He powerfully writes: "Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family -- the authorities are capable of doing all of these things. However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith."

Barnabas Fund has launched a global initiative to pray for Pastor Wang Yi through their new webpage "Christian Prisoners of Conscience". The charity has released the following prayer for use in public and private intercession:

OKOH: To the Faithful of the Gafcon movement and friends from Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman, the Gafcon Primates Council.

'His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.' (Ephesians 3:10,11)

"We have a very open policy on who was there," Rev. Michele H. Morgan, St. Mark's rector, says. "If your child loves their honeybee costume from Halloween, we want them in the pageant. Most years we have dinosaurs, super heroes, bees and some Disney princesses. ... We are not strict interpreters of scripture and everyone is welcome extends to the play."

As we talked, she called my son, Joshua, then 25, who happens to be a licensed paramedic. He told her to call 9-1-1 immediately -- and that he would arrange to be the responding medic.

When Joshua and his paramedic partner arrived in the ambulance, he walked into the living room -- the same room where he had grown up, played games, watched TV and been homeschooled with his sister, Sarah -- and asked me, "Dad, what's going on?"