Chinese Hell

A commenter on www.VOMGroups.com related an interesting, if non-biblical, description of heaven and hell. The commenter said, "The Chinese version of hell is a sumptuous banquet at which the guests are starving because they've been given six-foot chopsticks and can't feed themselves. Heaven's the exact same setting except that the guests are feeding each other with the chopsticks instead of trying to feed themselves."

A different illustration from a book called Stories from China by Luke Wesley (offered by VOM) reveals that not everything at the end of a chopstick is heavenly. Wesley, a missionary who visited a village in China, tells of sharing a meal with some church leaders in a mud-brick house. He noticed some large bugs with two-inch wing spans hovering around the light bulb. Suddenly one of the bugs dive-bombed Wesley's soup, and the man sitting beside him plucked the bug out of the soup and gobbled it up. "No one batted an eye," said Wesley.

While that's not exactly "persecution," it is a good illustration of some of the fascinating types of situations that those who spread the Good News around the world might face. That story, and others of "real" persecution, are told on a kid level in a colorful 52-page VOM book for kids, Bold Believers in China. The book, and other selected VOM books for kids, are now available for free downloading at www.KidsofCourage.com. You might want to share a copy with a young person you know, especially with the Olympics coming up soon in China.