We URGENTLY need your prayer support in the Muslim world!

In just over a month, one of AsiaLink’s Women’s Empowerment Conferences will take place in a large Muslim city. We are anticipating 350 to 400 women attending, where they will hear dynamic preaching and teaching tailored to meet the needs of women living in a Muslim society. Pakistan is home to 251 million people. This unique conference has been one of the most effective ways to reach Muslim women and nominal Christians who feel trapped in hopeless situations, offering them the empowering message of God’s love.

Women in this Muslim country struggle to be treated fairly and equally. They constantly face the threat of domestic violence, emotional abuse, child marriage, and sexual harassment. Sadly, violence against women occurs daily behind closed doors. If you ask a woman if she is happy with her life, she will say, “I have a good husband. He doesn’t beat me.”

However, we’ve discovered that when women encounter Jesus and are radically changed from within by the affirming message of God’s love and purpose for them, a strong desire to share this new message of God’s love with their husbands and family members develops within them. It’s extraordinary to see how God uses them!

The featured speaker will be Mrs. G., a former Muslim who is an influential pastor, teacher and Christian apologist. Because of her vibrant Christian faith and knowledge of Islam, she has had many opportunities to reach Muslims. Her life is an incredible story of God’s intervention and protective care. Her intimate knowledge of Islam has enabled her to uniquely challenge women to be empowered with God’s love through Jesus Christ. Whenever she ministers, she is often sought out by Muslim clerics who are searching for answers to their questions about the unique claims of Christianity, and as a result, many have secretly come to faith.

The theme for this year’s Empowerment Conference is “Challenges of a Christian Woman Living in a Muslim Society.”

In order to make this conference available to women from all financial backgrounds AsiaLink attempts to cover the costs for every woman who attends. Last week I received an URGENT message from our AsiaLink team stating their efforts to raise their entire budget on their own has fallen short. They need our help to raise the budget shortfall for the 3-day Women’s conference. These are poor people and they struggle to survive.

• Thank God for His protection over everyone who attends.
• Pray that many will be touched by God’s presence and the teaching they receive.
• Pray for Sister G. and our other special speakers, that God will anoint and use them.
• Pray that each person attending will sense God’s love, guidance and protective care over them.
• Pray for Sister Aksa and her team as they give leadership to our women’s ministry.
• Pray that God would enable us to raise the finances needed for this conference!

Pastor Jin Mingri, a well-known underground Christian leader, was detained on Friday, October 10th, at his home in Guangxi province along with 30 pastors in his network throughout China.  Since the initial arrests, 10 pastors have been freed.

Pastor Jin started Zion Church in 2007 with 20 members. It experienced rapid growth in Beijing, with over 1,500 attendees at its services, supported by 20 pastors working in the main church.

In 2018, new regulations targeted unregistered churches, leading to a police raid at Zion’s facility. Pastor Jin was placed under surveillance and told he could not leave the country, while his wife and children escaped to the United States. Unfortunately, he has not seen them in seven years.

Then the miraculous happened. Zion began broadcasting on the internet, and soon their church expanded beyond the four walls of the Beijing church facility to computer screens across China. Hundreds of new fellowships soon began in forty cities with 10,000 people attending. As one Zion pastor commented, “This is God’s work,” he said. “No one could have imagined it.”

Zion Church has utilized creative means to share the message of Jesus, with members worshipping in homes, restaurants, and even karaoke bars. The church was banned in 2018 after refusing to install government surveillance cameras, but continued operating in secret and online during the pandemic, drawing thousands of new believers.

By 2025, authorities had taken notice of the widespread use of the internet for religious purposes. The recent arrest of pastors was not random; it was strategically coordinated. 

“It was a cross-regional operation,” explained one pastor from the Zion Church. “Police from Beihai City, located on the southern coast of China, travelled to Beijing and other provinces to hunt down pastors, covering a distance of over 2,400 kilometres. They were taking orders from Beijing.”

At least twenty pastors are confirmed to have been held at Beihai’s No. 2 Detention Center, charged with the illegal use of the internet to spread religious content.

The goal is clear: to erase the church not only from public life but also from digital life.

Homes have been sealed, families threatened, and elderly believers handcuffed. In one case, a young mother was detained while caring for her one-month-old baby. Although she is now home, the trauma of the experience remains.

“It is a new and significant crackdown that should get our attention and should refocus our thoughts and prayers towards the people in China who are facing ever-increasing challenges and outright persecution. Christians in China are not afraid to take risks and to do things that might get [them] in trouble,” shared one China insider.

Last month, the Chinese government issued new restrictions on how religious leaders can and cannot use the internet. According to various reports, Zion Church’s coordinated arrests seem to stem from church leaders disregarding those regulations. “[Online platforms] became very important during COVID and have been a really important tool for the house churches, and the registered churches as well,” explained the China insider.

Pastor Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, who resides in the United States, said her father was aware of the risks but refused to abandon his congregation. “He could have stayed in the U.S. and sought asylum,” she said, “but he felt he had to be with the flock.” Despite the sweeping arrests, Zion Church members say they will continue meeting in secret and online. “We will not stop what we are doing,” said one Chinese pastor. “We will share the good news of Jesus Christ no matter what.”

• Pray for Pastor Jin and the many other pastors who were arrested.
• Pray for China’s Christians as they navigate the different winds of persecution that are spreading across their nation.
• Pray for China’s government officials, that God would speak and convict them.
• Pray for China’s church and the millions who are yet to be reached with the gospel.

After enduring years of persecution, Pastor Zhao Huaiguo, founder of Bethel Church in Cili County, in Hunan province, China, has died, leaving behind a legacy of faith and resilience.

In 2007, Pastor Zhao relocated to Hunan to establish Bethel Church, with a focus on serving elderly Christians and those who had previously avoided Communist Party-sanctioned Three Self Patriotic Movement churches.

Since Bethel Church’s founding, Pastor Zhao and his wife have faced relentless attacks. In 2019, authorities raided Bethel Church, confiscated Bibles, destroyed property, and pressured members to join the Three-Self movement.

In November 2024, Zhao and his wife were detained for 10 days for delivering unsanctioned online training. Pastor Zhao died in his early 50s.

• Pray for Pastor Zhao’s family and congregation that they will be comforted and encouraged to continue serving the Lord.

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A Chinese Christian woman known for documenting the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan has been sentenced to four more years in prison.

 She was convicted of the same offence for which she previously served a four-year term. 

Zhang Zhan received her latest sentence on September 19th on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. 

The 42-year-old Christian and former lawyer had been detained the previous month in Shaanxi Province, where she was reportedly helping a young pro-democracy activist secure legal assistance, and was later transferred to a detention center in Shanghai. 

Zhang had been released on May 13 after serving her first four-year prison term, which began in 2020 following her arrest for reporting from Wuhan during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Pray for Zhang that she will remain strong and resilient while imprisoned. 

• Pray for Pastor Wang Yi and the many others of his house church who have been imprisoned. Pastor Yi was sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2019.

• Pray for his wife Jiang Rong who has been under 24-hour surveillance.

• Pray God would strengthen Pastor Wang, his wife, family and other Christians.