(Midland, Texas) Bob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, recently appeared on an episode of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Faith vs. Culture. He called on fellow Christians to pray for China’s President Xi Jinping and persecuted Christians.
Praying for your persecutors
Rev. Dr. Bob Fu is not only an advocate for the persecuted but also a survivor of persecution. While he fights for freedom, he also calls on believers to pray for those who do evil to them.
Arrested for illegal evangelism
Fu and his wife Heidi were young leaders of the Chinese house church movement in the 1990s. In the episode of CBN’s Faith vs. Culture, Fu shared that in 1996, the Chinese government arrested him and Heidi. The couple were accused of “illegal evangelism,” which led to a two-month imprisonment.
God’s Double Agent
“I was an active underground church leader sharing the Gospel,” Fu reflected. “[I was] planting churches in the universities and even an underground Bible school [and], at the same time, God humorously gave me three years [of] opportunity teaching English to the Communist Party leaders in Beijing.”
While praising the Lord and marveling at God’s humor, Fu humorously added, “I got my mission funded directly by the Communist Party every month.”
China Aid founded
He experienced harsh persecution and subsequently relocated to the United States. Bob and Heidi founded ChinaAid to provide legal assistance to persecuted and wrongly arrested Christians in China. They also call on believers in the West to pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters.
Active
“You cannot sit idly when a fellow brother or sister in Christ is suffering as [part of] the same body of Christ,” he said. “That’s the primary concern and motivation as really a way to serve the Lord [because] when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers and no matter where they are — in China, Iran, North Korea, Nigeria — they are one part of the same body of Christ, the same church.”
Praying for Xi Jinping
Towards the latter half of Faith vs. Culture, Fu encouraged Christians to pray for the persecutors—even for China’s chairman Xi Jinping.
“Pray for the persecutors, for their repentance and forgiveness and for their salvation, for Chairman Xi Jinping as well, despite his ruthless persecution. We also need to know that this — the end, the outcome of this war — has already been decided. How many rulers, [no matter] how ruthless they were, have tried … and the number of Christians in China has reached over 130 million … despite the nonstop persecution from the Chinese Communist Party.”
The Resilience of God’s Church
“Xi Jinping should be a little bit smarter, actually,” Fu added. “If he wants to accelerate the church’s growth, just keep on going. This persecution will prove to be futile and doomed. God’s church will never be destroyed and God’s people will never be torn down by simply chaining them physically. Their souls and their prayers will never be stopped — even in prison cells.”
~Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent of ChinaAid
