The Mayflower Church escaped from China to South Korea because of the harassment and persecution it suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communist government. Jonathan Dingler of ChinaAid tells AFN they arrived there in 2019, just before COVID struck, so China did not immediately do much to extradite them back to the country. But the situation changed last spring.
"The congregation voted to leave for Thailand, where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has an office," Dingler details. "They all have gone through at least one round of interviews, and so we're just waiting to see how the U.N. will respond and if they'll give them the refugee status that they seek."
He notes, though, that the predicament is edgy, because some Thailand authorities work in cooperation with China.
"The Chinese government itself could just send in agents to kidnap them," the ChinaAid spokesman says. "So right now, the Mayflower Church is actually in hiding in Thailand, unable to work, unable to really do much of anything besides wait. Right now we are covering their day-to-day living expenses."
To help with that, the international non-profit Christian human rights organization is asking Americans to prayerfully consider adopting a Mayflower family.
