Captive Pastor Freed From Chinese Prison

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Joining us now is Pastor Ezra Jin and his daughter Grace Jin Drexel who joined us earlier this year and we had a delightful conversation and an urgent conversation with her. Grace thank you for coming back and pastor Ezra Jin thank you for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having us and just really grateful to your show to tell my story and now we've seen the miracle that my father is released and so really really grateful for for everything that you guys have done as well. It's an amazing story we've been following you know on the edge of our seats and we're so grateful how it's turned out. So you know last time we talked Ezra you were imprisoned in China we talked to your daughter while you were there and she was very urgently calling for action from the Trump administration. President Trump had taken action already and now we've seen that you're back. So first of all can you please remind our audience why you were originally captured? I was arrested because of my role as a pastor and in October of last year I was arrested along with 20 plus members of our church. When they arrested me they arrested me and the charge of illegal use of information networks but when they sent us to court they are now they now charged us with illegal business operations and fraud. This is not just for our churches. This is how the Chinese Communist Party have been persecuting churches more generally using these charges. How long so you were there since last year? What were the conditions of your imprisonment? The condition is very bad inside the detention center. In the summer it's very hot in the winter it's very cold. It's a very small area where there are packing more than 30 people in the same cell. More than just the food is horrible as well but more than the prison condition what is truly most terrible for me personally was that they did not allow any type of communication from the to the outside world for me. So I was not able to receive any letters and also I was only receiving information through my lawyer but they repeatedly made it so that my lawyer, my access to lawyer, was denied. They've harassed four of my lawyers including the first one. He a lawyer, Zhang Kai. He also went through a lot in order to and order to represent me. He had ultimately lost his law license and his whole law firm was dismantled. And your daughter was here fighting for your return very valiantly I might say, did you suffer any physical ailments while you were there? How was your condition? So many people ask me this question and luckily for me I was not tortured in any way. Partly we believe because of the international attention that we were getting very early on for my daughter who has been advocating for me abroad, etc. I've actually seen other prisoners have witnessed them being tortured but I was not physically tortured. My health condition has been something that I was concerned about because I have I've pretty severe diabetes so it was an area where I am still now trying to since I've been out for the last month been helped like trying to recover. Based on how they treated your lawyer, I mean putting him out of business, do they treat people in your situation with your crimes worse than other crimes or is that kind of treatment normal for any kind of criminal or you know or any kind of person who's imprisoned? So my thought is that there are two points for this situation. One is that when they are persecuting us they actually don't have any legal backing because religious freedom is even guaranteed in the Chinese constitution but that is not something that they are actually allowing on the ground. So for that reason when lawyers come in and help with these cases they feel very awkward and do not like that they are highlighting their violation to to the situation but secondly especially when our case became more there were more attention to it and it became public in like the public were aware of the situation it also gave them a lot of pressure it gave the government a lot of pressure so they felt like through attacking the lawyers and making them go away quietly it might have helped alleviate some of the pressure that they were getting with this case but so that was kind that were part of the reasons why we think that it happened in our case but it is not a normal you can see the grim logic there from the authoritarian Chinese government so you were released in part because of the Trump administration's efforts what about your fellow pastors are there other pastors still in prison now? There are certain adult tasks we are incredibly good at putting off organizing the garage making a will and yes getting life insurance but once you have people depending on you that last one probably deserves to move up the list that's what I like about ethos they've made the whole process surprisingly simple it's 100% online you can get a quote in seconds apply in minutes and even get same day coverage plus there's no medical exam you just answer a few simple health questions online you can get up to three million in coverage with some policies as low as 30 dollars a month 10 minutes versus finally getting something important off your mental to-do list I'll take that trade take 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos get your free quoted ethos dot com slash wire that's eth os dot com slash wire application times may vary rates may apply what about your fellow pastors are there other pastors still in prison now? I wanted to first for my situation thank the media for covering my my case and repeatedly like talking and making sure that I was not forgotten but I also wanted to thank secretary Rubio as well as the members of congress on both sides include especially the 44 congress people who are written letters to the president to mention my case and ultimately of course president Trump who took up my case personally with chairman Xi Jinping on his trip to Beijing earlier this year and we have seen the miracle that it produced for me to be released but there are even And eight church leaders from my church are still detained inside China. And our heart really goes out to them. And their situation is actually worsened in the recent years. And their court cases were elevated to trial very recently. And they are charging them and pressuring them with heavy sentencing. And this is truly a very conflicting signal. Because on the one hand you are sending the signal of goodwill by releasing me. And on the other hand heavily sentencing and persecuting the other eight