Bob Fu
On February 7, 2008, Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association and close friend and colleague of Pastor Ron Lewis, was presented with the 2007 John Leland Religious Liberty Award "for courageously defending the right of all people to exercise freely their religious faith" at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The award, which recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the cause of religious liberty, was presented by Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) co-hosted the ceremony. Congressman Franks serves as co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus' Force for International Religious Freedom.
The ERLC chose Fu to receive this year's award based on his steadfast ministry and involvement with the Chinese Christian community. In China, Fu served as a leader for the People's University of Beijing student democracy movement, which tragically ended in the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989. Following this government suppression of calls for political reform, he became a pastor of a house church in China. Shortly after beginning this church, he and his wife, Heidi, were arrested and imprisoned for two months.
Bob first got connected with Pastor Ron Lewis in the summer of 1995 through a series of divine events that eventually led to the two of them ministering together in the underground house church movement in China. It was on this trip that Pastor Ron first began to see the underground Chinese church's dramatic need for more basic Bible training for its pastors. As a result, Lewis and Fu partnered together to establish an underground training center in China. Shortly thereafter, Pastor Ron then founded Strategic China Initiative to establish more training centers. To date, SCI maintains 20 training centers throughout China, and since its founding, SCI has trained 50,000 leaders in the underground house church movement (current estimates put the total number of Chinese people affiliated with the underground house church movement at 80-90 million). In addition, nearly 1 million Chinese bibles have been distributed through SCI to the house churches.
As Bob & Heidi continued to experience relentless persecution in China, Pastor Ron and others helped lobby President Clinton to grant the couple exile so that they could flee China in 1996. They spent time with Lewis in Raleigh- Durham, NC, then relocated to Philadelphia where Bob enrolled in graduate studies, before eventually settling in Midland, Texas. There Fu founded the China Aid Association, through which he serves as a spokesperson for house church Christians in China. In this position, he has spoken on behalf of Chinese Christians before the House International Relations Committee, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the UN Commission on Human Rights, among other groups.
In accepting the award on February 7th, Bob Fu said that "the very freedom of conscience that the Creator endowed in my heart is far more precious and fundamental than any other rights" that he could have. He stated that the destiny of China is "to become a lasting, peaceful world power and worthy leader in the international community, but this will only be achieved if religious freedom is established." He labors with the China Aid Association "to help to provide a catalyst for the change that is needed if China is to successfully navigate the transitions and challenges that its increased economic growth and access to a freer world outside its walls."
Pastor Ron highly esteems the work of the China Aid Association, and continues to walk closely with his good friends Bob and Heidi. |
