Michelle Schneider, a 21-year-old German Christian who works in China, didn't expect to find so many churches open to the public in Beijing. She was also surprised that Chinese churchgoers openly informed her that they were loyal followers of Jesus Christ.

This is a totally different scenario to what she imagined before she came to China. Schneider was under the impression that being a Christian was illegal in China, yet she found locals reading the Bible daily, both in English and Chinese versions.

She discovered that by the end of 2006, China had published 43 million copies of the Bible, of which, 476,605 have been published since the 1980s, including versions in eight of China's minority languages.

Schneider said her friends back in Germany were unconvinced about her "awakening," but have since had to admit that Christianity is alive and flourishing after they visited the country and saw for themselves.

This summer, a Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Protestant Church of China will be held in Germany, something that has Schneider over the moon. It is the first time that such an exhibition has been held in Europe, and the third overseas tour of the exhibition after 2004 and 2006, when it was held in Hong Kong and the United States, respectively.

At the invitation of the Evangelical Church in Germany, organizers of the German Protestant Kirchentag and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria, an impressive display of historic Bibles and Christian art exhibits will be shown during the German Protestant Kirchentag in Cologne from June 6 to 10.

This will be the first time for the Chinese Church to participate officially in the Kirchentag, the largest convention of Protestants in Europe that takes place every two years in a different city of Germany. With nearly 4,000 guests from abroad and about 150,000 German participants, it is also a very large and significant ecumenical event

On this occasion, a bilingual edition of the Gospel of Luke has been published in German and Chinese to be distributed to visitors of the exhibition. A delegation led by Cao Shengjie, President of the China Christian Council, will travel to Germany with the exhibition.

"The purpose of the exhibition is to show the religious freedom Chinese Protestants enjoy and the deep love they have for the Bible, and to promote the mutual understanding between the peoples from the two countries," Cao told a press conference in May.

Using the theme, "A Lamp Unto My Feet, A Light Unto My Path," the exhibition will trace the course of the Bible's early journey in China, Bible publication and distribution since 1980, Bible ministries for ethnic minority churches and church life. It also displays Christian art works from six galleries.

Early entry

Christianity was introduced to China early in the seventh century, when China was in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). However, since it failed to integrate with the Chinese culture and society, it did not develop very well and once even disappeared in the eastern country.

Entering the 19th century, Christianity returned to China. Since then, foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians have contributed a lot in translating and publishing the Bible in China, according to the China Christian Council.