Blessed are those who are being persecuted for righteousness sake. I always remember these precious words from the living book of life when I hear of how our Chinese brothers and sisters are being arrested for simply printing the Bible and other Christian material.
Here in America I don't think most Christians have any sense of how blessed we are to have not only many Christian publishing houses, but thousands of Christian bookstores where we can go and buy anything we want about Christianity. In China, they do not have this blessing - instead pastors are being arrested by the Domestic Security Protection Squad for "illegally" printing and distributing Bibles and other Christian material.
This very thing happened on May 26th to Wang Zaiqing, a house-church planter and pastor. Pastor Wang was giving away the materials, to fellow Christians, free of charge, and yet was accused of of “being involved in illegal business practices” !!! Unbelievable!
And that is not all because one month earlier, Pastor Wang and his wife were summoned, interrogated and fingerprinted by the Public Security Bureau as Bibles, other Christian literature, bank cards and an electronic piano were confiscated from their house during two searches taking place on April 25th and 26th.
To add insult to injury, the 43-year-old crippled pastor is accused of illegally printing, editing and distributing Christian propaganda material and faces possible sentencing. Pastor Wang was following God’s calling to meet the needs of China’s rapidly growing church, and he is now in the No. 1 Detention Center of Huainan City as a result.
On April 26th, another pastor, Pastor Liu Yuhua of Shandong province was arrested on the same charges, and Pastor Cai Zhuohua of Beijing was sentenced in 2005 to three years in prison for this “crime.”
The good news is that such crackdowns cannot stop the rapid growth of Chinese house churches, as increased persecution has only strengthened the church.
Please pray for these precious saints of God and ask the Lord to use them while they are in prison, and to raise up more godly, passionate and bold pastors who will love and serve the Lord, regardless of the cost.
