ATL Report – Atlanta News and Gossip

One of my fellow video journalists, Steven Boissy, put a bug in Brenda’s ear about doing a story on Christianity in China.  For hundreds of years, China had gotten a lot of focus from Christian missionaries.  But then came China’s communist revolution and Christianity and other religions were banned until 1979.  Even then, churches had to be licensed by the government.  The official 3-Self Churches are closely regulated.  Over the years, some Chinese have practiced their religion secretly in what are called “house churches”, meeting at people’s homes, businesses or warehouses.  Recently house churches have been flourishing, perhaps because of greater tolerance by the government.  Still they are technically illegal and depending on the attitude of local officials can operate in peace or might be shut down and its members arrested.

Job one to do a TV story was to find a house church in China that would welcome us and our TV camera to their services.  Not an easy task when you are talking about a secretive group that is always trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities.  There is a saying in TV news rooms that “it is better to be lucky than good” and once again the truth of that was about to be proven.  I was on the internet one day when I saw a banner ad for a group promoting a “pray for China” wrist band campaign.  I sent an e-mail to the group, The Voice of the Martyrs.  Todd Nettleton of the group contacted me and we began to communicate by e-mail and phone.  Todd provided me with a contact in China who might be able to help.  That contact referred me to someone else.  Eventually I got an e-mail from someone who thought he could help me when we got to China.

Once Brenda and I arrived in China, my contact gave me the e-mail addresses of some house church leaders.  At first things didn’t look too promising – one congregation was afraid to talk to us, another said we could interview the pastor but could not videotape at a service.  I had to go back to my original contacts for more referrals.

Finally my cell phone rang early one Sunday morning.  “Do you have a translator” was the first thing the Chinese woman on the line said.  I had a translator call her back and everything was arraigned.   The Beijing Ark House Church was in an apartment building not far from our workspace.  I was told we were welcome to come and videotape but the only problem was building security might turn us away.  I asked if a member could meet us out front and escort us in, but was told that was not possible and we would be on our own.  It was suggested that I try to hide my large TV camera; however I was not comfortable with that since we are here under the Olympic umbrella and I didn’t want to appear anything but above board; besides our van carries official Olympic media markings.

We had hoped to arrive before services but some important interviews delayed our departure.  Finally we were off.  In the van over there, our Chinese translator and driver were clearly uncomfortable.  When we arrived at the building there was a gate and a security officer.  As we pulled up, the guard and our driver talked in Chinese, the gate was opened and we pulled in.  Our translator told us later that the security officer had asked what our business was and the driver told him we were there to pick someone up.  We drove to a building at the rear of the complex and stopped at the entrance, there stood another security officer.  Our plan was to exit the van as quickly as possible and head toward the building elevators looking like we belonged there.  So steeling ourselves with our best game faces, we grabbed our equipment and made a bee-line for the front door and elevator.  We smiled at the guard and gave our friendliest “ni hao”.  It worked and in less than a minute we were in the building elevator on our way to an upper level floor.

As we stepped off the elevator we could hear the faint sound of singing.  Moving down the halls, we got to an apartment with no special markings except the unit number.  Inside was clearly the sound of a group singing hymns in Chinese.  Brenda knocked and a young woman unlocked the door and invited us in.  We stepped into a small room full of people sitting in folding chairs; the walls were painted plain white and lit by a small florescent bulb.  At the front of the room a small cross hung on the wall behind a simple podium.  At one side of the room a woman played a console piano covered with blanket – I guess to help muffle the sound.  There appeared to be about 40 or so people in attendance.  Each time someone knocked on the door and came in, most people would turn to see who it was.

We were told that this congregation had been forced to move more than a dozen times.  Still they carried on.   There may no longer be western missionaries spreading the gospel in China.  Now that role has been taken on by dedicated Chinese citizens, spreading a brand of Christianity with a distinct Chinese flavor.

 

Brenda and I plan to broadcast our TV story

 about house churches on Sunday, August 24^th on the 6PM news.