Earlier this week our partner in ministry from China Aid, Bob Fu, was the subject of a wonderful interview by Mary Kissel from the Wall Street Journal editorial board.  Mary visited China Aid to learn more about how Bob and China Aid are ministering to the underground church in China.

When you listen to this short discussion with Fox News reporter you'll learn about Bob's work, and how the Obama administration has treated China Aid compared to the previous administration.

I know you will be very encouraged to hear this discussion, as it is extremely positive and is praising the work of China Aid and supports what he is doing to reach the unsaved in China and minister to those who are part of the underground church.

You may read the full Wall Street Journal article here.  You may watch the full video interview here.

The following press release is from our friends at China Aid, please pray.

(Yinan, Shandong—May 24, 2012) ChinaAid has learned that blind lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng’s older brother, Chen Guangfu, escaped from his home in Shandong province, where he was under strict surveillance, and has made it to Beijing where he is seeking legal help for his son, who has been charged with intent to murder.

ChinaAid expresses its indignation and condemnation of the authorities of Yunan county in coastal Shandong province for their continued persecution of the family of Chen Guangcheng, who arrived in the United States over the weekend, and for illegally restricting the personal freedom of Chen’s older brother, Chen Guangfu, in their home village of Dongshigu. Chen Guangfu fled Wednesday morning and made it to Beijing Wednesday night where he is appealing for help in his son Chen Kegui’s case.

ChinaAid appeals to the Chinese side to earnestly implement the agreement reached with the United States and, in accordance with the law, to investigate the legal responsibility and accountability of local officials involved in the persecution of Chen Guangcheng and his relatives.

ChinaAid also calls on the international community to once again focus international attention on Chen Guangfu’s family, and urges the worldwide church to intercede in prayer, that God's righteousness flow unobstructed throughout the world.

ChinaAid has suggested that Chen Guangfu stay in Beijing to continue his efforts on behalf of his son Chen Kegui, so as to avoid his own illegal arrest and detention prior to a just resolution to his son’s case.

The Chen Guangcheng incident is not yet over.

 

Bob Fu, one of our ministry partners, over at China Aid, has written a wonderful blog post today explaining the how American Christians can minister to the Chinese and also a little bit about how he came to faith in Christ, after being raised in communist China where they are taught that God doesn't exist.  Here's part of what Bob says...

Like most Chinese, I was educated as an atheist. All textbooks, philosophy classes, and conferences taught us that the Christian faith is an "opiate of the people's spirit" that Westerners use to numb and neutralize the creativity of the Chinese mind.

But as a student of English literature at Liaocheng University in Shandong province in 1987, my American teachers after class would sometimes pull out what we Chinese students called a "Little Red Book." It was a pocket Bible. And from it they shared what they called "the Good News."

...

Americans like to see things get done instantly: fast food, Twitter, and even "shock and awe" military campaigns. In the 1990s, one ministry organization put an ad in a major Christian magazine calling for donations with the slogan "one dollar, one soul," the idea being one dollar will purchase one Bible in China, which will help convert one Chinese soul. This instant-noodle approach to the life-and-death decision to accept Christ as one's only Savior and Lord is counterproductive. Chinese souls cannot be harvested like stalks of corn in a field, or iPads on an assembly line.

Missionaries should study China and it's people, culture, and history, which is almost 20 times longer than U.S. history. Especially after 60 years of communism and wave after wave of class struggle, Chinese are desperate for trust. Many of my classmates were more willing to share their personal secrets with our American teachers than with fellow Chinese students because they found the teachers trustworthy and caring. The American teachers I know said it took years living and interacting with the Chinese before their mission bore spiritual fruit.

Very poignant thoughts and well worth reading the rest.  Please click here to read all of Bob's commentary and please pray for the Chinese that they may come to know Christ.

Over the weekend many of us watched in amazement as the story of a blind Chinese activist, Chen Guangcheng captured headlines and received international attention.  Today, CBN News reported the following in a video report concerning what is happening with Chen and his wife, who was reportedly beaten.

