book review - Across the China Sky

Title: Across the China Sky
Author: C. Hope Flinchbaugh
Publisher: Bethany House, 2006
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 9780764202391

After Liko says goodbye to his fiancee Mei Lin at the Tanching train station so she can spend the summer in Shanghai helping in an underground orphanage, he thinks the months will drag. But then the beautiful Jade arrives to offer an opportunity for Liko and other house church leaders to study at the prestigious Haggai Institute in Singapore. Soon an excited Liko and about two dozen others are being whisked across the countryside in vans with darkened windows. Before long, though, the premonitions some have had about this trip prove true as group members are divested of their ID cards and cell phones, then separated and driven to remote locations for indoctrination by Eastern Lightning cult members.

Meanwhile in Shanghai Mei Lin finds herself falling in love with the kids in the orphanage – especially Little Mei, the newborn girl she rescues from the trash. Even she is surprised at the strength of her maternal instincts and because of her own difficult secret, dreams that Little Mei will be the answer to a prayer. It’s no wonder, then, that she’s upset when a childless couple insist they would like to adopt Little Mei.

The plot develops as Flinchbaugh follows these two story threads in chapters alternately narrated from the viewpoint of Mei Lin and various characters on the Haggai Institute trip including Liko, Li Na (Liko’s mother), and Kwan So (Mei Lin’s father). Because the reader doesn’t have much more information than the characters do, it's a suspenseful read.

The main characters make interesting studies. Though I have not read Flinchbaugh’s first book about Mei Lin (Daughter of China), I had no trouble relating to this sincere, humble, hardworking, and likeable young woman. Liko matures as he sees the folly of his headstrong, though well-intentioned ways. His discerning and intuitive mother Li Na also plays a key role in the story. The only downside to the characters were all those unfamiliar Chinese names. More than once I had to look back to remind myself of who was who.

Shanghai and Tanching, a village in the countryside, are the settings for this tale of modern China. I found it somewhat disorienting to be in the presence of the old (crowded, simple houses and plowing with water buffalo) and the new (vans and cell phones) simultaneously. The social fallout from recent Chinese laws and family policy enter the story through the orphanage scenes. And of course the Chinese government’s stand on unregistered religious groups is pivotal to this tale of people involved in China’s illegal house church movement.

A main theme of the story is deception. The characters deal with this on several levels, grappling with how it happened that even the most astute and mature of them got drawn into this misadventure, and facing the issue of how to discern unorthodox biblical teaching. In this department, besides emphasizing the necessity of the usual things like knowing the Bible, and spending time in prayer and fasting before making decisions, the characters also exhibit an openness to things like premonitions, dreams, and visions to a degree not typically seen in the west.

Flinchbaugh’s firsthand experience with Chinese Christians makes her a credible witness to these things, however. Judging from her writing credits, she has had a career-long interest in telling the story of the persecuted church, having published many pieces on this subject in a variety of publications. She developed this particular story after meeting with and interviewing Chinese house church leaders who had themselves been kidnaped by Eastern Lightning cult members.

The story comes to a satisfying close, though some ends remain untied. Perhaps there is a sequel in the works? Across the China Sky is Flinchbaugh’s second book about Mei Lin and I’m sure readers would welcome yet another installment in the life of this courageous young character.