The Reformation Translation Fellowship

NEWSLETTER

This past January I had my second visit to China, this

time stopping at Hong Kong and Macau. I did the normalpreparation - I read the history of the area as well as de­veloping a list of points of interest. But I missed one item,the item that would become one of a select set of high­points of my visit.

I had heard from a Christian brother in Hong Kong thatRobert Morrison's grave is in Macau, an hour's ride byhydrofoil ferry from Hong Kong. I determined to stop atMacau on my way to Mainland China. The Chinese NewYear celebration was ending, and the ferry was full to ca­pacity with travelers returning home after a week in Hong

Kong. ~. __=,,""~ .-_~~~-~---~~ £_=~O._- .__ -==-_

On Macau I walked a distance and then took a taxi to thearea where the Old Protestant Cemetery was located. Iarrived at a serene park with many examples of localvegetation. Older men and women were relaxing on thepark benches while others were exercising, as is oftenseen in China. A musical group was playing traditionalChinese instruments. I stopped and listened for a while,enjoying the uniqueness of their talent.

Walking some distance through the park I expected tocome to the cemetery entrance. Finally I asked a passer­by (in English) about the location of the "Old ProtestantCemetery." As was sometimes the case during my stay inChina, the response was a shaking of the head to indicatethat they did not understand my request. That did notdeter me.

Continuing on I asked a mother and daughter who werealso strolling through the park about the "Old ProtestantCemetery." Again, there was no recognition. This time Iadded the name, "Robert Morrison." Their eyes lit up.They pointed me back down the path I had taken from theentrance and with hand gestures made sure I understoodwhere the cemetery was located. A few minutes later Iarrived at the entrance, only to find the mother anddaughter standing there with gleeful smiles thaf I hadfound my way. Were these ladies believers? I do notknow, but I do know that they had heard of Robert Morri­son. Have you?

Robert Morrison was the first Protestant Missionary toChina. He was born in England on January 5, 1782. In1807 he was sent to China by the London Missionary So­ciety. For twenty-five years Morrison was in the employ ofThe East India Company. He died at Canton August 1,1834. As a missionary he labored and toiled for twenty­five years. He had but ten converts to Christianity.

Some well-meaning and highly motivated missionariesspend years, even decades, learning a language. Somemay even report that they have had "only" ten convertsafter laboring in the vineyard for more than two decades.Had Robert Morrison become faint hearted, had he givenup after one, five, ten, even twenty years he would nothave accomplished, through the working of the HolySpirit, what he is long remembered for. Robert Morrisontranslated the Bible into Chinese.

What does this say to us today?

Continued on next page ...

Standing beside Robert Morrison's grave I got a sense ofwhat missionaries of old sacrificed. It has been said that

an early missionary packed his few belongings in crates,knowing that one of the crates would be his coffin. Bur­ied immediately next to Robert is the body of his wife,Mary. Between them is a gravestone marking a son whoapparently died in infancy. Off to the side is the grave­stone of another son, John Robert, who died at a more

mature age. They gave up much, but Robert Morrisonalso gave future generations in China the ability, theprivilege, to read Holy Scripture in their own language.This was no small accomplishment for a man who livedjust fifty-two years.

I have the privilege of serving on the Board of Reforma­tion Translation Fellowship. I am learning about thechallenges, as well as the opportunities to work with tal­ented and capable men and women who can translate,edit, publish and distribute Christian literature in the Chi­nese language using the simplified script of themainland.

One Christian book is read by multiple people. It be-

comes the source of Biblical information and spiritualguidance. It helps leaders teach and disciple so that HisWord does not return void. Multiply that book by fivethousand, ten thousand, even twenty thousand copiesand you see the potential effect that Reformation Trans­lation Fellowship has in the Chinese speaking world.

As I look at what will last, what will count for eternity, Isee the work of Robert Morrison and others of like moti~vation, who put the written word in the hands of the peo­ple, in the homes of Christian families and in the studiesof Chinese pastors. Such work survives beyond its owntime extending the effort, the investment and the interestto future generations, being multiplied five, ten or hun­dred fold.

