Aaron and Ellen San are missionaries.  What makes them different to most missionaries is that firstly, they are missionaries to the Chinese Community in the Solomon Islands; secondly, Aaron was an atheist for many years; and thirdly they were only baptised five year ago into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in China.

The Sans married in April 2013 and heard about the need for a young couple to replace the first missionaries in Solomon Islands.  They prayed for six months and God opened the way.  At the end of March 2014, Aaron and Ellen came and began their evangelistic work. Previously, there were 4 baptised members, with three further members expressing their wish to be baptised and about ten other interests in Honiara, Gizo and Auki.

“We came to serve the Chinese community in Honiara because we both had a passion to reach out to young people, and we wanted the opportunity to put our faith into action,” Aaron said. “Another reason was that I had the privilege of being able to speak English and we thought it would be another learning journey to serve the Lord overseas, to work together with the local church members and to serve the Chinese community,” he continued.

The Chinese community in Solomon Islands is unique.  There are many young shop assistants, from 16 to 30 years old, working in different stores.  They are mainly from southern China and gave up school early because they don’t like to study. These young people working in stores are the main target.

“We go to the Chinese stores to make new friends and make contacts for Bible studies.  Sometimes we conduct Bible studies in their shops but we found that when customers come into the shop we have to stop our studies. So it’s hard to work out a schedule for giving Bible studies on a regular basis”.

Greater Sydney Support for the Chinese Ministry

In September 2014 Kellyville layman, Ken Long, met Aaron and Ellen San. “I was trying to arrange a taxi and asked if they could help,” Ken said, “and then we got talking about what they were doing in the Solomon Islands and their desperate need for Bibles and other literature”.

“They told me that they didn’t have any Chinese Bibles or other literature so when I came back to Australia I started to raise some funds”, Ken said.  “The Chinese church and three Chinese lay people gave generous donations and we were able to send Aaron and Ellen Chinese New Testaments, Bibles and other literature”. They believe that all the Bibles and literatures will greatly bless the Chinese community and bless all who work with this ministry.

Aaron said, “For quite a long time, we struggled with conducting Bible studies because we had no resources to give our for Bible interests. But now we can distribute the Bibles and literature to our Chinese friends in Honiara. At the same time, we’ll send copies to other parts of the country to give out for we have Bible interests there also. In Gizo, 2 ladies have made up their minds to follow Jesus in last August”.

Contributed by Ken Long, who is raising funds for the Chinese Ministry as well as funds for Books for the Solomons to help promote literacy in our Adventist Schools.  Ken can be contacted on ken_long100@hotmail.com.