China Week of Prayer

We’re holding a special week of prayer for China during the week of 17 May.

We’d love you to join us, maybe getting your church or small group involved, and see what miracles our awesome God will do when we lift China up in prayer!

During the China Week of Prayer we’ll send you a daily prayer update email, with links to free prayer resources
and a video on our website.

Sign up to the week of prayer

Turn your prayers into action Encourage Chinese prisoners Make a gift

Resources

China prayer sheet

CSW's China country profile

Response article - China: Fears of a crackdown?

prayer points for china

Pray for: Churches

Please pray for the hundreds of churches across Zhejiang Province which have had their crosses torn down over the last year. Christians were injured and sometimes arrested in these incidents. It’s part of a provincial government campaign against ‘illegal buildings’, that’s believed to be targeting Christians. Click here to read more.

• Pray that God would uphold spiritually Christians whose churches have had their cross torn down, and would provide another meeting place for those whose churches were demolished.

Pray for: Human rights lawyers

Please pray for human rights lawyers who are targeted by the Chinese government for their work defending religious freedom.

Gao Zhisheng has been repeatedly ‘disappeared’, arrested and tortured by the authorities since his first arrest in 2006. He was released from prison last year, after a huge international campaign to keep the authorities to their promise to release him. But he is still emotionally and physically fragile after his years of suffering terrible prison conditions.

• Ask God to continue to heal Gao mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically after his ordeal, and to uphold his wife Geng He, who lives in the US.

Pray for: Ethnic minority Christians

Please pray for ethnic minority Christians who are doubly under threat: because they are ethnic as well as religious minorities.

Alimujiang (Alim) Yimiti was working for a British company in China when it was targeted in a series of closures of foreign businesses belonging to Christians, in 2007. In April 2009 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a court case that did not follow due process – and according to the UN he is being detained ‘solely because of his faith’.

• Ask God to comfort Alim during his long, unfair prison sentence, and uphold his wife, who was informed in January 2013 that her monthly visits would be cut to one every three months.

Pray for: Church leaders

Thaddeus Ma Daqin is the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Shanghai. He chose the occasion of his ordination Mass to publicly resign from the government body that controls the Catholic Church in China - a move which angered the government. Ma was stripped of his new title and placed under house arrest after his controversial announcement.

Other church leaders such as Pastor Zhang Shaojie, Bishop James Su and Pastor Huang Yizi are currently in prison or under house arrest, or have been ‘disappeared’.

• Pray that church leaders in prison unjustly would be released, and that in the meantime God would comfort and guide their families and congregations.

Pray for: The Church in China

Across China, the increasing pressure on Christians continues. We’re hearing reports from towns and cities in various parts of the country of the government increasing the pressure on Christians and churches – part of a broader recent crackdown on human rights in general. In one province alone, since last year over 400 churches have been demolished or have had their crosses torn down.

• Ask God to encourage and uplift Christians in China despite the pressures they face.

Pray for: Young people

Young people in China’s middle class are under huge pressure to get a good education and a good job. Employment opportunities often depend on them joining the Communist Party – but this means they have to abandon their faith. They may choose to follow Christ in secret, but if they want to live out their faith in public, they face a difficult choice.

Organising large outreach events on university campuses is forbidden, and last December education officials in Zhejiang province banned Christmas celebrations in schools.

• Ask God to give wisdom to young people who face a hard choice between living out their faith, and the access to job opportunities they would get from joining the Communist Party.

Pray for: Families of prisoners

In March this year Pastor Huang Yizi was convicted of ‘gathering a crowd to disturb public order’ and sentenced to one year in prison. He was taken into custody last August after protesting against violence used on Christians who had been peacefully protesting the demolition of churches.

When a pastor is put in prison, their family suffers too. As well as the emotional strain of being apart from their loved one, families face financial challenges and can even face criticism from friends and family members for ‘going against the government’.

• Pray that God would provide materially and spiritually for the wives and families of men like Pastor Huang who have been imprisoned.

 

Case study: the power of prayer

On 7 August last year, something astonishing happened. Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese Christian human rights lawyer, had been in prison for years. He was supposed to be released on 7 August, but the authorities had repeatedly ’disappeared’ him before his imprisonment, so on the human level the situation looked very uncertain.

We decided we needed to mobilise a major prayer movement. Hundreds of you signed up to cover the entire 24 hours of his supposed release date in prayer, and we waited  anxiously to hear from China. Finally the news came we’d been desperately hoping and praying for: Gao had been released! We couldn’t stop praising God for this incredible proof, once more, of the power of prayer. 

Now we want to give you another chance to be part of a prayer movement that changes the world.

Sign up today for the China Week of Prayer!