“We saw amazing growth in Yunnan Province last year,” Pastor Judah (not his real name) said of the evangelists from his house church network in Anhui Province. “Between the years 2014 and 2018 we saw more than 1,000 people saved among the minority groups.”
In the last decade, BTJ has been supporting 220 evangelists from different networks to serve in western China. The evangelists have been effective at planting house churches in the most unreached areas of China, but it is not without challenges.
“Last year,” Pastor Judah shared, “the police raided one of our fellowships. There were over 100 people meeting together in the city of Kunming. The leaders were detained and questioned and the details of all the attendees was taken.”
Pastor Judah has sounded the alarm on the increase of persecution against Christians in China. He is one of the top mission directors in China, arranging evangelists and missionaries to be sent out from two house church groups that are estimated to have a combined fellowship of at least 20 million believers.
The raid in Kunming could not be reported at the time that it was happening, because foreign reports would have brought more persecution on the believers. Now however, it is possible to share about some of the police raids that took place in 2023.
All of those detained after the raid have been since released and are using new methods to connect with the fellowship.
