Pilgrim's Progress:
The Mayflower Church's Journey
Pilgrims Progress
The mayflower Church's Journey
Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church escaped harsh persecution, interrogations, and imprisonment at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. Due to their journey to practice religious freedom, many in the international community refer to them as the Mayflower Church.
Pastor Pan Yongguang led his 60 members to Jeju Island, South Korea in late-2019. After exhausting their legal options in South Korea, they recently arrived in Thailand to apply for UN refugee status. However, they continually face harassment and dangers to their safety.
ChinaAid encourages others to pray for the exiled church and give for their resettlement.
Contact Pastor Pan and his congregation directly to send prayers, words of encouragement, support, and Scripture: [email protected]
Also, consider giving here.
Update for May 5: Work with value and dignity
Work for the Mayflower congregation has been difficult. Most of them are educated and inexperienced with manual labor.
Sister Chen Jingjing writes about this transition and praises the Lord for her opportunities working in South Korea. Many Koreans are accepting of her and the Mayflower Church, treating them well in whatever work environment they find themselves in.
Read her full update here.
Update for May 2: "Motherly Reflections"
Update for April 17, 2022: "My two years of exile"
This latest update from Sheng Ti He recounts the culture shock and adjustments many of the members faced for two years.
Read the full entry here.
Update for April 14, 2022: Pastor Pan and Elder Wenshen Wen
The leadership of the Mayflower Church reflected on the urgency and effect of their exile. These two updates can be found below.
Elder Wenshen Wen: “The Wilderness Life of Exiles“
Pastor Pan: “Urged by the Holy Spirit to leave China“
Update for April 8, 2022: "Maybe God has his wonderful will for us with this arrangement..."
Elder Nong Jiafeng provided another update in the aftermath of the church’s wave of COVID infections. He revealed that about half of the families tested positive for COVID, including his own.
Fortunately, nobody has experienced severe symptoms, and the congregants are happy to experience South Korea’s less restrictive COVID guidelines.
Read the update here.
Update for April 5, 2022: "Comfort and the next generation"
The sixty congregants recently endured a round of COVID-19 infections, and they have spent their time studying Christian history in China.
You can read the entire update here.
Update for March 10, 2022: "Longing for my brother"
Two young members of the Mayflower Church sent letters to a fellow believer in mainland China, Joshua Wang.
Yesterday was Joshua Wang’s 15th birthday. Wang is the son of Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church who currently serves a nine-year sentence. Wang Yi’s family has been subject to 24-hour surveillance. Joshua previously attended a Christian school, but now authorities escort him to public school every day.
The Mayflower Church and Early Rain have a direct connection. Not only do the pastors know each other well, but Pastor Pan Yonggang signed his name onto Wang Yi’s “A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” along with over 400 Chinese house church leaders in 2018. Wang Yi was arrested less than four months later.
Read the full update here.
Update for March 1, 2022: "When the virus looks ferocious, we fix our eyes on God’s smiling face"
Jeju’s confirmed cases in the past three weeks spiked from a few dozen to the current over 2,000 cases. The government’s COVID policy is to co-exist with the virus, and we know that we will get infected eventually. As we proactively prepare for that day, we are a little worried about one of the kids—Eve. She is the only one among us who has an underlying condition, she battled severe pneumonia; severe pulmonary effusion; and scarlet fever three years ago.
You can read the full update from Pastor Pan here.
