Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue were no different than the thousands of other couples preparing for a wedding last Saturday, May 21, in China, except for one thing:
They are members of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu.
Early Rain Covenant Church members Brother Zhang Qiang and Sister Xiao Yue were scheduled to hold their wedding May 21st.
As a result, last weekend did not end with them being pronounced husband and wife but rather with them being detained and then released from the Chengdu police station, with orders not to proceed with the ceremony.
The Chengdu police station where the bride and bridegroom were detained.
According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, the couple were not the only ones pressured by the authorities over the wedding.
“Even the hotel where the wedding was scheduled to be held had to cancel due to the pressure,” says Representative Foley. “Elder Li Yingqiang, Pastor Wu Wuqing, Pastor Dai Zhichao, and others associated with the church were told by the police that they could not go out to attend the wedding. Sister Hu Xinrong, who was preparing to arrange the wedding, was stopped by the Dayi police at the high-speed railway station and had to return home. Even Brother Shen Bing, who went to the police station to comfort the couple while they were being detained, was followed by nearly ten security officers and was himself detained by the police even after the couple was released.”
Police officers were at the door of Pastor Dai Zhichao’s house to prevent him from leaving.
The forced cancellation of the wedding by Chengdu authorities is the latest in a series of disruptions, arrests, and investigations of Early Rain Church since the arrest of its Senior Pastor Wang Yi and more than 100 of its members on December 9, 2018. Pastor Wang Yi was sentenced on December 30, 2019 to nine years in prison by the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court for inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations.
Messages from the hotel to the newlyweds, informing them that the hotel was forcibly requisitioned by the town government as a quarantine hotel and that their deposit was refunded.
“It would have been easy for Zhang Qiang and Xiao Yue just to separate themselves from the church and regard their wedding as a private event for their own happiness,” says Representative Foley. “But Ephesians tells us that marriage is not a private celebration but a mystery that shows the world the unbreakable bond between Christ and the church. The Early Rain congregation members continue to be one body—with Christ, with this couple, with Pastor Wang Yi in prison, and with Christians around the world.”
Subpoena from the Public Security Bureau. “Carrying out activities (wedding) in the name of a banned organization (ERCC)” was the crime referenced in the subpoena.
Representative Foley says her organization, Voice of the Martyrs Korea, is calling for a special time of prayer for Early Rain Church and particularly for the persecuted bride and bridegroom. “Sister Xiao Yue cried the whole time she was detained at the police station and even after the couple’s release. Brother Zhang Qiang reported that he was still under surveillance ever after returning home,” says Representative Foley.
But according to Representative Foley, church members are committed to continuing on together, no matter the difficulties they face. “One church member wrote, ‘Although the wedding may seem impossible, Christ has already won, and He will soon come to marry His bride. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for the church. May we remain faithful and holy to our King, who loves us so much!’”
Individuals interested in donating to Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work in partnership with the house church Christians of China can visit http://www.vomkorea.com/en/donation or give via electronic transfer to:
Prior to February 24, Viktor Polunin was the pastor of the Gospel of the Grace of God church in Kyiv.
Now, Pastor Polunin and his wife are the Gospel of the Grace of God church in Kyiv.
Pastor Viktor Polunin and his wife Polina travel around Kyiv delivering food, medicine, and gospel encouragement to those who remain in the area.
“Before the outbreak of hostilities, Pastor Polunin’s church had about 70 people, and it was dynamic and growing,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley. “They had a worship team, home groups, discipleship training, and social service ministries like feeding the homeless and the poor near the central railway station.”
But when fighting broke out on February 24, that changed.
“Pastor Polunin’s church members began to evacuate from Kyiv, first to the Vinnitsa region and Transcarpathia, then leaving Ukraine,” says Representative Foley.
After three weeks, only six people from the church remained in Kyiv, all involved in volunteer work, ministry, or civil defense.
With their congregation now gone, Pastor Polunin and his wife had to decide what to do next.
“We considered all options, realizing all the danger” Pastor Polunin told Voice of the Martyrs Korea. “We decided to stay in order to show that the church does not leave people in difficult times and in order to use the current situation to preach the Gospel.”
According to Representative Foley, people in their area began to come to Pastor Polunin and his wife seeking food and medicine, often referred by social service agencies. They also began to deliver food, hygiene items, children’s supplies, and medicines.
“We have several elderly people who are left without help and cannot take care of themselves,” says Pastor Polunin. “A blind elderly woman who had no one to take care of because everyone left, another woman is hunched over, unable to go to the store herself. An elderly woman whose son and grandson serve in the Ukrainian army, we helped her buy medicines – they all prayed with my wife.”
