How does GotQuestions.org reach people in countries hostile to the gospel? - Podcast Episode 66

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Today's episode is another special episode where we're spotlighting the international ministry of GotQuestions .org.

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A few weeks ago, we had an episode with our Tagalog translator from the Philippines and our Portuguese translator from Brazil was talking about how

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GotQuestions is an effective ministry in those countries. And today we have a similar episode, but with a little different spin on it.

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This one, we have two translators from countries that are not exactly friendly to Christian missions,

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Christian evangelism. So today we have Paul, our Urdu translator from Pakistan, and Jody, who is our

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Chinese translator. So Paul and Jody, welcome to the show. And for the first question,

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I'd like to ask you, what are some of the difficulties with sharing the gospel in China and Pakistan?

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So Paul, why don't you go first? Salaam ji. This is the traditional way of saying hello in Urdu.

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Thank you very much. It's an honor for me to be here. Well, in my country, it's 97 %

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Islamic country and the 97 % population is Muslims. Christians are just 1 .3.

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Christians were 1 .7, but last time we heard that Hindus are more than Christians.

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We don't believe that, but this is what the statistics say. So in my country, evangelism to any

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Muslim or any other person is prohibited by the law. It's not allowed, and if somebody is found doing that, he can face severe, severe problems.

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And, you know, in Pakistan, so many people are persecuted for their

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Christian faith, and we have blasphemy law, which is very common, and you might have heard of the world famous story of Asia Bibi.

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She was put in jail for 10 years. She was just accused of saying something about the religion of Islam.

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And many, many people are really hateful towards Christianity that way.

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Even today, just today, one Sri Lankan was burned alive because of this blame.

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They blamed him for saying something against their religion. So it's really hard.

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Evangelism is really hard. Spreading the gospel and sharing things is very hard, and there's much discrimination as well, like the caste system that we see in Hinduism that is practiced in Pakistan among Christians and Muslims and Hindus.

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And sometimes Christians are considered untouchable, and they are offered the most filthy jobs here, and that really keeps people in a state of mind where they feel that they are lower, they are other creatures, they are second -class people, and that also brings a strange kind of fear in their mind.

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Most of the people are normally at the alarming state of mind, and they are very conscious in the public to say something, because even if accidentally something is uttered out of the mouth of anybody which is not acceptable in Islam, that can create a huge problem.

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And we have the history that whole colonies were burned, people were killed because of this religion hatred.

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So it's really not easy in a cultural perspective and in the religious perspective as well.

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And so Jody, what are some of the difficulties of sharing the gospel in China? Well, first of all, thank you for having us here.

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Most people know that China is a communist country, so Christianity is absolutely not encouraged.

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But at the same time, we all know that in the last 10 or 15 years, the spread of gospel in China has been amazing.

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It has impacted so many people's lives. Chinese government has put lots of pressure on the

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Christian leaders, especially the house church leaders. You know, that has brought,

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I think, the ministry got questions into the light because we can share it in such unique ways and that the government doesn't necessarily have the control.

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So besides the political persecution, and we also facing like a cultural persecution because Christianity, most people in China traditionally, they think

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Christianity is foreign. It's not their own. So just, you know, from that perspective,

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I think our unique way for, you know, teaching people called gospels, you know, through the

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Internet, that it's really kind of, you know, has grown a lot in the last few years.

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So thank you both. So maybe Jody, we'll start with you for this second question. I mean, what ways has gotquestions .org

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an excellent way to reach people in China as opposed to more traditional forms of missions?

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And you kind of touched on that already. Yeah. Yeah. You know,

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I started working with gotquestions .com like in 2004.

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And I was just so amazed why, you know, this brilliant idea to spread the gospel through the

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Internet, through, you know, the apps, through the phone, iPhones, cell phones, because like lots of people in China, they don't have the access to the

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Bible, still don't. Of course, you know, they're like a three -self, you know, government -controlled churches.

