China (MNN) — The Amity Printing Company, based in Nanjing, China, prints almost 12 million Bibles every year. This makes it the largest producer of Bibles in the world.

But Chinese citizens don’t always benefit from this abundance, especially in rural areas. Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China says, “We go to places where people would not make having a Bible the priority because of other things that they have to do to get by. So it’s a financial accessibility piece because it’s rural. That’s part of what we do.”

In addition, just because the Bibles get printed in China doesn’t mean they go to Chinese citizens. The government closely controls where the Bibles go after they get printed. Many are shipped to other countries.

Rovenstine says China has had a lack of Bibles since the Cultural Revolution. “And you say, ‘Well, that was years and years ago.’ But when you’re talking about millions of people with absolutely no scripture whatsoever, it takes a while to catch up.”

Get involved

You can help secure Bibles for people in rural China. Visit Bibles for China’s website.

Pray people across every region of China would have access to the story of Jesus. Rovenstine says, “Lots of folks maybe have been to China, in a city like Shanghai. They see wealth, and they see opportunity. They may ask, ‘Well, why do we need to help these people buy Bibles when they’re living the way they are here?’ Those aren’t the folks we’re helping.”

 

Header photo courtesy of No machine-readable author provided. 风之清扬 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.