AG Bollback Ministries

ASSIST NEWS SERVICE contributor, Elizabeth Kendal reports that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

knows the greatest threat to its totalitarian rule is internal. In recent years they watched as a coalition of intellectuals, workers and the church brought down Communism in Poland and Central Europe. To control these internal pressures the Communist Party uses a favorite tool of the Mao era: 're-education through labor that involves a vast gulag of over a thousand concentration camps or slave labor prisons known as 'laogai'.

Kendall explains that this system of 'loagai' allows local officials or the central authority to lock up large numbers of people on administrative sentences without charge or trial. It is used against drug addicts, prostitutes, or whoever threaten the status quo, such as political and religious dissidents. The aim of 're-education through 'thought reform' is forced submission to the Party. It is a known fact that multitudes of Christians are incarcerated in 'laogai' camps, and imprisoned on false criminal charges or so-called social security charges.

According to China Aid Association (CAA) and Voice of the Martyrs, on Sunday 22 May police and Public Security Bureau officers raided 60 house-churches simultaneously in Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province (north-eastern China, bordering North Korea). Another 40 churches in the area were raided over the following days. More than 600 house-church Christians were taken into custody. As Bob Fu, CAA president points out, 'The man-power and planning involved in raiding such a large number of church meetings simultaneously shows that this effort came from high levels of the Chinese government. While most of the arrested were released after 24 to 48 hours' interrogation, some 100 influential Christian leaders are still held in various detention centers.

The area surrounding Beijing has the highest concentration of Catholics in the country- some 1.5 million, mostly underground Catholics. Eight of Hebei's Catholic bishops and 13 priests are in prison or 'missing'.

PLEASE PRAY ESPECIALLY FOR:

ALL CHRISTIANS INCARCERATED in China and elsewhere need to know the ever-present, comforting, empowering of the Holy Spirit to fill them with hope, faith, courage, and assurance of his love (Romans 8:38,39), thus enabling them to be victorious in persecution and suffering.
PASTOR GONG SHENGLIANG (54) and PASTOR ZHANG RONGLIANG (53), two of China's most senior imprisoned Christian leaders. Pray also for their families.

PASTOR GONG is founder and senior pastor of the intensively persecuted 50,000-strong South China Church. Imprisoned for life, he is very frail due to torture and beatings. Pastor Gong's daughters, Xiaoyan and Huali, are dedicated full time evangelists. His wife Hu Guifang is struggling with trauma.

PASTOR ZHANG, a well-known house-church patriarch, is leader of the 10 million-strong house-church network, China for Christ Church. He is the co-author of House Churches of China - Confession of Faith and Declaration. He has had five previous detentions (with torture) totaling 12 years. He is diabetic and there are great fears for his safety. His wife and child are in hiding.
Thousands of young people studying in secret Bible Schools and some open-church seminaries throughout the country are preparing to become pastors and missionaries. They are part of the 100,000-strong future missionary teams who are involved in the Back-to-Jerusalem Movement. They are beginning to move out into Muslim and Buddhist areas, knowing full well that it could cost them their lives.