On 26 April Pastor John Cao (65) was reunited with his wife Jamie Powell after nine years apart when she and their children visited him in hospital. He was recently admitted to Hunan Provincial People’s Hospital suffering from severe pain and has been diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer and a spinal tumour, with cancer cells having spread to his bone marrow. The intense pain he has been experiencing while walking, sitting or lying down is caused by tumour compression on his nerves.

Fellow-pastor Hong Yujian, who was at Pastor John’s bedside when Jamie arrived, recorded a message in which Pastor John expressed deep gratitude and apology to his wife and recalled that she had attempted to visit him at the detention centre nine years ago but was unsuccessful. He said, “I owe you too much love; I could never repay you in this lifetime,” and described her as “the greatest servant” who silently bore the heavy cost of his missionary calling.

Pastor John was imprisoned in China from 2017 to 2024 but since his release he has been unable to return to his family home in the US due to his passport being withheld by authorities. Over the years he has missed major life events such as his son’s marriage and the birth of a grandchild, and civil society organisations and church leaders are now calling for his passport to be returned on humanitarian grounds so that he can return to the US.

In the meantime, Pastor John has been staying with his mother Sun Jinhuan in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, where he has been supporting local churches and gospel ministries and caring for youth. Recently his mother (now aged 89) went to visit relatives in the US, leaving her elderly sister to care for him.

Background

John Cao was born in Changsha and was imprisoned three times for his faith before leaving China in 1986. He went to the US and was working as a pastor in North Carolina when, in 1994, he felt called to return to minister in China.

Pastor John went on to make many trips to China over two decades, establishing schools and working among the poor, before expanding his humanitarian work into neighbouring Myanmar in 2014. He established schools for children from poor families in Wa State in the north of the country and organised food, clothing and anti-drug programmes, work which China Aid notes was “deeply recognised” by the local people.

Pastor John was detained in March 2017 while returning from Wa state to Pu’er in Yunnan province and in 2018 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for “organising illegal border crossings”.

Read John Cao’s Prisoner Profile.

(China Aid)