Isaac Jen, Minister of Chinese Broadcasting on the Back to God Hour provided us with a copy of his address to the CRC Synod immediately after his return from a visit to mainland China. He was for many years one of our missionaries in Taiwan.

Mr. President, esteemed delegates, it is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be able to appear before you and to speak to you for a few moments on behalf of the Back to God Hour. As Dr. Nederhood just mentioned, my wife and I came back from China only two days ago.

After thirty years of absence, we were able to receive a visa from the Government of the People’s Republic of China to visit our relatives in Shanghai, and also to visit our relatives in Peking and to see some of the sights in the great nation.

I would like to share with you some of our experiences and observations. The first thing that struck us as we entered into China from the Hong Kong side, was that everyone there could speak and understand the common language, which is familiarly known here as Mandarin, but it is now known in China as P’o t’ung hua, or the common spoken dialect. It has tremendous implications for radio ministry because today we could use one voice, speaking the Mandarin dialect, to reach almost a billion people. Canton, as you know, is in the south. In the past, hardly any Cantonese could understand or speak Mandarin; but today, everywhere we went we spoke to different types of people—gatekeepers, university students, hotel employees, travel service employees, people on the streets all of them, without exception, could understand my questions, to direct me to certain places where I wanted to go, and, without exception, they could all respond in Mandarin.

There is also the intense interest in Christianity since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China. One of the journalists from China visited this country last year. Afterwards, he wrote a series of articles in Chinese in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the government, in which he mentioned that President Carter has a Bible on the desk in his office, and that there are millions of Americans who still believe in God. He is puzzled and I know that millions of Chinese people are puzzled because, according to Marxism, religion is the opium of the people. It was supposed to be invented by the ruling class to keep the poor people in line. And yet they know today in America, the most advanced industrialized nation, there are millions of people who believe in God, who believe in religion, and who believe in the God of Christianity. So many people, especially the young university students, ask me how is it that today there are so many Christians in America, and what is really t he basic belief of Christianity? So even though we went to China as visitors to see our relatives, we were able, on various occasions, to respond and to explain briefly the basic tenets of the Christian faith.

One of the highlights of our visit was attending a church service in the only Protestant church that is open in Peking today. It met in a former Bible Society building with about 50 people attending. More than 30 were Chinese, local Chinese people. And there were three or four from diplomatic personnel from Africa, and a few from Europe and a few from America of Chinese descent. My eyes welled up with tears as I stood with these Chinese people to sing the song which also appears in our Psalter Hymnal, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Even though there were only about 50 people, yet this small group of worshippers represented four continents-Africa, Europe, America, and Asia. At the end of the service, we all took communion together. In a group of 12, we came forward. The minister administered the communion to all of us. It was an experience very difficult to forget.

After the service I talked to the minister and he wanted me to convey the greetings from the church of China to the churches abroad. And I assured him that the churches outside of China have not forgotten the Christians in China, and that many have been praying for them during the last thirty years.

There are still restrictions, as far as the buildings are concerned, and there’s a lack of ministers. Most of the ministers now present are very old and there is a lack of younger ministers. We have heard that there are more than 300 groups meeting regularly in Shanghai. And just before we left China, I heard from the sister of a preacher that her brother is once again allowed to preach the gospel. And we heard also of other places where there are small groups meeting, and that the government has officially allowed churches to reopen if they can find the places, because most of the buildings have been occupied by other organizations during the last twelve years. The church that I used to attend in Shanghai is now a printing shop, and the church where my wife’s father was a member is today a high school.

But God works in marvelous ways. Even though the churches are closed, even though the ministers are few, and even though in appearance the Christian church in China is in low tide, yet God, in His marvelous way, raised up this new instrument of radio airwaves. By radio broadcast, we could use one program and reach literally millions of people. While in China, I bought a radio made in China, I turned to our station and I could hear my own voice which had been recorded ten thousand miles away. Very clearly, as if it had. come from a local station. I am sure there are many, many people who are listening to this broadcast.

In the last few months, each month we have received more than 100 letters. And on the basis of the estimate of one letter representing a thousand listeners, in May alone, we probably have more than 100,000 listeners.

We have two types of programs. One is bilingual with English and Chinese, based on the Back to God Hour’s TODAY program, and the other is preaching. It is interesting to note that more than 50% of the letters are in response to our preaching program rather than to the bilingual English/Chinese program. Many of the people say that they would like to know more about Christianity. They want to receive the New Testaments which we offer on the air. They like to receive the bilingual lessons which we also offer on the air. And we have heard from some of the listeners that they have received the New Testament book as well as the bilingual lesson sheets.

We also know that the Back to God Hour program on KTWR is drawing more letters than all the other Chinese programs combined. And on the other network of Far East Broadcasting Company, aside from the pure English conversational lesson, we usually rank high. I say this not to be proud, but I share it with you because we at the Back to God Hour are working in the name of the Christian Reformed Church and you are delegates of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church. So let us rejoice together that even though the door to China seems to be closed as far as the organized church is concerned, yet with radio waves we are reaching hundreds and thousands of people every month.

We know as a fact that more than 80% of the Chinese households own at least one radio. In every home that I entered when I was in China, I saw at least one radio. Many of these radios are shortwave, in contrast to those of people in the United States who usually have only AM & FM radios. So there is a golden opportunity today when the government is relaxing its restrictions and when the people are intensely interested in America, in all things American. Not only technological developments and inventions, but also the religion which many of the Americans believe in. And we are thankful to God that the Christian Reformed Church is not slow in beginning this Chinese program in the name of the Back to God Hour, and we hope that as the government relaxes more and more, more people will be able to listen and to respond to our program.

So far we have received letters from every province in China except for one and a few autonomous regions where only minorities live. We have received letters even from inner Mongolia. We also have received letters from some of the autonomous regions in the southwest of China because the government has been sending high school graduates and college graduates to these areas. So we know that China, which has almost one billion people today, can hear the gospel via radio no matter where they live—north or south, east or west, or in the central part of Shanghai—because the unified language has made it possible for us to broadcast and to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all of these people.

Thank you.