“The Cross: Jesus in China”
A Video Project by the China Soul for Christ
Foundation (CSFC)
When Communism conquered China in 1949, all of the 5000+ western missionaries were expelled, all official churches were shut down, numerous
Christians were imprisoned, and many
ministers lost their lives.
Over the past 50+ years, the Chinese Communist Party has continued to consistently enforce a policy to
change, limit, and gradually eliminate Christianity in China. Even today, this policy has
not changed.
Despite more than 50 years of this persecution, the number of Chinese Christians has increased a hundred-fold! In fact, the total number of Chinese Christians has grown from 700,000 in 1949 to approximately 70 million today.
This miracle has bewildered the Chinese
government. It has also brought
intense curiosity from overseas and enormous attention from western churches.
How did this miracle come about? How did the Gospel spread so effectively
through China under persecution?
How were these underground churches formed and managed? How did the Chinese Christians,
the “burning stick pulled out of the fire[1]”, become those “for whom the world was not good enough[2]”?
What influence has Christianity had on Chinese life, and what impact are
Christians having on China’s destiny?
The answers are extraordinary, and history
needs to record this remarkable story. People need to know the truth of
Christianity, and churches need to understand God’s great work in China. The
world needs to see the miracles that have taken place in the souls of Chinese.
It
was with this vision in mind that the China Soul for Christ Foundation (CSFC)
began to make a documentary film called “The Cross – Jesus in China” at
the end of 2000. This film will present the true stories of Chinese Christians
in this ancient civilization to the rest of the world. It is a mission that
requires perseverance, wisdom, secrecy,
and even sacrifice. As a result, we have avoided publicity and relied on
our limited material resources and talent to gather the footage needed for this
task. That is why we have not actively shared our vision and raised
financial support from the Chinese churches in North America.
About the China Soul for Christ Foundation
(CSFC)
1.
Our Purpose:
With Jesus Christ as our focus, the spread of gospel as our purpose, and high-quality videos as our tool, we are committed to providing Chinese Christians with divinely inspired weapons to destroy atheistic, materialistic, and traditionalistic fortresses and to take every Chinese thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
2. Our Mission:
To convert God’s vision into
video.
To
bring God's light to China.
To
make God’s works into recorded history.
3.
Our History:
Brother Zhiming Yuan was a writer for Oversea Campus Magazines (OCM) when God gave him a vision to answer the questions many Chinese keep asking such as “Why do Chinese have so much suffering?” and “If God is also the God of Chinese, why has He ignored Chinese for so long?” In response, Brother Yuan wrote a book called China’s Confession-God and Five Thousand Years of China. After the book was published in 1997, God gave him a vision to convert it into a high-impact video serial similar to the Yellow River Eulogy series for which Brother Yuan was a scriptwriter in 1988 in China.
Brother Yuan completed the script for the China’s Confession series at the end of 1998. To make the script into a reality, he formed the company China Soul, Inc. with Wenjie Xie, who left his secular career for this project. Dazhu Chyan, Daxiong Wang, and Y. A. Liu joined them as the Directors of the newly formed company, and the China’s Confessions video project was officially launched in late 1988..
In June 1999, China Soul, Inc. set up operation at Petaluma in northern California. In June 2000, the complete edition (7 episodes) of the video series, China’s Confession, was finished.
In October 2000, the Board of Directors decided to convert China Soul, Inc. into a non-profit organization, and founded China Soul for Christ Foundation (CSFC). China Soul, Inc. donated all of its assets to CSFC, and the new organization began operation in January 1, 2001.
In January 2001, CSFC released a one-and-half-hour abridged gospel edition of China’s Confession with both Chinese and English subtitles (Attachment 5).
In June 2002, CSFC release the first of its evangelistic VCD series, Why I Became a Christian (Attachment 6). It consists of 12 Chinese sermons by Brother Zhiming Yuan. Three other evangelistic sermon video series are in progress, and each contains 12 to 15 sermons.
At present, CSFC is also working on the English edition of China's
Confession.
Over
the past year, we made over 15 trips to China, traveled to more than 18
provinces and major cities, and shot
footage of several hundred underground churches and Bible training schools. We interviewed nearly 100
underground Christian leaders, several hundred ministers and ordinary
Christians. Some of the elderly Christians we interviewed had been imprisoned
for more than 20 years, and many young Christians we met had been arrested
repeatedly. During the shooting, we were also invited to preach the Word and
give sermons at church gatherings and training schools. As we spent time with our Chinese brothers and sisters
in their daily lives – rejoicing and crying, dining and living together- we
began to understand them and were amazed at what God has been doing in China.
The making of “The Cross” in China was filled with uncertainty. There were times when we were under hidden surveillance, and other times when we were openly followed. On one occasion, our camera was confiscated. We give thanks to God for his protection and love, which gave us the strength to endure every difficulty and threat. The 400+ hours of footage we shot survived, and every underground church and Christian who testified is safe.
