Bible copying
in a Chinese jail
Every afternoon at 3:30 the prisoners were allowed into the courtyard
for an hour of free activities. Two days later, she again sought me out
during the free time and, carefully placing the notepad under my clothes,
she implored, ‘Mother, I desperately need a Bible!’ I eventually was able
to get a New Testament for her. Upon receiving it she worked hard at copying
the Bible.
How did she achieve this under the watchful eyes of the prison
guards? During the day, everyone had to work ten hours of hard labour under
constant surveillance, so it was not possible to do it then. But at night
when all the other prisoners were sound asleep she hid under her blanket
and, allowing a small amount of light in (the lights were never turned
of at night), she would scribble furiously with all her might. But the
long hours of hard manual labour often left her body extremely exhausted.
As winter approached the thin blanket could not keep out the cold so her
teeth would chatter as she copied. undeterred, she took advantage of every
opportunity to copy the Bible, driven by the other sisters’ need for God’s
Word.
Line after line of beautiful calligraphy, scripture after scripture,
precious words from the Bible flowed from her pen. She prepared one copy
after another of the Bread of Life. Often, she was tempted to sleep, and
she would find herself nodding of and her pen slipping out of her fingers.
But each time she would see a picture of the sisters with their hands outstretched
begging for a Bible. She would then wake up with a jolt and continue copying
until the small hours of the morning.
The completed hand copied Bibles were then given to believers
in the cells. The recipients knelt before the Lord in thanksgiving and
lost no time in reading and studying. They would forego several minutes
of their meal break while others used off to eat. And when they were allowed
to walk about in the courtyard, many of the believers would rather stay
in their cells to study the Bible. Sometimes they would even read when
they went to the bathroom or late at night when it was quiet for study.
They used every opportunity to earnestly pursue the Truth.