Members of the Mayflower Church have been granted humanitarian parole status in the United States and arrived in Texas on April 7 after fleeing persecution in China three years ago.
The congregation of 28 adults and 32 children led by Pastor Pan Yongguang fled China in 2019 after facing threats and interrogations from Chinese police. The group first went to South Korea and then sought UNHCR refugee status in Thailand. Instead, the congregation was detained and in danger of being sent back to China, where they would have faced abuse and prison time, according to ChinaAid, an international nonprofit that has been helping the group.
The founder and CEO of Freedom Seekers International said she believes if she hadn’t been with members of the Mayflower Church on a bus ride to the Bangkok airport, those refugees would have been flown back to China and imprisoned.
“I really believe the Lord orchestrated that we arrived just when we did,” Deanna Brown said. “And if we'd have been two hours later, they’d have been taken and we wouldn't have known where they were.”
Brown was in Thailand with the 64 members of the Mayflower Church. She learned about the church members from ChinaAid’s Bob Fu, who she has known for about five years. The Freedom Seekers’ board agreed to help the church members. Thirty people have flown to Korea and to Thailand to be with the church members, according to Brown.
Brown said the U.S. State Department verified that when Americans showed up in Thailand, their presence caused the Chinese operators to back off.
“They said keep sending Americans and we would send Americans," she said, "grandmothers, college age, doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, whatever your skill was, just go hang out with them. Because when we come around, it provides protection because Americans still are respected in that sense."
Brown said two hours after she and another Freedom Seekers member arrived in Thailand, immigration authorities found that many of the church members’ visas had expired since they came to the country. The congregants were put on two buses and were told they were being taken to Bangkok airport, which made them fear they were going back to China.
The pandemonium that ensued caused the drivers to stop the bus, and the passengers escaped the locked buses. Eventually, phone calls to Brown’s U.S. contacts yielded results and everyone got back onto the buses and were taken to the detention center.
A few days later, U.S. officials told Brown that the Thai government told them to get the church members out of the country. The next day, they went straight to the airplane with only the clothes they were wearing, according to Brown.
“None of us knew when we went to the police station on that Thursday that we would never return there,” Brown said.
“We have been moving to resettle them here in Tyler, Texas, where is our home base," she said. "And we have literally hundreds of churches and thousands of people who either prayed or are aware of it or have written letters."
“We’re still pretty careful. We’re not telling people where we're keeping them in,” she said.
The church members are resettling in Texas, where the parents can teach their children Christian principles and don’t have to be afraid.
Freedom Seekers will support these families for 12 to 18 months until they get jobs and support their families. Visit the organization’s website to help.
Brown and her husband previously had been missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in Eritrea from 1995 to 2006 until being ordered to leave or go to prison.
