▼（original English）P8/13▼
to the US illegally, set up by the ‘snake-heads’ (criminal gangs linked with the triads]. Many obtain letters from church elders and catholic bishops (underground, of course.) Some used these letters to seek political asylum claiming religious persecution. I encountered several cases that the letter-holders were not even Christians. You can actually purchase these letters! Others simply went for economic reasons, just like most of the illegal Chinese immigrants in the US. I found it rather disturbing as I noticed that the local churches even helped them to arrange contact with the snake-heads and provide counterparts (Fuqing-dialect speaking churches from Fujian set up in New York, for example) as logistic support, while others will assist them to acquire false documents. Above all, they pray for a successful journey via the smuggling ring hoping God will bless these illegal operations. To top it off I was told they even send pastors via the smuggling-ring to minister to those people who made it to the USA.”
He continues: “I was told there are smuggling-rings operated by Christians (probably Wenzhou-based) to get people to Europe via Russia. Peter Xu [leader of the Born Again Movement and a spokesman now in the US for BTJ] went to the US via Moscow through such channels, false documents and all that. The same with Brother Yun, the Heavenly Man, who ended up in Germany. To smuggle a few is one thing-to have 100,000 peasants end up in Central Asia using false documents is another! I smell something bad here. If we trust the Lord would He not provide us with a legal means to achieve His mission? Where is Christian ethics? The end certainly does not justify the means however noble it seems to be. Further such operations will mean big business and surely some business-minded entrepreneurs will take advantage of it.”
Just after I returned from Hong Kong in early February the terrible news broke of the death by drowning of 17 illegal Chinese migrants who were collecting shell-fish in northern England. They had been smuggled to the UK by ‘snakeheads’ and then forced into virtually slave labour. Some were Christians. One man up to his waist in the rising tide telephones his wife in China and said:”I am praying!” before he died. (Daily Telegraph, 11 Feb 04) Many of those drowned came from Fuqing, Fujian, where the Telegraph notes 200,000 of the 1.6 million population are Christians. This further reinforces the urgency of alerting naïve Christians both in China and overseas to the horrendous possibilities of thousands of innocent Christian farmers falling into the hands of these ruthless gangs.
This reliable evidence shows that ALREADY criminal gangs are smuggling Christian peasants from Fujian and Zhejiang. 100,000 mainly Christian peasants smuggled overseas will make rich pickings for some people. I doubt that busy, honest rural house-church pastors in central China would have the knowledge or experience to mastermind such a massive operation. It would seem inevitable that it will fall largely into the hands of the ‘heishehui’ -the criminal underground with its snake-head smuggling gangs and triads. How many naïve rural Christians will give away their life-savings to such people to be smuggled overseas to an uncertain future? The son of one of China’s leading house-church elders in Shanghai told me in January: “This movement reminds me of the mediaeval Children’s Crusade” [when thousands of children responded to emotive preaching to ‘go back to Jerusalem’ – but all ended up in the hands of Muslim slave-traders.]
A WELCOME IN CENTRAL ASIA & THE MIDDLE-EAST?
▼(checked ChinseseTranslation) P8/13▼
非法進入美國，是由「蛇頭」（與三合會有關的犯罪集團）設立的。許多人從教會長老和天主教主教（當然是地下的）那裡獲得信件。有些人用這些信件尋求政治庇護，聲稱自己受到宗教迫害。我遇過好幾個案例，持有信件的人甚至不是基督徒。你真的可以買到這些信件！其他人只是出於經濟原因，就像大多數在美國的中國非法移民一樣。我感到很不安，因為我注意到當地教會甚至幫助他們安排與蛇頭的聯繫，並提供相應的後勤支持（例如，在紐約設立的福建福清方言教會）作為後勤支持，而其他教會則協助他們獲取假證件。最重要的是，他們祈禱透過走私集團的旅程順利，希望上帝保佑這些非法行動。更糟的是，我聽說他們甚至透過走私集團派牧師去服侍那些成功到達美國的人。 」
他繼續說：「我聽說有基督徒（可能以溫州為基地）經營的走私團夥，將人們經由俄羅斯運往歐洲。彼得‧徐（Peter Xu，重生派領袖，現居美國，現在做“歸回耶路撒冷”的發言人）就是透過這樣的管道、偽造證件等等，經莫斯科前往美國的.。和最終去了德國的天上人雲弟兄一樣。偷渡幾個人是一回事，讓十萬農民用假證件到中亞又是另一回事！我嗅到一股不祥的預感。如果我們信靠主，祂不會提供我們合法的途徑來完成祂的使命嗎？基督教倫理何在？無論手段看起來多麼高尚，目的當然不能使它成為正當的。進一步的此類行動將意味著大生意，一些有商業頭腦的企業家肯定會利用它。
二月初，我剛從香港回來，就傳來可怕的消息：17名非法中國移民在英格蘭北部採集貝類時溺亡。他們被「蛇頭」偷渡到英國，然後被迫進入像奴隸勞工營一樣。其中一些是基督徒。一名男子被淹沒在齊腰深的潮水中，臨死前打電話給遠在中國的妻子說：「我在祈禱！」（《每日電訊報》，2004年2月11日）。許多溺亡者來自福建福清，《每日電訊報》指出，福清160萬人口中有20萬是基督徒。這進一步凸顯了向國內外幼稚的基督徒發出警告的迫切性，成千上萬無辜的基督徒農民可能落入這些殘忍團體手中。
這些可靠的證據表明，犯罪集團已經在從福建和浙江偷運基督徒農民。 把10萬名主要為基督徒的農民偷運到海外，對某些人來說將是一筆豐厚的收入。我懷疑中國中部那些忙碌而誠實的農村家庭教會牧師是否具備策劃如此大規模行動的知識或經驗。這似乎不可避免地會落入「黑社會」——地下犯罪組織——的手中。蛇頭走私集團和三合會。有多少天真的農村基督徒會把畢生積蓄交給這些人，讓他們被偷運到海外，走向不確定的未來？上海一位中國主要家庭教會長老的兒子在一月份告訴我：“這場運動讓我想起了中世紀的兒童十字軍東征”（當時成千上萬的兒童響應感人至深的信息，要求“回到耶路撒冷”，但最終卻落入了穆斯林奴隸販子之手）。