Testimony about China's Christians

The speaker shares a testimony about his trip to China where he met with underground church leaders. These leaders face persecution and imprisonment for their faith, yet they are dedicated to spreading the gospel and have a strong desire to worship God. They have memorized scripture because they cannot possess Bibles and continue to meet covertly. The speaker is inspired by their devotion and prays that his own country will become more like them in their passion for God. The testimony reminds us to appreciate the freedom we have to worship and to have a strong desire to seek God. And because He got up tonight, I feel like praising, praising Him, oh, I feel like praising, praising Him. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes I do. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes I do. I feel like praising, praising Him. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him. You see, I'm gonna praise the Lord while I have a chance, oh yes we are. I'm gonna praise the Lord while I have a chance. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes we do. I feel like praising, praising Him. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes. You don't want to praise Him, don't hinder me, no way, don't do it. You don't want to praise Him, don't hinder me. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh hallelujah. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh hallelujah. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh hallelujah. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes we do. I'm gonna praise the Lord while I have a chance. I'm gonna praise the Lord while I have a chance. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, just one more time. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes we do. I feel like praising, praising Him. I'm gonna praise Him in the morning, I'm gonna praise Him all day long. I feel like praising, praising Him, oh yes we do. I'm gonna praise the Lord while I have a chance. What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful song. I Feel Like Praising Him by Jeremiah Yoakam. Hope I didn't mess it up too bad for you singing along with him, but when the Lord tells you to sing, you just sing friends. Again, welcome to Testimony of the Goodness of God. It's wonderful to have you today and we look forward to sharing today's testimony with you. Thank you for joining us, we do appreciate it. And before we get into our testimony for today and set it up for you, we'd like to say thank you to all those who have commented, liked, and shared our podcast so far. We certainly appreciate that and we hope you are enjoying it. And from the sounds of your emails or from reading your emails and the comments that we're getting online on our Facebook page and what have you, it seems that you are. We've taken a couple of people's advice that know what they're doing and tried to tweak a few things that you may not even hear or see. And I'm sure my singing wasn't one of them. That kind of happened unexpectedly and we just went with it today. But anyway, thank you for listening today, we do appreciate it. If you have a message or a prayer request or anything you would like to say, just drop us a line at tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com. tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com. Go to our Facebook page, just in Facebook, put it up on the search, type in the search bar, testimony of the goodness of God, and that should take you right to it. And like and follow that page. We do daily scripture and devotionals and other postings along with every podcast that we produce and release will also be released on that Facebook page. And before I forget, just before the testimony, I want to let everyone know about a wonderful kids' crusade we're going to have at our church there at Dodge Free Pentecostal Church, Pastor Jay Osborne. It's at 3157 Old 122 there in Waynesville. It sits on Old 122 between 42 and Township Line. Come on out and bring the kids, I know you're going to enjoy it and they will enjoy it. It's a kids' crusade, they'll have games, adventures, songs, puppets, and blacklight. All aboard with the good captain as we set sail through God's word discovering buried treasure. We're going to have a special appearance by the prophet Jonah who refused to go. Well, Brother Brian Heisel is setting this up for us and running it there at the church, June 21st through the 23rd at 6.30 p.m. The 21st through the 23rd at 6.30 p.m. And just drop your children off or stay with them, however you want to do it, bring them by. All are welcome to participate in this wonderful event we have set up for the kids. So come on out to Kids' Crusade, June 21st through the 23rd starting at 6.30 p.m. Today's testimony comes to us from Jake Ardrey, A-R-D-R-E-Y, seven. That's the username there on TikTok where we got the video that we're going to use today. And yeah, we're going to have some live ones, friends. We're going to have people that we interview locally. We're just getting that set up and just trying to find a few volunteers that's willing to sit down with us and be interviewed and give us their testimony. But anyway, today we have Pastor Wayne Cordero. He's speaking about his trip to China. He goes to China quite often, and he preaches to the multitudes over there spreading the gospel. And, of course, in China, the communist country that it is, it is illegal to worship God. It is illegal to read the Bible. You can't even possess one. Think about how awful and how unrewarding that life has to be to those. Of course, if they don't know it, you know, they don't know what they know. But the numbers that I found out researching this testimony is just amazing to me. Where this preacher was at in teaching those that are showing up, they had a group leader meeting is what they set up. And he was going to teach them, and they go back to their group, and they teach those people throughout the country of China. And, again, it has to be covertly done in different locations and what have you. And these people, there's 22 of them. They're group leaders throughout the country, and they all gathered. And it took them 13 hours on a train to get to their destination. And they didn't get to ride in the comfortable riding areas and the comfortable seats. Of course, they sat on wooden floors and rode in probably conditions that just we can't even imagine. And there's 22 of them, and they go meet in this small room. And as you'll hear in this testimony, if they are caught, the preacher will be immediately deported, no questions asked. And everyone that is participating in this Bible study or teaching session will be immediately sent to prison for three years. Imagine for going to Sunday school or for going to church and listening and learning about our Savior, about the Word of God, and being sentenced to three years in prison by your government just for doing that. And he did ask them, and, again, you'll hear it in the testimony of how many people out of the 22 have been imprisoned, and 18 of them have spent three years in prison. And what they do while they're in prison to continue to learn the Word of God and to keep the Word of God hidden in their heart away from the communist leadership is just wonderful. And another remarkable number, now there's 1.3 billion people in China, and it may be more than that now. The group leaders, 22 of them, all add up approximately 20 million Christians in China. Praise God, isn't that wonderful? 