You may also read full coverage at China Aid and see the work, our friend, Bob Fu, from China Aid Association has put together.

 

You may read the full CBN News story here. 
Please also pray for those in positions of power to take action to protect Chen and his wife.

Sadly, Christians who live in oppressive, dictatorial, Islamic and communist countries do not have the blessing of worshipping freely the way Americans do.  I am soberly reminded every major Christian holiday, that for me, as an American, I can worship freely in my home or church and not have to worry about being arrested or have any harm come to me.  However, for Christians in other nations who believe in and serve the same Jesus I do, they don't have that blessing.  Instead, what often happens during the Christmas season and the Easter season is that my brothers and sisters in these nations, often get martyred, or severely injured because of the attacks that increase during the time of the year where Christians observe the birth and resurrection of Jesus.

This coming Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, so I would request that you please remember Christians in nations that oppress Christians.   The following news item is from China Aid and is just one small example of what Chinese believers are being warned not to do on Easter.

China Aid Association

(Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia—April 2, 2012) In a blatant trampling of religious freedom, police in Inner Mongolia broke up a prayer meeting of house church lay leaders over the weekend and warned the participants not to hold any meetings for Easter, the most important event on the Christian calendar.

More than 20 house church lay leaders had gathered for a prayer meeting Saturday afternoon, March 31, in Ulanhot when about 10 police and government officials from the local police station, the national Domestic Security Protection Department, the Public Security Bureau and the Religious Affairs Bureau burst into the meeting and broke it up, saying it was an illegal meeting. The police and officials took photographs of all the participants, including brother Ning Mengyao from neighboring Jilin province who was leading the meeting.

The police and officials also confiscated the Christians’ notebook computers, cameras, cellphones as well as three or four cases of Christian books legally published by the government’s own Christian publishing house in Nanjing, the Amity Press. The police refused to give a receipt for any of the confiscated items as required by law. They also warned all the participants that they were not allowed to hold any meetings related to Easter. Traditionally, Christians mark the week leading up to Easter, which this year is April 8, with Holy Week or Passion Week activities on Thursday and Friday. The Easter activities culminate with a joyous celebration on Resurrection Sunday.

ChinaAid expresses its strong condemnation of this action in Ulanhot and calls on local authorities throughout China to respect the religious beliefs and practices of Christians and churches in China during this Passion Week and on Easter Day and to protect the lawful rights of Chinese citizens to freedom of religion. ChinaAid also urges the Hulanhot authorities to immediately return the confiscated personal and church belongings. ChinaAid will continue to closely monitor developments in this case.

Many of you are familiar with Gao Zhisheng, a prisoner in China, who we have been advocating for since he was taken captive.  If you're not acquainted with his case, you may learn about him at www.freegao.com and also sign the petition to help him.

Our friends at China Aid released the following news yesterday:

(Shaya, Xinjiang—March 28, 2012) ChinaAid has confirmed that relatives of prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng were finally allowed to visit him in prison last weekend, putting to rest fears that the pioneer in the growing Christian legal defense movement in China had died during the two-plus years of his forced disappearance into police custody.

Gao’s older brother and his father-in-law were permitted a half-hour meeting with Gao on March 24 at the Shaya prison, in a remote part of Xinjiang in far western China. They were able to see each other through a glass window and converse using a prison phone.

Gao’s wife, Geng He, telephoned ChinaAid’s founder and president Rev. Bob Fu on Tuesday night confirming the meeting and providing details. She said that her husband broke into tears when her father told Gao, “My health is greatly improved now that I have seen you.” Gao, who has disappeared into police custody several times since 2006, was last seen by his family members in April 2010 when he briefly resurfaced after a previous long period of disappearance.  During that time, he gave an extensive interview to the Associated Press, an American wire service, in which he gave a detailed account of brutal torture inflicted on him by Chinese police.

