Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.” History rhymed recently when a Chinese church undertook a journey resembling the saga of the Pilgrims, first fleeing their own land for sake of religious freedom, then staying for a time in another country and finally finding sanctuary in America. The whole ordeal has earned the small congregation, formally known as the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, a fitting name: “the Mayflower Church.”
Four years ago, the 60-plus members of the Shenzhen fellowship fled their homes in Communist China. Facing the increasing intolerance of Beijing authorities and the growing megalomania of Xi Jinping, the congregation had only two options: flee or bend the knee. They chose the former and kept their faith.
After first making their way to territory that belongs to South Korea, where they were denied asylum, they ended up in Bangkok. But as the Pilgrims found their initial refuge in Holland less than ideal centuries ago, this Chinese church found that Thailand could not be their new home. Authorities there detained the community for violating their immigration visas, which put the refugees at risk of being returned to China.
But God has been at work. Due to the efforts of Christians in America, including U.S. congressmen, state department officials and the 2021 Colson Center Wilberforce Award winner, Bob Fu, the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church was granted asylum this spring in the United States. In fact, they arrived in Texas just in time to join a Good Friday service with their American brothers and sisters.
While the story of Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church has a happy ending, their plight and that of the persecuted Church in China and around the world is far too common. The Early Rain Covenant Church is another Chinese congregation that has been forced to suffer under Beijing’s growing intolerance of Christian groups. The church has hundreds of members that have repeatedly faced oppression and arrest by the Communist authorities. They, like the Shenzhen fellowship, have refused to join the state-approved and state-controlled national church.