We consider it such an honor to work with the underground pastors and network leaders in China. It’s humbling to see what the Lord has built through these brave men and women inside the underground church. Possibly the largest church in the world, yet still under oppression, they work to continue preaching the gospel and training new leaders.

We have many relationships throughout the underground church, and we wanted to give you a closer look at one pastor, telling his story and the story of our partnership with his church.

Pastor Chen has spent nearly 40 years building and leading the underground church in a city of over 25 million people. He and his leaders have been in prison, their churches raided and assets confiscated. Yet despite this, he still has a hunger and desire to see the church flourish, and he is willing to take risks to see that happen.

We met Pastor Chen early last year through some friends in China. He had heard of our work in China and the effectiveness of the ABC discipleship training program. He chose to attend our conference in 2015 and through that, our relationship was formed and over 1,000 students were registered from his network and are now studying ABC!

He invited us to visit his city and meet with his leaders, which we did. More trust was extended, and a 2016 conference was planned in spite of the fact the last two conferences he has held in 10 years have both been raided. Our conference went off without a hitch, and his people received invaluable training and information they simply didn’t have access to before.

As we stood on the roof in a rural area in China, talking about his church, he thanked us for making the trip and the investment into his leaders. But the thanks and honor belong to him for his strength and determination to build the church in China in spite of the opposition to his work.

What an honor we all have to partner with such gritty and resilient believers in China.

Thank you for your support of the ABC discipleship training program through World Compassion and for providing the training for his leaders to continue building the church in China.

If you haven’t gotten involved in the ABC discipleship training program, it’s not too late. We have another 2,000 students waiting to be trained. You can give today and train another leader to build the underground church in China.