CHRISTIAN PASTOR FINALLY HOME AFTER 12 LONG YEARS

 

Pastor Zhang Shaojie is Finally Home After Twelve Long Years

On a quiet November evening in Henan Province, an 84-year-old mother stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her son for the first time in twelve years. The man she held was Pastor Zhang Shaojie, a gentle church leader who had just walked out of Xinmi Prison after serving every single day of a twelve-year sentence.

It feels almost too good to believe, yet it’s true. He’s free.

Back in November 2013, local officials invited Pastor Zhang to a meeting about land his church legally owned. They wanted it for a new church building. When he arrived, they tied him up and took him away. No warrant, no explanation. In the weeks that followed, dozens of church members who asked for his release were beaten and arrested too.

The authorities eventually charged him with “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” and “fraud”. Most people who know the case say the charges were made up. The real issue was simple: the church was growing fast, even though it belonged to the official Three-Self system, and the government wanted the valuable land.

In July 2014 a court sentenced him to twelve years and fined him the equivalent of about £11,000. Appeals failed. And just like that, a faithful pastor vanished into China’s prison system.

For the next twelve years he faced harsh treatment. Family visits revealed stories of near-starvation rations, forced medication, and tiny cells with cameras watching day and night. At one point he was moved for “concentrated education”, a phrase that usually means extra pressure to renounce faith.

Through it all, his elderly mother prayed every single day. She never gave up hope.

And now, on the weekend China released him, she was there to meet him. The photograph of that hug has travelled around the world. A tired but smiling pastor in a dark coat holding his tiny mother close under red lights outside the prison gate. It’s the kind of moment that makes you believe miracles still happen.

When someone asked how he felt, Pastor Zhang said the timing, just before Thanksgiving in many countries, felt like “an outpouring of God’s grace”. He thanked Christians everywhere for praying. “Without your prayers,” he said, “I might not be standing here today. I could have disappeared for good.”

Even now freedom isn’t complete. Cameras watch his home. Visitors aren’t allowed. But he’s with his family, he can breathe fresh air, and he can worship without bars in front of him.

Twelve years is an eternity when you’re locked away for loving Jesus and standing up for your church. Yet Pastor Zhang’s story reminds us that no prison is stronger than persistent prayer.

Welcome home, Pastor Zhang. And thank you to every person who never stopped lifting his name to heaven. Your prayers helped bring him back to his mother’s arms.