Family & Friends,

Normally when you brag on a Chinese pastor you must change the name to protect the innocent. Not this time. They no longer can imprison Freddie Sun (1936-2012), or torture or harass him. After travelling 25,000 miles in China, He headed to heaven. He left behind 155 Bible institutes, 60,000 trained pastors from the institutes and 90,000 house churches from the trained pastors. He came to faith as a teenager and Mao Zedong could not crush his faith during the Cultural Revolution. He had to find a wife who could suffer and married Dorothy Chang who was doing forced labor for her faith when they met.

He refused to give the government the names of church leaders and then called his 15 year prison sentence his “seminary” experience. “Instead of learning homiletics, hermeneutics, Greek, and Hebrew,” he said, “I was being taught the greater lessons of obedience, submission, forgiveness, love, endurance, and patience.” In honor of Freddie, I’ve decided not to complain about the little hassles of this week, but pray for those following in fearless Freddie’s wake.

G