Yesterday (July 24), our church began a three-day youth summer camp, which was interrupted around 5:30 PM today by police and civil affairs bureau personnel from Yangqu County, where the camp was located.
They took away Pastor An Yankui, Brother Wang Yingjie and his wife, and Brother Cheng Hao. They also called the parents of the children attending the camp to the site. The parents had a discussion with these law enforcement officers at the camp about the Bibles of the children that were confiscated. During this time, a sister from our church who is pregnant with her third child was verbally attacked by the civil affairs bureau personnel.
Eventually, the joint law enforcement team dispersed, but the parents and children remained at the camp. Two brothers and two sisters among the parents continued to negotiate with the law enforcement officers and found out that Pastor An Yankui, Brother Wang Yingjie and his wife, and Brother Cheng Hao had been taken to the Huangzhai Police Station in Yangqu County.
Previously, on June 9, Brother Wang Yingjie and his wife had just been subjected to an illegal 15-day administrative detention. Pastor An Yankui and Brother Cheng Hao had returned from detention last November 21, completing a year’s “sentence.” They were falsely accused of crossing the national border for participating in a gospel meeting.
Just this past Sunday, July 23, our church held a physical gathering in faith, with a baby baptism, new members joining, and a mid-year church members’ meeting. We wish for the Lord’s word to spread quickly, even at the cost of our own interests. Therefore, our church has always been gathering in the name of the Lord and has tried to be as public as possible.
On July 9, the Gengzi Church Disaster Memorial Day, which our church has designated as a national day of prayer, we revisited the church disaster that occurred in Shanxi during the year of Gengzi and were once again inspired. The theme of that day’s prayer meeting was “Filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”
Yes, Amen! Please pray for us! Pray for Shanxi and Taiyuan! Pray for the widespread dissemination of the Lord’s word in this land!
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