members. And that makes it very, that's a contradictory behavior. And so we really hope and pray that all those who have continued to pay attention to my case will focus on the situation of the eight as well. Another case that we want to talk about is a dear friend of mine, Pastor Gao Chengfu from the Light of Zion Church in Xi'an. He also recently had a pre-trial hearing date. And the prosecutors told them that he is looking at 12 to 13 years of imprisonment. That was shocking to me when I heard it. Yesterday I also heard that seven other pastors from a church in Wenzhou, China were also taken away. The church, Biao Gan, is one of the largest and most well-known prominent church in Wenzhou as well. And seven of its leaders were taken to prison yesterday. So it sounds like the Communist Party is very threatened by Christians. What would you say the state of the Christian Church is in China? Is it growing? Is there a reason why they're cracking down so hard? And do they also treat other religions as harshly as this? I want to highlight that the church in China, the Christians inside China, have always been peaceful, have always been serving the community. They are the people of peace, they are the children of peace. And they have always had a peaceful development and wanted to help their society. And the most recent 10 years or so we've seen this crackdown on Christianity and other faith. We don't really understand why. It's baffling because it's nothing that the Christians have done or it's not because they were a threat to the society in any way. They have always been peaceful and always been helping. It's partly the government or the party's own, the Chinese Communist Party's own fear of their own ideology that they are persecuting the Christians in this way. And by continuing persecuting Christians it is not good for the Chinese society nor its people. So this is baffling to us as well. And when we talked to Grace earlier this year, she said, you knew that you were going into danger that there was always the risk of being imprisoned going back to China. Are you back now for good in the States? I assume you're not going to go back after this sequence of events. My situation, people have told me that I, in some ways, went sent in this way to America. I was a special gift from a German sea to President Trump. And no one have asked me at any point what I wanted to do. I was put inside the airplane and they didn't even tell me where I was going until the airplane took off or where this airplane was going. Of course, for my heart, I always have a love and a calling for China. And I hope that one day I would be able to continue to serve China in some way that is what is in my heart. You're finally free. What has it been like adjusting back to life as a free man here in America? Yes. What do you think? Of course, I am so happy with my, the freedom that I have right now. And I know that it is so special and I'm cherish it very much. The fact that I am able to freely say whatever I want, I can have a plan and I can go through with the plans that I hope for. And especially I want to be so grateful that I have the opportunity to be with my family, especially since I was not able to meet my son-in-law or the three grandchildren that have been birthed since I was travel band inside China. And especially since I've been here this time, I've really come to know that this love and care from the American society and churches. And even in Congress, I met several members of Congress in my trip in D.C. recently. And the patience and the humbleness of so many of our leaders here, they are welcoming me and even praying with me. This really, truly made me feel like this is why God is blessing this nation. Now, Grace, how are you feeling in the midst of all of this? What's this been like for you? Well, it feels very unreal to have my father here. As we've mentioned, my father was actually travel band and not allowed to be with my family for the last six years or eight years actually. And so part of my, many of our family's big events, he was not able to be a part of in person, including my wedding, including the birth of my children, including my brothers' graduations and their growing up in their teenage years as boys needing a father figure to show them how to be a strong and independent man. But all of this, my father was not allowed, was not able to be a part of because of the longer persecution, even before the arrest, but just so grateful. And it's just unimaginable to actually see him in person again and have him be released in such a swift and remarkable way. And truly knowing that this was a miracle, truly, and that it was through the hand of God that this happened. So your father said he was not told where he was going, he was put on a plane. Did you as the family, did you guys have any heads up that this was about to happen? So as family, we were always talking to our, my mom, sorry, me and my husband, my brothers. We are all American citizens. So when this happened, we immediately had very close, we were telling the American government what was happening and hoping for them to step in and help advocate for my father's case. And so when negotiations were happening, we weren't really told much, but around two days after, around two days before my father was released as someone in the State Department called me and asked for my credit card information because they were buying a plane potentially for my father. So they said, don't be alarmed if you see a big payment coming out of your credit card. But they didn't say much and they said it's possible that things will go fall through and such. But other than that, they weren't able to give me many details other than that. But I said for our family to go to LAX to pick up my father if things went well. So we were given a very short window into potentially, that's something we're happening, but we weren't given too much for notice. Incredible. I can't. That experience, and thank God, LAX, you get to see your father finally after eight years. Thank you, Grace and Ezra Jen, thank you so much, Pastor, for coming on and talking to us. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. That was Pastor Ezra Jen and his daughter Grace, Jen Drexel, and this has been a weekend episode of Morning Wire. For a few minutes with God, could change the direction of your entire day. With Pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers, inspiring Bible stories and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement or a fresh start, Pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the Pray.com app today.