Persecution Watch Weblog

Thank you for adding your name to the online petition asking the Chinese government to free Pastor Bike. Your voice was heard! Pastor Bike is FREE! On Friday, August 29, prominent Chinese house church leader Zhang Mingxuan, affectionately known as “Pastor Bike,” his wife and a co-worker were released from Chinese custody. Pastor Bike was arrested along with his wife and co-worker August 6, two days before the Olympic Games began in Beijing. An outspoken evangelist, Pastor Bike has travelled on his bike to many places in China, handing out Christian literature and Bibles and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Instead of being held at a prison or a detention center Pastor Bike and his wife, Xie Fenglan, and their co-worker were taken to resort hotels on a “forced vacation” designed to ensure that they couldn’t talk to any foreign media. Pastor Bike was scheduled to do an interview with the BBC the day of his arrest.

All three believers are in good health and spirits and praising God for their release, according to our co-laborers at China Aid Association. The detainees said during their confinement they had opportunities to witness to guards and even high-ranking government officials staying at the hotels where they were held.

On August 26, The Voice of the Martyrs and China Aid Association launched an international online petition drive advocating for Pastor Bike, his wife and co-worker to be released. On September 4, China Aid Association delivered the petition — which had more than 57,000 names printed on 619 pages — addressed to Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C. Included was a letter thanking the Chinese government for releasing these house-church Christians.

We are thankful to you and the thousands of others who logged on and signed the petition. Christians in free nations often wonder if we can really make a practical difference for Christians in persecuted countries. Pastor Bike’s release shows that WE CAN!

Continue to pray for Pastor Bike, his wife and their co-worker and for other believers in China.

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Pastor Bike standing with Anna, an orphaned Christian girl also persecuted by the Chinese government.

Pastor Bike, as he is affectionately known, is considered to be one of the most outspoken evangelists in China. He is a bold believer willing to cross borders, hand out Christian literature and Bibles, share Christ with those under age 18 and lead thousands to Christ. All these actions are considered “illegal” in communist China.

On August 6, just two days before the Olympics began, Pastor Zhang “Bike” Mingxuan was arrested, along with his wife and a coworker.

In response to these arrests, The Voice of the Martyrs and China Aid Association have launched a petition drive to free these three Christians and to let the Chinese government know that the world is aware that these Christians are being detained.

Together, our voice can make a difference. Please follow the link below to learn more, and please forward this email to your friends.

Go to FreePastorBike.com to sign the petition now.

Saudi Arabia (MNN) —- “For this hard-core Muslim religious policeman who was in charge of enforcing Islamic code in Saudi Arabia, for his own daughter to become a believer in Christ, obviously he felt such shame brought on his family that it was better to kill her than to live with that shame,” said Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs USA.

According to Gulf News, the man was a working for the Commission for promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. When he found out his daughter had secretly become a Christian, the two of them got into a heated discussion. Gulf News reports that the girls tongue was cut, and she was burned to death.

Nettleton said that what news reports are calling an “honor killing” is a two-sided coin. First, it’s done because of the overwhelming shame that a family feels from one of their own members becoming an “apostate.” Secondly, it’s done because it is a common mindset in the Islamic world that conversion is a process which takes time. “If you’re able to kill your family member before that conversion process is complete, you’re actually doing them a favor because they’re still going to die a Muslim. They’re still going to have some chance of going to Muslim paradise after death,” explained Nettleton.

The girl had written in her blog that her brother had seen some Christian articles of hers and had noticed a cross on her computer screen. She also wrote about the difficulties she faced with her family when they began to suspect her conversion to Christianity.

Religious leaders in Saudi Arabia have warned against the dangers of Christian Web sites and television shows that draw in youngsters and pull them away from Islam. They say spending time in these media outlets is against the teaching of Islam.

The Web sites she visited and blogged on have set aside pages where people can mourn for her, and some have even been temporarily shut down in protest.

