When my undercover missionary family returned to the US after getting kicked out of China following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, we'd been instructed by the Communists never to speak of what we'd seen or heard. Above all, we were told never to come back.

There was just one problem: my mother believed God had given her a divine mission to organize the first-ever Christian concert in Communist China, where Christian activity of any kind is highly illegal and strictly forbidden.

Upon returning to the US, mom set out on a decade-long journey to contact and convince a world-renowned Christian band to visit China for no pay, and with no guarantees of a safe or even certain return, and to somehow convince the Chinese government to not only allow all of this to take place, but to sponsor and promote the entire thing themselves.

Through a series of synchronicity, dumb luck, chance encounters, "divine intervention," serendipity, coincidence, and a heaping helping of sheer audacity, a deal was reached and a series of dates were booked for October 1999 with the biggest Christian musical act in the world: the award-winning Australian pop/rock band, the Newsboys.

Because of mom's duplicity in the arrangement, China didn't know they'd booked a Christian band, and the Newsboys didn't know that China didn't know they were a Christian act - a potentially deadly disaster waiting to happen. Then, 12 days before the concert dates - after 10 arduous years in the making - the Newsboys had to back out.

Not one to a let a little thing like "not having a band" get in the way of throwing a concert of global proportions for God, mom hastily improvised: she found a local church drummer, bass player, and lead singer where she was living in Pittsburgh; enlisted me (in Florida) as the keyboardist, and told me to go find "a great guitarist with a passport." Our mission (should we choose to accept): with the 5 of us living in different states and unable to rehearse together, somehow become a unified band in 12 days, prepared to go to China under threat of arrest and/or possible death, and masquerading as the real Newsboys with all of China none the wiser.

With potentially international consequences, what unfolded was one of the most improbable, harrowing, exhilarating, usually hilarious, and ultimately triumphant tales of courage, resourcefulness, teamwork, adventure, perseverance, creativity, the power of intention and positive thinking, faith, and a steadfast refusal to let obstacles or fear stand in the way of "the mission" becoming the Newsboys to the entire country of China, and pulling off the Greatest Musical Hoax of the 20th century.