Pastor Yang Hua
By Mark Ellis
A pastor imprisoned in China on a contrived “divulging state secrets”
charge sent a letter to his wife June 30, thanking God for his time in prison,
according to a report by China Aid.
“This is a good place to rest, where I am cut off from the rest of the
world and brought closer to God,” Yang Hua, a pastor at Living Stone house
church in Guizhou province wrote from his jail cell.
“I can no longer hear the clamorous noise, but can better listen to the
Lord’s voice.”
Living Stone is the largest house church in the area and has come under
increased government pressure, with a number of its pastors and parishioners
arrested. It started with 20 members in a single apartment in 2009 and grew
rapidly to 400 by 2013. The church rented 7,000 square feet in an office
building the next year to accommodate their growth, according to China
Change.
Pastor Yang is a third-generation pastor. Born Li Guozh, he later changed
his name to Yang Hua, which in Chinese means “looking up to
Jehovah.”
Government authorities took Yang into custody last December, after he
tried to prevent them from seizing one of the church’s hard
drives.
When his wife arrived at the prison to pick him up a few weeks later, she
was horrified to witness them put a black hood over his head and whisk the
pastor away in an unlicensed vehicle, according to China Aid. A completely
fabricated charge! Christian News.
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