Pray for one Christian woman who has been instrumental in sharing the gospel with a highly restricted minority group. Though she has never received formal training, and despite the physical demands on her frail body, she has been a faithful witness to advance God’s kingdom to this people group.
Read MoreAn underground church in China has developed a discipleship relationship with a family from a highly restricted people group in a sensitive location. This family is part of a small fellowship of Christians that has suffered rejection and persecution within their community. As leaders of the church train the father to evangelize and pastor his people, pray for the security of this family as well as receptive hearts among their community, which has not had a strong Christian witness before now.
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Highly restrictive religious laws. Surveillance cameras lurking around every corner. Police knocking on doors and raiding church gatherings. These are a few among the many challenges our persecuted family in China face each week. Yet despite the communist government’s many attempts to control Christians, the church in China is still growing! Brother Enfu, pastor of an unregistered church, shares on VOM Radio this week the excitement of a growing Body of Christ and the challenges of leading an illegal church congregation. As communist efforts to control and close down churches have escalated, large church gatherings have become almost impossible. This has led to many more meetings with smaller numbers of Christians, raising the need for trained leaders. Brother Enfu will share how Chinese Christians are meeting that need and help us pray specifically for God to raise up leaders within Chinese churches. Brother Enfu serves as a leader in an underground Chinese seminary, training and encouraging pastors and their spouses to take on the challenges of leading a congregation. Graduates need to be equipped to lead their flock well and prepared for persecution, ready to face police questioning and even arrest. You’ll be encouraged as Enfu shares the story of five imprisoned church elders and the surprising report he received back of their sweet fellowship together and the spread of the gospel in the jail. Listen as Brother Enfu shares how house church Christians work together in managing the risks of Christian ministry in a communist nation. Pray men would be raised up to be godly leaders in their home and the church. Pray pastors in China would glorify God through their marriage and families. Pray our persecuted brothers and sisters in China will continue to fix their eyes on Jesus Christ, even in times of tribulation and suffering. To hear more about persecuted Christians, register for the free and watch it on demand. Be inspired as you listen to four women who have been persecuted for their faith and how God has been faithful to them, as well as worship music led by Michael W. Smith. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast. Or you can listen each week—and get daily prayer reminders—in the VOM App for your smartphone or tablet.
Read MoreAfter more than three years of seeking refugee status, the 63 members of Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, commonly referred to as the Mayflower Church, were granted asylum and arrived in the U.S. on April 7. Pastor Pan Yongguang led his congregation to South Korea in late 2019 to escape the harsh persecution they experienced at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Read MoreThe nation of China has been on the front pages of newspapers and the top of newscasts in recent weeks with widespread protests and a significant shift in the “zero covid” policy. But how will these developments—and the recent elevation of President Xi Jinping to what is essentially a permanent presidency—mean for our Christian brothers and sisters? Bob Fu, founder, and president of China Aid, will explain how Chinese Christians are affected by these things, and how they are responding. In Xi’s first 10 years in power, religious freedom has been under constant assault—including within China’s state-sanctioned, registered churches. Christians in China know there will be more persecution in the years to come. Our Christian family in China, both young and old, face the decision to either renounce faith in Jesus or have their future taken away from them. How are they preparing themselves, and especially young believers, to withstand that persecution? Listen for the story of one Chinese Christian woman in prison who said, “I only began loving the Lord when you arrested me.” Bob will also give listeners an update on two pastors in jail, Pastors Wang Yi and John Cao, and how they are continuing to serve the Lord and grow in faith—even through their incarceration. Pray for rulers and authorities in China, imprisoned believers, the millions of people in China, and for God’s Word to be available to those in this restricted nation. You can write letters of encouragement to brothers and sisters imprisoned for their faith. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast.
Read MoreOn Aug. 17, police arrested six adults and one child from the Xi’an Church of Abundance, aggressively searched their homes, and interrogated them at the police station before sending them home. The next day, the six adults were rearrested and charged with illegal gathering and illegal fundraising.
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Horace Pitkin was an American East Coast blueblood. He was a distant relative of Connecticut’s colonial-era attorney general and also kin to Elihu Yale, founder of the great Yale University from which Pitkin graduated in 1892, at the height of America’s Gilded Age. It was also the era of “muscular Christianity” — a mix of robust physical and spiritual development coupled with nearly unlimited optimism that the new century just ahead would be the Christian century, the fulfillment of the Gospel mandate to all the world. For Yale men like Pitkin — strong, charismatic, and gifted — the arena where all virtues would meet their test was China. Indeed, Horace organized Yale’s first Student Volunteer Band for foreign missions. He then went on to Union Seminary in New York, married Letitia Thomas, and set sail for Hunan Province in central China. Pitkin was an organizer, but not blind to the risks. He was, after all, in charge of the station in Hunan for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. As news from Beijing arrived and the Boxers began to show restless aggression, Pitkin sent his wife and child back to the United States. On Saturday, June 30, 1900,
Read MoreOn April 3, police raided Zion Reformed Church’s worship service. The authorities detained seven Christians, including the respective spouses of the church’s pastor and another member who were detained in late 2021 under the guise of preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Read MoreThey moved to an area of Pakistan known to be influenced by the Taliban. Despite the danger, Chinese citizens Li Xinheng and Lu Ling Lina felt compelled to share the Gospel in the radicalized area. While studying Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan, and starting a school in one of the poorest parts of the country, they built relationships with their neighbors. But their witness was not welcomed by some in the city of Quetta. In late May, Li and Lu were taking their lunch break when three armed men dressed as police officers forced them into their vehicle. A third woman, also Chinese, was kidnapped along with them, but it is unclear whether she was released because there wasn’t room in the vehicle or because she escaped and called for help. A Pakistani man saw what was happening and tried to help, but he was shot in the foot by the kidnappers. Li and Lu were held hostage for several days before their executions,which were recorded on video. The self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS)claimed credit for their deaths, and the Pakistani government eventuallycarried out a raid on the ISIS hideout. However, by that time the Islamistshad fled. The Chinese government
Read MoreOn the morning of Nov. 1, government authorities detained Dai Zhichao along with his wife and their two sons. Dai, a practicing preacher of Early Rain Covenant Church and the leader of a small group, was about to take his family to another province for a vacation.
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