English updates here And if you can't see the images below, please choose to "Display Images", or email me about any technical issues.

Please enjoy these photos from the recent Children's Day in events in Mainland China!

I was a bit worried recently, about what exactly had happened during the Children's Day events in China on June 1.

There are churches and individuals doing pro-life ministry in various practical ways all year long. But they choose to spend 1 day each year proclaiming their message to the public--June 1, China's official Children's Day holiday
 
This was the 8th year that pro-life groups have held public events in cities around China. The gatherings are not large, because they cannot get permits for public assemblies. So they do their best to navigate the situation, and usually have no trouble.

The Children's Day events are relatively low-key, and very peaceful. But despite careful efforts to cooperate with the police, it's a very awkward time for them. That's because it's close to June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, which is the most politically sensitive day of the year.
 
Most of the secure internet channels in Mainland China were shut down for over a week. (This year was the 30th anniversary, and censorship was much stronger than usual!) Because of that, I had no good way to connect with the pro-life movement in Mainland China.
 
Long story short: I got an update a few days ago, and I'm very happy to say that everything went well. There was no major problem with the authorities, and there were small events in many cities around China. Praise God!

Often when you hear pro-life discussions, it's in the context of politics. This is especially true in America and Canada, which have the world's most liberal abortion laws. (Ironically, these laws helped to create North America's pro-life movement.) But the pro-life movement in Asia--and especially in China--is not political.
 
I was thinking about this recently, especially around June 4th. There is so much political frustration on that day every year, related to the "June Fourth Incident" in 1989.

Like most people, I feel that there is so little I could ever do to make any real difference politically. While I personally care about the future of China, I don't see a way for grassroots political work to change the laws in China. (There are exceptions, though. For example, animal rights activists have slowly changed the customs and laws on dog meat, a popular high-end dish in China.)
 
Regardless, the pro-life movement will have an impact on culture. And if the culture recognizes the inherent dignity of the human person, then people will stop shedding innocent blood.
 
Again, politics generally aren't relevant to my pro-life work. I'm doing pro-life ministry because I believe this is the door God has opened for me to serve Him and His Church.

When the first Children's Day event was launched in 2012, I didn't know anything about it. But I do remember that day very clearly.
 
On June 1, 2012, my Chinese tutor explained Children's Day to me. In that moment, while she was explaining it, I was overwhelmed with grief. I know this sounds dark and dramatic, but all I could think about were the millions of parents who could not give birth to their children, because of legal and social pressure all over China.
 
I had to excuse myself and end the tutoring session early. I cried as I went back to my apartment, and wept for hours. Tens of thousands of abortions happen each day. On every Children's Day, there are literally millions of mothers who cannot celebrate. And there are countless children whose short lives will never be celebrated.
 
As I wept in my apartment in Shanghai, I hardly knew how to pray. But I prayed for young people and fathers and mothers to speak up and to defend life--at least within the churches. I wept for literally hours, but felt no sense of hope that China would ever change its brutal Family Planning Policy.
 
But even though I felt hopeless, that was the moment God was pouring out hope. There's no way I could have known it at the time, but that's the day that the "Chinese pro-life movement" was born.

Later, I will send an update about recent pro-life gatherings elsewhere in Asia, and also a story about the Hong Kong protest march that took place a few days ago on Father's Day. I'm sending extra material this month, because I can't fit it all into one normal monthly prayer update.

By the way, feel free to email me anytime. And if you'd like to ask about something but think it might be too sensitive, you can send a message to emailchinajoe at hushmail dot com.

Grace and peace,
Joe Woodard