Photo: Geng Zejun with his wife, Hao Ying (ChinaAid source)
(Ningxia, China—January 18, 2023) Geng Zejun, the minister of the Church of the Rock in Ningxia province, was sentenced to one year and three months because he insisted on hosting Christian gatherings. Reports surfaced that while he is not in good health, guards and prisoners treat him with respect. His family has been banned from visiting him since his initial arrest on December 5, 2021.
No News
Initially, Shuizuishan City Dawukou Detention Center didn’t allow his family to visit him on the pretext of the pandemic and later used the excuse of “rules and laws.” The reason why the Detention Center rejects the visit request is that they have their regulations and rules under the scaffold of laws and regulations. Also, they said they need to evaluate Minister Geng’s performance at the detention center, no visit is allowed if he doesn’t “behave well.”
An unlikely source
Hao Ying, Minister Geng Zejun’s wife, remained constantly concerned about her husband. Authorities effectively kept his family during his incarceration. Then, Geng’s childhood best friend was arrested for a DUI and ended up in the same detention center. According to him, Geng Zejun contracted COVID at the detention center but recovered. Geng asked his friend to let Hao Ying know that it is unnecessary to deposit money in his account and to bring him a change of clothes when she picks him up from prison.
Favor and respect
The new source disclosed that everyone wears a red vest at the detention center, but only Brother Geng wears a green one. Inmates wearing the red vest work on the night shift and those wearing the green don’t need to work at night. Preacher Geng is not very healthy, so the detention center gave him a favor. Additionally, people call him “Pastor” Geng to show respect, and they like to communicate with him and hear his thoughts and advice.
Hao Ying, hearing the update, said, “It reminds me of Joseph, God is with him regardless of where he is. Thank the Lord, God’s grace is more than our expectation, so grateful!”
Church of the Rock
In 2005, Geng Zejun and his family moved to Xining City, Qinghai Province, and served a local church. In 2011, they moved back to Shuizuishan, Ningxia. Geng Zejun began to preach at the Church of the Rock in Huinong District, and the church started to be raided. Local authorities shut down the church three times. Neighborhood personnel took photos whenever the church gathered, and police and staff of the Religious Affairs Bureau harassed them.
Mounting pressure
Preacher Geng and the church insisted on gathering and fellowshipping despite the government’s pressure to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TPSM), the state-sanctioned protestant church in China. On December 5, 2021, national security officers raided the Church of the Rock at a remote gathering space. They wrote down information regarding the elderly believers before sending them back home and took all other congregants for interrogation. The next day, police gave Minister Geng Zejun a 15-day detention on a charge of “disrupting social order.” Geng ended up detained a second time in January 2022, eventually receiving an official arrest notice for “organizing illegal gatherings.”
The trial
On July 13, Shuizuishan City Huinong District People’s Court tried him virtually and found him guilty of “organizing illegal gatherings.” The trial lasted for 7 hours, and Preacher Geng refused to cooperate with authorities to submit a false confession.
~Yu Bing, ChinaAid Contributing Reporter
