¡@¡@He has strong compassion and deep commitment for underground house churches in China. In order to protect the real identity of the key figure for this story, please allow me to use the fictitious name for Prof. Andrew Liu. Prof. Liu is five feet or less, waddling across floor with difficulty and pain, has never given up anything without taking a stand despite the fact he is handicapped with physical disability. But he drives like a hot rod driver, talks with clear voice and strong conviction. He is one of the devoted teaching faculty members and has taught here at Holy Light for over 16 years.
¡@¡@Andrew was arrested and interrogated at Chinese customs when he went to China for his underground mission in 1993 . Asked why he was treated like criminal by the public security bureau in PRC , he said, " because I have brought with me Bibles and Gospel literature. " The Chinese officials informed Andrew that he was charged with spreading religious faith, which is against Chinese constitution because " We (Chinese people ) have freedom not to believe anything " Andrew recalled. Consequently, Andrew was forced to admit guilt for violating Chinese law. He had to write a confession under forced compliance. Andrew has never,however, given up his mission of spreading gospel and building God's kingdom among his own people and his heritage. He has done this kind of work secretly in the rural areas in Manchuria, Anhuei Province, Beijing Suburbs. He does not want to be very specific about his previous whereabouts for security reason. He strongly feels that he is obligated to bring the Gospel to China and replace the vacuum where Western missionaries left off years ago.
¡@¡@Andrew said he goes to China usually during summer , spring and Christmas vacations. His foot- prints are shown usually in the hilly places, at times in deep snow, and in some villages where public security people tend to neglect. People from all over China would come to listen to him preaching about Jesus Christ. Chinese people would come to gather in a village town square surrounded by four walls in the center of a house, siheyuan in Mandarin. Peasants would organize themselves to watch out for possible coming of public security officials while he was giving messages to hundreds of poor peasants. Even under the difficulty circumstance for Chinese believers, Chinese house churches are growing by leaps and bounds not known to the outsider world.
¡@¡@How did he get started on Chinese underground mission ?
¡@¡@It all began with one of his students, he was doing his underground China mission work, who was later married to a Chinese believer. His student then invited him to join the Christian venture. Andrew's mission work has begun to snowball year after year since 1991. He usually goes to China three or four times a year . At times, he feels that he may never return to Taiwan. Many of his Christian friends have been jailed for Christian mission. Security is no guaranteed particularly for somebody who is holding a passport from Taiwan. Andrew's story is one of the typical examples of Holy Light faculty, putting theory into practice.
¡@¡@ Holy Light Theological Seminary is designed to train, educate, cultivate those who will spread Gospel news of God's kingdom with the view of promoting the growth of Chinese churches and establishing the scope of seminary enrollment of 300-500 students. It is hoped that Holy Light may become one of the finest theological seminaries in Asia preparing students to fulfill great commission in four years to come.