At the 15th anniversary celebration of the Anshan Green Street Church, Pastor Yuan Ming of Anshan City Christian Council praised the brothers and sisters who read and transcribed the Bible. "According to part of the statistics, the church has more than 400 people who have completed the work of reading and transcribing from Genesis to Revelation, and some have even transcribed seven or eight times over", said by Pastor Yuan.
Pastor Yuan revealed that the church has been reading and transcribing the Bible for more than ten years, led by the pastor, with the participation of co-workers including the deacons, heads of fellowships, the choir group, prayer group and the holy preaching group. Among the believers who read the scriptures, there were very young co-workers right up to those aged 90.
The Chinese Union Version Bible has about 940,000 words, with 1189 chapters. There was a 70-year-old brother who perennially insisted on reading and transcribing the Scriptures many times over. Sometimes, he transcribed the scriptures carefully and neatly using a brush, on rice paper, and then bound them in the form of a Bible with a beautiful cover. An elderly sister, who was over 90 years old, showed the transcribed scriptures to younger family believers who worked in Beijing, and they were deeply touched. Some believers transcribed the Bible and took it to the pastor, saying that they felt more relieved to put it in the church instead of leaving it at home. There were also some old believers who kept the transcribed scriptures in good condition and prepared it for descendants as valuable spiritual wealth.
Whenever a believer finished transcribing, Pastor Yuan Ming encouragingly presented the Bible on behalf of the church, and also inscribed on them for copywriting. The reading and transcribing activities of the Green Street Church were not restricted to just those; they also promote understanding of the Bible, spirituality, poetry. They contribute to the media, e.g. a 73-year-old sister who insisted on transcribing the Bible often copied Bible verses for the church, the shepherd, and co-workers in the form of calligraphy, and made bookmarks for more than a thousand Bible verse. She said: "the next step is to gradually develop the habit of writing poems and reading experiences, and to remember Bible verses in my mind." Pastor Yuan Ming told the author that she and the believers were "addicted" to transcribing the Bible. If you don't copy the Bible for one whole day, you feel like you owed God. A 67-year-old sister who had transcribed the Bible for the third time over, said that transcribing the Bible calms down the mind, makes her concentrate on the truth of the Bible, and purify her heart to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the world.
In the Anshan Christian Xanadu nursing home, the author witnessed an 80-year-old sister and an 88-year-old brother reading and transcribing the scriptures, in all seriousness and persistence; some believers of the church, who were terminally hospitalized, were also not indolent in reading and transcribing the scriptures; some co-workers exchanged their experiences in reading and transcribing, and encouraged each other; even co-workers who were office workers, priests and laymen in the church, tried to transcribe the Bible and persevere in their lives of faith.
-Translated by Heirs Han
