by John Evans, posted Thursday, October 25, 2012 (11 years ago)
DALLAS (BP) -- Shi Weihan dangled from a wall inside a Chinese prison, handcuffed to a hook. His interrogators doused him with frigid water and tormented him with electric shocks.
Photo by Christ for the Nations Institute
They pried for information: How many Christian books did he give out? What are the names and phone numbers of the pastors he gave them to?
"During that time, the outside world did not know what was happening to me."
Weihan would not remain anonymous for long. His imprisonment under the Chinese government's religious crackdown -- reported extensively by Baptist Press -- would carry him into national publications and be chronicled in detail by the religious freedom monitor ChinaAid.
But Weihan's journey into the ranks of the persecuted faithful began decades ago with no faith at all.
"Growing up in a communist country, I didn't believe in God in that time," Weihan said over the course of several interviews with Baptist Press in October. "I thought it was like a story, not true."
In 1990, a Chinese man named Joshua -- the matchmaker who brought Weihan and his wife Zhang Jing together -- gave a Bible to each of them.
"He told me, 'This book is very good. You take it home to look at it," Weihan recounted. "Because he was a new believer, he didn't know how to preach Gospel, but he told me, 'It's good. You need a Bible. You need the Gospel.'" Read More
