Meet this month: Dr Kim Stansfield

I’ve been attending CSW Ambassador conferences for a number of years now, and each time I hear the testimony of somebody who has been on the front line of the persecuted church from various countries around the world.

This year was no exception when we heard from Grace the daughter of a Chinese, human rights defence lawyer and Christian, Gao Zhiseng. Grace, who was a similar age to my daughter, calmly described how she had felt ashamed of her father after he was arrested in 2011 and taken away when she was a young teenager. He had chosen to defend minority faith groups including Christians, despite being harassed by the state for several years before the arrest, where he had been taken in for short periods of time for interrogation and physical abuse. After the arrest, security officers moved into their flat, allowing them no privacy for months. After several months of being kept from school, she was taken into the school and beaten in front of 2000 school children who were then told she had a contagious disease and should not be spoken to. She described how she hated her father and had been told he had died in custody.

In 2014 she then discovered he was still alive, and following a campaign was released. He then told her he felt he had been asked by God to call the Chinese people into obedience, so couldn’t choose to stay quiet and had to speak out.

I felt really moved by Grace’s story, as she brought home the huge sacrifice and heart breaking choices being made by many people such as her father in following Christ obediently and the terrible impact on family members. Her life had subsequently changed dramatically as she was able to imigrate with her mother to the USA where she has recently graduated from University. Everybody in the room committed to holding Grace, her family and father up in prayer. As with previous CSW Ambassador’s Conferences, I felt I’d been given an insight into the battle that is being waged around the world and was inspired by the huge personal cost and sacrifices that people are making to follow Christ.’