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They only sell a limited amount of Bible, you know, printed

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Bibles at their own bookstore. So, you know, gotquestions, you know, through the

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Internet nowadays, almost, I would say, 85 % of Chinese have access to Internet.

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It provides a tremendous help, especially, you know, for the house church leaders, for the

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Bible study group leaders. The materials they want, they can access is limitless through gotquestions.

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Yeah. Joy, I remember a few years ago, we received that email from someone saying that the

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Chinese audios we recorded, that they lost their house church pastor because he was arrested.

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And so, they didn't have someone to teach them the Word of God. So, every time they met, they would play audio recordings of gotquestions articles in Chinese and use that for their sermon time.

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So, it's another example of how an Internet ministry can have a powerful impact on a closed country like China.

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I love hearing testimonies like that. So, Paul, how about you?

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In what ways is gotquestions an excellent way to reach people for Christ in Pakistan? Well, gotquestions is really a wonderful, wonderful website.

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It's like an encyclopedia of the questions and answers, especially for me as well. And so many times when

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I see people talking, normally I try to teach them through the questions and I try to find the common ground where we can just share some information.

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And as I shared, when I teach from Genesis to Revelation and when we are teaching in every chapter, we have many questions.

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And those questions are on gotquestions website. Many of them are translated into Urdu.

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And whenever I'm teaching in our weekly study, I always give the link of the question on the screen.

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I tell them, if you want to learn more about this, this is the website. Go here and you will find more information.

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In my church, I'm teaching the Book of Revelation and we have so many wonderful questions.

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People have so many questions about the Book of Revelation. And this website has really amazing questions, well researched, very wonderfully put together information.

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And that is the way I always share with people. And sometimes we find people talking on social media.

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They are discussing things and I do not participate in that, but whenever I feel they need some information,

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I just copy the link of any article and put beneath that.

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And they study that. So that way, it's really helpful. That way, this website is being introduced to so many people and at the same time, many people develop interest and they study.

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So it's really a great source. And as far as I know,

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I'm sharing with everybody I meet. I tell them that we have such a great source and this is really helpful.

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A few months before, one guy, he wanted to study. He said that he's a layman, he's a working man.

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He wanted to study and I directed him to GodQuestion website. I told him that he can read the summary of every book of the

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Bible and that will be very helpful for him to understand his Bible. He was very happy and I hope he's doing that.

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So this way, we are sharing all the information that is possible with all the people we meet.

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So Paul, let me ask you this, just out of curiosity. In Pakistan, what percentage of the population can speak

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English fluently to the point that they can actually read GodQuestions in English rather than in Urdu?

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Well, English language is not much spoken. We have local languages like I am in *** and my mother tongue is *** language.

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And there are other languages in all the different provinces. So very few people can understand

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English. But new generation definitely can. They are going to school and most of the studies is in English.

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But most of the time, they speak Urdu and *** and other things. But for reading them, any material, the

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Urdu is the main language that is used, not the *** and other languages. That's very interesting.

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I mean, I know in a country like India, which is right next door to Pakistan, a good percentage of the population do speak

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English. So typically when they go online, they search in English rather than in Hindi or *** or Tamil or whatever other is their heart language.

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So I was just curious as whether that's the same in Pakistan. So for question number three, Paul, can you share a specific testimonial or two of someone you know whose life has been impacted by GodQuestions .org

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in Urdu? Well, one guy, his name is

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George and he's been working with me on proofreading and all these things.

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And he was so happy to do the work and that really dwelled his interest.

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And whenever he works on these articles with me, he's really very happy and his life is changed.

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And, you know, he's willing to study further because he's getting the understanding of the word and he has so many questions.

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And he is seeking to start studying in some seminary and have more theological studies.

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And there are other people in our groups. Like I teach online Bible classes in different cities every week.

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So people, when they have many questions and I don't have much time,

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I tell them to start studying there. And there are many young people in other provinces and other cities who read those questions and they're very happy for that, really happy.

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Even my wife, many times I share articles with her and I share articles with many other students.