"The Cross" will be composed of testimonies, songs and explanations, accompanied with real scenery. Our aim is to convince people with truth, to move people with the Holy Spirit, and to lead people to dedicate themselves to serving God. At present, we are editing our 400+ hours of footage for “The Cross”. Our current plan for this video documentary is to create 3 to 5 one-hour episodes with both Chinese and English versions to be completed in 2003. In addition, we will release a one-hour-and-half version suitable for church meetings or similar environments. Finally, we will release a 20-hour version for historical purpose, which will be available to libraries, as we believe that our 400+ hours of footage of Chinese churches are unique treasures of the Christian community.
CSFC focuses its resources on making high-quality, high-impact video. On the average, each video project we undertake (including “China’s Confession” and “The Cross: Jesus in China”) takes about 3 years from its inception to release. The income generated by selling these videos in North American funds our regular office expense.
Under a strategic outreach program called “Send to China” adopted by its board of directors, CSFC makes its videos available, free of charge, as VCDs, to anyone who will bring them to China. We strongly believe that these VCDs will be an effective tool in reaching out to Chinese in their own homes.
We also encourage individuals, organizations, bookstores, Bible study groups, and churches in China to duplicate and distribute our videos free of charge.
These approaches reflect the strong conviction of the co-workers of the CSFC that our key goal is not to make monies through our high-quality video products, but to use them to share the God’s vision and to spread the Christian gospel within China. We are thankful to the Lord to receive repeated reports from China that our video series, “China’s Confession”, is now widely viewed in house churches and among college fellowships within China.
Attachment 1
Description of the CSFC Videos
1.
China’s Confession─God and Five Thousand Years of
China
Seven episodes, as follows:
· Episode 1 recounts the long-forgotten devout traditions and legends of the first 2400+ years in Chinese history. This episode shows Chinese that all peoples are from God (instead of the descendents of Beijing Ape man).
· Episode 2 recounts the unimaginable development of ancient Chinese history. It shows how and when the Chinese went astray by falling into the trap of the Serpent and thinking they could be like God, knowing good and evil.
· Episode 3 presents the tragic destiny of exploitation in China in the second 2400+ years of its history that resulted from this self-centeredness.
· Episode 4 presents the Chinese painstakingly attempting to reach salvation through human efforts and some lights of ancient wisdom.
· Episode 5 presents the early contacts and spiritual communications between China and the West. It highlights the fact that throughout Chinese history, numerous missionaries sacrificed their life to bring Gospel to Chinese, emphasizing that God has never abandoned the Chinese.
· Episode 6 reveals the bewilderment, struggle, and difficult searching of the Chinese after the Opium War. It shows that the decision to reject God was China’s own. The Chinese chose a path to their own destruction.
· Episode 7 presents the bitter lessons of the past fifty years when God delivered the Chinese into their own iniquities. It also points out China’s hidden crisis of today and the solutions for tomorrow. At the end, it gives Chinese people a message that God has a big plan for the salvation of Chinese.
2. Abridged Gospel Edition of China’s Confession
We have condensed the video into an hour an a half, with both Chinese and English subtitles, to fit into a regular church meeting..
3. English Edition of China’s Confession
This planned version is intended for English-speaking audience. It allows non-Chinese to understand Chinese history and how Chinese people react to the Gospel. It will be a good educational tool to help American Christians understand the Chinese and therefore develop an appropriate attitude and approach when sharing the gospel.
Cost: Rewriting China’s Confession in English begin in 2001. The project will cost about $60K in personnel-related conversion expenses, and at least another $40K-$60K in licensing footages from various films and videos. The post-production expense will be in the range of $50K.
4. "Gospel and Testimony" Serial
We are also making several video series on the gospel and the testimonies of students and scholars from Mainland China. Our first series on the gospel, Why I Became a Christian, by brother Zhiming Yuan, consists of 12 sermons. CSFC release this series in June 2002.
The second planned series, God and Science, by Bincheng Feng, will include 15 sermons. Production and distribution will cost about $50K. Provided we find support, we can release this series in December 2002 or early 2003.
At least two more series are in the making: a testimony series and a series of 12 lectures on “The History of Chinese Church.”. All series in this category will only be available in VCD and audio cassettes. They are intended to provide oversea Chinese Christians an effective means to reach their family members and friends. They are also designed to allow Chinese Christians in rural area to reach their more-educated compatriots in cities.
5. The Cross: Jesus in China
In 1998, God gave a vision to a peasant girl in her prayers that someone would make a video to tell their stories – the stories of the house church in China. In mid-2000, God gave both Mr. Xie and Yuan the same vision to document what the Holy Spirit has been doing in China over the past 50 years. The video project The Cross was then launched.
The Cross will consist of testimonies, songs, and explanations, accompanied by real footage from China. Our aim is to convince people with truth, to move people with the Holy Spirit, and to lead people to dedicate themselves to serving God.
