BREAKING NEWS: One Million Chinese Bibles Smuggler Dies At Age 70

The man, who was also called "Brother David," passed away early Tuesday, May 8, in a hospital near his home in North Bend, Washington, said Paul Hattaway, the director of Asia Harvest, a major mission organization, in a statement to BosNewsLife. The cause  of death was not immediately clear, but Sutphen was in bad health following several heart attacks.

"Doug Sutphen is best remembered for leading the audacious "Project Pearl" in 1981 – when one million Chinese Bibles, weighing 232 tons, were delivered by barge to thousands of waiting Christians on a beach in southern China," recalled Hattaway.

Time magazine described it at the time as "A remarkable mission…the largest operation of its kind in the history of China."

IN SECRECY

Under a cloak of secrecy because of the highly-sensitive nature of the work in Communist China, Sutphen and his team worked closely with Chinese house church leaders to eventually take one million Bibles into China by boat, all at once.

Starting with no money or resources, "God supernaturally provided everything needed" and the delivery was successfully completed in the evening of 18 June, 1981," said Hattaway, who knew
him well. Over 10,000 Chinese believers gathered along a beach near the city of Shantou in southern China, and took the one million Bibles away in trucks, cars, donkey carts, on bicycles, and strung across bamboo poles.

The army arrived at the beach several hours after the delivery, but the vast majority of Bibles, at least 90%, according to estimates, had been successfully moved by Chinese Christians. Later, the government backed Three-Self church and other officials tried to denounce Project Pearl saying all Bibles had been confiscated or swept out to sea, however Chinese Christians denied these statements. "Project Pearl Bibles had made their way to [word] hungry believers in 18 different provinces, and letters of overwhelming gratitude poured in from Christians who had received their first copy of God’s Word," recalled Hattaway.

Many Chinese church leaders have reportedly described Project Pearl as "a pivotal moment" in their history as the Church had only started to re-emerge after what Hattaway described as decades of "brutal oppression."

CAREER HIGHLIGHT

Project Pearl was seen as a highlight in the Christian work of Doug Sutphen, who became a Christian during a crusade of American evangelist Billy Graham on September 4 in 1963. That conversion followed a time of rebellion against God, said Hattaway.

Sutphen was born in Pennsylvannia in 1936. His father’s job in the military resulted in the family moving to California. After a childhood made difficult by his dyslexia, Doug "wandered away from the Lord and found his identity in playing football," friends said.

Blessed with a powerful physique, he was offered a football playing scholarship at the University of Denver and moved to Colorado in 1955. After his college football career came to an end, Sutphen returned to California where he gained employment as a trainee lithographer in a print shop in downtown Los Angeles. "This training would prove essential in later years when God called Sutphen to a ministry of printing and publishing the Scriptures in Asia. Before this happened, Sutphen completed a six-year stint in the US Marines," added Hattaway.

Following "his dramatic change" at the Billy Graham campaign in the 1960s, Sutphen started his missionary career in the Philippines and joined the Far East Broadcasting Company, a Christian network, becoming the head of its printing department which produced and distributed millions of Bibles and Gospel tracts throughout Asia.

DECADES MINISTRY

"This was the start of 42 years of serving the Body of Christ in Asia, a service which continued up to his death," explained Hattaway.

He said that in the late 1960s Sutphen "received a call from God to provide Bibles to the Church" in China, which was at the time in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, and authorities tried to seal the country’s borders from outside influence.

Described as "crazy" or "naive" by even fellow missionaries, the Gospel warrior soldiered on, friends said. "Piece by piece the Lord unfolded His plan to Sutphen and he was finally able to
get a visa and enter China in 1976," Hattaway said.

In 1979 a few Christian groups began to carry Bibles into China from Hong Kong and Sutphen had joined Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians around. He adopted the name "Brother David" to protect his identity.

GROWING DEMAND

After leading teams of Bible-carrying Christians, which reportedly resulted in the successful delivery of over 30,000 Bibles, Sutphen concluded that carrying Bibles by hand would never be able to meet demand. Eventually after what Hattaway called "much prayer with several key colleagues," ‘Project Pearl’ was born.

Following ‘Project Pearl’ throughout the 1980s and 1990s Sutphen continued with mission work and eventually managed to ask China’s government-sanctioned Amity Press to print Bibles for the unregistered house churches. He was strongly criticized by some for working with China’s  Communists, but Sutphen said he had "forgiven" those condemning him, and continued.

He said it was most important that "God’s Word would get into the hands of Chinese believers," and that the question of how they got there was of "secondary" importance. One of Sutphen’s closest friends David Aikman, journalist and author of ‘Jesus in Beijing’, wasn’t urprised about Sutphen’s reaction to criticism. "Overall there is no other Christian I can recall in the four decades of my own Christian life who has so consistently exhibited such an absolutely Christ-like attitude towards life and towards other Christians; even his adversaries," he said in published remarks. 

Following Project Pearl, Sutphen was able to oversee the distribution of an additional 1.1 million Bibles to Chinese Christians, most of them members of house church fellowships, according to Asia Harvest.

REACHING NORTH KOREA

Sutphen also wanted to reach Christians in North Korea and visited the country on several occasions.

He was even able by "God’s grace" to preach the Gospel to North Korean government officials and diplomats, Hattaway claimed.

But in the 1990s it became increasingly difficult for him to work. In 1995 he was struck with four heart-attacks in the space of 72 days. Three different doctors told him he was going to die, however Sutphen claimed his work for the Church in Asia was not yet finished. While his colleagues were anticipating news of his death, Sutphen and his Chinese wife Meiling founded ‘Love China Ministries International’. The organization aimed at further serving churches in Asia.

People who knew them said Doug Sutphen and his wife Meiling, whom he married in the early 1990s after an apparently painful divorce,  "made a beautiful team", walking through struggles and successes together. "Meiling broke the news of Doug’s passing, and is heart-broken by the loss of her best friend and life partner," said Hattaway whose group urged supporters to "pray the peace of the Holy Spirit will comfort her during these difficult days." Meiling plans to continue the work of Love China Ministries from their home in North Bend.

KEEPING ALIVE

"God kept Doug Sutphen alive and allowed him to serve Jesus Christ for 12 more years after the doctors announced he would die. These years have been filled with challenges, as partial blindness and the scourge of diabetes ravaged Sutphen’s body," Hattaway said.

"Still he retained a joyful and positive spirit, and was always full of encouragement to everyone he met. In 2005 I was privileged to spend a week at his bedside in Washington, and felt closely bonded to this dear brother in Christ as we prayed and talked about God’s work in China."

Remarkably, in late 2005 Sutphen made yet another trip to his beloved China to meet with church leaders and plan new strategies for evangelization. Months of planning reportedly went into finding an airline that could accept his wheelchair and walker and hotels in China with the right facilities. When Chinese Christians saw him they "hugged him dearly and tears rolled down their cheeks," Hattaway remembered.

"Here was a warrior of the Gospel ­ someone who had been literally willing to die to bring them the Word of God during their darkest hour of suffering. He was someone who brought them food when they were hungry, water when they were thirsty, and clothes when they were naked." Before he died, Sutphen reportedly said: "I want a revival, not a funeral."

There are thousands of missionaries working in China today, doing a myriad of different activities, "but those who can claim to have been serving the Lord in China as far back as the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s can be counted on one hand," Hattaway stressed. Doug Sutphen was one of them, and the Chinese have long memories. (With reports from Asia and the USA).

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