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You know, one of my teachers said that if you want to teach somebody, put some questions in his or her mind.

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And that is the way I normally use. If somebody asks me any question or sometimes

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I ask people questions which can answer whatever they want to know.

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And then I direct them to this website. And this has been really helpful because this website has all the references of the

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Bible and all the information. It's really balanced. I'm really very much satisfied with the very balanced answer.

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Jody, how about you? What are some testimonials you've heard of how GotQuestions .org

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in Chinese has had an impact? Yeah, I have many stories, but one of them recently just, you know,

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I think it's been, I've seen the fruit of GotQuestions .com

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that finally through these years, one of my closest friend or old colleague, colleagues in China, she just accepted the

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Lord a few weeks ago. It's because, well, it's a long story, but long story short, like she was very dedicated communist member for so many years.

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And she grew up in very solid, you know, like a traditional

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Chinese background. And she's very career -driven, very successful in a very high government position.

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But like last couple years, she has suffering deep depression.

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So I kept in touch with her. She knew years and years ago that I became a

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Christian, and I am still doing the ministry work, you know.

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She knows that clearly, but she always avoid to talk the subject whenever I brought up, you know,

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Christianity and any, you know, the words. She always tried to change the subject.

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But the interesting is like two years ago, literally she called me and she said, you know, she had trouble focus on herself.

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She had trouble with work and everything, stress. She suffered a depression.

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She even thought about the suicide. So I told her, you know, you have to seek some help.

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And she said she does rely on the medication, but, you know, somehow she felt like, you know,

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I could have gave her some good advice. So I referred her to the

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God questions websites, you know, all the Chinese translations. I said, go through some.

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I gave her step by step what kind of, just read a couple articles, short ones, you know, just on your phone.

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When you have just probably five minutes, read one article a day. Then she started.

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It's an incredible journey that how she walked us through. And she, you know, just a couple weeks ago she said, you know,

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Judy, I'm ready. I thought this is so true. This is what

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I want to be. And this is the way helped me out of my depression.

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So I just share the joy with her and become a sister in Christ.

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That's, you know, how the fruits has been there through many, many years.

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This is one example. Thank you both for sharing those. I mean, we hear the stats every month of 10 plus million people around the world visit the website, but always love hearing specific stories of individuals who have been impacted behind each of those 10 million people as statistics are actual people who've been impacted.

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So we praise the Lord for that. So for our last question today, I'll start with Jody. What do you enjoy the most about serving with got questions .org

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Chinese? You know, that the translation helps me with my personal walk.

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You know, from day to day, you know, I, I, I just, you know, see, see his footprints through, through all the translations

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I'm doing. And I love to go through to learn through those articles, you know, same time

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I'm translating, but same time I'm learning. So Paul, how about you?

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What do you enjoy most about got questions .org and Urdu? Well, I will also say one thing we received that Jody said that when

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I'm, I'm just translating. It's great source for me to learn.

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I had so many questions myself. Like I was struggling with the

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Calvinism and other things and Calvary Chapel holds the balanced view.

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And so many things I learned and my ideas are really balanced and so many other isms and the summary of the whole

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Bible. And especially the questions when I'm teaching myself as a pastor, it is really helpful for me to get the deeper understanding of any section of the

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Bible. So I really enjoy working with the God question. One thing is that everything that is put on the website is really balanced.

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I don't see biased things. Both ideas are positive and negative.

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Everything is discussed and shared. And the material is really well -researched and the languages that are increasing and all that the recording really helps.

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Sometimes it's less time for us to read. We can just listen and watch.

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And those things are really great. So it's really wonderful. And wonderful to work with the very organized people, responding very quickly and working very hard.

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All right. Well, Paul and Jody, thank you for taking part in this special focus episode on gotquestions .org

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international. And I enjoyed learning about some of the things that are going on in both Pakistan and China.

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Thank you again for coming on the show. This has been the Got Questions Podcast. Got questions?