So who was Robert Morrison? He was a man who sacri~ficed much to give the Chinese what they needed - theHoly Scripture in their own language. His legacy contin­ues to this day. What will God have us do? To God bethe Glory.

The End

In the past few months, the Reformation Translation Fellowship has received special gifts honoring thefollowing people:

In honor of:

Rev. Harold HaningtonCrown and Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

In memory of:Rev. & Mrs. Peter DeJong

Mr. & Mrs. Wendland Beezhold

Thank you to all who contributed to the R.T.F. during 2008!God has abundantly blessed the ministry of the R.T.F. through your prayers and gifts.

Although it was hard for me to leave the family them upon departure. The material seemed to be wellduring the holiday, I left for China on Saturday, Decem- received and appropriate for the Chinese context. BJLber 27, 2008. I traveled with Brother Daniel, translator expressed his appreciation on many occasions. He appre-and trip facilitator. I appreciate the time and care that he ciated having the law and the gospel taught together,took to make sure that we were on time for everything, which of course was the design.and that we had time to get where we needed to be with- The faithfulness of these pastors impressed me,out rushing. especially their willingness to trust the Lord for their pro-

Our first stop in China was a very well-organized vision. Most were very poor. Several had wives whoseminary in the city of m • We did not seem to attract supported them, but who had recently lost their jobs. Aany attention in driving to and entering the building, number of the men had traveled a very great distance towhere we stayed in seclusion all week. We were on the get to the seminary. It was clear that many of them5th and 6th floors ofa building owned by one of the broth- would not be able to participate without RTF and othersers, who repeatedly mentioned how glad he was to use providing the funding for transportation. I came awaythis building for the Lord's work. with a particular burden to pray that Chinese churches

The accommodations were very suitable. I had a would learn to support their pastors, and that God wouldprivate room, with a heater to keep things warm. Al- provide for these brothers.though there were no shower facilities, per se, it was easy After leaving the seminary, we traveled to u_.enough to use the wall attachment to wash my hair. BJL, We spent time with Brother J., who is one of the leadersthe brother in charge of the seminary, was extremely so- for an affiliation of 13 congregations with some 20,000licitous of our well being. members. We also met a number of the other preachers

The daily schedule from Monday to Friday went for this fellowship. I had the opportunity to speak to aas follows: Class ITom 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., from 8:30 Saturday evening fellowship of young believers, most of

--- a;m.-to-1-2--:00-nooo,from 3:00 p m. to-6.;.JO'--lhl~~ID-are-aLuni\let:sity or ~re recent r;r~dllates_-Dl1 Slln- /from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Meals were at 7:30 a.m., day I spoke to a group of 30 or 40 men and women who -noon, and 6:30 p.m. The meals were delicious and var- teach Sunday school or who are preparing for a ministryied; the older man who cooked for us was exceptionally of preaching in the local churches.good. From my perspective, this was a very good sched- We spent about two hours on the theology of theule. It was good to get an early start on the day and to atonement and also answering some questions. Appar-have a rest time after lunch. ently they were helped by this teaching, because they

Brother Daniel and I put the mealtimes to good made arrangements to extend the time an additional twouse by interviewing a different guest each time. This re- hours after lunch. I did a biblical theology of bloodquired an extra commitment on Daniel's part, to provide atonement through the lamb and then gave principles forthree additional hours of translation every day. We teaching and preaching Christ from the Old Testament.learned a great deal about Chinese culture, about the tes- This group was also attentive, but less sophisticated andtimonies of these brothers, about the state of the church, prepared than the pastors to whom I spoke at the semi-and about other matters. nary in m. That evening I preached in the local church

The students worked very hard and typically to several hundred believers on the power and preserva-were in their seats and ready to start before class began. tion of the Word of God.Almost all of them took very detailed notes. The level of Although the believers in this church have aattentiveness was high. Also, they laughed at all the genuine hunger and true need for training, they do notfunny parts. There were about 40 students in the class have the leadership to organize this well for themselves.from provinces all over China. Some were pastors of A large part of the difficulty is that, although these con­single house churches; others led campus fellowships; at gregations have sufficient resources to build large build-least one brother was a leader for as many as 1,000 house ings (seating 1,000+), with educational space, room forchurches in his city. congregational dinners, and some accommodation space,

