Tuesday, September 18, 2007
OASIS Group Hears Dan Hubbell View Life With a Missionary's Heart
TINNEY TALK
Observations by Joe Dan Boyd
ON THE ROAD AGAIN! That phrase identifies not just the well-traveled singer Willie Nelson! It also describes Winnsboro’s own Rev. Dan Hubbell, one of God’s obedient, globe-trotting, go-to guys, frequently on long missionary journeys, usually in dangerous locales where his liberty or life is at stake. Otherwise, Rev. Dan may simply wait for the Holy Spirit to issue new missionary marching orders from the quiet solitude of his home in Winnsboro, a town he regards as his personal version of Antioch, home base and launching pad for another well-traveled missionary, the early church Apostle Paul.
TINNEY CHAPEL’S OASIS GROUP heard Rev. Dan answer questions recently about his seven missionary journeys to mainland China, where he is known as “Dan Bobo,” an affectionate Chinese designation for “favorite great uncle.” There, his mission is to the 100-million-plus “underground” Christians who are unwilling to join the eight million registered members of an officially sanctioned, and highly regimented, government Christian church.
THE OFFICIAL CHINESE VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY prohibits teaching from the Book of Revelation, prohibits teaching that Jesus is the only way of salvation and prohibits church membership or participation by anyone under the age of 18. Such an attitude also prohibits the very existence of an “underground” Christian church, which means that Rev. Dan’s teaching in China is always done behind closed doors and covered windows in crowded rooms or sometimes in caves, reminiscent of some early church Christians who hid out in catacombs to escape persecution.
GOD’S PRESENCE PERMEATES SUCH PLACES, emphasizes Rev. Dan, who attributes such cogent charisma to a powerfully high faith level among Chinese Christians, another trait reminiscent of the early church. Rev. Dan also believes that such a forceful faith level accounts for miracles that he has personally witnessed in China’s underground church.
REV. DAN’S APOSTOLIC CALLING is still in full swing as he prepares, at age 71, for his third missionary journey to the Philippines and his first missionary journey to India. Not bad for a go-to guy who signs all correspondence as “His servant, from a hired house in Winnsboro, Texas, USA!”
For more on Rev. Dan Hubbell, go to http://www.churchrestoration.org/bio.html
