This year, China Partner held their international council meeting on June 9-11 in Shanghai, their first conference ever to be held in China, upon CCC's request. Over the years, China Partner (CP) has established ministries through the China Christian Council (CCC) since 1981.

The request was for CP to make courtesy visits to some of the seminaries and bible schools in China and to announce the current developments and curriculums that CP intends to introduce.

At this year's international council meeting, thirteen board members from around the world gathered to review the developments from each nation.

Mr. Burklin, President of China Partner, stated that the committee of representatives "need to be on the same page" and that this council meeting informs the board members the progress of each country's activities.

Because their ministry have been focusing on the development in China, the board members felt that it was important to keep the meetings in China. Burklin commented, "we prayed about this," and decided that their next conference should be in Beijing.

There are eighteen seminaries that are recognized by the Chinese government, and so far CP has the privilege of teaching at sixteen, states Mr. Burklin.

Among the provinces, CP members went to Hangzhou to teach a 3 hr course on pastoral and Christian leadership at two facilities, a bible training seminary and a laymans center on June 11-18, that provided training for two different types of people: the college seminarian, who is studying to be pastor, and the lay person.

With these opportunities, Burklin states that they are training emerging Christian leaders to fulfill the Great Commission.

Also, as a sign of solidarity, CP visited their partners in Hong Kong. Mr. Burklin met with publishing houses who are involved with distributing study bibles and Christian literature. "Whenever we are in China, we update them on CP needs and discussed the shipment of 500 different volumes in China."

Currently there is a high demand for study bibles and commentaries, Mr. Burklin said, with cooperation from two publishing houses, the order is distributed throughout China.