Our AsiaLink Young Adult Apologetic Seminar will take place, July 4th to the 5th in central Pakistan at a secure location.

Last year terrorists were planning an attack in the city. Thankfully Police became aware of their presence and were able to discover their location, arresting them and confiscating all kinds of weaponry that they were planning on using.

One of our featured speakers this year, Ms. Ghazala, is a former Muslim who began to question her Islamic faith as she grew older. Finally after some time of research she finally decided to become a Christian. Since then God has powerfully used her as an evangelist and apologist challenging Muslims to examine their faith.

This is her third time to be with us teaching at one of our ministry conferences. When she was last with us several Muslim Imams attended as they had all come to faith through her ministry in the city where we are based. Every time she comes she meets privately with many Muslims who are earnestly searching for understanding as a result of our ministry. Most likely they will be in attendance as well as a number of other searching Muslims. Our other speaker is Pastor Morris from Lahore. Pray for them both! We are expecting 300+ young adults and those from our Bible Correspondence School of which many are Muslims and nominal Christians.

• Pray for Ms. Ghazala that God would open the door for her to share with many Muslims who are searching for answers.
• Pray for Pastor Morris and Ms. Ghazala that they will be used by God to speak into the hearts of every person who attends!
• Pray for the safety and protection of all those who attend.
• Pray that God would work changing lives throughout the intense two days of the conference.
• Pray that our ministry to young adults will continue to expand and grow!
• Pray that all the finances desperately needed to cover the expenses would be raised before the Seminar begins!

A man from the eastern province of Jiangsu, spent the 2019 Spring Festival sitting on a tiger bench – a torture chair – in an interrogation room.

“What have you been doing lately? Are you organizing any faith-related activities at your home?” the police questioned him.

The man kept repeating that he had never had any religious beliefs, but the police continued to interrogate him. He was released after officers photographed him and took his fingerprints and footprints as well as a sample of his blood.

More than ten days later, the man left the local area for business when the police called him, asking: “Where are you now? Why did you leave the city?”

On February 28, the police came to his home again to question and interrogate him.

The sole reason for such an intense police investigation was a little piece of paper with his name and address, which his mother – a Christian – had given her church friend inviting her to share their faith with her son three years ago.

The friend was arrested unexpectedly, and the police found the piece of paper among her things.

The man was arrested for the first time shortly afterward. “During these years, I’ve received frequent phone calls from the police. Whenever I leave the local area for a few days, the police will come to my home to question me,” the man said with a sense of helplessness. “I’m like a prisoner now. Wherever I go, I’m always being monitored.” The surveillance continues even though he has never been religious.

If Chinese authorities are monitoring this non-Christian in such a manner imagine what those who love God are facing throughout China as China’s new religious laws from February 2018 are being applied.

• Pray for leaders and pastors who are on the front lines of pressure from the police to register with the government.
• Pray for the many Christians who are living under increasing pressure to give up their faith in God.
• Pray for this young man that he will come to faith himself.

Isolated high in the mountains of Yunnan Province near the border with Myanmar live the Lama (Lah-mah) who have yet to hear of the saving grace available through faith in Jesus.

These 60,000 people live in an extremely mountainous area over 9,000 feet above sea level. They build their homes on steep slopes and use chain and rope bridges to connect their paths through the dense forest where wild animals such as tigers, leopards and bears live.

Because of their isolation from the world, the Lama have one of the most primitive religious beliefs known—a combination of nature worship, veneration of spirits and worship of local deities. They believe humans are not only flesh but spirit, so death is merely a death of the body, while the soul departs as a ghost to another world. Funeral ceremonies contain poetry, songs and dances to help guide the soul to the home of the ancestral gods. The Lama also offer sacrifices to their local gods, hoping they will bless them with a good harvest. Shamans are consulted to help them communicate with the spirits and discern their will.

Because the Lama honor and respect the elderly, young people bring them gifts of firewood each New Year to demonstrate their hope for the elderly to be warm and well cared for. They also offer them bowls of rice, wine, tobacco, sugar and tea.

• Thank the Lord for providing better transportation into the Lama areas in recent years.
• Pray He will call out Chinese Christians or others to travel into their remote villages with the Gospel.
• Pray the Lama will turn away from their worship of idols and consult-ing of spirits, and turn to the True God who knows them by name.
• Pray they will hunger for the Truth and receive Him with open hearts.

“In North Korea, the underground church believers worship with the memorized Bible passages. I used to share Bible passages with them by telephone a little bit, but now I cannot even do it because of the severe surveillance. Therefore, they have to walk around 25 miles to the place where there is no wiretapping, and write down Bible verses when I am on the phone with them for 20~30 minutes. With that, they prepare a text to read during their worship service. How great would it be if the Bibles could be sent to them?”

• Pray for our partners who secretly delivers Bibles into North Korea.
• Pray that they will be able to safely deliver even more Bibles throughout this year.
• Pray for the North Korean Church that it will be strengthened during this time.

As the world’s attention turned to Beijing to mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre during the first week of June, Chinese officials continue their assault on religious freedom.

In recent weeks, churches across China have been told to close and the government has censored all mention of the anniversary.

We’ve learned that Xunsiding Church in Xiamen city, in southern Fujian province, was banned last month. Government agents claimed that Pastor Yang Xibo and his congregation were meeting illegally under China’s new 2018 Regulations on Religious Affairs.

Meanwhile in the city of Zhengzhou, in central Henan province, the authorities have claimed ownership of a huge state-run church valued at more than 1.7 million Canadian dollars, and say they plan to turn it into a hotel.

• Pray that our brothers and sisters in China will stand strong in their faith during this time of increased persecution!

Continue to pray for Chinese Pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong who were arrested on December 10, 2018. Pastor Wang and his wife have been accused of subverting state power and potentially face a 15 year prison sentence. We have just learned (June 11th) that Pastor Wang’s wife, Jiang Rong, who has been in jail for six months has just been released on bail pending trial and has been reunited with her son. No one has been able to communicate with either of them since their arrest. Their 12 year old son has been kept, along with his grandmother, in isolated house arrest.

• Pray that God will constantly encourage Pastor Wang’s spirit and weary body while he is being held and interrogated.
• Thank the Lord for Jiang Rong’s release.
• Pray for her recovery and reunion with her son!
• Pray that God will constantly encourage Pastor Wang’s spirit and weary body while he is being held and interrogated.
• Pray that God would strengthen their mind with scriptures and memories of God’s past faithfulness to them. (Psalm 51:10).
• Pray for the church they pastored that has since been forced to close that it’s members will continue to trust in God.
• Pray for the many other pastors and Christians who are imprisoned as well throughout China.