Caption: Pastor Polunin and his wife help the elderly, the disabled and families in Ukraine who are not able to care for themselves during the war.
Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea have designated Pastor Polunin and his wife as “green martyrs”.
“Early in church history Christians recognized that there were different kinds of martyrdom,” says Representative Foley. “‘Red martyrs’ were those who died for their faith in a bloody instant. ‘White marytrs’ were those who died to the world, living their lives in the desert or in monasteries. And ‘green martyrs’ were those who died to themselves, laying down their own lives daily as faithful witnesses to Christ.”
Pastor Polunin told Voice of the Martyrs Korea that their decision to stay and serve has been an encouragement to those who remain in Kyiv. “Many worried about us and asked us to leave,” says Pastor Polunin, “But for them our desire to stay was a confirmation that this is how the ministers of the church should act.”
Pastor Polunin told Voice of the Martyrs Korea that he and his wife previously discussed the possibility that they might be killed if they stayed and continued their church’s ministry. “We agreed that sudden death does not frighten us,” says Pastor Polunin. “Rather we would not like to face the experience of suffering and cruelty, and we pray that the Lord will protect us from this.”
According to Representative Foley, Pastor Polunin and his wife also continue to pray and worship with the church members who evacuated Kyiv. “Several times a week they do online gatherings with those members,” says Representative Foley. “They pray for the country and also try to serve as a point of connection between the ones who left and the ones who were left behind.”
Pastor Polunin told Voice of the Martyrs Korea that most church members express a desire to return, but he believes many may not. “I have been a church pastor since 1998,” Pastor Polunin said. “I think that the church will not just change, but most likely we will have to start from the very beginning. Now a new church is being formed. I am sad and happy at the same time about that. Our church was dynamic and growing. Now everything is at the start again, we will use all the experience for a new undertaking if we have enough strength.”
According to Representative Foley, the couple is already moving forward with this new undertaking. “They currently have a house that they use as a warehouse and are working on identifying more places for storage so they can expand their capacity to serve people.”
Caption: Pastor Viktor Polunin and team carry bags of food and supplies to the van in order to deliver to those in need in Kyiv.
“We are preparing for the worst times,” Pastor Polunin told Voice of the Martyrs Korea. “Following the example of Joseph in the Old Testament, we want to stockpile food and clothing for the ministry of the moment, and especially for the ministry in need that will come in the near future.”
Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea is committed to helping Ukrainian Christians who have become red martyrs and green martyrs as a result of the current conflict. “We have so far been able to provide aid to the families of six Ukrainian ‘red martyrs’ who have laid down their lives in faithful witness to Christ since February 24,” says Representative Foley. “But it is also important for us to support Ukrainian ‘green martyrs’ like Pastor Polunin and his wife, who have died to themselves but remain alive to Christ, risking their lives daily to serve as his faithful witnesses in these war zones. Our Ukraine Emergency Fund is our ‘green martyr’ support fund for Ukrainian Christians.”
This video shows Pastor Polunin delivering food and supplies to those in need.
Donations can be made to the Ukraine Emergency Fund at www.vomkorea.com/en/donation or via electronic transfer to:
국민은행 (KB Bank) 463501-01-243303
예금주 (Account Holder): (사)순교자의소리
Please include the phrase “Ukraine” with the donation.
Five Ukrainian Christians who cared for 200 people living in a church basement until a grenade hit their car were remembered by Mariupol residents at a memorial service earlier this month. Four of the men were buried in a shared grave in the courtyard of a church near the burned remains of a house where several of the men had days prior been involved in rescuing a man trapped inside and then leading him to the Lord.
“These brothers in Christ were managing to gather food, medicine, and supplies for the 200 or so people who took shelter for several weeks in the basement of Central Baptist Church in Mariupol,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley. She says residents of the makeshift shelter included members of the church as well as church members’ relatives and neighbors, including some non-Christians.
“The five men not only cared for the shelter community but also responded to the needs of those they met as they were out gathering the supplies,” says Representative Foley. “For example, it was not strange for them to find some writing on a nearby fence which said, ‘Help us. There is a baby that needs food.’ These five men would spring into action and, by the grace of God, find and deliver baby formula even as the area faced constant bombardment.”
Of the five, two were from the Central Baptist Church in Mariupol: Deacon Nicolai Semeken (survived by his wife and three children) and Staneslav Burdun, who married six months ago. His body has not been found.
