as laborers, laundrymen, restaurant workers etc. Many who went to SE Asia were already traders. But we are told that most of the BTJ workers are peasants. It is likely they will lead impoverished lives and have to concentrate on making ends meet in a very hostile Islamic environment. How much time will they have for evangelism? And there will be no going back. Without proper papers and ID China will not receive them back. If they fail in business in the Middle East they will be trapped.
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語言培訓。這值得歡迎。然而,一些參與者警告說,中國的「回歸耶路撒冷」(BTJ)與美國團體的聯繫遠多於與中東的聯繫。如果數以萬計的中國年輕基督徒要接受阿拉伯語、土耳其語等語言的正規培訓,那麼需要的中東基督教教師遠不止少數幾位。事實上,需要數百名教師。一位阿拉伯血統的基督徒女士最近在嘗試教授阿拉伯語課程後離開了中國。她不得不拒絕了90%向她尋求培訓的家庭教會“回歸耶路撒冷”宣教士候選人,因為他們不合適。只有一對夫婦表現出了希望和足夠的毅力。一家美國大型教會已經安排擁有多種語言和跨文化技能的宣教士和中東基督徒組成一個國際團隊,以協助一個家庭教會運動的宣教士培訓中心。
一位肩負接觸回族(中國穆斯林)重任的OMF同工最近向我指出,30年來一直是家庭教會復興發源地的河南約有100萬回族。然而,據他所知,當地蓬勃發展的漢族家庭教會並沒有系統性地接觸回族,也沒有任何已知的回族人歸信基督的團契。如果家庭教會迄今為止只極少地接觸家門口的穆斯林鄰居——那些說普通話、在各方面(除了宗教和一些習俗外)都已融入中國生活方式的穆斯林——那麼,他們究竟如何指望在未來5年內突然在中東敵對的穆斯林國家進行有意義的福音傳播呢?
傳福音,移民……還是其他目的?
假設成千上萬的中國年輕人成功偷渡到土耳其、埃及等國家。他們將如何在這些國家謀生?他們將會是來自農村的。他們最終不太可能在中東的農村生活。移居中國的城市環境對他們來說已是一個巨大的跨文化體驗。如果他們沒有接受過適當的福音和實際商業技能方面的培訓,搬到開羅或伊斯坦布爾將是一次令人震驚的經歷。
記住,他們沒有護照和合法證件。在美國或歐洲的自由民主國家生活會很艱難(參見上文英國可能發生的情況),但在伊斯蘭世界呢? !
他們或許可以從事非技術性體力勞動或開設小商店。婦女可以做女傭。但我們被告知(參見上文Vart Land的文章),沒有任何金錢會(從海外BTJ運動籌集的巨額資金)到位。
中國農村的非法家庭教會將不可能向中東的BTJ宣教士提供經濟支持。他們將孤軍奮戰。華人移民海外、落地生根的傳統由來已久。第一代華人曾做過勞工、洗衣工、餐廳打工等等,苦苦掙扎。許多前往東南亞的人本身就是商人。但我們聽說,大多數「回歸耶路撒冷」(BTJ)的工人都是農民。他們很可能過著貧困的生活,不得不在充滿敵意的伊斯蘭環境中努力維持生計。他們有多少時間去傳福音?而且他們已經回不去了。沒有合法的證件和身分證明,中國不會接收他們回國。如果他們在中東做生意失敗,他們就會被困在困境中。