Internet Survey

An email got me thinking the other day about a missionary in China’s presence on the internet. So I did a quick survey on google to see how easily you could find information about someone IF someone was looking for it.

I simply typed the following “First & Last Name China” in the search bar on google. Out of the 20 different men’s names that I entered followed by the word “China”, 17 of those returned results on the first page about that person being a missionary in China. 3 of the names didn’t return results on the first page or the first ten listings.

The men’s names represented a variety of people, ministry, background, and time in China. Of course, I won’t post the names and actual results of the survey because then I wouldn’t have any friends left and get lots of hate mail.

I will just state what I found from my little survey and let you draw your own conclusions.

Note: Chinese people don’t really use google.

4 thoughts on “Internet Survey

  1. John Yingling

    Hey brother, I thoroughly enjoy your ramblings. We have missionaries in China and I have been there five times (Hong Kong, Guangzou, Shanghai, Kunming, Xiamen, etc.). I want to encourage you. I have had the privilege to speak in house churches and Three Self Churches. One time police lined the back and laughed through my entire message.

    Just one thing, I do have a question. I do the same search on google for my missionaries. I thought I read somewhere that the Chinese Government hacked google for information. Just curious. I appreciate your wisdom and boldness. You know the Lord told us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

    1. Mark (China Ramblings!) Post author

      Hey John,

      Thanks for the comment.

      I heard the same thing about the Chinese government hacking google for information. I actually got a phone about it. You can do a simple search and find out that there are two sides of the story, the government denies the attacks but then you have Google pulling out of China etc. Who knows what the truth is. What information where they after? It probably wasn’t me :)

      The whole point of this post was to show that the government doesn’t have to hack to find out about missionaries because all the information is readily available and nothing is happening. Why is nothing happening? I will never deny the technology is possible because enough research will scare anyone to not post anything on the internet. I think missionaries are low on the governments radar and they aren’t investing money into hunting down missionaries online.

      I could be wrong but from looking at the facts and actual situations leaving the “fear” aspect of it aside, I see no great danger at this present time. Every worker in China must make there own decisions about their “online presence”. One day it might be a serious problem, but I have found that when you worry about the smallest of things, you usually let that affect the larger more important things.

      You know the Bible does say “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: But the righteous are bold as a lion.” :)

  2. Sherrill Campbell

    Mark: Shiley and I are praying for you and for the person you gave the Chinese Bible and the Chinese language copy of Pilgrim’s Progress.

    And for continued progress your language studies.

    Central Fellowship Baptist Church
    Macon, GA

  3. Pingback: Must reads about the China Missionaries | Training for World Evangelism

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