▼（original English）P9/13▼
Brother Z. in a promotional video made some time ago but widely circulated in the US states baldly that American Christians are hated by the Muslims but the latter will welcome the Chinese. But is this necessarily true? In Xinjiang the Han are largely despised and hated by the Uygurs (the feeling is sadly mutual). Xinjiang Muslims regard the Han as ‘idolaters and pork eaters’. Strict Chinese Hui Muslims in Xinjiang and Ningxia break the crockery if it is ‘defiled’ by eating with a Han. In 2003 I was reliably informed three house-church evangelists sent out from Shandong to Xinjiang returned very disillusioned. One lady even left the Christian ministry. Brother Ren (Brother X’s western spokesman) has admitted that little fruit has resulted from the house-church missionaries sent out to Xinjiang about 5 years ago.
The reliable feedback from Kazakstan as reported in November 2003 by a Chinese OMF lady-worker who has spent several years there and knows the situation well is that the small Kazak church is appalled by the prospect of thousands of uneducated Chinese evangelists walking across the frontier (Xinjiang is just next door.) Chinese traders have a bad reputation and there is sadly much racial prejudice against the them. Much careful cross-cultural preparation will be needed. It will not be enough just to walk illegally across the frontier as is suggested in the BTJ book.
In the Middle East the situation for the existing churches is even more precarious and sensitive. Some lip-service is paid in the book to making contact with the existing churches but the message is that the BTJ movement will carry on regardless without them if necessary. Do the peasant house-church leaders in Henan really understand the situation of the churches in the Middle East? I doubt it. There is NO church allowed in Saudi Arabia. Iran’s tiny Christian community has seen its share of martyrs in recent decades. In Egypt Christians are periodically harrassed. Even Turkey with its aspirations to join the democratic European Union has a bad record of persecuting its tiny Christian population. The BTJ book talks boldly of Christian martyrdom and the missionaries paying with their lives and shedding their blood as they ‘march across the frontiers of the Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic worlds. Brother X. claims: “Hundreds if not thousands will be arrested. Others will be beaten to death or executed.because of the vision.” There seems to be a deliberate emphasis on martyrdom which, I suggest, in the Islamic context would lead to confrontation.
Such blind triumphalism could be catastrophic for the existing churches in the Middle East. If Western missionaries (rightly) apologise for the arrogance and sins of the past and bend over backwards to work alongside and under the national churches, are the new Chinese missionaries exempt from similar cross-cultural sensitivity?
In the book and on church platforms overseas great stress is placed by BTJ spokesmen on how they give practical training on how to leap from prison windows and get out of handcuffs. I regard this as sensational and puerile. It will not help Chinese Christians to escape arrest from prisons throughout the Islamic world where they could easily be hunted down however many times they escape. It reveals a regrettable tendency to pander to Western Christians’ love of the sensational as well as a persecution syndrome which will not help them when faced with the grim realities of surviving in a hostile Islamic society.
On a positive note some Middle Eastern churches appear to welcome the BTJ initiative and a few pastors or Arab Christians have already gone to China to set up
▼(checked ChinseseTranslation) P9/13▼
Z弟兄在一段不久前製作但在美國各州廣為流傳的宣傳影片中，直言美國基督徒被穆斯林憎恨，而穆斯林卻歡迎中國人。但這一定是真的嗎？在新疆，漢族人在很大程度上被維吾爾族人鄙視和憎恨（可悲的是，這種感覺其實是相互的）。新疆穆斯林視漢族人為「偶像崇拜者和吃豬肉的人」。新疆和寧夏的回族穆斯林如果與漢族人一起吃飯，餐具被「玷污」了，就會打破餐具。 2003年，我得到可靠消息，三位從山東派往新疆的家庭教會宣教士回來後非常失望。一位女士甚至離開了基督教事工。仁弟兄（X弟兄的西方發言人）承認，大約五年前派往新疆的家庭教會宣教士幾乎沒有取得任何成果。
2003年11月，一位在哈薩克生活了數年的中國OMF女工報告了來自哈薩克的可靠回饋。她對當地情況非常了解。據她所說，哈薩克的小教會對成千上萬未受過教育的中國宣教士跨越邊界（新疆就在隔壁）的前景感到震驚。中國商人名聲不好，令人遺憾的是，他們飽受種族歧視。做好充分的跨文化準備是必需的。僅僅像《回歸耶路撒冷》（BTJ）一書中所說的那樣，非法跨越邊境是不夠的。
在中東，現有教會的處境更加岌岌可危和敏感。書中雖然口頭上說要與現有教會取得聯繫，但其信息是，即使必要時沒有這些教會，BTJ運動也將繼續進行。河南的農民家庭教會領袖真的了解中東教會的處境嗎？我對此表示懷疑。沙烏地阿拉伯不允許有教會。近幾十年來，伊朗規模較小的基督徒社群也見證了不少殉道者。在埃及，基督徒時常受到騷擾。即使是渴望加入民主歐盟的土耳其，也曾迫害其數量稀少的基督徒群體，惡名昭彰。 BTJ 的書中大膽地談到了基督徒的殉道，以及宣教士們在「跨越佛教、印度教和伊斯蘭世界的邊界」時付出生命和鮮血的代價。 X 弟兄聲稱：「數百甚至數千人將被捕。其他人將被毆打致死或處決，就因為這個異象。」似乎有意強調殉道，我認為，在伊斯蘭語境下，這會導致衝突。
這種盲目的勝利主義可能會為中東現有的教會帶來災難性的後果。如果西方傳教士（正確地）為過去的傲慢和罪惡道歉，並竭盡全力與各國教會並肩作戰，那麼新的中國宣教士是否也能免於類似的跨文化敏感性？
在這本書和海外教會平台上，BTJ的發言人大力強調他們如何提供從監獄窗戶跳出和掙脫手銬的實踐訓練。我認為這既聳人聽聞又幼稚。這無助於中國基督徒逃脫伊斯蘭世界監獄的逮捕，因為無論他們逃脫多少次，他們都很容易被逮捕。這揭示了一種令人遺憾的傾向，即迎合西方基督徒對轟動效應的熱愛，以及一種迫害綜合症，這在他們面對在充滿敵意的伊斯蘭社會中生存的殘酷現實時，對他們毫無幫助。
積極的一面是，一些中東教會似乎對BTJ的倡議表示歡迎，一些牧師或阿拉伯基督徒已經前往中國建立