For decades the Chinese people have accepted the regime’s one child policy without question. In China the official tally is 13 million babies aborted each year. Few people, including Christians, are knowledgeable about life inside the womb or understand the abortion procedure, and Christian women in the house church networks, that have grown up without outside influence and often without the full Scriptures, have thought it to be a matter of obeying the laws of the land – aborting children was therefore not considered to be wrong.
But in Chengdu, Jonny Fan, a 27-year-old at the 500-member Early Rain Reformed Church, saw images of abortion on a blog in 2012 and felt convicted about the high abortion rates in the country. So for the past three years, he and his fellow church members have passed out brochures urging mothers not to abort on June 1, which is “Children’s Day.” Using his background in marketing, Fan created polished pamphlets explaining the scope of abortion in China, the hope found in the Gospel, and contact information for his church.
Last year, he expanded his campaign to include bus ads, and authorities arrested him and a few others for printing unapproved material. This year, Fan printed 50,000 fliers for his church to pass out, and police officers beat one church member for passing out the fliers. At Early Rain, the focus on protecting life is noticeable in the number of families sitting in the service with two children. Fan said that most of the second children don’t have “hukou” (a record of household registration required by law in China) and therefore may not be allowed access to education as they grow up. Early Rain has its own private Christian school and seminary to counter this handicap. Fan leads a small pro-life group that focuses on educating church members about abortion and has expanded into adoption care. Last year, one church member passing out fliers outside a hospital convinced a young woman to keep her baby. Fan connected her with a family who was willing to adopt the child privately, and realized this would be the next big need in his ministry.
This year Wang started a month-long campaign ending on June 1 to train church leaders to spread the word about abortion within their church networks. About 8,200 pastors ended up preaching about abortion in their churches, according to Wang. Fan said that while others have approached him asking about pro-life work, he’s not an expert, he’s just a Christian acting on his convictions.
“I do this because I see China’s rate of abortion is growing too fast; it’s frightening,” Fan said. “This is what I believe: We cannot murder. But Chinese people have sinned in this way. I don’t want to let the next generation live in an environment like this.”
Source: World News service
BIBLE STUDY: Proverbs 31:8-9
PRAISE: God that government sanctioned murder of the unborn is being addressed in church.
PRAY: That the nation may wake up to the evil of this practice and come under the fear of God.