Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn is a book that the Pastor of our church recommended one Sunday. He had a couple of copies for sale at our church bookstore and I bought one. It’s a great story that I’d highly recommend, and I will try to pass my copy around. Alcorn’s story of China’s Li Quan and his former college roommate, American, Ben Fielding, as they encountered persecution for the cause of Christ in China was a revelation to me. It made me re-evaluate my own walk in faith. Am I frightened only that someone may disapprove of me, and so then never share with them the gospel? Do I look for reasons not to share? Do I focus on my small risks and not the overwhelming reward for the soul that finds salvation? Do I fail to consider heaven in the rush of this earth? Am I truly thankful for the freedoms that yet remain in my own country?

In contrast, Li Quan had to face the possibility that sharing the gospel with the wrong person would result in his very death. Yet this he does willingly, and to the shame of Ben Fielding who grew up in the church, but in the rush of business, fell away. Indeed, Fielding had come to consider the gospel a hindrance to his business investments.

But a wiser investor, Li considers the sharing of the gospel a small risk, and a promise of great reward. For Li knows the truth that this life is for just a little while, and that great and eternal reward lies in heaven. And regarding, heaven, this was perhaps the best part of the book. The scene regularly changes to heaven, where the angels, saints, and the Lord observe the action, and lovingly await the return of the faithful. As I read the book, I thought, what can I do for the persecuted church? And indeed there is much that can be done, but as Ben Fielding worked mightily and nobly to DO something to free Li Quan from prison, Li Quan gently reminds him of the most important and effective thing he, and we can do….. to pray to the Creator of all.