The bus screeched to a stop and the door hissed open. Chinese tourists piled out in a single file line.

Crystal Houston, Munford Baptist church, Atoka, Tenn., inched closer and closer until she stood in their walking path. The Southern Cross volunteer from the Big Hatchie Baptist Association’s team held up a red packet filled with a mandarin Bible and Christian literature. At first, everyone walked past her. She inched closer to the bus until finally, a woman reached out and grabbed the packet. When she realized it was a Bible, the Chinese woman bowed and thanked her.

Houston smiled and geared up to hand out another packet.

“Wow! That’s exciting,” she said, noting that she probably has four or five Bibles of her own but this woman probably had none. “Handing out that first Bible just makes you want to keep doing it. Let’s get to work!”

Around 500 Bibles were given out the first night of Southern Cross distribution for the 2011 Chinese New Year. Long-term volunteers worked alongside teams from Big Hatchie Baptist Association in Tennessee and Taiwan. The teams worked two different distribution sites.

Michael Berkley’s heart broke when a young Chinese woman tried to get a Bible, but an older woman jerked her arm away. The pastor of Victory Baptist Church, Henning, Tenn., said the woman came back to him but another person pushed her away.

“Her face will be etched in brain for a long time,” he said. “She wanted a Bible, but no one would let her take one. I’m praying she’ll be able to get a Bible at one of the other Southern Cross distribution sites.”

Across town, hordes of Chinese exited dinner boats. Their path to the bus took them past Southern Cross volunteers passing out Bibles in mass at the second distribution site.

Esther Chien, volunteer from Taiwan, said the tourist traffic was fast and furious all night long. She said one woman stopped and asked her, “Who is God?” Chien put a Bible packet in the woman’s arms and told her to read.

“You just never know what’s going to happen or what people will say when we do this,” Chien, a veteran volunteer for Southern Cross Project, said.

True to Chien’s words, one Chinese man stopped to talk to Lily Wang,* a Chinese woman volunteering alongside the Americans. Wang fell in step with him as a tour guide ushered him back into the line for the waiting bus.

“I’ve been reading the Bible for 15 years,” the man said. “I want to be baptized, but I’m a sinner.”

Wang explained that Jesus died for his sins. He immediately asked to pray, receiving Jesus in his heart. The entire interaction happened in the few minutes between walking from the boat to the bus. As the man’s bus pulled out, he pressed against the window and waved to the volunteers.

Then, he screamed, “I’m finally ready to be baptized.”

*name changed