Release International

A Bible school in Anhui province has resumed business as usual -- after a raid by Public Security Bureau officials who arrested 36 people and confiscated thousands of Christian books.

According to eye witnesses, up to 60 officers armed with electric shock batons, including members of anti-riot squads, surrounded the house church school in Huaibei City on March 1.

Everyone in the building -- house church leaders, students and teachers -- were arrested. The school's owner, Pastor Chu Huaiting, was arrested at his home some three hours after the raid. China Aid reports that 200 new blankets and 10,000 copies of Christian literature, which were being delivered to Pastor Chu's home as officials arrived, were confiscated.

China Aid reports that all detainees were set free in the evening of the same day: it claims that the top PSB official in the province ordered their release in response to mounting international pressure. The school's Christian literature has, however, not been returned. It has reportedly been handed over to a government committee which will rule over whether or not it constitutes 'illegal literature'.

Pastor Chu, currently vice-president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, is no stranger to harassment: he was arrested and detained by PSB officials as recently as February 26, when he was preaching at a house church in Jiangsu province. His premises in Huaibei City double as both a Bible college and sewing school, so students receive a trade as well as Bible instruction.

• Thank God for the release of all 36 people arrested in the raid on Pastor Chu's Bible school -- and pray for the safe return of its Christian literature.
• Pray that the Bible school's teachings will have an impact, not just on Anhui province but on all provinces from which its students are drawn.

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