I began speaking for the Lord in 1927 when I was invited to speak to denominations and other Christian gatherings. However, that was not regular. It was not until a church was raised up in my hometown of Chefoo in 1932 that I began to speak on a regular basis for the Lord. I spoke at least three to five times every week. That was over fifty-two years ago. During these fifty-two years I have listened to many pastors and preachers and paid attention to the content of their messages. For over half a century, while I labored, I also observed how others labored. In addition, I was born into Christianity; on my mother’s side I am a fourth-generation Christian, and I studied in Christian schools from elementary school through junior college. It can therefore be said that I have a considerable amount of knowledge concerning today’s Christianity.
According to my observation, there is an unprecedented openness toward the Lord in the heart of people today. This is seen in their desire to hear the gospel. I have been laboring in America for over twenty-two years. During this time we have not seen such openness to the Lord in the heart of men, nor have we seen such a desire for the gospel. The Chinese migrants are the source of this situation. When I received the burden to go to America twenty-three years ago, I was clear that I was taking the Lord’s recovery to the English-speaking world; I was not going there to do a work among the Chinese. Therefore, I spent my time and energy on the American people. For nearly twenty years I did not stress the work among the Chinese in America, because I knew that if many Chinese were saved, it would be difficult to bring in the Americans. The Lord confirmed the way we took, by bringing thousands of American brothers and sisters into the recovery.
However, two years ago there was a change in the American immigration law, which increased the quota for Chinese immigrants from twenty thousand to forty thousand. This enabled many Chinese to move to the United States, and many of our brothers and sisters also went. Then I had the feeling that if we do not care for the Chinese brothers and sisters, we would lose them. Thus, we began the work among the Chinese, and we found out that the Chinese students throughout the various campuses in the United States were open to the gospel.
We had a welcoming meeting at the University of Southern California the day before school started. This is the largest private university in Los Angeles. Over fifty Chinese freshmen came to that gathering. We also have Chinese-speaking meetings at the University of California in Los Angeles. This fall when school started, there were over fifty students at our welcoming meeting. Some may think that fifty students is not a large number, but the American saints were amazed that so many Chinese students responded to the gospel at a college campus. The brothers who care for the students on the various campuses have found out that no matter where they go, people’s hearts are open. The American students have also changed. The 1960s was the age of the hippies, but we are now in 1984, and there are no more hippies. The American trends come fast and go fast. The college students today are industrious and aggressive, and they are open to the gospel.
Furthermore, we discovered that Christians today like to read the Bible, and they want to understand the Bible. They may read books, periodicals, and pamphlets related to the Bible, but they pay great attention to expositions of the Bible. Their desire to understand the Bible is unprecedented. I have labored for the Lord for over thirty years in China and over twenty years in the United States, but I have never seen such a situation. There is an unprecedented need for the gospel, for Bible interpretation, and for the truth, because people everywhere have an open heart.