✪ 2011, August 7th in Harbin, China: Police Raid, Threats
Police entered the local church we were attending and serving in while in language school. They stopped the service. They said the service was illegal and took the information of almost everyone in attendance, not letting anyone leave. They took four of the Chinese members from the church (three were Chinese pastors) to the police station and questioned them. We had to give them our passports from our house but they were returned later on. They threatened us with deportation if it happened again.

Reference: August 2011 Prayer Letter

✪ 2014, April 20 in Harbin, China: Police Raids, Deportations
On Easter Sunday, all of the churches (four) in the ministry that we had associated with while in Language School were raided by the police. Several were taken into police custody. Two of our American teammates were deported from China. They were given 15 days to leave the country. From that time, the Chinese pastors and some of the believers continued to have problems with the police as they were seeking to gain more information. But most of the churches did not stop having services, and they continued despite these circumstances. Please continue praying for these brothers and sisters in Christ.

Reference: June, July 2014 Prayer Letter

✪ 2014, June 24 in Dalian, China: Police Problems
During outreach, one of the men visiting us gave a church flyer/tract to a police officer (by accident). He was passing flyers out and didn’t realize he handed one to an officer in full uniform. The officer stopped him and took him and the guys with him (Americans and Chinese) into the campus station and questioned him and one of the Chinese guys with him. After about two hours, they released them and told them they could not preach religion in China. This is the first run-in with the police that we had in the new city, Dalian.

Reference: Weekly Mind Dump: In the USA

✪ 2014, June 25 in Dalian, China: Police Inquiries, Laying Low
At the time, our family was dealing with visa issues, the upcoming birth of our baby, and the pressure from the police asking for me to go to Harbin so they could “talk with me”. They knew some information about me, what city I was in, and was trying to inquire more information through the Chinese pastors in Harbin. Thus, we decided it would be beneficial from all aspects for us to not be in the country for a season to allow the situation in both cities to settles down. During this time out of the country, w would also apply for new passports and visas.

Reference: June, July 2014 Prayer Letter

✪ 2014, July 3 in Dalian, China: Police Raid, Confiscation
The police entered and raided the small midweek Bible study of our church plant in Dalian. There were about 20 people from the local police station and/or the ministry of religion. They took the four members of the church to the nearest police station for questioning. After questioning each of them, they released them with a warning that their activities: holding Christian church services outside of the sanctioned three-self church was illegal. The officials confiscated all the church’s money that it had saved, t-shirts that the church just bought with the church name on them (about 180 shirts), and some of our discipleship materials (15-20 books) and a bible. One of the guys had to show up at the Ministry of Religion a few days later and they made him sign a letter that basically said the money was seized during an illegal activity and they will be keeping the money. The money they seized was actually that of two churches and it totaled: $3,880. This is the money the church would use to buy bibles, tracts, pay for church rent, etc. The letter also stated that they had three days to make their case and try to get the money back. (One of the guys was going to try the following Friday, but a Chinese Christian lawyer recommended against it.)

Reference: Weekly Mind Dump: Local Police & the Ministry of Religion

✪ 2014, October 8 in Dalian, China: Police Problems
After laying low for a while in the USA, we returned to China. We merged the two church plants into one and rented a new building for it. Then, one day, one of the young men I was discipling went to the church to study. When he arrived, there were five policemen waiting at the door of the church. Two were in uniform and three were in plain clothes. They asked about the church, and they all entered together. The looked around, asked some questions, told him that the church needs to register with the government, and took a few small things that had information about the church on them. The police were nice, never said that we had to stop having services, didn’t confiscate anything and their main objection was that we were not registered. Later, we sent another young man from the church whom I was also discipling to the police station to explain what kind of church we were and to preach the gospel to them. The young man was able to do just that. He even told them that they had a foreign pastor and asked if we could keep doing our normal services. They agreed and we continued services in the same location (I didn’t go to the first one after the incident), but as a precaution with our previous experiences, we moved locations anyways.

Reference: At a Crossroads – Prayer Needed! | 1 | 2 | 3 |

✪ 2018, March in Dalian, China: Police Problems, Bible Confiscation
One of the men training to be a pastor was reported to a local police station for being involved in illegal evangelism activities. The same man has also had John and Romans taken away from him at customs or by security when traveling at different times in the same year.

