Release International

Chinese officials have given the pastor of a large church in Guangdong province a stark choice between exile abroad or prosecution and lengthy imprisonment.

Pastor Wang Dao, who leads the Liangren Church in Guangzhou city, has told his lawyers that he has no intention of being exiled and so is preparing himself for jail.

Pastor Wang, 40, was officially placed in criminal detention in Guangzhou on May 9 – six days after his church issued a statement protesting against harassment by the Chinese authorities. The letter claimed that the church has had to meet in different premises 'almost every week' since January, because officials keep pressuring landlords to evict them. Some weeks they have been forced to worship outdoors.

The church says the persecution began in May 2008 when it became involved in relief work after the Sichuan earthquake.

Pastor Wang, who has been taken in for questioning several times in the last two years, has urged his church not to stop meeting.

Meanwhile, in Luoyang city, Henan province, 16 house church leaders who were detained during a prayer and Bible study meeting on May 5 were released 16 days later, following an international appeal for their release.

(Sources: ASSIST News Service, China Aid, Christian Telegraph)

• Pray for the release of Pastor Wang Dao. Ask God to protect and provide for Pastor Wang's wife, Hai Ying Sun, and their two children.
• Thank God for the release of the 16 pastors detained in Luoyang. Ask God to bless their ministries with much fruit.

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