Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: March 5, 2024
We're excited to share that Pastor John Cao has been released from prison after a 7-year sentence and returned back to his home in Hunan province on March 3rd, 2024.
We rejoice with Pastor John and his family upon his release and his return home!
Pastor John Cao is a permanent resident of North Carolina and married to an American citizen, Jamie Powell. He served as a missionary in Myanmar’s Wa State, transforming the lives of more than 2,000 impoverished minority children by building 16 schools and working to fight poverty in the region.
However, on March 5, 2017, authorities in China’s Yunnan province intercepted Cao and his colleague, Jing Ruxia, and placed them in prison on illegal border crossing charges, even though they had never had trouble before. Later, they changed Cao’s charge to “organizing illegal border crossings,” and he was sentenced to seven years in prison in March 2018.
Pastor John Cao is a permanent resident of North Carolina and married to an American citizen, Jamie Powell. He served as a missionary in Myanmar’s Wa State, transforming the lives of more than 2,000 impoverished minority children by building 16 schools and working to fight poverty in the region.
However, on March 5, 2017, authorities in China’s Yunnan province intercepted Cao and his colleague, Jing Ruxia, and placed them in prison on illegal border crossing charges, even though they had never had trouble before. Later, they changed Cao’s charge to “organizing illegal border crossings,” and he was sentenced to seven years in prison in March 2018.
John Cao never wavered in his faith during his time in prison. Since 2021, he began writing poetry regularly. He reflected on his imprisonment, his previous mission of building schools, his family, and, of course, his faith.
ChinaAid was able to publish the writings in Living Lyrics: Poems from Prison.