Release International

Four well-known leaders of the Chinese House Church Alliance are likely to be sent to labour camp -- just for pleading for other arrested Christians to be released.

China Aid reports that the four pastors from Sichuan province -- Li Ming, Wang Yuan, Li Mingbo and Jin Jirong -- were detained on June 27. They had gone to the police station in Langzhong to try to free 14 other believers arrested at a worship service earlier that day.

Eyewitnesses reported that Langzhong police rounded up the four church leaders in a large room, blocked all exits and beat them brutally. The four were sent in separate police cars to the First Detention House of Langzhong. Wang Yuan could not stop vomiting.

RI sources report that the four pastors will probably be sentenced to three years in a prison camp where prisoners are forced to work up to 18 hours a day. Of the 14 other believers arrested in Langzhong, seven were detained for more than five days.

This was followed by a spate of other raids last month. Ten believers in Hubei province received between 10 and 15 days' detention after being arrested at a fellowship meeting in Chen Dian town on July 21. Fifteen house church leaders were arrested in Nanyang City, Henan, on July 9: 11 are reportedly still detained.

And on July 11, a prominent house church leader, Wang Jinhua, was arrested in Jilin province, along her with her husband and eight-year-old son. Father and son were later released, but Wang Jinhua has been transferred to Baishan prison in Jilin city.

• Pray for the families of all those believers still detained after a spate of raids on China's house churches. Pray they will draw close to God.
• Pray for those who are still in detention. Pray that they will be a powerful witness to their fellow detainees and prison authorities.

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