‘I Knew I Would Pay a Price for My Faith’: China Releases Missionary After Seven Years

John Sanqiang Cao shares how hand-copied Bible verses, prayers, and a mother’s love buoyed him during his imprisonment.

When pastor John Sanqiang Cao, 64, crossed the border back into China from Myanmar’s Wa State on March 5, 2017, Chinese officials were waiting to arrest him. For years, he had traveled across the porous border from Yunnan Province to the impoverished Wa State, where he founded more than 20 schools, established drug rehabilitation centers, and provided medicine, books, school supplies, and Bibles to locals.