In China there are many jobs in factories that are open with no one to fill them while many educated young workers are unemployed or underemployed. Among those in their early twenties, those with a college degree are four times as likely to be unemployed as people with only an elementary school education. We praise God for the many college students who have received salvation and we pray for follow-up for them since many are lost after graduation. May the Lord give us even more students who want to find true value and direction in life through campus ministries.
China’s swift expansion in education over this last decade includes quadrupling the number of college students each year which then produces millions of engineers and scientists. The best of these graduates can have their pick of jobs at any Chinese company. We pray that more churches will support ministries on college campuses. They can use holidays to host various events to equip young believers and help them to become more mature spiritually and then have powerful testimonies.
China is turning out millions of graduates with few marketable skills, coupled with a conviction that they are entitled to office jobs with respectable salaries. Jobs in the banking sector pay very well so parents push their child into finance-related studies. Many Christian college students give up their faith when they cannot find work after graduation. We pray for the moving of the Holy Spirit so the faith of these young believers will be deeply rooted in the Bible and they will walk closely with the Lord.
Young, educated Chinese without steady jobs spend long hours surfing the Internet, getting together with friends and complaining about the shortage of office jobs for which they believe they were trained. Let us pray for all the campus ministries that badly need pastors and spiritual mentors for all of these young believers. We ask the Lord for more workers with passion to reach out to college students and help them grow spiritually.
College students in China are very choosy and they have a common aversion to factory labor since they are accustomed to seeing themselves as part of elite group when they enter college. We pray for maturity in interpersonal relationships for all the Christian college students so they will not be despised because of their youth, but will rather honor God in all things, rejoice in the Lord, and learn to serve with a pure heart as an example to many.
China has an old Confucian tradition which says that educated people will not engage in manual labor but the economy in China today is still dominated by blue-collar jobs. Chinese believers feel that pastors are God’s servants but they would never want their own child to be a full-time church worker since they know that pastors are poor and many people look down on them. May the Lord have mercy on churches and help believers change their attitude toward God’s servants.
The glut of college graduates in China is eroding wages even for those with computer science degrees. There are so many of them that their salary in Shenzhen has fallen to only 550 USD. a month which is less than twice the wage of a blue-collar worker. We pray for more workers to be involved in college ministries and that believers from every walk of life will partner in reaching out to college students. There is always a tendency to “build one’s own turf” and not be willing to share resources. We pray for unity and a vision for building the Kingdom.
As the Moon Festival nears, officials nationwide in China have been warned not to spend public money on gifts such as luxury mooncakes--those made with expensive ingredients and premium packaging--as a part of a campaign against corruption. aThe Moon Festival is a big Chinese holiday which emphasizes the reunion of family members. We pray for churches planning to use this time as an opportunity for outreach, that the Lord will bless them with a good harvest.
Some of the key factors that draw young people in China to seek faith in God are: a distrust of society, being the only child, a highly competitive job market, the bombardment of information, and broken homes. We give thanks to God for His miracle of drawing young people into the urban churches during the past decade. We pray that many more churches will catch the vision and burden of reaching college students outside of the church and care for the young people in the church by listening to them.
College students in China usually do not discuss issues of liberty or politics in church on Sunday since they know these are sensitive matters. However, when they gather in small fellowship groups, they are more chatty and open. We pray for spiritual maturity for the leaders of all the fellowship (small) groups that college students attend. May God empower them to be shining examples of faith, speech, and service for Jesus. May the Lord give them safety and unity.
To avoid drawing unnecessary attention of the officials, college students refer to their fellowship as "We are gathering to sing to our dad”. Dad is the term for Heavenly Father. Prayer meeting is called “eating time” instead. We praise God for all the new college converts who are very fervent and willing to participate many meetings. We pray they will grow more in faith and deeper in truth. May the Lord protect them in dating and have victory in keeping their bodies pure sexually.
In China there are many students from South Korea so the college student fellowships and Bible studies are quite international in flavor. Many Christian coffee shops play praise songs and provide students with the necessary space for Bible studies. Let us pray for every Christian coffee shop and bookstore in China which is universally a business which loses money yet badly needs workers who share a vision and burden to reach students. We ask for good fruit with many young people coming to know Jesus through these establishments and ministries.
Some of the students fellowships at the Peking University pray in English since many are from the United States. Many Chinese and Asian expatriates join them since all are highly educated. Many missionaries travel deep into China, even in Xinjiang region. We pray for each university or college Bible Fellowship study. May the Lord keep them safe and add to the number of those who are saved, especially the teachers. May God bless those who boldly share the gospel with the students.
Some farmers in China have given up their land but when they are old want to return home. However, they have no more farms to tend, so they have no income. Most are excluded from national pension plans and are a burden to their relatives. The biggest need in the rural churches is for teachers and people who will care for others. There is much discrimination against farmers by city folks. We pray that urban Christians will remember to pray for rural believers and for revival of rural churches.
The obligation to give cash gifts causes financial stress for families in the small towns in China. Births, weddings, or deaths can make people very concerned financially. Let us pray that every birthday, funeral, or wedding celebration in every church will be not only a celebration but also a good opportunity to reach out to unbelievers with the gospel.
