One rainy evening in 1998 my wife, Mary opened her email. Among a list of the usual
spam was a letter from China. It was a very compelling message regarding the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. She responded to the message. This began a series of emails over a
period of seven years that has deeply moved our hearts and changed our way of
looking at life and culture.

The person from China first seemed to be a man. This person was ardent for
the Lord and was an itinerant evangelist. As their relationship deepened the
correspondent revealed to Mary that he in fact was a she. She was a college graduate
and had been a person of some responsibility in Chinese society. When she received
Christ she dropped out of her profession to take the gospel to her people. She was
and is a part of the underground church in that great country.

As their communication progressed they both became fascinated with the difference
between the two cultures. What most impressed me (Charles) was the difference in the
struggle to communicate the gospel in China as opposed to communicating the message in
America. Silan writes of rejection by family and society, virtually becoming a non person.
She had to accept persecution as a way of life. Mary wrote her of the materialism that
we had to deal with here, a danger the Chinese church may yet have to face.

In 2001 I wrote a book, A Call to the Ancient Path. We put it up on our
site. Silan read the book. She was deeply moved by the message. She sought help and within
a year had translated it into Chinese. Both translations appear on our site. As you will
see some of our correspondence was around this project. It was amazing to work with someone
I had never seen on the same project at opposite ends of the earth.

On Christmas that year our whole family was gathered together to open presents. After a few
times around the room it came to Mary's turn again, and she no longer had anything to open.

There was a knock at the door.

"Who could that possibly be on Christmas Day?" I exclaimed.

It was a special delivery. The package was small, and it was to Mary. It was a present of
four little Chinese masks from Silan. God's timing was perfect as it is in all things.

We last heard from our sister Silan in March of 2005. She was out of prison and confined
to the city she lives in by the authorities simply because she preaches the Gospel of our Lord
and Savior. In her last letter she warns us abour Chinese spies in America. The letter
reveals her love and worry for our safety.

We are asking everyone to pray for her and to keep her in their heart. Our last
email to her was returned with a notice that her email address has been discontinued.

All of our letters are not posted because some were lost. Mary did not know that one
day she would put them into a book. We are thankful for the ones we have. We hope
they will bless you as they have blessed us. Her short time in our lives has changed us
and dug deep into our hearts. We don't know if she is still with us, but we rejoice that
if she has passed on she is indeed in His presence.

We highly recommend these letters to your heart and soul,

In Christ,
Charles and Mary

P.S. The gaps in time between letters is often due to the fact that Silan was
traveling and preaching the gospel and could not access the Internet.

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CONTENTS PAGE
and begin reading.


These letters have been put together and made into a book.
This book and two others are available for purchase both in print and PDF
downloads from LULU.COM by going to:

ANCIENT PATH BOOKS STOREFRONT

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