Voice of the Martyrs Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley says the decision by prison authorities came after several days of fasting by Pastor Jin, as well as legal challenges from his lawyer Kevin Kai Zhang. She says that Pastor Jin’s family had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to mail him a Bible at his prison address since he, along with 29 other Zion Church leaders, was first detained by authorities in early October. 

“Christian prisoners have told us repeatedly that access to a Bible was more important to them than access to food,” says Representative Foley. She says that as far as Voice of the Martyrs Korea and China Aid are aware, this is the first time that a Christian prisoner in China has been granted access to a Bible while in prison. 

“It’s unprecedented,” says Representative Foley, who believes authorities may have been forced to grant the permission due to the worldwide attention given to Pastor Jin’s case by Christians around the world. “One Chinese Christian who was in prison for many years told us that his only access to the Bible came from the scriptures people would quote in the occasional letters he was permitted to receive in prison. He made his own ‘mini-Bible’ by putting together those scripture quotes.” 

She says Christian scriptures are so rare in many prisons that even non-Christian prisoners become interested when they see them. “The Russian deacon Vyacheslav Koldiaev who was in prison for his faith from 2021 to 2023 asked us to send him single scripture verses on postcards so he could share them with other inmates,” Representative Foley says. 

According to Representative Foley, the only scriptures Christian prisoners have access to are the ones they memorize before being sent to prison. “One North Korean Christian prisoner in the late 1990s had memorized 18 verses of scripture before being held for investigation,” says Representative Foley. “After secretly evangelizing a fellow prisoner, she used a pencil from the interrogation room and scraps of material used as toilet paper to write out an 18-verse ‘toilet paper Bible’ which she left with her new Christian sister when she herself was released from prison.” 

Representative Foley says that the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on Pastor Jin and Zion Church has caused many Chinese Christians to prepare for the possibility that they too may soon find themselves in prison. 

“Elder Li Yingqiang of Early Rain Covenant Church, another church whose pastor and leaders have been imprisoned, sent out a ‘pastoral letter’ to Chinese Christians in which he said, ‘another large-scale operation against urban house churches may be imminent’, and he urged them to prepare,” says Representative Foley. “In his letter he said, ‘Christians should root themselves deeply in Scripture, prayer, and hymn-singing—spiritual disciplines that sustain them when Bibles or fellowship may be taken away.’” 

Individuals interested in learning about or supporting Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work in partnership with persecuted Christians in China can visit www.vomkorea.com/en/china.