2. To find out about Christians who are persecuted because of their religious beliefs. Can you match up these words to what they mean?  Persecute  To be persecuted  Martyr Somebody who chooses to suffer death rather than give up what they believe in To treat somebody badly, it could include hurting them To be treated badly (even hurt), often because of something about you that is different

3. You are going to be working in small groups for this activity. Your task is to be a detective! You will have 6 pieces of evidence to look at – after you have looked at each piece of evidence put it back as you found it. To help you as a detective, you will have a ‘Be a detective…’ worksheet, you will have to answer the questions in your book after you have seen each piece of evidence. Detectives would always remember that they need to look carefully at the evidence – even opening up books, bags etc to check what’s inside – but most of all, they need to draw conclusions from the evidence, to work out what it is telling them. Before you start, you need to know… You are looking at evidence from a man who is in prison – you need to find out the crime he committed to be put in prison…

4. From your evidence & the questions you answered, what do you now know about the man in prison? What crime do you think that he committed to be put in prison? Answer…  Li de Xian’s crime was being a Christian – the only thing that he has done wrong was to be a Christian & tell people about God.  Li de Xian lives in China where it is forbidden to practise many religions (especially Christianity), even though everybody has a Human Right to practise their religion & tell people about it. What do you think of this? When do you think this happened to Li de Xian?  Li de Xian was first arrested in 1995, the police interview that you looked at happened in 1998. Do you think Li de Xian is the only Christian to be persecuted for his beliefs?  Li de Xian is not the only Christian persecuted for his religious beliefs. In 1999 approximately 164,000 Christians were killed because of their religious beliefs (164,000 people, is more than four times the number of people who live in Pontypool!)

5. Part of the Bible says… ‘Pray for me that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret of the Good News without fear. I have been sent to preach this Good News, & I am doing that now, here in prison.’ Think about Li de Xian who we found out about today…  Why would he have feared preaching?  What ‘Good News’ did he have to preach?  Why was he put in prison?  Who would he be asking to pray for him? What have we found out today about Christians who are persecuted because of their religious beliefs? Homework For next lesson, bring in something that makes a noise – a shaker, drum, whistle etc!