I was born on one Sunday and was in church the next. Otherwise, I’ve been in church all of my life, but it wasn’t until I was 19 or so that I had an interest in missions.

When I was 14, God convicted me of sin, and I repented and gave my life to Him while leaning against the stage at a Petra concert. After graduating high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

The First Book

When I was around 19, and trying to figure out my future, I took a trip to Gatlinburg, and stayed at the Wafloy Christian Retreat to pray and read. During that time, I was reading two books: Hudson Taylor’s A Retrospect and the biography of C.T. Studd. While Taylor’s autobiography hit me harder on a spiritual level, C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer planted within me the seed of “You can be a missionary.”

C.T. Studd grew up in a wealthy family, and along with two of his brothers, became a famous cricket player before giving it all up to become a missionary.

Having met Hudson Taylor in England, he volunteered to serve with Taylor’s China Inland Mission (now OMF International), along with 6 other young men from wealthy families, together known as the Cambridge Seven. He served in China for 9 years, before returning to England. In 1900, he and his wife moved to India where he pastored a church for 6 years.

It wasn’t until 1913 did he start what he would be most famous for: his mission work in Africa (the Belgian Congo). Here he started the Heart of Africa Mission (now WEC International).

He stayed in Africa until his death in 1931.

He gave up all for Christ. When he received his inheritance, which today would be over three-million dollars, he gave it all away to various Christian work. He trusted God to provide for all of his needs – and the needs of the mission.

His passion for Christ and for missions had and continues to have a great effect on me.

His biography was written by his son-in-law, Norman Grubb, who also wrote the second book that helped change my life.

The Second Book

Another book I read around the same time was Rees Howells, Intercessor.

Rees Howells was a Welsh miner that immigrated to the US to make his fortune. While there, he heard a Messianic Jew preach, and he saw calvary. Having become a Christian, he returned to Wales, where he was involved in local mission work during the Welsh Revival of 1904.

In 1906, God began dealing with Rees about dying to self and letting the Holy Spirit live through him. Over the next few years, the Holy Spirit dealt with Rees Howells’ self-life.

One of the first things the Holy Spirit dealt with was his prayer life. He was only to pray for the things that the Holy Spirit told him to pray for. During this time, he learned to move people by prayer alone. He gave up his job, and trusted God alone to provide for his needs.

In 1915, he and his wife went as missionaries to what is now Zimbabwe, then to South Africa, where they saw revival. They returned to Wales at the end of 1920, expecting to return to Africa. But God had other plans.

In 1922, God told Rees to build a Bible College, a missionary training center. The Bible College of Wales in Swansea opened on Whit-Monday 1924.

Like George Muller’s orphanages in Bristol, everything regarding the Bible College was brought in by prayer. Buying a property? Pray. Need to pay workers? Pray. Need coal for the furnace? Pray.

God taught him the power of intercession. During World War II, a number of students and staff joined Rees Howells in interceding for the defeat of Hitler and the Nazis. Rees was so in tune with the Spirit of God, he would come into the prayer meetings and tell them what was happening in the war before it was announced on the radio.

In 1988, I was looking for a Christian college, and God told me, “Go to the Bible College of Wales.” After that, I knew that’s where I was going. When someone mentioned another good Christian college in the US, something inside me screamed, “NO!”

I began college in the fall semester of 1990, and was there for two years.

While there, I read…

The Third Book

Early in my time there, the first or second semester, I was walking down the road next to the college, praying, “God, why am I here? What is my future work? What do you want me to do?”

He replied, “Did I bring you here?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s all you need to know for now. I’ll tell you My plans for you at the right time.”

I said something like, “Okay,” and a peace came all over me unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. From that moment on, I didn’t worry about my future.

The next school year, for our World Religions class, we had to write a paper on Christianity in a country of our choice. I chose France, but I just struggled with it. One day, I was walking down the stairs of the men’s hostel, and a thought popped into my head: “Why don’t you do it on China?”

“Yeah! I’ll do it on China.”

To write the paper, I read a couple books, but the main book was called Heartcry for China* by Ross Patterson. Ross had served as a missionary in Taiwan and was fluent in Mandarin Chinese when he first visited China in 1983. A house church leader challenged him to “Be a reporter for us.”

He founded a ministry called Chinese Church Support Ministries (CCSM), and he published his book in 1989 – so when I read it in 1991, it was very up-to-date with what was happening to the Christian Church in China.

By the time I finished the book (and the paper), I knew God was calling me to China.

My first trip to China was with CCSM in November 1995, and as we rode on a bus, looking at the countryside, I knew that I was “home.”

These three books taught me about missions, prayer, and China. They taught me about God’s faithfulness, and how much He loves His Church. These books led me to live and serve in China for over 20 years. There have been other books that have totally changed the way I thought about God, missions, prayer, the Church, evangelism and discipleship. But it was these three that really led me to where I am now.

Now God is not just calling me to help the Church in China, but the Church throughout Asia – not necessarily by me going to each place, but by helping those that He has already called to those places. God is calling Jinpei and me to provide a place of rest, training and prayer to help the missionaries and Christian workers in Asia, so that they can go back to their fields to evangelize, make disciples, plant churches, and encourage Asian Christians in their growth.

* Heartcry for China was updated in 2000 as The Continuing Heartcry for China.