✪ 2018, June in Dalian, China: Police Visited Our Location
We had a small problem with the police this past month. They visited both of our rented locations during what seemed to be a routine check in our building. We weren’t having service at the time, nor was I present at the time, but two of the missionary wives and their teachers were there studying Chinese and one of the Chinese pastors. After asking a few questions about who was renting the location, etc., they went on their way but wanted to follow up done about our business. (Thankfully, we didn’t have anything visible that would distinguish our space as a “church building” from a normal conference room or classroom.) Thus, over a few days, we had to provide the business information we use to rent this office space. They seemed to be satisfied with what was presented. For the week following, we didn’t use the space during the day to study (but met at a coffee shop) and we also met in houses for our Wednesday and Sunday services because they were still checking other businesses in our building. So even though we decided to change things up for a week, the Word of God never ceased to be preached. The following week, we returned to using our original location without any more problems, so far. 

Reference: June 2018 Prayer Letter

✪ 2018, December in Dalian, China: “Religious Propaganda” Confiscation
“Are you willing to take these with you when you visit China?” was the question I asked a missionary friend. He is the brother of one of our teammates in China. He and his wife were going to Asia for a visit. Our ministry was given hundreds of solar-powered audio devices that contained the Chinese audio Bible, preaching, etc. But we needed to get them into China. However, with all things like this, there is a risk. He agreed since they were going to be visiting China on this trip. He took the first batch of 250 devices into China without much of a problem—meaning they were stopped, asked questions, and then released—successfully getting them into the country. But on their second trip into China with another 200 devices, they had bigger problems—meaning they were stopped by customs, their bags were opened and security was called. He and his wife were put into separate rooms for about two and a half hours. Eventually, someone showed up to interview them. Afterward, they were released but all the devices were confiscated, as they found out it was “religious propaganda” (in their terms) from listening to the content on the devices. Finally, they were told that the devices were not allowed to enter the country but they could get them out of customs and take them to another country. They didn’t have the time to do this on their trip, thus we are still working on getting them out of customs. Praise the Lord for their protection and the devices that got in. Pray for those officials who listened to the content of the devices to realize that they are not listening to “propaganda” but “truth” that can set them free! Pray as we use the devices that are in-country to help reach into the cities and villages of China.

Reference: December 2018 Prayer Letter; Story: Airports, Audio Bibles, and Missionaries to Ecuador

✪ 2019, February in Dalian, China: Police, Raid, Interrogation, Jail, Abuse
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Our ministry in mainland China is going through a wave of persecution right now. We have been reporting about all the great things God is doing and how souls are being saved, and now Satan is fighting back. We are in spiritual warfare. Much has happened since our last prayer letter. I will try to sum it up below:

• Men from our church and the landlords we were renting from were contacted by the police about the possibility of illegal activity happening in the building we rented. The attitude and type of accusations seemed to be much more serious than what we have run into in the past. Because of this information, the church moved everything out of those locations overnight and started meeting in homes and restaurants.
• The following Sunday, there was an attempted “raid” on the church, but no one was there because they had already moved out. But the police showed up at the Chinese pastor’s house and took him in for questioning for around 9 hours about a false accusation. He was released, but later he would be summoned by another police station where they asked about me and warned him: (1) Preaching the gospel to college students is illegal. (2) Having a church not approved by the government is illegal. (3) Foreigners preaching in China is illegal. He was finally released and sent home.
• During this same time, they were after one of our American teammates. But he and his wife were able to drive to another city and fly out of the country. They were after the husband because of some false accusations made about him and the Chinese pastor. They made it safely to America, and Lord willing, will try to get back in at a later time.
• Finally, one of the men trained in our ministry and whose name was on the contract of the location we rented for the church was summoned by the police. After getting the problems with the contract settled, here is the series of events that I was told happened: He was handcuffed, head covered, thrown into a vehicle and taken to a dark room and handcuffed to a table. He asked for a lawyer and was hit and then they handcuffed his hands over his head. He was asked to give up information about me and others in the church. He was beaten for not knowing or not giving over the information they wanted. He spent the night in jail on a hard bed in a very cold cell with no covers. He could have given over the information about us and our ministry and been released, but instead, he remained loyal and was punished for it. After 48 hours, his wife paid the fine, and he was released because it was coming up on the Chinese New Year. The original jail sentence was 7 days.

