(Zundao, China – Jan. 2, 2011) In yet another case of Christmas persecution, ChinaAid has learned that authorities in the southwest province of Sichuan are cracking down on a house church after it attracted 500 people from 10 neighboring towns and villages to a Christmas day service.
More than 200 of the attendees, who came from areas around the town of Zundao, Mianzhu county, made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior at the Christmas service held by the Eden Garden Church to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
This event was a shock to the local Mianzhu and Zundao authorities and made them extremely uneasy. The local government immediately took measures to crack down on the church, and ordered the women who are leading it to leave the area within five days. They have also threatened to demolish all the buildings that the church has built.
ChinaAid Association is watching the developments in this case very closely and calls on all Christians to pray for this situation and to provide whatever assistance is needed.
Mianzhu was one of the counties hardest-hit by the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake, where the Fuxin No. 2 Primary School in Mianzhu city collapsed, killing 127 students who were crushed to death under tons of concrete and bricks, according to a Washington Post May 30, 2008 report.
The problem of the “tofu-dregs schoolhouses” – the mocking term used to refer to the shoddy construction and quality of the more than 7,000 school buildings that collapsed, killing thousands of schoolchildren – has failed to get much government attention and post-disaster rescue efforts have been inefficient. But now that several hundred residents of the disaster area decide to become Christians, the government’s response is swift, immediately implementing crackdown measures on the church.
(File photo: Schoolchildren tragically and needlessly crushed to death in the earthquake due to the “tofu-dregs schoolhouses.”)
China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.chinaaid.org
