Early Rain Covenant Church

There's a little bit of rain coming down.

I can see the the terminal or the the tarmac out the window here it's kind of a cool little space here almost like having a hotel room right in the airport although i only get it for an hour and from i guess from right now only about another half an hour or so from now so let me go ahead and move on this won't be a real long podcast i recorded the intro and outro the other day before i left what i want to do is mention something today that i i was going to wait and maybe do this um on the normal midweek podcast but it's i want to mention it today because it's been in the news it's been something that i've seen on social media it's gone around a little bit pastor wangi of early rain covenant church in china there was a report that i saw on facebook that has been going around and china aid which is a ministry um to china i can hear rain on the window here in this room China Aid posted an article raising a health alarm for imprisoned Pastor Wang Yi calling for family access, calling to the China government for family access to Pastor Wang Yi.

They don't say where they heard the information and whatnot.

Let me go ahead and read you a little bit of what they say, and then I'll read you what I found out from those who know and are connected more directly with Early Rain Church.

So this China Aid is based in Midland, Texas, and this was on September 28th.

This is about 10 days ago now.

China Aid has received deeply concerning information from sources inside China indicating that imprisoned Early Rain Covenant Church Pastor Wang Yi, held in southwestern China, Chengdu, may be suffering from advanced liver cancer.

Advanced liver cancer.

I think he was one of the ones that got in trouble way back in the day and is still obviously here serving and helping in the church.

So this is Early Rain Church's elderly small group that got arrested just a few weeks ago.

I guess it's been almost a month now that this happened.

And so again, we can continue to pray for them.

This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes, written by yours truly and heard on 140 radio stations and at theworldview.com. I'm Adam McManus.

As the elders of the 500-member Early Rain Covenant Church met quietly on September 10th at a local tea house to discuss church matters, Chinese communist authorities were already on to them, reports International Christian Concern.

Around 3 p.m., police entered the tea house, interrupted the meeting, and arrested 11 of the elders.

Early rain has a nearly 10-year history of being harassed, monitored, and pressured by the Chinese Communist Party.

By 10 a.m. on Saturday, police had finally released nine people, However, Elder Wu Waking and Shen Zeking are still being held and are accused of, quote, illegally organizing proselytizing activities, end quote.

They were fined and sentenced to 10 days of detention.

The Early Rain Covenant Church members in China are boldly living out Romans 1.16, which says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Write a polite four-sentence note to the Chinese ambassador to America, Xi Feng, urging him to tell Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop harassing the Early Rain Covenant church members.

Foreign nationals placed on countermeasure, unreliable entity, or malicious entity lists also face new entry restrictions.

Earlier in the year, on January 6th, police in Chengdu detained at least 10 people associated with the unofficial Early Rain Covenant Church, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law's Civic Freedom Monitor.

The Early Rain detentions followed an earlier clampdown on another unofficial church.

In October 2025, authorities detained nearly 30 people affiliated with the Zion Protestant Church across seven cities.