The Story of Apple County and Us

Background: How we became missionaries

WH first started thinking about becoming a missionary during high school, when he went on a short-term mission trip to Mexico. Reading Desiring God by John Piper further inspired him. When attending Harvard as an undergrad, he chose physics as his major partly because he wanted to see if a lightsaber could be invented, and if so, how. But he also wanted to understand the laws of nature in a way that prove the existence of God to unbelievers. His heart was missional from a fairly young age.

Later in college, he took a class on Chinese culture and history, which he loved, and a specific direction began to emerge. After graduating from college, he took a position as a high school teacher in the Philadelphia School District because he wanted to stay as close to underserved communities as possible while preparing to go overseas. During that time, he went to China during the summers to teach English and to evangelize. His first longer stint overseas occurred from 2001 to 2003, when he taught and evangelized in China. 

Although the time was very fruitful, with many converts, he also felt unable to do much discipling. He needed more training in the Bible and theology. So in 2003, he started an M.Div. at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. He also started an M.A. in Linguistics, hoping to do Bible translation one day in China.

Stage 1: Christian education and Bible translation

In 2012, Won Ho was ordained in the PCA and was sent to China. He dove into language learning and began preaching in Chinese around 2016. He was also involved in secondary Christian education and theological education in an underground seminary. 

From 2015, he started learning a Tibetan minority language spoken in a remote, rural region in China (which we call “Apple County,” or “AC” for short). And his dream of translating the Bible came true! But he quickly ran into a question that didn’t seem to bother anyone else: Who was going to use the translation? AC doesn’t have any believers or a church that would potentially use it. Some Catholic believers that we had contact with preferred their Chinese translation (a specifically Catholic one). 

To WH, it seemed obvious: for this people group right now, the need wasn’t a translation. It was evangelism. It was personal access to the gospel. It was conversations that could be had in the context of friendship.

At this time, in 2017, WH and Kayla got married. And they started to pray and think about the future together. What direction would they take?

With WH’s new convictions, they decided that their main strategy would be a simple but difficult one: go to the people, share the love of Christ with them as we stay long-term with them, and make disciples.

Stage 2: Going to the people and setting up various businesses

This strategy of going to the people sounds simple, but in practice, it’s very difficult. Tibetan regions like AC are especially tightly monitored and controlled. Security is very tight. Local authorities have the power to kick anyone out, including Chinese nationals.

So we need a clear reason to be in the region. By God’s providence, we have been able to establish a relationship with local apple farmers (which is why we call it “Apple County”). And this was a good start.

Now, we want a platform that can help us connect with more people on a year-round basis (as opposed to something seasonal like apples). Being with the people is one thing, but establishing a wide network of relationships is another.

So now, our plan is to continue working with the apple farmers, but also to start a café with a kids’ play area, lending library, and workshop space for members to learn about various topics. A café that can function as a community center of sorts.

Our hope is that these businesses will help us stay in AC and serve the people in concrete ways. But our ultimate goal is to use these businesses for the purpose of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

Thank you for your interest in our work!