Pray4Yueyang

The Winter Solstice Festival (Chinese: 冬至 Pinyin: Dōng zhì), is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese and other East Asians during the dongzhi solar term when sunshine is weakest and daylight shortest.

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in.

The philosophical significance of this is symbolized by the character 復 (fù - “Returning”). Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers is the making and eating of Tangyuan (湯圓, as pronounced in Mandarin Pinyin: Tāng Yuán) or balls of glutinous rice, which symbolize reunion.

I know that for most of you living in the West, today is not special in any way, it’s just another Monday. However, for the people of Yueyang, China, today has significance.

Much of today’s celebrations will be benign and harmless with no spiritual or demonic elements whatsoever. However, the philosophy behind today’s holiday reflect a flawed world view that blinds and confuses many Chinese who seek truth.

Would you remember the people of Yueyang today as they celebrate “Dōng zhì” today (December 22) Ask that as families get together to celebrate and to eat “Tang Yuan” that conversations will turn to eternal things. Pray for Christian family members to be courageous and bold to share the Good News with their families. Pray for those families with no witness, ask that someone will be obedient to share the gospel with them so that they might “return” to their creator who loves them and desperately desires to have a relationship with them!

On average, a Chinese person takes his or her own life every two minutes.

With between 250,000 and 300,000 suicides a year, China accounts for about a quarter of the global total, according to medical sources.  China’s suicide rate is now among the highest in the world.

Even as China has moved to the spot of the world’s fourth-largest economy, filling many Chinese with pride, suicide has become the main cause of death in the age group between 15 and 34.

The Chinese are caught in the middle of the often conflicting demands of Communism, Confucianism and capitalism, and they do not know which one to turn to, experts say.

Please pray for the people of China and more specifically, the people of Yueyang.  Pray that people who are lost in a rapidly shifting society will find HOPE in the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Please take a few minutes to pause what you are doing and spend a moment in prayer for the unregistered house churches in Yueyang.

It appears that community leaders across the city (and rural counties) are being asked to identify active Christians in their neighborhoods. That information is then being used to demand that house churches disband. When they don’t, the leadership face arrest and persecution.

This is just starting, no one knows how long this will last and how thorough an effort the authorities plan on investing in this ‘crack-down’. Please pray for safety, discernment and boldness.

Acts 4:29-30

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Almost nobody in America has heard of Yueyang, but just about anyone who’s ever ordered take-out at a Chinese restaurant has heard of “General Tso’s Chicken.”  Well guess what, Zou ZongTang, aka General Tso is from Yueyang’s country side district known as “XiangYin.”

General Tso Tsung-t’ang (in Mandarin - Zuo Zongtang, 左宗棠), was a formidable 19th-century general who served with distinction during China’s most important (and the world’s largest) civil war, the 14 year long Taiping Rebellion, in which it is estimated 20 million people died.

His family — five generations later — is still in WenJiaLong (a rural village in Yueyang’s countryside.) They actually have a whole section of the village named after them “The Zuo Family Section.”

I’m sad to say though, there is no General Tso’s chicken in WenJiaLong or anywhere in Yueyang, but they still think fondly of his military exploits.

The Hunanese have a strong military tradition, and Tso is one of their best-known historical figures.  In America, General Tso, like Colonel Sanders, is known for chicken and not war. In China, however, he is known for war and not chicken.

Would you please take a moment to pray for the people of Yueyang, many of whom know war stories of General Tso and the bloody civil war he helped to fight, but have no idea of the blood that was shed on their behalf by Jesus Christ.

Make it a habit - every time you are in a Chinese restaurant and you see “General Tso’s Chicken” on the menu - say a prayer for Yueyang!

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.

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.

The April calendar is available, have you downloaded it yet? Please take a minute to download this month’s calendar and to print it out and post somewhere where you will be reminded daily to pray for the people of Yueyang!

As April arrives, so does warmer weather and the tell-tale signs that summer is right around the corner.  This means that people will spend more time in the parks and streets, talking, laughing, playing games.  This is a great time for Christians in Yueyang to spread their faith.  But it’s not always easy, there are challenges.  Will you support these Christians by faithfully praying for them during the month of April?

This month we challenge Christians everywhere to spend some time in thought and prayer for the people of Yueyang. In addition to the prayer requests found on this blog and in the prayer calendar, be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as you spend a minute or two in prayer every day for the people of Yueyang.

Prayer makes a difference. Will you be involved?