avatar
Maureen Hall Puccini
avatarMaureen Hall Puccini2 min read  

Jesus’ Little Red Book

    God Honoring Smuggling

    The Chinese flag with a red background and five yellow stars.Christians have always been smugglers. Harriet Tubman smuggled black slaves to freedom before the U.S. Civil War. Corrie ten Boom smuggled Jewish men, women and children into the Dutch countryside to evade the Nazis during World War 2. In 1955, Brother Andrew, started smuggling Bibles into communist countries.

    But there was one country no one could crack; the People’s Republic of China.

    A Bible Ban in China

    Brother Andrew had managed to bring some Chinese Bibles into communist China, but no one would take them. It was easy to see why.  When he visited in 1965, everyone was reading a Close-up of a saluting soldier on the Great Wall of China.pocket-sized book entitled Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. Citizens carried the Chairman’s little red book everywhere

    To be seen reading anything else made a person’s loyalty toward Mao and the Communist Party immediately suspect.

    During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) the communists sought to destroy all forms of religion. They shut down all the churches and countless Bibles were burned. In fact, it became dangerous to own any Scripture. But among the hidden believers, there was a growing hunger and thirst for God’s Word.

    A Unique Solution

    After praying for some time, Brother Andrew and his colleague Brother David received God’s idea and it was simple. Print New Testaments in the Chinese script and make them outwardly look like A portion of the Great Wall of China., snow-covered.Mao’s Little Red Book. The same size and thickness, with an identical cover.

    Christians could be nourished by God’s Word and never be suspected. The fun part? Brother David, worked for a Christian ministry based in the Philippines which printed Christian literature and Bibles in various languages.

    Brother Andrew promptly placed an order for 25,000 pocket-sized, New Testaments. It was an printing order David was happy to fill.

    My Spiritual Point

    Don’t be discouraged. Go ahead. Pray for the impossible. Because our God is the most creative being in the universe and His answer will always stun and delight us.

    All images came from Pixabay.com.

    Resources:

    Here are two YouTube videos.

    A short history of Mao’s Little Red Book.

    The Hall of Evil: Mao Zedong | 5-Minute Video |

    I read this story in a book called God’s Smuggler to China, pages 84 – 85. It’s  Brother David’s story.

      Give

      Subscribe to the Daybreak Devotions for Women

      Be inspired by God's Word every day! Delivered to your inbox.

        See all from Maureen Hall Puccini

        Editor's Picks

        • avatarErica Barthalow
          featureImage

          How to Keep Christ in Christmas — Erica Barthalow

          The Countdown to Christmas has begun! The chaos, the parties, the memory-making. At the writing of this blog, we are 36 days away! Perhaps you’re like me, and looking for a way to keep Jesus at the center of all of it. Here’s an excerpt from my Christmas devotional Fulfilled . It’s a great way to

          3 min read
        • avatarCole Feix
          featureImage

          Cultivating a Generous Heart

          It’s always ironic to me that after Thanksgiving—a holiday to pause, reflect, and give thanks—Black Friday follows immediately after. It’s a day of deals, frenzy, and the push to buy more and more. Buying things isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s striking how quickly the world tries to steer our hearts from gratitude toward discontentment, comparison, and a scarcity mindset. But Jesus teaches us an upside-down way of living. He taught lessons like: "the first shall be last," "whoever wants to gain

          4 min read
        avatar

        Maureen Hall Puccini

          See all from Maureen Hall Puccini