The Cross is now being edited. By the second quarter of 2003, we plan to create 3 to 5 one-hour episodes, with both Chinese and English versions. In addition, we will release an hour and a half version suitable for church meetings or similar environments. Finally, we will release a 20-hour version for historical purposes, which will be available to libraries.
1.
Mr.
Zhiming Yuan, CSFC Board Member and Chief Director.
Zhiming Yuan was born in 1955 into a peasant family in rural Hebei, China. In his youth, he experienced all the major turmoil during Communist’s rule, including the Cultural Revolution. He spent 10 years in People’s Liberation Army as a Marxist-Leninist doctrine officer. Later, he became a Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy of the People’s University in Beijing, China. Mr. Yuan was a script of the acclaimed TV series: “The Yellow River Eulogy”.
Because of his active participation in the Tiananmen Square demonstration in Beijing on June 4, 1989, Mr. Yuan was labeled by the Chinese government as an inciter of Tiananmen’s incident. He was forced to exile overseas. Later, he became the chief editor of the “Democratic China” Magazine and a co-founder of the organization “The Chinese Democratic Frontline.”
In 1990, Mr. Yuan became a visiting scholar
at Princeton University. He came to know Christ the following year and was
baptized. He is one of several former Communist party members from Tiananmen
demonstration who later became Christians. In 1992, he committed himself to
serving Christ and attended the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss.
After graduating from seminary, he served as
an editor in “Overseas Campus Magazines (“OCM”)”—the most popular
Christian gospel bimonthly dedicated to reaching out to overseas mainland
Chinese students, scholars and professionals for Christ. While he was with OCM,
Mr. Yuan wrote several books that are well accepted by Chinese intellectuals;
including “Earthly Loss,
Heavenly Gain”, “The Dialog of Faith”, “Lao Zi vs.
Bible” and “Lai Zi and its New Translation.”
In 1996, he started his work of “China’s
Confession: God and the 400+0 Years of China.” The book was published
in 1998. With the blessing of OCM, he, two board member of OCM and two
Christian entrepreneurs join team to start a company, China Soul, Inc,
to make the video serial “China’s Confession”. After the debut of
the video, China Soul, Inc. was transformed into a non-profit organization, “China
Soul for Christ Foundation (“CSFC”)”, in 2000. CSFC is set up with the
mission to use video as a medium to bring Chinese people to Christ. He is
currently the Chief Director of CSFC and working on “The Cross”
project.
Mr. Yuan is an acclaimed evangelist among Chinese circle. He is invited to preach in many evangelist meetings almost every weekend all over the North America and the world, because many mainland Chinese can identify with his experience. Through his sermons, the Holy Spirit moves thousands to accept Christ each year. Whenever there is an issue relating to the areas of personal faith and house churches in China, he is also frequently interviewed by the Voice of America, 700 Club (or CBN), CNN and Free Asia Radio Station.
2.
Mr.
Wenjie Xie, CSFC President and Board Chairman
Wenjie Xie was born in Hsinchu, Taiwan,
1949. His family is an old traditional Taiwanese family that at the time was
not Christian. When he was two years old, his mother became the first Christian
in the family. She then led her family members to Christ, and Mr. Xie was
raised in a Christian environment.
Mr. Xie studied Electrical Engineering at
the National Taiwan University from 1967 to 1971. Although he grew up in a
Christian home, it wasn’t until his college years that he finally established
personal relationship with Lord Jesus and dedicated himself to serving Him. He
graduated from National Taiwan University with a BSEE degree in 1971 and the
light of Christ in his heart. After serving in the military and working for a
number of years, he came to U.S. In 1977, he got his MSEE degree from Santa
Clara University.
In 1978, he emigrated to U.S. in 1978.
After some different positions, he and several friends started a company called
Ecad Inc. in 1982. The company became very successful, was re-named as Cadence
Design System, and went public in 1987.
In the meantime, Mr. Xie became a naturalized
U.S. citizen in 1986. With the wealth God had given him, he and his wife set up
a private foundation, The Hsieh Christian Foundation, in 1990. In 1998, God
called him to leave his secular career and start a video ministry with Mr.
Yuan. While working part-time on the video project, Mr. Xie also attended
Multnomath Bible Seminary in the fall of 1999 and the spring of 2001, and
received a Bible Certificate.
Initially, Mr. Xie established China Soul,
Inc as a for-profit company. But after the successful debut of a 7-episode
video series China Confession: God and the 400+0 Years of China in 2000, the company’s
Board of Directors decided to transform it into a non-profit organization. With
the assets denoted by China Soul, Inc., China Soul for Christ Foundation (CSFC)
was born.
This organization continues the vision God
give both Mr. Xie and Mr. Yuan. The second major video project, The
Cross: Jesus in China, was officially launched in 2001 to document the
history of Chinese Christians during the past 50 years under communist
persecution. Mr. Xie is actively involved in all aspects of this project.
During the past 3 years, he personally traveled more than 10 times to China to
gather footage.
Mr. Xie is the President and
the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CSFC. He receives no compensation
from CSFC. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Oversea Campus
Magazines (OCM).