Story number 1 for 29 Jan 2002

(China)–Our top story today focuses on China. Despite an appeal of his sentence, Mission Network News got word last week that evangelistic house church pastor Gong Shengliang’s execution was suddenly moved up to January 27. Efforts to discover the truth of his whereabouts have resulted in no new information. We spoke with Bob Fu of the Committee to Investigate Persecution in China. “I contacted some of his coworkers inside China and outside China who knew him very well, and his relatives. They have no access to Mr. Gong’s prison. We just simply don’t know whether he’s still alive or been executed already. Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton says this overtly aggressive crackdown by the Chinese government will likely be met with equally bold believers. “Just pray that God will be close to them. They’re not fazed by the persecution because they expected it. They knew it was coming when they came to Christ.”