Gao’s wife said he looked fine during the weekend prison visit, which was conducted under the watchful eye of prison officials and Public Security Bureau officials. The PSB instructed Gao’s family members not to talk to the outside world about the visit.
PSB officers from Gao’s hometown in Shaanxi province had accompanied Gao’s older brother, Gao Zhiyi, on the entire trip from central China, a journey of more than 3000 kilometers (more than 2000 miles) to Shaya.

During their half-hour visit, Gao asked his brother to deposit 600 yuan ($100) into his prison account. Gao also asked about wellbeing of his family.

Gao’s brother cried a lot and said to Gao's wife, “I am relieved after finally being able to see that he is at least alive.”

Geng He expressed her deep gratitude to ChinaAid for its advocacy and legal and financial support.

ChinaAid’s Fu said, “We are glad to finally get this good news.” But he added, “For the sake of true justice and the rule of law in China, the Chinese government should immediately release attorney Gao without any conditions. Gao is totally innocent.”

Gao was sentenced on Dec. 22, 2006, to a three-year suspended prison term for “subversion” and was placed on probation for five years. On Dec. 16, 2011, just days before the end of the five-year probation period, China’s central government announced through the official Xinhua News Agency that the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court had sentenced Gao to a three-year prison term because he “had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation.”

Please read the full story here.   Please keep praying for Gao and his family and this situation.  God is listening!

The following news is from our friends at China Aid who monitor what is happening with Christians being persecuted in China.  Please pray for China today and all of the Christians who are living under their communist government.

(Aksu, Xinjiang—March 20, 2012) A house church in far west China’s region of Xinjiang that has been meeting for nearly two decades was raided Sunday by police, who took more than 70 Christians into custody.

The incident happened at around 10 p.m. March 18 in a house church in Aral Shehri’s 12th Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, in Aksu prefecture. The house church has been meeting for nearly 20 years, and more than 70 Christians were gathered at Pastor He Enjun’s home when suddenly more than 10 policemen and Domestic Security Protection agents burst into the room.

Announcing that the meeting was an “unapproved, illegal meeting,” they “order[ed] an immediate end to the meeting.” After forcing each Christian there to be photographed, they took them to the respective local police stations of their places of employment for questioning. Some were not released for two days.

The police also confiscated the Christian’s Bibles, hymnals, notebooks, Christian education DVDs, and other materials, but refused to provide a receipt for the confiscated items as required by law.

The pastor and his wife who were the hosts of the Sunday meeting were called into the local police station again on Monday night at about 10 p.m. for further questioning. They were threatened by the police, who ordered them to stop holding meetings in their home.

ChinaAid calls for an end to this gross interference into the religious freedom of the citizens of Xinjiang.

Media are encouraged to call:
Beat cop Yang Erjin—15599785551
Local police station—15599966663

I am so happy to share with you this great news about our sister Li Ying.  Many of you have joined me and thousands of others in writing letters of encouragement to Li over the past few years.  Now we get to rejoice that she's been set free early.  Praise the Lord!   

The following is courtesy of China Aid...

(Jinmen, Hubei—Feb. 22, 2012) A Christian newspaper editor and house church leader sentenced in 2002 to 15 years’ imprisonment for “intentional assault” was released almost five years before the end of her prison term as the result of a world-wide letter-writing campaign and other international efforts on her behalf.

Li Ying, of the South China Church in Hubei province, was released on Dec. 25, 2011. She tearfully told ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu that during her 10 years in prison, thousands of letters for her were sent to the prison. She said the letters had helped to significantly improve her prison conditions and contributed to her early release. She expressed thanks to ChinaAid and asked ChinaAid to convey her gratitude to the international community and churches worldwide.

Li was one of the first prisoners featured by the international human rights group Voice of the Martyrs on its www.prisoneralert.com website, from where concerned Christians to write letters of encouragement to imprisoned Christians. According to Voice of the martyrs, more than 11,400 letters were written to Li through the site since 2004.

Li is the niece of Pastor Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church, one of the fastest growing house-church movements in China. She was also editor in chief of the church newspaper, South China Special Edition (Huanan Zhuankan). She had been arrested several times and had previously spent a year in prison in 1996.