Reference: February 2019 Prayer Letter; The Persecution Testimony of a Chinese Believer

✪ 2019, March in Dalian, China: Continued Interrogation, “On the Move”
“I received a phone call from the national security bureau and have to go in for more questioning. Please pray for me.” This was roughly the translation of a message I received from the Chinese pastor leading the church we started. He went in to meet with them and was questioned more about the church and especially the foreigners who were involved with it. He didn’t give them any new information. Thankfully, he had his young son with him and they seemed to treat him well because of it. As this wave of persecution continues, even now that the holidays have passed, pray for wisdom during the time that this Chinese pastor trusts the Lord to lead not only the church but his young family through this trying time.

Church Update: Please continue praying for Grace Baptist Church in China. They are without a consistent location and met this past Sunday in the pastor’s house. The uncertainty of a meeting place has stopped a lot of the evangelism activities that were hosted in the previous office space they rented every month, but even so, the church had visitors this past week because the members are still inviting people to church.

Teammates Update: All of our American teammates and friends are out of the city and working on the next stage of their ministry setting up in a new location or waiting until this passes to hopefully be able to return safely.

Reference: March 2019 Prayer Letter

✪ 2019, April in Dalian, China: “Persecution Update”
Persecution Update: Many of the foreign missionaries we worked with in our city are no longer there. But the Chinese church that we started and a couple of others that we know of are still going forward. The persecution with those that we know has settled down, but there is still a push from the government, in general, to persecute Christian activity outside the government’s control.

Reference: April 2019 Prayer Letter

✪ 2019, May in Dalian, China: Continued Surveillance
Persecution/Church Update: The persecution in our China ministry seems to have settled down, although one of the men reportedly still gets phone calls from the police to keep tabs on him. The church we started has rented a new space and continue to have services.

Reference: May 2019 Prayer Letter

✪ 2019, November in Dalian, China: Interrogation, Seeking Deportation
On November 11, we left Atlanta, Georgia to return to Dalian, China. A few days after our return, the Chinese pastor that we trained up was taken in by the Chinese Nation Security Bureau. Once the Chinese pastor returned, he informed us that they knew I was back in the city and they were seeking information about me to deport me from the country. We got council and prayed for guidance. We concluded that the Lord was leading us away from living in the mainland to living on the island of Taiwan. Choosing to stay would have put our ability to work in the mainland at high risk (since they were actively seeking to deport me already) and continued to put more pressure on the locals to turn over information on me.

Reference: December 2019 Prayer Letter

✪ 2019, November in Fuxin, China: Police Raid, Interrogation
On November 24, the church of one of the men we are training was raided by the police. The members and pastor were taken into the police station and then later released. As I was trying to encourage this Chinese pastor, he sent this simple text which translates into: “The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back.” Amen! 

Reference: December 2019 Prayer Letter

✪ 2020, May in Dalian, China: Interrogation, Police Pressure
Praise the Lord, one of the pastors reported the salvation of a young man in China! Concerning the virus, some places are doing better while other places are still having many problems. Currently, one of the greater concerns is the resurgence of persecution. We were hoping that the pandemic would ease the persecution, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, the government seems to be taking advantage of the situation. One of the pastors has been called and visited by the police. He was even offered money to turn over evidence on our missionary work there. Also, we were informed through “a friend of a friend” that two of our pastors and a missionary was on an arrest list for a crackdown happening in May. They have been working to see if this is a legitimate threat and what they can do to get their names off of the list. There was some hope that two of the three names were off of the list, but we can’t be 100% sure.

Reference: COVID-19 | Updates For Taiwan And China

✪ 2020, July in Dalian, China: Arrest, Physical Abuse, Threats, Interrogation
This past month I was contacted by one of our pastors in China about being contacted by the police again. He told me he had to go in and would contact me when he got out. We waited the whole day for any news, but finally that night he contacted me. He recounted the story of going in and behind handcuffed in front of his son and wife, led away to a holding cell, being roughed up, physically abused, threatened, interrogated, and then finally released. Why? Because of the same problems over the past year and a half—his relationship to missionaries and him being a pastor. They haven’t closed this case and are still seeking to persecute those involved as they desire to obtain more information on anyone involved with the church or missionaries. But praise the Lord he came out with a good spirit and a renewed passion to keep serving the Lord!

Reference: July 2020 Prayer Letter