A TRUE WARRIOR FOR CHINA...
Doug Sutphen continues his battle for the soul of China despite huge medical setbacks

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

NORTH BEND, WA  (ANS) -- Doug Sutphen, an American ex-marine caused a sensation nearly 22 years ago, when he led an international team in a daring mission called "Project Pearl," that saw some one million Chinese Bibles land on Swatow Beach, South China, during the evening of June 18th 1981.

Then the Asia director of Open Doors with Brother Andrew, and known as "Brother David," Sutphen and his team waited for the sun to set and then launched a small flotilla of "Z Boats" that pulled the Bibles in one ton blocks to the shore where some 10,000 Chinese believers unpacked them and carried them to waiting trucks to transport them all over China.

The world's media soon began to pick up on what was then the largest delivery of Bibles to China and Time magazine carried an article called "Risky Rendezvous to Swatow."

Since that time, Doug Sutphen has chronicled his story in the book, "God's Smuggler to China," (Hodder & Stoughton, UK), and now runs Love China Ministries based in North Bend, Washington.

Now he has agreed to give a rare interview about his life today in which he has battled serious health problems, yet keeps focused, with his Chinese wife Meiling, on helping the underground believers in the world's most populous nation.

TWO TRIPLE BYPASS OPERATIONS

"I have been through two triple-bypass operations," he said. "One was in 1985 the second was in 1996," he said. "Then I went through a double stent angioplasty about three years ago. I also had an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) device put in my left chest. It sends electricity to the right part of my heart. It is a very same device that Vice President Dick Cheney has.

"I get tired because there is one small blood vessel that is turned like an L and they can't put an angioplasty in it. They tried three operations last year and they were lengthy operations. One was nine hours long and that takes a lot of strength out of you.

"Fortunately, the Lord has so many people around the world praying for me because of the updates put out by the ASSIST News Service and also friends in Australia also our church in Bellevue, Washington. I don't think I'd be here if it wasn't for the prayers of God's people."

He asked people to continue to pray for him.

"Please pray that I continue to gain my strength back so that I don't have to be partially in a wheelchair," he said. "Secondly, that I don't have to use a walker and that I can get back to using a cane."

When Sutphen left Open Doors, he helped to form East Gates Ministries and then in 1996, founded Love China Ministries.

THE LITTLE RED NEW TESTAMENT

"Love China Ministries really began back in 1973 when Brother Andrew invited me to New York for a day to fast and pray about China which was then closed to the West," he said. "Out of that time came the idea for us to print "The Little Red New Testament" that looked like Mao's ‘Little Red Book' and soon teams were taking it into China for the underground believers.

"We then put on a conference in September 1975 in Manila, Philippines, called ‘Love China' when representatives of various China ministries from 23 nations totaling 337 participants came together to discuss how we could reach into China with the Good News. That's where my present ministry was really born. Brother Andrew was the first person to encourage me in China ministries."

Doug said that the confirmation for Love China Ministries came one night when he went to the prayer room in his home to pray and read his Bible. "As I was reading my Bible," he explained, "I felt the Lord telling me, ‘It's Love China that I want you to be involved in.' When I went to tell this to Meiling, she ran to her desk drawer and pulled out a pad which had ‘Love China' written on it. And so already knew it."

Soon, he put a board together that included Dr. Ed Neteland, who had worked with him in the US office of Open Doors in raising prayer and funds for "Project Pearl" and Eddie Cairns, a New Zealander who had been a crew members for the Swatow Bible delivery.

"We also added Chinese elder Dr. Rong Wang at our church, who is a PhD graduate of MIT, and another Chinese brother, Paul Ma, who had got his PhD at Stanford and had, for the last 40 years, been studying the Bible."

POWER POINT BIBLE AND HELPS HITS CHINA'S CHRISTIANS

The first big project that Love China Ministries were involved in was a Power Point presentation of the Chinese Bible, along with helps such as a Greek and Hebrew in Chinese lexicon and Strong's Concordance, also in Chinese.

"Paul Ma and I then went to China and he introduced this to the China Christian Council and when they saw our software presentation, they were blown out of their chairs," said Sutphen. "They wanted it immediately and we said they could have it if they would make it available to all believers in China, including those in the house churches. So we have now put computers in 13 provinces in house churches so they can use the software to learn the Bible."

So today, that ministry goes on. The presentation is the scriptures in Chinese, along with Greek and Hebrew Chinese lexicon. This brother took Strong's Concordance and turned the numbers into Chinese.

A surprising aspect of the ministry of Love China Ministries is the fact that they are now pointing Western Christians who wish to provide Bibles to China's house churches to avail themselves of the official Bibles being printed by the millions at the Amity press in Nanjing.

"The Amity Press has so many Bibles stacked up in their warehouse that are not getting out to meet the needs of the believers, we feel that missions should go there and purchase them at a very reasonable price and distribute them all across China to house church believers." he said.

Doug also said: "Today is the time for communication, trust and cooperation."

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

"We are also studying what is happening since China joined the Word Trade Organization some 2 ½ years ago. Many people do not realize that when the year 2005 comes, China must allow all literature to be imported into their country, and that includes Chinese Christian literature and so we are trying to get missions to look at that and see how they can do this legally by having bookstores all over China. Here in America, we have bookstores everywhere, but there they don't and this is a great opportunity.

"Recently, the China Daily talked about this and told about this liberty and freedom that China must do if they want to remain in the World Trade Organization. So now, I feel it is important to inspire others to seize this opportunity."

AUTHORITIES NOW KNOW WHO HE IS

I then asked Doug Sutphen if the Chinese authorities know who he is, in fact, Brother David?

"Yes," he said. "I found this out one day when I was sitting in the Beijing office of Ye Xiaowen, the director of the Religious Affairs Administration in China -- it used to be called the Religious Affairs Bureau. There in his library I saw a copy of ‘God's Smuggler to China' and with a smile then he told me, ‘We know who you are.'"

CHINA IS STILL A COMMUNIST NATION

He then said, "I'd just like to add that the more people pray for China, the more doors are going to open up. It is extraordinary what has happened there in the last 30 years. On the surface, when you go into China and you see the large metropolitan areas, like Beijing and Shanghai; even in Swatow, the nation is changing on the outwards appearance and but inwards it isn't . Two years ago, they were recruiting many more communist party members and we were there when they were doing it. I was watching all of this on the TV and I could hardly believe my eyes to see how many new members were joining the party."

Sutphen concluded by revealing that on the 20th anniversary of Project Pearl, some of his crew members joined him for a five day reunion in Swatow. "All we did was pray and sing and thank the Lord on Michael Beach where the Bibles were landed and give Him the glory for all He had done through ‘Project Pearl.' I praise God that those ‘Pearl' Bibles are everywhere in China and millions more have spread out through the nation to house church believers."

If you wish, you can send a message to Doug and Meiling Sutphen at their e-mail address, which is LoveChinaIntl@aol.com  or write to Love China Ministries, P. O. Box 1775, North Bend, Washington 98045.

Note: Doug's book, "God's Smuggler to China" was co-authored with Dan Wooding and Sara Bruce and is available from Hodder and Stoughton in UK. Doug now runs Love China Ministries.

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