Pray4Yueyang

Athletes, officials, spectators and tourists can pick up the Bible or just the New Testament for free during the Olympic Games next month. Tens of thousands of copies of the Bible, the New Testament and booklets with just the four Gospels (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) have been printed for the purpose, say officials of China’s Christian society. Rev Xu Xiaohong, an official of the Shanghai-based China Christian Council in charge of publishing, says 50,000 bilingual (Chinese and English) editions of the Gospel booklets had already been printed by June. They are on way to six cities hosting the Olympic events in the mainland.

Several months ago, rumors were started (most likely in a mud slinging effort by China haters) that China had ‘banned’ the Bible in the Olympic Village. Despite the fact there were no reliable sources for the story, it was spread by alot of bloggers and well-meaning, but mis-guided, Christians. It was not, nor has it ever been true.

I don’t doubt that the Bible distribution by the Chinese government at the Olympics is motivated by an effort to control the public perception more so than a true desire to put Bible’s in the hands of people at the Olympics. However, I believe the Bible is the Word of God, it is powerful, and despite the motivation of the giver, it will go out and it will accomplish it’s purpose!

Let’s just pray that some, many, most of these end up in the hands of Chinese who have more ‘limited access’ to the Bible than the tourists and athletes who come from other countries.

The collapse of a reservoir dam at Yueyang County of central China’s Hunan Province killed six and left one missing on Thursday, according to a county government source.

The tragedy occurred at about noon at Xiangsiyuan Reservoir, a tourist site that is under construction. At the time, students were playing in the reservoir and farmers were working nearby.

The dam suddenly collapsed, unleashing a torrent of water that drowned three students and three farmers. Another was still missing.

The 13.8 kilometer (8.6 mile) Yueyang relay, run by 168 torchbearers, started from Yueyang Tower and passed Yueyang Viewing Gate, Dongting North Road, Dongting Lake Rim, Yueyang Avenue, City Government Square, City Stadium and South Lake Square.

Banners in support of earthquake victims greeted the torch relay in Yueyang.

Yuan Longping, the 77-year-old “father of the hybrid rice,” started the run at Yueyang Tower on the banks of Dongting Lake.

Originally built in the Tang Dynasty, the tower became famous during the Northern Song Dynasty (960 to 1127) when it was rebuilt and counselor Fan Zhongyan wrote a poem about it.

The poem contains the famous line: “One should be the first to bear hardship, and the last to enjoy comfort.”

The line has been written on many banners lining the route of the relay in reference to the rebuilding efforts that are taking place in the quake-hit regions.

In the afternoon, the torch will go to Miluo, a county under Yueyang’s administration, about 68 miles away.

Miluo is the birth place of the Dragon Boat Festival for the Chinese, celebrated each year on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the lunar calendar.

The festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), minister of the State of Chu and one of China’s earliest poets.

Qu plunged into the Miluo River, clasping his arms around a large stone, after his proposal to defend the state was turned down and eventually conquered.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese officials announced Monday that the country’s strict one-child policy will make some exceptions for certain families affected by the devastating earthquake two weeks ago.

Families with a child who was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.

China said the toll of dead and missing from last week’s powerful earthquake jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

The confirmed number of dead rose nearly 10,000 from the day before to 51,151, Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a news conference. Another 29,328 people remained missing and nearly 300,000 were hurt in the May 12 quake centered in Sichuan province, he said.

I know that ‘life moves on’ for those on the other side of the world from this tragedy, it’s normal.  I urge you to please continue to pray for China right now, this is still very much an open wound.

China said Thursday that over 50,000 people had likely died in the devastating earthquake that hit its southwest as time runs out to save survivors buried in the rubble of broken communities.

Experts said the search-and-rescue operation was entering its most crucial phase yet four days after the 7.9-magnitude quake struck, with the chances of finding survivors diminishing by the hour.

Early Friday state Xinhua news agency quoted Prime Minister Wen Jiabao saying the quake had been even more devastating than one in Tangshan in 1976 which claimed about 240,000 lives.

We encourage you to take some time with your family today to pray for the ’survivors’ who are dealing with tragedy and despair that most of us can only imagine.

(CNN) – The sharp sound of firecrackers and the wails of grieving parents echoed Tuesday morning above Juyuan Middle School, where hundreds of students are still trapped 24 hours after a major earthquake in central China.

The firecrackers, a tradition to ward off evil spirits, sounded each time a child’s body was found, a reporter at the scene said.

One can only imagine the emptiness felt by those who’ve lost a love one with no hope for eternity.  My heart aches for those moms and dads who are learning the terrible news about their child, with only one recourse - firecrackers…

The task of bringing the gospel to the lost is URGENT!

Pray

One of the worst earthquakes to hit China in three decades struck today (Monday) at 2:30 in the afternoon.  The death toll is already in the thousands and is expected to rise sharply once the full extent of damage and casualties is assessed.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake devastated a hilly region of small cities and towns in central China. The official Xinhua News Agency said 8,533 people died in Sichuan province and more than 200 others were killed in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.

The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand.

The quake hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu — a city of 3.75 million — in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. When it hit shortly before 2:30 p.m., the quake rumbled for nearly three minutes, witnesses said, driving people into the streets in panic.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Skyscrapers swayed in Shanghai and in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China’s deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

Please take some time to pray for all those involved in this most recent natural disaster.

Contagious hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) had led to 28 deaths in China as of Wednesday morning, according to Xinhua’s tally based on confirmed death reports from provincial-level health bureaus.

The central province of Hunan and southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region reported their first and only HFMD death on Wednesday, after health minister Chen Zhu put the national death toll at 26 on Tuesday.

In Hunan, a two-year-old girl in Shahe Village, Changde City died at 5:20 a.m. on Tuesday, despite medical treatment. She had tested positive for enterovirus 71 (EV71), the most deadly strain of the virus family that has been linked to fatal HFMD cases in China.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood illness that spreads through contact with saliva, feces, fluid secreted from blisters or mucus from the nose and throat. There is no vaccine or specific treatment, but most children typically recover quickly. It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease that affects livestock.

Both Mao and WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said they expected more cases of hand, foot and mouth because of the tighter reporting requirements and because the disease will likely peak in June and July.

Last year, some 80,000 hand, foot and mouth cases were recorded in China, with 17 deaths, Mao said, adding that the figures were likely incomplete.

Troedsson said there are outbreaks caused by variations of EV-71 in China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore, where there have been a total of 10,490 cases in 2008.

“We need to put it in the right perspective,” Troedsson said. “This is something that regularly happens in countries in this region.”