Second year high school student Chen Le has been expelled from school for his Christian faith. He had been found by the Bazhou Public Security Agency to have engaged in Christian gatherings, and the school was notified to educate him and persuade him to “mend his ways,” according to the Notice of Expulsion. Chen Le stated emphatically “I would rather be forced out of school than deny my faith,” prompting the school to advise him to transfer Notice of Expulsion document and refusing to renounce his faith, his expulsion has come at a great price for his future. The situation has effectively deprived him of his future education, as he has now been barred from taking the mandatory college entrance exam.
Pray that Chen would continue to serve God and not man. Pray that Chen will stand firm no matter what persecution comes.
Members of Wanbang Missionary Church in Shanghai China had to meet outdoors for worship on Sunday November 22nd after having been forcibly evicted from their church building earlier that month. On Thursday November 12th Chinese Public Security officials sealed off the doors and locked the church.
On the morning of November 22nd, three pastors of Wanbang church were summoned to a Shanghai police station for interrogation on suspicion of “engaging in illegal organisation and activities”. They were held until the afternoon. Despite intimidation from local authorities and the detention of the pastors, more than 500 dedicated church members gathered outdoors to continue the scheduled worship services.
Since the building’s closure, the authorities have been unsuccessful in preventing meetings of the church. On November 15th ten police officers attempted to obstruct Pastor Cui from attending church. Members also received threatening text messages defaming the church and saying that the service had been cancelled. In spite of this, over 700 people turned up to the outdoor prayer meeting that day.
In preparation for the mid-November visit of President Obama to China, the Shanghai authorities launched a city-wide search for members of Wanbang church, attempting to break up prayer and worship gatherings. All seven pastors were also issued with official notices to stop their “illegal religious activities”, which declared their pastoral status as “self-claimed illegal preachers”. On November 8th, the church website was forcibly shut down by the government’s censorship office to prevent negative reporting prior to Obama’s visit.
