If you haven’t heard of Brother Yun, I’d encourage you to read The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun. I have two extra copies that I can lend out. If you’re interested, let me know.

Brother Yun is part of a ministry called Back to Jerusalem. It’s a Chinese ministry that seeks to evangelize “the thousands of unreached people groups, towns and villages between China and Jerusalem.” [1] Through this ministry, men and women are equipped to boldly bring the gospel to where it’s needed most.

As some of you may know, China has a dark history in the persecution of Christians—and it’s ongoing. Faithful disciples like Brother Yun, and many others, are living testimonies of those who’ve suffered for Jesus’ name at the hands of the Chinese government.

While reading through the biography mentioned above, something caught my eye that I’d like to share with us.

Near the end of the book when Brother Yun is explaining the ministry of Back to Jerusalem, he writes that each “Back to Jerusalem missionary receives training in several main subjects.” He then lists three, which I’d like to share:

1. How to suffer and die for the Lord. We examine what the Bible says about suffering, and look at how the Lord’s people have laid down their lives for the advance of the gospel throughout history.
2. How to witness for the Lord. We teach how to witness for the Lord under any circumstance, on trains or buses, or even in the back of a police van on our way to the execution ground.
3. How to escape for the Lord. We know that sometimes it is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do. We teach the missionaries special skills such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from second-storey windows without injuring themselves.

For their particular ministry, which includes confronting the deeply demonic strongholds of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, these areas of training are critical.

In fact, Brother Yun states that “Nothing less is required if we are to break down the walls that separate Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists from knowing the sweet presence of Jesus.”

For the Back to Jerusalem missionaries, these areas of equipping are essential. But what about for us, here in the Fraser Valley in this present time?

Considering what Brother Yun wrote about their particular ministry, ask these questions about our ministry:

Are you gripped by a vision to bring the gospel to those around you?
In what areas do you feel lacking in spreading the name of Jesus to the unreached around us?
What main trainings do you feel that you and other Christians around you need in order to be better equipped to advance the gospel?

I’d be curious to know your answers! Feel free to share them with me.

[1] All quotations in blog come from the book, The Heavenly Man (Yun and Paul Hattaway, The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun. London: Monarch, 2002.).