An invitation to the banquet for special occasions in China calls for a cash gift of at least one hundred yuan (US$16.) which is about the equivalent of three days' wages. It is not impolite not to go so long as the money arrives. Usually in the small or rural churches financial giving is very small. Unfortunately, pastors hesitate to preach the truth of tithing. May the Lord have mercy on us so believers will not have so little faith they will miss out on the abundant blessings God wants to pour out on us.
Today in addition to the big ceremonies like weddings and funerals there is a whole range of occasions that call for a banquet such as: birth of a baby, 12th, 36th, 50th, 60th, and 70th birthdays, moving into a new house, or even re-decorating one's house. There are many celebrations among believers as well but some come with an invitation and some do not. This tends to lead to favoritism and loss of unity. We pray for unity among believers and that they will avoid any cause of stumbling among those who are weaker.
Parents throw parties when their child joins the military or is admitted to a university. A few decades ago admission to an elite university warranted a banquet, but now some parents have begun sending out invitations to a party for a child entering senior high school. It is not easy for believers to stay true to their faith in Jesus in the military in China or even in college since there are many temptations there. We pray for the families whose children are in the military or in college. May the Lord protect them from the evil one.
In China's traditionally rural society, the custom of giving a gift of money was supposed to help fellow villagers, relatives, or clan members through the difficulty of starting a new family or caring for a newborn child. Now, however, some argue that the custom is out of control and that these celebrations are merely times to get financial profit. Chinese people value reciprocity but Christ wants us to treat each other with love, not recount the evil deeds of others. May the Lord remind us that we should do what is good in the eyes of men gladly and willingly because it is all of the grace of God.
Inevitably, the obligation to send out cash gifts hits low-income families harder than anyone else – the acceptable sum of gift money is based on the closeness of relations between the inviter and the invitee, regardless of the latter’s economic status. Let us pray about the way each church treats the poor in their midst. May God's Spirit convict us not to judge people because the poor are chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom of heaven which God has promised to those who love Him.
Very few people dare to decline invitations to special occasions in China since doing so would bring the family into potentially irreversible disrepute. It is also damaging to one's social standing to give a sum of money that is lower than the going rate even though that figure is never expressly given. Chinese people put great value on "face" but sadly this is one big reason why they tend to be superficial and not transparent. Believers (preachers included) are unwilling to share their weaknesses and failings, hence their preaching and sharing lacks sincerity. Oh, may the Lord break our hypocrisy.
To comprehend the vast underground economy of China, one need only visit Shanghai’s train station and watch as peddlers openly hawk fake receipts. It is so pervasive that even auditors at multinational corporations are being duped. Christian businessmen are still a minority in churches. The common view is that faith and business are two different things and doing business goes by a different set of rules than that of being a Christian. We pray for all Christians in business whether a big or small business, that they will trust God and hold steadfast to their faith.
Buyers use fake receipts to evade taxes and defraud employers. And in a country rife with corruption, they are the grease for schemes to bribe officials and business partners even though making and using them is illegal in China. In a world where it seems everything is fake and fraudulent, we must pray that believers will trust that doing God’s will and not compromising themselves is pleasing to God and will bring great blessing.
In China, people advertise all kinds of fake receipts: travel receipts, lease receipts, waste material receipts and value-added tax receipts. Promotions for counterfeit “fapiao” (the Chinese word for an official invoice) are sent by fax and through mobile phone text messages. However, there is a new awareness that Christian businessmen can make and spend money. They can love Jesus without loving money. We pray these people can have a positive influence in society by caring for the have-nots and even being involved in public welfare.
State employees, whether they work for government agencies or for state-owned enterprises, seem as eager as anyone to bolster their compensation by filing fake invoices. Christians often feel, “everyone is doing it and I must go along” thus compromising their Christian testimony. We pray for Christians who have enough conviction that when they do not compromise themselves, will know that God will protect them and bless them even more than before and that they will gain favor in the eyes of their superiors.
Nearly ninety percent of the young people in Taiwan are willing to work in China and even in the so-called “second tier” cities with Chongqing, Nanjing, and Tianjin as their top choices. Presently two million Taiwanese (about one out of ten) work there. We pray for believers who work in China and their families who are separated from them for months at a time. We pray for their spiritual lives, the guarding of their hearts, and their family relationships. Success in the businesses in China is not necessarily rosy so we ask the Lord to grant them opportunities and favors in their workplaces.
Many Chinese resort to pinyin or Romanized Putonghua when they use a keyboard but their grasp of the written language is weakening as a result. The pictorial forms of Chinese characters are notoriously hard to learn and require years of repetitive practice. Many young Chinese know the characters but have difficulty writing them. We pray for those ministries that produce Christian materials and their need for many more Christian writers who can share clearly and powerfully their testimony with their readers.
The Chinese language has one of the most complicated systems of writing in the world and requires the knowledge of several thousand characters for an adequate level of literacy. Today’s computer and mobile devices offer many simple ways of inputting Chinese. The current Chinese Bible has many archaic words and terms that young believers have difficulty understanding and pronouncing. We pray for those who translate the Bible and publish Christian books that they will provide suitable contents that are relevant and readily accepted by young believers.