Mother of Chen Yu, detained owner of Xiaomai Bookstore awaiting second trial, shares prayer requests for her son and appeals for justice for him

(Photo: WeChat)

(Linhai,* Zhejiang Province—Nov. 17, 2020) On November 4, Chen Yu’s mother posted a letter requesting prayer for her son. Chen Yu, owner of Xiaomai Bookstore, charged in September 2019 with “selling illegal overseas religious publications online.” Currently, Mr. Chen, held in Linhai Detention Center in Zhejiang, awaits his second trial. During the first trial on September 27 of Zhang Xiaomai (original name Chen Yu), the court ruled that he serve a seven-year sentence and fined him 200,000 Chinese Yuan ($ 30,373 USD). Authorities also destroyed 12,864 books they had confiscated.

At the time
police seized Mr. Chen, the Ministry of Public Security made a nation-wide
announcement of his arrest. To collect detailed evidence of book sales,
security agents throughout China summoned and questioned thousands of Xiaomai Bookstore
customers. These agents primarily focused on pastor Wang Yi’s book, Transformation
of the Gospel, and demanded customers hand over copies of this and other books
they had purchased.

 As Chinese
officials enforce strict control over Christian books, they have banned many
books like Transformation of the Gospel that Xiaomao Bookstore helped
customers purchase from overseas Christian bookstores. Officials criminally charged
Mr. Chen Yu for selling books online that did not have legal ISBNs or authorized
import permits.

In her prayer
request letter, Mr. Chen’s mother appeals to the court and the procuratorate to
give her son a fair adjudication in his second trial. She also asks God to
strengthen her faith, her son’s faith, and the faith of other Christians living
in such a hostile religious environment as China.

 According
to the prayer letter Mr. Chen’s mother shared, after Mr. Chen’s arrest, doctors
diagnosed his father with cancer. Despite difficult circumstances and still
undergoing chemotherapy, however, his father accepted Jesus as his Savior.

Through times of tears since her son’s imprisonment, Mr. Chen’s mother said that God repeatedly comforted her. He sent Christians she had never met before to help, pray, and encourage her. 

“I pray God strengthens my son’s faith,” she said; “that He [God] will be with my son and let him know that this time he experiences is his cross under God’s permission. Whatever the results, God’s grace is sufficient.”

*a county-level city in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province situated on the Lin River banks in Eastern China

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