I was able to teach the whole book of Galatians they do not provide for even one full-time pastor.(22 hour-long messages) and the Ten Commandments (3 Brother J. would be in full-time ministry now if the con-introductory lectures, plus one lecture per command- gregation would support him; he still aspires to get a for-ment). All of these sessions were video and audio taped mal degree in theology.for wider distribution. Students took digital copies with Continued on next page ...

rIn addition, the church does not have any or­

dained leadership (teaching or ruling elders), and has nothad such, it would appear, since Chairman Mao tookover in 1949. The leaders we met are part of a leadershipcouncil. However, they do not have the strong convic­tion for leadership that often comes with ordination. Weobserved them having a good deal of difficulty makingdecisions together.

Problems are also brewing in the church withdiffering views on Calvinism and Arminianism, on therole of women in the church, in dispensational and cove­nant eschatology, and other matters. In addition, thereseemed to be an exceptionally large generation gap be­tween the older members, many of whom worship in alocal dialect, and their better educated sons and daugh­ters, grandsons and granddaughters.

This is a large and historic body of believers,dating back a hundred years to the founding ministry of amember of the Hudson Taylor family. It is also a rela­tively prosperous church in financial terms. But the dif-

China PublishingUpdate

The first months of this year wewere able to catch up on some un­derground printing projects that hadbeen delayed for various reasons.We are thankful to report that10,000 copies of 3 commentarieswritten by J.G. Vos were printed anddistributed without an incident inmainland China. These concise andpractical explanations of the Biblebooks of Genesis, Romans andRevelations will be a tremendoushelp to house church leaders, pas­tors and co-workers.

ficulties they face cannot be minimized. We were givensome opportunities to encourage them in ways theymight provide leadership for their church. They knowthat they are not organized along biblical lines, but theyare not sure how to get there.

I was grateful for the opportunity to have a fewdays of sightseeing in Beijing afterwards. Brother S.,who works in publishing, gave me the gift of a day to theGreat Wall. We had a very good time of fellowship,talking throughout the day, and 1 hope it was an encour­aging time for him to discuss some issues they are facingin ministry and the church. It was certainly a good timefor me to learn more about the work of translation and

training.I am grateful to RTF for this opportunity to con­

tinue the legacy established by Charles and JonathanChao and others, to observe the situation in China, andalso, I pray, to have offered something useful in training.

The End

Currently, we are printing 20,000copies of Thomas Vincent's "TheWestminster Shorter Catechism ex­plained". This is our second editionof this book and is highly valued andasked for by many Chinese Chris­tians. Vincent explains the reformeddoctrines of grace in an easy to un­derstand manner according to theorder of this historic and highlyblessed catechism. This issue willalso be sent out through an addi­tional distribution channel we have

added to our network.

Once Vincent's book is distributed,50,000 additional books will be inthe hands the ever-growing Chinesechurch.

The RTF continues to help publish10,000 copies of the booklets called"Faith and Life." Each issue is about

75 pages long and is especially help-

ful to pastors. In recent months,issue 10 on "The Plan of Salvation"and issue 11 on the "Humiliation and

Exaltation of Christ" have been pub­lished.

Pleasecontinue to remember in yourprayers this important part of theRTF ministry among the Chinesepeople.

IREFORMATION TRANSLATION FEllOWSHIP

January 1 - December 31, :lUUlj

Balance in checking - January 1, 2008 $18,876.26

I

IncomeDonations - UndesignatedDonations - Designated:

Karin Thompson Memorial ProjectBooksInterest

Transfer from pension accountTotal income

Total cash available

ExpensesTaiwan paymentsMissions tripPensionChina publishingLorna Chao supportSupport for RPHCCTranslator paymentsBoard travel

PostageBook purchasesSusanna Chen supportPrinting

_Pu~licity "_- '__" ~-.--"----""---" RenC-Office ExpenseSecretaryBoard ExpenseGovernment feeTotal expense

Balance in checking - December 31, 2008

*$10,780.00 is being held for specific Mainland China project.

