Chinese authorities repeatedly detain a Christian man in Hunan for sharing the gospel on the streets.
The Chinese Christian identified as Chen Wensheng from the district of Hengyan has been detained for more than three weeks for his continued street evangelism, China Aid (in Chinese) via the International Christian Concern reported.
With a passion to share the Gospel, Chen took to sharing the Word of God to passersby for months now. It was not the first time that he was arrested for openly proclaiming his faith in the communist ruled country.
In the past four months, Chen had been arrested four times for doing street evangelism.
According to the report, Chen's latest detention lasted for 25 days in total. Since the beginning of this year, he was already arrested four times for going to the streets to share the Good News about Jesus Christ.
On New Year's Day, he got detained for sharing the Gospel and was released 10 days after.
Instead of stopping, Chen went back to the streets to continue his evangelism, but this time his mother, who is already 84 years old, went with him. This made the police detain Chen once again together with his mother. However, with his mother's old age, the police released her by 11 p.m. while he stayed another 15 days in the police station.
On Jan. 29 this year, Chen was released from the police station. Two days after his release, local authorities visited the persistent Christian in his home to convince him to stop evangelizing on the street. There were staffs from different sectors of security including the United Front Work Department, state security bureau, public security bureau, urban management force, and his community who stayed at his house to persuade him until midnight.
Chen saw the visit as the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel to the security staff and tell them about his faith. During the conversation, one of the public officials got curious and even asked about the Bible.
Chen's tenacity may not be understood by everyone. But as a former drug addict, getting to know God and knowing about Jesus has truly transformed his life.
Now, Chen is very much determined to let other people know about the power of God by sharing the Gospel even on the streets where he lives. Prison has not stopped Chen from sharing the Good News. Even in detention, Chen has always found a way to share the good news and evangelize the people despite all the threats and repeated warnings for his unashamed declaration of faith.
As a Christian in a country where there is much persecution to those who are considered believers, Chen's courage and boldness is reminiscent of Paul's tenacity to spread the Good News of Christ when Jesus encountered him in the road of Damascus and changed his life. Just like Paul, Chen did not allow persecution to stop him from declaring the Gospel wherever he is. Truly, God's Word cannot be imprisoned (2 Timothy 2:9) no matter the situation. Chen's life is a testimony of that.
