Credit: SUBMITTED PHOTO
Sun Yiyin, known better as Freddie Sun
Some Virginians feel their government is so much against them that they take buses to the nation?s capitol to protest for women?s rights.
In Chesterfield County a former U.S. Marine and combat veteran, Brandon Raub, was taken by local police and the FBI into a psychiatric facility for posting political opinions and song lyrics on Facebook and held there until a judge set him free.
Many have grievances with government, but few have endured the persecution and opposition that local resident and international Christian evangelical activist Sun Yiyin, known better as Freddie Sun, suffered.
Mr. Sun, who died on Wednesday at the age of 76 after battling cancer for two years, endured the Cultural Revolution in the People?s Republic of China when he was imprisoned, tortured and beaten at the hand of authorities who were opposed to his belief in Jesus Christ. He and his wife, Dorothy Chang Sun, who was imprisoned for two decades, found their faiths hardened rather than broken by the experience.
Visitors from China and across the United States are expected to come to Charlottesville on Sept. 15 for a memorial service for Mr. Sun at First Baptist Church on Park Street, officials for the Charlottesville-based Christian Aid Mission said.
?He had been a university professor before his arrest and his captors were determined to crush his spirit during 10 years of forced labor,? said Bill Bray, special projects coordinator for the Christian Aid Mission. ?Rather, those 10 terrible years served to increase his devotion to Christ and prepare him for the years of service that lay ahead.?
The decade from 1966 to 1976 saw religious expression banned in Chinese life, even in the government-sanctioned Christian church. Churches began springing up in worshippers? homes and the government reinstated the sanctioned church in 1980. The Chinese government currently recognizes the state-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic church, but does not approve of independent evangelical Christian churches.
According to the Christian Aid Mission, from 1992 to 2012, Mr. Sun organized and helped to operate more than 150 Bible institutes and missionary training centers inside China, outside of the government?s sanctioned churches. Those institutes have produced more than 60,000 missionaries, the mission reports.
?I believe history will show that Freddie Sun?s work in establishing and distributing financial support for 154 Bible institutes in China during the past 20 years has had a greater impact for the cause of Christ in that communist country than that of any other single person or ministry,? said Bob Finley, chairman of the Christian Aid Mission.
?When I left China in 1949, we estimated that there were less than half a million evangelical Christians in the entire country. Today there are more than 100 million. Most have been won to Christ by native missionaries working with local house churches throughout the country,? Mr. Finley said. ?And by far the greatest source for these native missionaries has been the [institutes] started and financially supported by Freddie and Dorothy Sun since 1992.?
It wasn?t easy.
?The situation in China is still tight and the communists suppress Christianity, human rights, people gathering and freedom of speech,? Mr. Sun told www.christianity.ca, a Canadian Internet publication, in 2006. ?The communists closely monitor people?s telephones and emails, intrude into Christian gatherings and arrest believers. Still, persecution is happening. A lot of Christians have been detained and arrested. We don?t call it ?prison,? we call it a ?theological school? training our faith, and training our loyalty to the Lord Jesus.?
Although Mr. Sun is gone, his wife will continue on in their effort. Both told a Canadian television show in 2010 that, if you believe in something, you have to stand up for it.
?I was a geologist for 32 years and now an evangelist,? Mr. Sun said. ?I worked with both, and souls can be just as hard as rocks.?
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