General Savings AccountBalance, January 1, 2008Interest, 2008

Balance, December 31,2008

Translation AccountBalance, January 1, 2008Interest, 2008

Balance, December 31,2008

Pension AccountBalance, January 1, 2008Withdrawal - transfer to checkingInterest, 2008 .

Balance, December 31, 2008

$77,549.84

10,780.00401.80149.632.400.00 911281.27

$110,157.53$23,478.83

7,837.6116,800.00

.,

9,058.50 12,000.002,500.002,340.004,341.782,287.62926.441,560.003,622.8660~OJL_600.00331 .401,138.90166.5010.00 891602.44$20.555.09*

$64,322.841,588.46

$65,911.30

$30,092.61981.25

$31,073.86

$11,549.25-2,400.00

320.25

$9,469.50

Ii --~~----

The Reformation Translation Fellowship extends its sympathy to Mrs. Frances Neff at the recent death ofher husband, the Rev. Douglas Neff. Rev. Neff was a long time Board member of the R.T.F. and even in his"retirement" in the state of Washington actively promoted the work of the R.T.F. Rev. Neff died on January13 at the age of eighty-nine and a half. "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His godlyones. " (Psalm 116:15)

Doctrinal Basis

"The doctrinal basis of the organization shall be the Reformed or Calvinistic interpretation of Christianity as set forthin the Westminster Confession of Faith."

Purpose of the FellowshipThe purpose of the Reformation Translation Fellowship includes:(1) Translation of Christian theological literature into Chinese;(2) Stimulation of original Chinese Christian theological writing;(3) Publication of valuable theological literature in Chinese;(4) Free distribution and sale of Reformed literature in Chinese;(5) Publication of English information which will promote, directly or indirectly, the above goals.

Income Tax Status (USA)The Reformation Translation Fellowship is recognized by the U.S. Treasury Department as exempt from Federal in­come tax and is a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization in USA. Contributions made to the Fellowship by individuals in theUnited States are deductible in computing their taxable net income in the manner and to the extent permitted by Inter­nal Revenue regulations.

RTF OFFICES &BOARD

RTF-U.S.A. Office & Book Sales302 East First St.

Bloomington, IN 47401 USATreasurer: William Roberts,Bill4rtf@gmail.comPh. No. (W) 812-339-1922(H) 812-825-6543Newsletter Designer: Maria Kleyn,maria _rtf@att.net

RTF -Taiwan Publishine Office#30 Lane 75 Nanking East Rd. Sec 4Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C. 10580

DirectorsDavid CarrSamuel Chao, Ph.DCase KleppeDaniel Liu, Ph.D.John McFarlandBruce MartinWilliam Roberts

Gene SpearArthur Thompson

OfficersBoard President ~ Bruce MartinBoard Vice President ~ Daniel Liu

Secretary ~ David CarrTreasurer ~ William L. Roberts

Contacts in Other Countries

Murray, John J.7 Greenacres WayDarnley, GlasgowG53 78G Scotland

Stewart, Andrew12 Fenwick St.

Geelong, Victoria3220 Australia

Yeo, Wee Yong950 Dunearn Road#09-03

Singapore 589474Kanamori,- Hiroyuki

3-26-5, HonmachiMukonso AmagasakiJapan 661-0031

Directors EmeritusNorman Carson

Robert F. Heimburger, M.D.Robert Henning

Board of Reference

Roy BlackwoodEdward DonnellyJ. Ligon Duncan IIIRichard B. Gaffin

W. Robert GodfreyGordon Keddie

Philip G. RykenRC. SproulStephen TongG.!. Williamson

Executive Secretary EmeritusDr. Charles Chao1358 Calle Rosamaria

San Dimas, CA 91773Ph. 626-966-1225