Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Beat(ting) Goes On


So it continues unabated in China. The PSB (Public Security Bureau) breaks up a meeting of our brothers and sisters and drags them off to detention, prison and torture. We don't hear much about this in the flood of news stories coming from mainland China. The economic boom and rising power of the awakened 'Dragon' makes up the bulk of the front pages, not the daily plight of Christians and others seeking religious freedom under an atheistic government.

The interesting thing this time is that there were Americans detained and interrogated as well. Perhaps this will bring the suffering into sharper focus for us.
The daily challenge to faith in China is markedly different from here and it isn't. In their case they must try to avoid detection by hostile forces and we must try to be detected by largely apathetic forces. In this we differ, but in the sense of conflict we do not. We are all under attack in this world, whether it is the sinister anesthetic gas attacks of the spirit we deal with here or the heavy blows of electrified police batons there.
Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters who suffer abroad in conditions we do not understand. Please join us in praying for the leaders of China that their eyes would be open to the light of Christ. Pray for President Hu Jin Tao as he visits the U.S. on a trade mission that he would be confronted with these injustices by the right voices.
Please pray for China.

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