The next morning, fishermen plucked the floating volumes out of the sea and put them onto the roofs of their homes to dry. Later, they sold them to Christians in the area.
One well-known Chinese Christian leader acknowledged receiving “wet” Bibles from Project Pearl: in his book The Heavenly Man, Brother Yun sent a personal message via a friend that stated, “A big ‘thank you’ to Brother David and team who risked their lives for Project Pearl. And thank you so much for your great concern and love for the house church in China.”
Perfumed Bibles
Peter Xu, the leader of the Born-again Movement – one of the largest house-church networks in China – visited the American office of Open Doors three years ago. When he saw a Project Pearl Bible on a shelf there, he animatedly shared his Project Pearl experience.
After the delivery, Bibles were stored in depositories in southern China, Peter Xu sent three men every month to the depository contacts to bring back a thousand Bibles per trip for his growing house-church movement. One month, the three men were discovered with their Bible-load by the local police. The police threw the thousand Project Pearl Bibles into the cesspool of the public latrine and jailed the three men for the weekend.
On Monday, they were released and commanded to go straight home and never return. But instead, they waited inside the latrine until dark, then climbed down into the filthy cesspool of human waste and carefully retrieved each of the foul-smelling books. They rinsed them off under the local tap and carried them home. There, they dried them out, sprayed them with perfume and circulated them throughout the network. Such was the hunger for every copy of God’s Word.
The 20 crew-members of Project Pearl have been in touch with each other as the anniversary approaches. Ten are still involved in their own significant, full-time ministry in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Over the past 25 years, Open Doors has received many documented stories – often from unusual places and situations – of the impact of Project Pearl Bibles on the fast-growing church in China. They have been in use in virtually every province of the PRC.
Project Pearl also had an impact on the printing of Bibles inside China, which continues today. Shortly after the project was completed, China’s Three Self Patriotic Movement announced the first official printing of Bibles inside the country. In his book, Jesus in Beijing, noted author and China watcher David Aikman wrote, “[Project] Pearl had a major, long-term impact on the overall availability of Bibles in China.”
But far more important are the personal evaluations from Chinese believers: “These gifts were more precious than gold!”
Open Doors
www.opendoorsuk.org
