Allen Yuan Xiangchen began his ministry in 1946, opening a prayer room in Beijing so he could preach. Every year, between 20-50 people gave their lives to Jesus at his church.
Arrested for Refusing Compromise
When the government established the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in 1950, Yuan—along with Wang Mingdao and Watchman Nee—refused to join. In 1958, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for "counter-revolutionary crimes."
"During those years in prison my wife suffered untold hardships in bringing up the children," Yuan later testified. "I was sent near the Russian border doing farm work, growing rice. Wang Ming Dao and I thought we would die martyrs there."
22 Years Prison Without Bible
The trials tested his faith severely: being given only one chopstick to eat meager rations, incessant interrogation, betrayal and beatings by fellow prisoners, solitary confinement, and hard labor.
"In the labor camp it was very cold, food was bad, and the work was hard," Yuan recalled, "but in 22 years I never once got sick. I was thin and wore glasses, but I came back alive; many did not. I also had no Bible for the 22 years and there were no other Protestant Christians there."
22 years without a Bible. 22 years without Christian fellowship. Yet his faith held firm.
Beijing House Church Ministry
Yuan was released in 1979 and immediately started a house church at his home. It became one of the largest house churches in Beijing, with two to three hundred regular attendees. He never hid what he did. "He was never fearful as the leader of the house church in Beijing," said one friend.
Rev. Allen Yuan died on August 16, 2005, at age 91. Some 2,500 people attended his funeral, mostly from house churches. On his deathbed, he called on believers to pray for China's leaders—the same government that had imprisoned him for two decades.
