CHINESE BIBLE SMUGGLER ‘BROTHER DAVID’ DIES AT 70

Sources: BosNewsLife, Assist News Service

Dough Sutphen, who became known for leading an operation to smuggle 1 million Bibles to China, died early Tuesday, May 8, at the age of 70. Also known as “Brother David” to protect his identity, he passed away in a hospital near his home in North Bend, Wash., said Paul Hattaway, director of Asia Harvest. The cause of his death was not immediately clear, but Sutphen was in bad health

“Dough Sutphen is best remembered for leading “Project Pearl” in 1981 when 1 million Chinese Bibles, weighing 232 tons, were delivered by barge to thousands of waiting Christians on a beach in southern China,” recalled Hattaway. Time magazine described the effort as a “remarkable mission . . . the largest operation of its kind in the history of China.”

Following Project Pearl, Sutphen oversaw the distribution of an additional 1.1 million Bibles to Chinese Christians, most of them members of house churches, according to Asia Harvest. He is one of few missionaries who began working during China’s Cultural Revolution. In 1995 he was struck with four heart attacks in the space of 72 days. Three different doctors told him he was going to die, but Sutphen maintained that his work for the church in Asia was not yet finished. His last trip to China was in 2005.