RICHMOND — A team of clergy and laity from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia churches have returned from a 10-day mission immersion experience in Macau to explore ways congregations can build bridges to China, a strategic nation where, despite rapid growth, Christianity represents a small percentage of the population.
“Macau is about the size of Richmond — with twice as many people,” said Rob Fox, CBFVA field coordinator.
The team joined Larry and Sarah Ballew, CBF personnel who have lived and ministered in the vibrant, historical city on the Southern coast of China for over 16 years.
Miriam Chambliss (right) talks with students at an English class taught by Larry and Sarah Ballew.
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Macau boasts 25 miles of coastland, modern resorts, entertainment centers, top-rated restaurants and 24-hour casinos. Its economy is based on tourism and many Chinese hospitality workers are involved in the service industry’s restaurants and hotels.
Those working in the service industry are both local to Macau and come from all over China, said Fox. Since the workers interact with tourists every day, there is a strong interest in learning English.
The Ballews, natives of Blacksburg, Va., have served as outreach ministers at Macau Baptist Church since 2007. They teach a Sunday morning Bible study, hold English classes in meeting space provided by the church and participate in other church activities.
“Helping people learn to speak English is being the presence of Christ, as we help people improve their life state and job opportunities,” said Larry Ballew.
“Larry and Sarah have a great mission field,” said Fox. “The focus of our trip was to experience the culture and work alongside them in order to come back and tell their story and raise awareness and support for their work.”
The Ballews teach English classes at local schools and members of the CBFVA team spent time in the classroom with students. Miriam Chambliss, a lay leader at Mechanicsville (Va.) Baptist Church, shared her testimony with students.
“I have had the opportunity to travel many places in the world and I have always taken my testimony with me,” wrote Chambliss in a blog for CBFVA. “Everyone who has experienced the grace of God through salvation has a story to tell that can help others in their journey toward Christ.”
Chambliss said the Ballews have built meaningful and lasting relationships with the people they encounter in these classes and on a daily basis. That is essential to leading people to Christ, they say.
“Knowing how to speak English increases one’s marketability in the hospitality service as it enables them to communicate with a wider variety of clientele,” said Alice Cates, minister to youth at Chester (Va.) Baptist Church. “The church becomes a place where they are welcomed into a loving community, and as they learn English they also learn about the love of Christ as they get to know Larry and Sarah and other members of Macau Baptist Church.”
The team from CBFVA and the youth group at Macau Baptist Church baked cookies for Mother’s Day.
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“The relationships that I formed with the Ballews and with some of the hospitality industry English class students were most memorable,” said Michael Cheuk, pastor of University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va. “Specifically I will remember those who took time out of their busy schedules to spend time with us, accompanying us to see the sights, to go souvenir shopping, to greet us at our hotel and to invite us to their restaurants for meals. I felt like they displayed Christian hospitality to us, even though some of them were not yet Christians.”
Fox says he Ballews provided the CBFVA team with a food adventure while in Macau. “We really tried to eat the food and be in the places where our friends were,” he said.
The CBFVA team attended two worship services at Macau Baptist Church — a Saturday evening service conducted in Mandarin and a larger Sunday morning service in Cantonese.
“Both of the worship services were very powerful,” said Cates. “I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit quite profoundly, particularly as we sang hymns together. It was amazing to hear the old classics that I’ve been singing since before I could speak sung in a different language.
“The uniting of our voices — Cantonese, Mandarin and English — all singing the same song — God helped me experience a union with not just those in the room, but with the cloud of witnesses all over the world; even with the saints that have gone before us. The Holy Spirit allowed us to experience an incredible union of souls worshiping God as one body,” she said.
“During the CBFVA’s mission immersion experience to China, I had the pleasure of giving my testimony during worship at Macau Baptist Church,” wrote Mark Snipes, minister to youth and young adults at Central Baptist Church in Richmond in a blog for CBFVA. “After the service concluded, I got into a conversation with the pastor of the church who thanked me for my words and showed appreciation for our being in Macau.
“Pastor Chan told me that out of all the groups that have come from America during his time in China, we were the first group to ask their church to pray for our churches in the States,” he added. “Missions is a two-way street. For too long, many have viewed missions as ‘us’ helping ‘them.’ If we are true to Scripture, there is no ‘them’ because all of us make up the kingdom of God.”
On the Saturday prior to Mother’s Day, the CBFVA team met with the youth group at Macau Baptist Church — helping them bake cookies give as Mother’s Day gifts. “That was a lot of fun since most of them had never baked cookies, because most homes in Macau do not have ovens,” said Cheuk.
During that time a youth named Gary played keyboard and led the group in singing Christian songs in Cantonese. Gary sat with the Virginia team during the Sunday worship service.
“During the sermon, which was preached in Cantonese, he whispered in English every word of the sermon so that we could understand it,” said Cheuk. “Half-way around the world, I experienced God’s love in the language of English spoken by a Macau teenager.
“In these days of shrinking mission dollars, an increasing number of CBF field personnel are completely self-funded, like the Ballews,” Cheuk added. “It is important for churches to know that while the CBF Global Missions Offering supports some CBF field personnel that self-funded personnel do not benefit from the offering.”
He said that’s why mission immersion experiences are so important for self-funded personnel to expand their network of individuals and churches so that their ministry may be sustained.
“One of the stories that the Ballews told was about their commissioning service at Blacksburg Baptist,” wrote Snipes. “During this service the church wrapped a rope around the Ballews. The minister reminded them of the words of missionary William Carey, ‘I will go as long as you remember to hold the rope.’ My hope is that we, as CBFVA, hold the rope for all of our field personnel.”
Fox said the Ballews will be in Virginia this fall visiting with CBFVA churches. In 2014 a second mission immersion experience is being planned to Slovakia, where Jon and Tanya Parks minister among the Roma Gypsy people.
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.