Welcome to this special episode of China Compass, the third in a weekly series of shorter podcasts which I am calling “The Prison Pulpit”. I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where (among other things) I share a new prefecture, city and/or county to pray for daily. Visit Pray for China dot us (PrayforChina.us) to learn more. If you want to see the missionary books I’ve published and learn more about our work, you can find links to everything @ PrayGiveGo.us!

Between now and the end of the year I am working through some of the writings of currently imprisoned Chinese pastor, Wang Yi, of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, which were published just after his arrest in December of 2018.

One book that will be helpful in this series is my little autobiographical work, Unbeaten, which details my arrest, interrogation, and deportation from China in 2018. At the end of the book, I included an appendix entitled Remember My Chains, which is basically the manuscript (notes) from a message I have given dozens of times around the country dealing with this very topic: remembering and praying for the persecuted church, especially in China. You can get the book, Unbeaten, including the sermon, Remember My Chains, at Unbeaten dot vip. Unbeaten.vip

Learn more about Wang Yi and see the articles I mentioned today:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/02/china-church-wang-yi-persecution-faithful-disobedience/

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/30/trump-china-evangelicals-trade-fight-1076488

Police on Sunday (Sept 1, 2024) took away church elder Li Yingqiang, pastors Wu Wuqing and Li Youhong (also known as Yan Hong), and a deacon, Zeng Qingtao, who has requested clothes and medications for his chronic health problems to be sent to the detention center.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-early-rain-covenant-church-09032024135837.html

Here is Pastor Wang Yi's word of the week, from his “Declaration of Faithful Disobedience”:

“Regardless of which regime I live under now or in the future, as long as the secular government continues to persecute the church, violating human consciences that belong to God alone, I will continue my faithful disobedience. For the entire commission God has given me is to let more Chinese people know through my actions that the hope of humanity and society is only in the redemption of Christ, in the supernatural, gracious sovereignty of God.

If God decides to use the persecution of this Communist regime against the church to help more Chinese people to despair of their futures, to lead them through a wilderness of spiritual disillusionment and through this to make them know Jesus, if through this he continues disciplining and building up his church, then I am joyfully willing to submit to God’s plans, for his plans are always benevolent and good.”