Tuesday
Very few children who grow up in rural China want to become teachers. Chinese farmers hope their children will get out of being farmers by getting college degrees and few farmers want their children to return to the countryside. They definitely do not want them be become poor teachers there. Very few Christian Chinese parents will encourage or allow their children to serve the Lord because of the lack of respect and low wages they receive. Let us pray about this problem and that the churches in China will honor God's workers and treat them fairly.
Wednesday
There are about forty million Chinese peasants who have lost their land but a mere ten percent of the migrant workers who once were farmers are willing to return to the villages. There are, however, two main obstacles that keep migrant workers from being residents in the city--there are residence restrictions and public services are not available to them. They really have no land to return to but still eighty percent of them want to stay in the cities. We want to remember those seminary students who want to return home to serve in their home churches but since they know the salary is so meagre they struggle to fulfill God's will. How will they support their families? Often they are criticized and their ministry efforts go unappreciated also.
Thursday
According to a survey 35-45% of the new generation of migrant workers between the ages of 16-30 no longer have their homestead land back home to cultivate so they essentially are not able to support themselves in the villages. Only 8.8% of migrant workers desire to return to the villages and of the young migrant workers only 7.7% have that desire. Although the harvest is plentiful the workers are have always been few. Rural churches have constantly lacked shepherds and scarcely any Christians parents in rural areas want their children to be church workers. Rarely do young people now consider serving full time in rural churches. May the Lord have mercy on them, especially those pastors whose faith is wavering and they are thinking of stopping their work in the villages altogether.
Friday
Chinese men from the villages leave their wives at home to care for the children and elderly parents as well as to do the farming so they can go to the cities and work. As one travels throughout rural China it is alarming and frightening to find it so difficult to see any young men around. The villages are left with mostly the children and old people. Many leaders in the rural churches are still trying to spend their limited resources to build the church building rather than investing in future talents for the kingdom. We pray that the Lord will burden these leaders with a true desire to raise up new leaders, not merely keeping them busy working in the church but entrusting them with real responsibilities and training them for making critical decisions.
Saturday
In the rural areas of China children are left behind with elderly grandparents when their parents go to work in the cities. Far more important than meeting the basic needs of the children is how the grandparents could have the energy and knowledge to help the children do their school work. There are many stories of juvenile crimes, elderly abuse, and robbery. Some of the rural church leaders whether intentionally or unintentionally "abuse" their pastors by giving them extremely low wages because they claim they themselves are volunteers who do just as much work as the pastors do. This is a common practice. May the Lord convict each of us so we will know how to treat His workers with respect and encourage them by supporting their families financially.
Sunday
Chinese people are fond of the number 8. For example, the 2008 Beijing Olympics started on August 8 at 8:08 p.m. It is pronounced like the word for "getting rich". The same zeal is found in getting an 8 on one's license plate, phone number, and even in the price of food. Merchandise and hotel room rates are set in 88 yuan, 888 yuan, or 1888 yuan. Sadly there is a lot of this competitive mentality among the churches in China also. Many are engaging in building bigger and prettier church buildings to show off. Unfortunately this saddles churches with large debts and high interest rates. May the Lord be gracious to His church and help us to be good stewards knowing we should invest in people (future leaders) rather than mere outside things.
Monday
In the past churches in the cities of China have helped support rural churches by sending pastors to them to preach or give special training. These efforts are good but lack long-term impact. In terms of team work, there is a big gap between the believers in cities and those in the villages in overcoming the differences in their life styles, their sentiments, and how they do things, We pray there will be more urban churches, especially those in the wealthy regions, that will be willing to support the impoverished rural churches. We need leaders with vision and broad shoulders to bring about a partnership between rural and urban churches and to help the poor and smaller churches to be self-supporting.
星期二
中國很少有農村孩子長大後想當老師。現在大部份的農民都希望自己的孩子接受教育，考上大學進而脫離農夫這門行業。少有人願意自己的孩子再回到農村，尤其回來當窮教書的。大多數信徒家長不鼓勵或允許自己孩子全職事奉主，在他們的觀念裏，牧者不受尊重，且多是清貧困苦。讓我們為這種現象和錯誤的觀念來禱告，求主改變中國教會, 讓信徒敬重神的工人，並以愛心照顧他們的生活需用.
星期三
中國失地農民約4千萬，願回鄉民工不足1成。現在農民工入城的主要難題，一是戶籍限制和公共服務的城鄉分割，二是老家的宅基地和承包地，「八成農民工即便不放開戶口也將長期留在城鎮。」我們特別紀念許多來自農村想回鄉服事的神學生，他們家鄉的教會無力供養，不回去又於心不忍，一邊是神的託付不能不做，一邊是家庭的重擔——做不下去，有時還會面對這樣那樣的批評和論斷。
星期四
根據研究數據顯示，新生代農民工中，16至30歲，百分之35到40在老家沒有地；無法在農村養活自己。願意回農村定居的農民工只占8.8%。只有7.7%的新生代農民工願意回農村定居，而老一代農民工的比例為13.3%。農村教會「羊多牧人少」，「莊稼多，作工的人少」，但有多少父母願意、敢將自己健全的兒女奉獻為傳道？ 又有多少青年基督徒樂意去教會全職事奉？求主憐憫，也幫助那些現在信心動搖，想放棄服侍的農村教會傳道人。
星期五
農村年輕人到城市打工，多半是男人出去打工，太太在家裡照顧孩子、老人甚至幫助種地。在很多省份，鄉下幾乎沒有年輕人了，家裡就剩老人和孩子，問題相當嚴重。今天農村教會不少負責同工「重基建、輕人才」- 願意花錢在教會硬件建設上，但缺乏「人才」建設的認識。 求主幫助教會領袖們真有心栽培接棒的年輕一代，而不只是說說，或是只讓他們有很多的工作，卻沒有擔負實質的責任。
星期六
中國內地許多年輕人留下自己的子女給父母照顧，自己進城工作。老年人除了照顧孫子的衣食住行，最困難的則是教育問題，根本沒有精力照顧到這個層面。再加上社會問題，犯罪問題，欺負老年人，有的老年人有些錢，鄉下的流氓地痞可能就敲詐老年人，種種對老年人不利的情形。有的農村教會負責人因自己多年來一直是「義工」，就有意無意地在生活上壓低專職傳道人的待遇，此現象在農村教會司空見慣。我們為教會能以合乎聖經的教導，尊敬神的僕人，照顧神的工人來禱告。
星期日
中國人對數字「8」的喜愛程度超乎想像。從2008年北京奧運會開幕式的時間—8月8日晚上8時零8分就能看出。「8」和「發」財發音相似。不只車牌號，電話號碼，從食物價格到商品，酒店客房價格，經常會看到88元、888元、1888元 。教會也會有攀比心態，不少教會把資金盲目投放在「大教堂」建築上，甚至為了滿足虛榮心而不惜借高利貸，使得教會債台高築。求主恩待祂的教會，知道如何當個好管家，願意在教會人才上投資更多，培養願意事奉的後續人才。
星期一
過去城市教會對農村教會的支援， 大多是教牧人員來農村教會證道或主持特別節目，雖然立意可嘉，但效果卻是短暫的。 團隊在與農村信徒情感上、生活習慣等諸多方面的認同還有許多間隙。我們求主感動更多的城市教會，尤其是經濟相對發達地區的教會，更有負擔支援農村教會， 有異象的領袖們更多鼓勵城市和農村教會成為夥伴，為教會能自給自足而出力。
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