As a condition of her release, Li was required to sign a guarantee to submit to “community correction,” which included the requirement that she live only in government-appointed neighborhoods and attend government-appointed churches.

In December 2001, Li was one of 17 South China Church leaders who were convicted of “using a cult to undermine enforcement of the law,” five of whom were sentenced to death. Li was one of them. But as a result of the ensuing international outcry, a higher court in Hubei revoked the death sentences in September 2002, citing lack of clarity about certain facts and insufficient evidence, and the Jinmen Intermediate Court in October 2002 retried the case. Instead of the crime of “using a cult, ” the five who had been condemned to death were convicted of “intentional assault.” 

The five were Gong Shengliang, Xu, Fuming, Hu Yong, Gong Bangkun, and Li Ying. Gong Shengliang was also convicted of rape. Three of them—Gong Shengliang, Xu Fuming, and Hu Yong—were sentenced to life imprisonment.  Gong Bangkun and Li Ying were given 15-year prison terms.

Source: China Aid

Today I thought that I would give you a recap of the stories we shared with you this week, just in case you missed something.   We have so much to pray for and rejoice in the Lord over.  Please share this with your friends and family who care about the persecution of Christians around the world.

Monday we shared with you a devotion called He Actually Chooses Affliction, a story coming out of Laos and the persecution happening there, and and Persecution Podcast 103 where we focused on prayer for Laos, Pakistan and Azerbiajan.

Tuesday was Valentines Day so we shared with you a letter from Tom White about Asia Bibi, a little history about Valentines Day in our post Valentinus Beheaded in Rome, and
and about a revival happening in Egypt.

Wednesday we shared some news from Pakistan and a new blasphemy charge for Dildar Youcaf , we asked you to help us write 416 more letters to Gao, who is still in prison and we gave you more information on the blasphemy charges from our friends at Mission Network News, concerning Dildar Youcaf.

Thursday we shared some praise coming out of China because of our Bibles Unbound program, as well as some news about a few priests who were abused and released from prison in South Sudan, and a video report from CBN News about the 200 Christians who died in fire in Honduras.

Thank you for reading our blog and for caring about the needs of Christians worldwide.  I pray the Lord blesses you, as you remember that we are bound with them!

China (MNN) — After months of pressure from the international community, the Chinese government released Pastor Shi Enhao early from his two-year sentence of hard prison labor.

According to Voice of the Martyrs, Canada’s source ChinaAid, there is still no explanation for Pastor Shi Enhao’s sudden release one year and six months early. The sentencing of Pastor Shi took place in July, 2011 when he was charged with “illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious meetings.”

Pastor Shi serves as Vice President of Chinese House Church Alliance, a group located along the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu. After his sentence in July, Chinese police confiscated church property including a church vehicle, choir robes, musical instruments, and 140,000 yuan (US$22,160).

Pastor Shi’s conviction and sentence isn’t the only example of persecution this Christian group has suffered. Four months after Pastor Shi’s arrest, various Chinese authorities including officials from the Three-Self Patriotic Church gathered the leaders of Chinese House Church Alliance.

At the gathering, officials told the church leaders that their organization was illegal. All members of Chinese House Church Alliance were ordered to begin attending the Three-Self Patriotic Church -- a church body established and controlled by the Chinese government -- or they would be arrested like their pastor.

ChinaAid publicly denounced the Chinese government, calling on them to “stop their persecution of Suqian Church and to uphold the rights of these citizens to religious freedom and to basic civil rights.” ChinaAid also listed Pastor Shi’s case as number 3 in their 2011 Top 10 Cases of Persecution of Churches and Christians.

The release of Pastor Shi was a tremendous relief, but the Chinese House Church Alliance is still being closely monitored by the Chinese government.

Please pray for strength among the believers as they seek freedom to worship the Lord. Praise God for Pastor Shi’s release and pray that those who are still suffering in prison for their faith may be granted justice.

Source: Mission Network News