Pray4Yueyang

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 September calendar is available for viewing and download. 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!

September marks the end of summer and the approach of autumn. Students of all ages are returning to school and as the weather begins to cool after a long, hot summer, being outside becomes much more comfortable.

Last month the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were successfully completed. There were many stories about a whole host of China topics in the mainstream media. We hope you took the opportunity to be especially mindful of Yueyang in your prayers every time China was brought to mind.

In addition to the prayer requests found on this blog and 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.

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Prayer makes a difference. Will you be involved?

If you watched the Olympic opening ceremonies, you witnessed a small but upsetting detail that has prompted discussion and debate in the media since: the nine-year-old girl out on stage singing “Ode to the Motherland” was not, in fact, actually singing it: she was lip-syncing the song while the real singer, a seven-year-old, was concealed behind stage after officials decided that her physical imperfections (crooked teeth) rendered her unfit for a public performance.

Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s flag was paraded Friday into Beijing’s National Stadium, was not singing at all.

Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.

source: CNN

Unfortunately, we Christians often make the same sort of erroneous value judgements based on our imperfect ideas of what is worthwhile, valuable and strategic.

We too quickly forget that God often chooses the ‘underdog‘ to accomplish big things (this ensures He gets the credit and it keeps us from thinking we have things figured out!)

Yueyang is not a particularly beautiful, influential or strategic place in China.  Very few Christians are even willing to “waste their time” in a place like this.  However, it is a place exactly like Yueyang where God’s Holy Spirit is going to be poured out and a whole city is going to be transformed.

Please pray that He comes quickly and that many in Yueyang will hear of the hope found only through Jesus Christ.  Ask that as the people of Yueyang come to know the Creator, they will share this good news with others with passion and excitement!

Pray that a great movement of God would begin in an unlikely place and with unlikely people - Yueyang, China.

The August calendar is available for viewing and download. 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!

August is a HUGE month for China as the 2008 Summer Olympics get started on August 8th (at 8pm)! The number “8″ represents wealth for Chinese…

Please be in prayer over the Olympics and everything that is happening in this country as a result.

This month, as many people from all over the world focus attention on China, we challenge Christians everywhere to spend some time in thought and prayer for the people of Yueyang, China.

In addition to the prayer requests found on this blog and 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?

Source: Desiring God blog - John Piper

There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant.

1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.

2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.

3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.

4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.

5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.

6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.

7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!

8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don’t expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.

9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.

10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.

Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!

Do you have any ideas to add?

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.