Dear partners of the persecuted faithful in China,
This past Sunday, my wife Heidi and I were invited to speak in a prison at Huntsville, Texas. We were released from a prison in Communist China 14 years ago, and we found ourselves surrounded by a few hundred people imprisoned in America.
As a former prisoner of faith in China, my emotions ran high as I began to share. Although the thick iron doors were similar to those of the Chinese prison, the freedom to worship was strikingly different. In the prison in Beijing, I was forbidden even to sing a Christian hymn.
So I told my "fellow prisoners" in America that during this season when we remember what we are thankful for, they have a lot more to be thankful than many free Chinese citizens.
Lately, human rights and religious freedom abuses in China have been on the rise.
Since Dr. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 8 and the Lausanne Congress that took place later that month, we have seen a spike in detentions, house arrests and other oppressive tactics handed down by authorities.
We also remember gross violations of the past.
On November 25, 2009, the sentencing began for 10 Christians from Linfen Church who were arrested on trumped up charges created by government authorities.
It has been one year since the arbitrary sentencing and imprisonment. Because they have been sentenced to prison terms for up to 7 years in labor camps, they are now spending their days laboring in some of the worst prisons in the world.
Other imprisoned Christians, like Alimujiang Yimiti, and his wife and two little children, still need your help. He is languishing in a jail cell in Xinjiang simply for being a Uyghur who converted to Christianity.
With your sacrificial giving, ChinaAid has been able to give financial support to these prisoners and their family members. They have received legal help and provisions that they otherwise may have gone without.
In return, they give back victorious testimonies -- even in their suffering -- so that you can give more thanks for what God has blessed you with.
With your help, we can continue helping the oppressed. Please consider giving $5 to ChinaAid in an act of service to these persecuted faithful.
Can such a small amount make a difference? Yes! A child of a prisoner can receive meals for a week funded by a gift of $5.
Click here
to give a Thanks-for-Giving gift!
Let us also fellowship with these suffering believers. You can send letters to those who are in prison to let them know that there are people like you around the world who care for them. ChinaAid will provide a courier who will personally deliver these letters to prisoners and their families in China.
Please mail your letters to:
ChinaAid Association,
P.O. Box 8513,
Midland, Texas 79708.
Your fellow coworker
in serving the persecuted,
Bob Fu
http://ChinaAID.org/
