What better place to sit and get to know team members and colleagues than at a vegetarian restaurant where locally grown food is cooked by Buddhist monks? This is where BMS’ Summer Team visiting China to teach English recently visited in Nanjing. Reflecting on their first of four weeks in China, Jane Coates writes, “We have now finished our formal sessions at the orientation conference. It has gone very well. We now have our final worship session at the Theological Seminary and final group photos.”
In the midst of the orientation, the team were privileged to visit a new state-of-the-art printing press. Jane writes that the factory “has 500 staff at the factory with round the clock production. Bibles are sent to 70 distribution sites in China and then sent out to districts.” Not only does the printing press supply China with Bibles, it also sends them to 60 other countries. Where there was once a huge need for China to receive Bibles, often being smuggled in to the country, this need is now being filled through this in-country printing press. Jane concludes, “There is certainly no need to bring Bibles in from outside China!” Chinese Christians are now fulfilling this ministry.
Although many discoveries of the new country have been made by the team, they were also able to relax in a more familiar setting – Starbucks! The relaxation didn’t last for long however as teaching English beckoned. After visiting a foreign languages bookshop, the team became armed with materials, exercises and phonology charts, ready to be let loose on their unsuspecting students.