The Watchman

They Came During the Sermon: China Raids Early Rain Again

Early Rain Covenant Church has not worshiped in peace since 2018. On Sunday, June 14, its members gathered in a rented hotel ballroom in Jiangyou City, Sichuan Province, about 100 miles northeast of Chengdu. Families. Children. A morning service like ten thousand others across China.

At about 11 a.m., 60 to 70 government personnel came through the doors. Police officers. SWAT personnel. Domestic security agents. Religious affairs officials. Local township staff. They took control of the room and detained 33 believers, among them two elders, Yan Hong and Wu Wuqing.

The members who were not taken away, including children and the elderly, were held in the ballroom for hours while officers collected their personal information.

The church drove 100 miles to sing in a rented room. The state answered with a tactical unit. What happened over the next twelve hours shows exactly how Beijing tries to break a congregation, and why it keeps failing.

His Church Received 293 Dollars. The Court in Dak Lak Gave Him Seven and a Half Years.

The state counted the money to the last dong. It came to about 293 dollars, and it bought a pastor seven and a half years.

Two of the Three Came Home. It Took Thirteen Days for Anyone to Find Out.

Two of the three church leaders taken from Heiban were released on July 28 and August 1. The news took thirteen days to leave the Nuba Mountains, and it reached us after we published.

He Said Mass That Morning Standing In for Someone Else. He Was Found on Church Road.

Father Samuel Oyetoro filled in for a colleague on leave, said Mass, and was found on Church Road with machete wounds. Four days later gunmen took three people from a Sunday Mass in another state.

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