The remaining three were from Bethany Church in Mariupol: Sergei Savelev (survived by his wife and two children), his younger brother Roman Savelev (survived by his wife and two children), and the youngest team member, Staneslav Eleseev (survived by his wife).
On March 4, several of the men went out to the church parking lot to check on the cars at night. Neighbors told them that the owner of the home two doors down from the church was trapped in his basement. “Three of the brothers and one of the wives responded,” says Representative Foley. “The house had been shelled multiple times by the Russian Grad Multiple Launch Rocket System, so it was smoldering and finally burst into a full blaze. There were no firefighters and little water available, so they just improvised ways to fight off the fire while they worked to rescue the man.”
Actual footage of the three Ukrainian Christians rescuing a man from the basement of his home days before they themselves were killed by a direct hit from a grenade launcher.
“The men sawed through the floor to get to the basement, where the owner, whose name was Vova, was unable to move,” says Representative Foley. “He was buried up to his waist, with one leg pinned and one arm broken.”
Victoria Burdun, who had accompanied her new husband Stanislav to the home as part of the rescue team recalls her husband calling out to Vova as they dug him out, “You will live. Do you believe that God will save you?” The team carried Vova to the church using the door of his home as a stretcher.
“Vova had been buried from 5PM to 3AM, so he was frozen,” says Representative Foley. “The team had had to douse him with water several times to extinguish the flames from the fire that had reached him. They gave him tea, washed him, changed his clothes and took him to the hospital in the morning. Later, the brothers visited him again in the hospital. He was alive and he believed in God.”
Victoria Burdun believes God saved the man. “Three times it seemed that everything was in vain,” she says. “We prayed and God helped us put out this fire and save Vova’s life. There was no shelling during the fire and we thanked God that He gave us the time to save this person.”
Painting by Victoria Burdun of her husband and a Christian rescue team freeing a man from his burning home and then leading him to the Lord. Burdun’s husband is missing and presumed dead.
Burdun says the team had no fear during the rescue because weeks before they had already resolved to lay down their lives for the Lord. On February 28, she posted on her Facebook page, “We are not leaving anywhere and we are staying… My husband and I have no fear, and we are ready to die, if God wills!”
Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea recognizes the five men as martyrs.
“Martyrs are Christians who make a conscious decision to lay down their lives in service to the Lord,” says Representative Foley. “They commit to making a faithful witness unto death, testifying of the Lord’s grace to those for whom they lay down their lives.”
Representative Foley says that it is a mistake to think that martyrdom is the result of persecution. “We sometimes think that a person is a martyr because they are persecuted. But biblically, the word martyr means ‘witness’”, says Representative Foley. “Biblically, faithful witness—martyrdom—always comes first, and the result it produces is often persecution. Sometimes that persecution comes from other human beings. Sometimes it comes from the spiritual realm. In the case of these Christian brothers, it’s no coincidence that they who in Jesus’ name saved a man from two fires—the fire of his burning house and the fires of hell—were themselves burned alive a day later. There is always a high price to be paid for faithfulness to Christ.”
On March 9, the team of five left the church basement and drove off in a minivan in search of medicine and fuel but did not return. Later the burned frame of their vehicle was discovered, along with the bodies of four of the men. The car appeared to have been hit by a grenade launcher. “According to those who found 4 men, it was a direct hit,” says Representative Foley. “The bodies of the three men found in the back seat were burnt. The body of the deacon who had been driving was not burned but was found about 5 meters away from the van.” The fifth man, Staneslav Burdun, is still missing and presumed dead.
“They bore faithful witness to Christ unto death, and we will have one more brother in heaven because of their ministry,” says Representative Foley.
The grave in the courtyard of the Central Baptist Church in Mariupol where the four men are buried.
Voice of the Martyrs Korea is supporting each of these five widows with an emergency gift from its Families of Martyrs fund. “The most basic and important ministry of Voice of the Martyrs is to care for the families of those who are martyred or imprisoned for their faith,” says Representative Foley.
Representative Foley says that the organization is also continuing to administer its Ukraine Christian Emergency Relief project, in addition to making disbursements from its Families of Martyrs fund to the families of other Ukrainian Christians who are killed in the act of Christian witness. Those who are interested in making a donation to entire fund can do so at www.vomkorea.com/en/donation or via electronic transfer to:
국민은행 (KB Bank) 463501-01-243303
예금주 (Account Holder): (사)순교자의소리
Please include the word “Ukraine” or “Families of Martyrs” with the donation.
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