"Pow, pow, pow!"

Dear praying friends,

Heavy slaps fell against sister Li Aijie’s face. She felt faint. Blows to her head threw her to the ground. Her 80-year-old mom stood by while the beating occurred on October 9.

Her attackers? Her biological brother and sister. All because she loved her husband too much to divorce him. Why would a family do this to their youngest? This is today’s China, where injustice twists covenant love into terrible sin.

The “offense” of this 39-year-old Christian sister was her marriage to a human rights defender Zhang Haitao. He was arrested in 2015 when Aijie was four months pregnant. In January 2016, Haitao received 19 years in prison for “inciting of subversion of state power.” A harsh sentence for posting messages on WeChat and Twitter about human rights.

In early October, Aijie found out that her three brothers and sister had all been threatened by police due to her advocacy for her husband. Her elderly mother was interrogated at the police station. “Break off with that man or be cut from our family,” her mom issued the ultimatum to her just before her brother and sister started the violent beatings against her.

The choice is torturous. “I love my husband Haitao, and he is in jail,” Aijie argues to her mother. “How can I abandon him?” But she knows her siblings’ jobs and her mom’s safety are in peril.

The Communist government have increasingly been using family members as “hostages” to break the will of the prisoners and their supporters. Many families like Aijie’s face this dilemma.

“I noticed my mom’s tears as I left my home the next morning,” Aijie recalled. “That was the hardest moment of my life. But I pray the love of God can help change that.”

Only God’s love can overcome these choices between police, family, a beloved husband, and herself. Only God’s can transform that system. Dear friends, let’s work together with greater efforts to help achieve that.

Your brother in Christ,

 

Bob Fu

P.S. — Aijie attended a ChinaAid marriage/family retreat after that beating. Still bruised, her unspeakable joy was a powerful encouragement and comfort to others experiencing similar hardships.