In Muslim nations, like Saudi Arabia where the girl lived, a lack of peace is pervasive. “That is leading to questions. That’s leading people to say, ‘What else is out there because, you know, I’ve tried Islam. I’ve followed the Koran. I still don’t feel any peace in my life,’” said Nettleton. “The internet becomes a source of information and, ultimately, a source of ministry that says there is something else out there. There’s Jesus Christ and the hope, the assurance of eternity with Him, and that speaks very loudly to the Muslim heart.”

Nettleton asks Christians to pray for the slain girl’s family. News sources report that her father has been taken into custody for investigation. Pray that the Holy Spirit will soften their hearts through the witness of their daughter and sister, and that they’ll come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Also, pray for all believers in Saudi Arabia who put their lives on the line to follow Christ.

Nigeria (CDN) — Blaming the death of their leader on Christian prayers, an Islamist group has launched a hate campaign. It stems from an evangelistic event in 2004. According to Compass Direct News, the group is reportedly attacking Christians in the Kwara state capital with renewed vigor.

At least three Christians have died, and several others have been injured in attacks with machetes and other weapons since June, clergymen said.

They said the attacks began after Dr. Ali Olukade died from car crash injuries in May. He was head of a local group of Islamists called Tibliq, possibly patterned after the worldwide Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.

According to the Rev. Cornelius Fawenu, secretary of the Kwara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr.Olukade’s extremist followers believe that his death was the result of prayers by Christians upset over Muslim threats which cut short a major event by German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke in 2004.

The Kwara chapter of CAN has received 10 reports of Christians attacked by the Muslim extremists in the past two months, Rev. Fawenu said, adding that he believes unreported assaults on Christians average about four daily. Among the dead is a former leader of an Evangelical Church of West Africa congregation known only as Pastor Habila.

China (MNN) — Chinese government officials confiscated 300 Bibles from a Vision Beyond Borders (VBB) team from the U.S. on Sunday August 17 at China’s Kunming International Airport. It seems a stark contrast to the image China has tried to project, says VBB representative Dyann Romeijn. “I think this portrays the heart of the government. They want an image that says that they have religious freedom, but in all practice, whenever you try to practice that religious freedom, it’s not there.”

Each member of the team of four, led by VBB founder and director Patrick Klein, was fined $400 U.S. for their overweight luggage. Officials told the team they were taking the Bibles as “illegal religious literature.”

The team slept in the airport Sunday night, knowing that if they left customs, there would be no way of getting the Bibles returned. Airport officials tried to get the VBB team to leave for food and to visit an official’s office in the city. The team chose to fast in order to remain in the airport.

On Monday, Klein and his team left the airport to find lodging after it was clear the Chinese authorities would not return the Bibles. They are praying for God’s guidance and wisdom. Thus far, the VBB the team is doing well and has remained unified. As an answer to prayer, Klein’s cell phone has remained charged so that he can stay in contact with the U.S. office.

All this for 300 pastors’ study Bibles–Bibles that on the Chinese black market sell for as much as six month’s to a year’s salary, said Romeijn. “They’re just very difficult to find, and they also are very, very expensive. So even though they say there are Bibles in China, they keep so few that an ordinary person cannot afford those Bibles. So many pastors in China are without Bibles.” Only a limited number of Bibles are allowed into the country and then only sold at officially-sanctioned churches. They are prohibited in public book stores.

The VBB team is still unsure whether or not the Bibles will be returned. If they are, they will be distributed to VBB’s church contacts in the country. Klein’s priority in this “is that God is glorified in all of this and that people learn that there is still persecution out there. We need to stand in prayer for our brothers and sisters in China.”

Pray that the situation will not be about the organization or anything other than bringing God’s Word to people who want and need it. Pray that the Bibles are returned as a testimony to God’s sovereignty and provision. Pray also for the safety of the VBB team and for a safe return from China.