(Shunde, Guangdong province) Last week, local police arrested an elder of Shengjia Church with “illegal business operations.” This is the fifth member of Shengjia Church to be arrested with this charge. 

Fifth co-worker arrested 

Zhu Longfei is an elder of the Shengjia Church in Shunde, Guangdong province. His sister, Zhu Qiaoling, and his brother, Zhu Longjiang, were already detained on May 24th. On August 10, Zhu Longfei’s family received a detention notice from the public security bureau. The notice stated that he was arrested on the same charges as his siblings and held in the same detention center. 

Raid 

On the morning of May 24th, dozens of police raided Shengjia Church’s “Christian Education and Help Center.” The school was established as an independent education system, which the authorities did not appreciate. Police searched and confiscated all the teaching facilities. Beyond this, they forced open all the doors, went through the personal belongings of the people present, questioned them individually, and filmed the whole process from different angles.  

A month with no release 

Deng Yanxiang, Wang Weicai, Zhu Longjiang, and Zhu Qiaoling, were all detained with supposed “illegal business operations.” 30 days have passed, and the four co-workers are still not released. Everyone in the church was shocked to hear the charges. These individuals were reportedly upright, kind, and loving Christians who were passionate. Each person cared about social welfare, and many from Shengjia Church respected them.  

Prayer request 

“China at 5 pm”, an online prayer campaign dedicated to praying for persecuted Chinese house churches, sent out a special prayer request for Shengjia Church on August 10. They asked the Lord to be especially present with the suffering members and to comfort the elderly parents, wives, and children of the imprisoned Christians. “Praying for the Lord to watch over this church, which is now being fiercely attacked by the devil, to watch over the battered shepherds as well as the rest of the flock, and to hold the church in Guangdong together.” 

~Yu Bing, ChinaAid Special Reporter