20 million people living in communism and not afraid to learn and praise and worship God. And he also took 15 Bibles with him, and so obviously not everybody in the group got those. And, again, you'll hear the testimony here in just a second and how they go through and to memorize the verses and what have you. And it just speaks of the wonderful, wonderful opportunities we have, and by we I mean people here in America. And it's just amazing the opportunity we have to worship God. You know, most of us go on Sundays, Sunday night, Wednesday or a Saturday service, or a revival that may last a week or two weeks. Some of the old common revivals, the tent revivals in the summer, of course, they would last a month or more. And today, as most of you know, we don't have a church problem here in our country. We don't have a problem of getting Bibles or getting preachers to preach. God has certainly given us plenty of those folks. He's called plenty to the ministry to teach and preach to us. What we have in this country, friends, let's just put it plain and simple. Let's just step on one another's toes real quick. It's a desire problem. Now, I don't desire to go sit in a church and listen to the Word of God or participate or sing or take my children to Sunday school. It's a desire issue. And I'm talking of people that are saved and people that claim to be Christians and follow Christ. And they very well may do that. Each of us have our own personal relationship with God. But you're going to get a whole lot more out of it, friends, if you attend church regularly, if you fellowship with like-minded folks. That's what we've got to do. That's how we learn the Word of God. That's how we are able to spread the Word of God and do it correctly through the Bible. And those lacking in desire, I wish they could hear this and just hear what kind of conditions these folks are in. And, friends, this isn't the 1800s, the 1700s, or even the 1900s. This is the day in a country that these conditions that these folks live in. It's just amazing how dedicated and how much desire they have to serve God. I only hope that I have that much desire in my heart and in my life to serve the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings. It's just a wonderful testimony. And really, it made me think. That's why I wanted to use it today. And to just express to you, you know, my thoughts on how we have it here in our country and how others in communist nations across this world receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I've set that up pretty good and put it in your mind. So just take a listen here to, again, his name is Pastor Wayne Cordero. Just a wonderful fellow. I've seen a few of his videos and listened to a couple of his sermons. But I enjoyed this testimony. It's not very long. So please take the time to listen to it and enjoy. Go to China from time to time. And I meet in the little living room, no air conditioning, hardwood floor, 22 sat there. They were sitting there, all 22 of them. And I looked around and I said, now, if we get caught, what will happen to me? They said, oh, you'll get deported in 24 hours and we'll go to prison for three years. I said, you're kidding. How many of you have been in prison for your faith? Out of 22, 18 raised their hands. I thought, no way. I looked at them and I said, you 22 people, how many people do you oversee? Because they were all of these small group leaders, underground church leaders in the Hunan province. I said, how many of you? Counted up all the people under your jurisdiction, how many would it be? They counted them up and they said, a little over 20 million. I said, what? See, we forget there's 1.3 billion people in China. This is crazy. Well, I had 15 Bibles and I passed them out. Obviously, seven didn't get them. And I said, let's turn to 2 Peter 1 and we're going to read it. And just then, one lady handed hers to somebody next to her. And I thought, hmm, interesting. Well, we turned there anyway and as we started reading it, I understood why she gave it away. She had memorized the whole thing. She just recited the whole chapter. When it was done, I went over to her at a break and I said, you recited the whole chapter. She said, oh yes, I've memorized many chapters. I said, where did you memorize the chapters? She said, in prison. I said, you have much time in prison. So I said, but don't they confiscate the Bible? She said, yes. So people bring in scriptures written on pieces of paper and they bring it in. So I said, but then if they find that piece of paper on you, won't they confiscate that? She said, oh yes, that's why you memorize it as fast as you can. Because even though they can take the paper away, they can't take what's hidden in your heart. And I thought, wow. Well, after three days you fall in love with these people. And when it was done, I said, how can I pray for you? I'm going to go back to America. You guys have been just so wonderful. How can I pray for you? I said, you know, you guys can gather like this whenever you want to in America. We can't. Could you pray that one day we'll be just like you? And I looked at her and I said, I will not do that. Big incredulous eyes looked at me and they said, why? I said, because you guys rode a train for 13 hours to get here. In my country, if you've got to drive more than an hour, people don't come. You sat on a wooden floor for three days. In my country, if people have to sit more than 40 minutes, they leave. You sat not only here for three days on a hard wooden floor, but you did it without air conditioning. In my country, if it's not padded pews and air conditioning, people don't often come back. In my country, we have an average of two Bibles per family. We don't read any of them. You hardly have any Bibles, and you memorize them from pieces of paper. I will not pray that you become like us, but I will pray that we become just like you. Wow, friends, think of that. When you pray this evening, when you pray in the morning, I know when I'm praying and when I'm going to pray, and when I've been praying, since I've seen that video and thought about it, God put it on my heart, I do pray to be like them as far as my desire is concerned, as far as how bad I want to hear and receive the gospel, how I want my family to hear and receive the gospel, how I want my church family to have that desire to listen, to read, to pray every day. I thought it was just a wonderful testimony, friends, and if we could only be just a little bit like them, I pray that we're a lot like them in the future. That's today's testimony, and I do hope you've enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed giving it to you. Thank you for listening to my singing. That's not something too many people hear anymore, and I do appreciate you being with us. Remember, like and share this with as many people as you can. We do appreciate it, and we look forward to doing our next episode for you here in another week or two. Again, drop us a line at tgoodnessofgod at gmail.com, and let us know how we're doing. Let us know what you want to hear, or if you have a testimony you would like to share, by all means, let us know. We'll get in touch with you and set up a time that's convenient for you to give us your wonderful testimony about the goodness of God. Thank you, friends, and as always, stay blessed.