Missionfest Manitoba 2011--Ron Pearce of Empower Ministries

I often hear Ron Pearce on the radio with his Empowering Moments spot, so it was good to see and hear him for a longer longer length of time.  When he asked Missionfest's organiser what he should talk about, he was told to tell "stories that hit you and stay in your brain," so he tried to tell as many as he could.  He spoke so fast, I sometimes could get only short little "sound" (print?) bites.

Empower Ministries goes to spiritual hot spots in the world to bring Bibles (600 to Ethiopia, recently), motorcycles and goats (286--to Egypt?) along with other things.  Imagine trying to bring 286 goats into a country!

In Ethiopia, Orthodox pastors are turning away from their voodooism to Christ.  Some of them have never read the Bible before.

When we look at what is happening in Egypt the past two weeks or remember 9/11, we don't need to be afraid.  We don't need to worry about whether the end times are here or not, he said, because in the end, we know that God reigns.

Twenty-two years after the massacre in Tienanmin Square, those protesters are some of the strongest Christian leaders in China.  How cool is that?

There are good things happening.  In Iraq, 80,000 Bibles have been delivered.  Muslims are on their knees, begging for the Scriptures.

Ron directed us to the story of Philip in Acts 8.  Why is the story of Simon the magician in the Bible?  Simon became a believer and had been following Philip around "constantly amazed" (NAS) at the miracles he saw.  So he wanted to buy the power to do the same so that others could be amazed at what he did.  Do we do things for a show or as a way of life?

In China, miracles and people turning to Jesus have become so common-place that the leaders are no longer amazed when they see these things happen.  For them, it's become an expected way of life.  While Simon wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit, others craved God.  New believers in Asia are maturing in their faith so fast, they move past the amazement quickly.

There is estimated to be 120 million Christians in China currently but one old woman, a Christian leader, believes that it won't be long before a quarter of all the population will be Christian.  And these aren't shallow Christians who show up to church on Sundays and the rest of the week do what they want.  These converts know that they could be thrown in prison or killed because of their decision and the living out of it.

Vietnam has 1.6 million believers.  Ron was there, one time, speaking, when he saw a young man sitting near the front, crying--for two solid hours.  Afterwards, the man came to speak with Ron.  He took his hand and wouldn't let go and then hugged him as though they were married.  He had just recently been ordained but already he had started 30 to 40 churches with 27,000 believers under his leadership.

How is this possible?  He and his team go to a village and look for the sickest person there.  Ron told the story of an old woman with multiple leg fractures.  They prayed for her, her bones healed immediately and she got up, walked out of the tent and waved to everyone waiting to see what would happen.  The whole town believed.  This woman was a leader in the district so she took the team to other towns and villages and because she endorsed the Christians whole towns and villages turned to Jesus.

Six months ago in Myanmar, a church leader carried 50-70 pound packs of rice past road blocks to feed the starving people.  As a result, 250 monks and thousands of people accepted Jesus.

There is one prison in Myanmar that is considered by some to be the worst prison in the world.  When prisoners die, they are left in the prison to decay.  However, there are six pastors imprisoned here.  I don't remember the whole story but I think the governor was so impressed with what the church leader did in carrying rice to the starving people, that he asked the pastor what he would like the governor to do for him.  Reminds me of those stories where a king offers up to half his kingdom.  What the pastor asked for was to have a little twig shack built in the prison so that the pastors there would be able to have a place to minister to the other prisoners.

The governor flatly refused.  Instead, he built a brick church in the centre of the prison complete with pews and stained glass windows.  250 men have already accepted Christ and the imprisoned pastors are now considering staying in jail once they're free to go so that they can continue to minister to the people there.

After the 2008 earthquake in China, a 23-year-old girl started 30 churches.  She's hoping to go to Bible school eventually, but while she waits, she's starting churches.  One time Ron was visiting one of her churches.  He had to park his vehicle some ways away and go in by foot.  He had several boxes of books for them but he figured a few strong men could come back to the vehicle to carry them to the village.  While he was there, an alert came that officials were approaching and he had to get out of there as fast as possible.  The girl walked him back to his vehicle.  She's a wee little thing and there was no way she would be able to carry all the boxes back to the village but she refused his help saying he would get into great trouble if he went back to the village while the officials were there so she carried them all back herself.  Someone told Ron that those boxes would never touch the ground.  Men would come and take the books and run to other villages with them--Bibles are so hungered for.

David is another pastor in China.  He started planting churches in the 1990s.  Wherever he went, people accepted the Gospel.  One day he was arrested.  He was tied to the rafters of the prison and beaten with a stout metal pole for the next 45 days, resulting in multiple breaks in his back.  When he was released, he went back to teaching.  When he was arrested again, he was put into a wee little cell for two months and then was tricked into signing an agreement to stay in the prison for another two years.

In China, prison means hard labour and he was assigned to carry bricks despite all the injuries to his back.  Despite the pain and the labour, David continually smiled.  It was as if he couldn't stop.  Finally he was asked by one of the guards, "Why are you smiling?"\

"I won't tell!" he answered coyly.  And the upshot of that?  Like Joseph, he was raised to head of the prison, in charge of even the guards.  Because he now had free reign of the commandant's office, he found the Bibles that had been confiscated from him and distributed them to the prisoners.  He had the best job in the world!

David's wife was put in prison when she was three months pregnant.  The cell was 8 x 8 feet and she shared it with nine or ten other women.  I can't imagine!  Whenever it was her turn to be beaten, the other women would cover her with their bodies to protect the unborn baby.  She was released just before the baby was born.

The growth of the Church in China is phenomenal and there aren't enough people to be leaders to go out and explain Jesus to others.  This is something we can pray about.  The Chinese are praying for those of us in the Western Church, that we would have a closer walk with Jesus and be as on-fire for God as they are.  I wonder what it will take for us to get to that point.