Early Rain Covenant Church Urgent Prayer Update #18

According to the command of Scripture, today is the Lord’s Day, a day to worship God. Even though most brothers and sisters are under the supervision and control of community authorities at their homes, and more than a dozen brothers, sisters, pastors, and preachers are in prison, those brothers and sisters who can still freely leave their homes went to our church sanctuary in the Jiangxin Building as usual to prepare to meet the Lord.

The metal gate below the building where the church is was locked, and every entrance had many plainclothes police officers and SWAT team officers preventing people from entering the church. They took away some of the brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters then conducted a small-scale worship meeting at a nearby park, which was also shut down by police. Police took away more than 30 brothers and sisters.

Last night at 11:00 p.m., police went to the home of a church member to advise him not to go to church the next day. After he refused, they held the church member to the ground and tied his hands behind his back with a rope before taking him to the police station. Police also went to the home of the wife of an elder who is being criminally detained and threatened her, telling her she was not allowed to open her home for worship gatherings. This is the current situation.

Lord, today we worship you in police cars. We worship you in police stations. We worship you in detention centers. We worship you in prisons. And we worship you in homes. We have no other goal except to worship you alone. We ride in buses heading to police stations as though riding down the road to Zion. For you tell us, Lord, that you are looking for worshipers who worship you in spirit and in truth. May you be pleased with our worship. We have nothing to offer you but our hearts. We offer them up sincerely to you now.

Wherever I am,
Whatever I meet,
I will follow your will forever.

Issued by Early Rain Covenant Church at 10:30 a.m. on 12/16/18

Attached: List of those who have already been placed in criminal detention:

Pastor Wang Yi (incitement to subvert state power)
Pastor’s wife Jiang Rong (incitement to subvert state power)
Elder Li Yingqiang (stirring up trouble)
Elder Qin Defu (illegal business operations)
Deacon Ge Yingfeng (illegal business operations)
Sister Li Xiaofeng (summoned on the charge of illegal business operations; after 120 hours, we still have not received a detention notice)
Sister Lü Jinheng (illegal business operations)
Brother Fu Lijun (illegal business operations)
Sister Huang Yaling (stirring up trouble)
Elder Li Zihu (stirring up trouble)
Brother Wang Fei (stirring up trouble)

List of those placed in administrative detention:

Cheng Zhangchun (placed in administrative detention for 14 days on 12/15 on charges of “stirring up trouble”)

List of those with whom we have lost contact for an extended period of time:

Detained for more than 144 hours: Liu Yingxu, Song Enguang, Ding Shuqi, Liang Huali
Detained for more than 120 hours: Zhang Xiaohong, Liu Xin

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