Intercessory prayer was the catalyst for the midnight prison release of Nie Lina, a Chinese mother who had been locked up for nearly two weeks in a black jail with her three-month-old infant daughter and 70-year-old mother.

Lina was arrested for peacefully petitioning the Chinese government about her land—land that was illegally confiscated by officials without any compensation.

The prayer for her release started on Saturday, Dec. 3. Hundreds of intercessors lifted up China's girls and mothers at the Call2All Congress and TheCall conference in Los Angeles. Leaders of the two events felt strongly that this prayer for China had made a powerful impact in the spiritual realm.

On Monday, Dec. 5, while in prison, Lina was able to find a cellphone and contact the office of All Girls Allowed, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing girls and mothers in China. Before her phone was confiscated, she described the situation: For almost 10 days she had received such little food that she could not nurse her infant. There were no facilities to bathe, and no windows. Officials said she would be there at least five or six months, and her baby had nothing to eat. Staff at All Girls Allowed sent an urgent prayer email for her release to hundreds of other intercessors.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, prayer was also held in a U.S. Congressional hearing. All Girls Allowed founder Chai Ling testified before a bipartisan commission in Congress about the status of human rights in China. At this hearing, Ling drew attention to Lina's case and ended the hearing in prayer, alongside Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Bob Fu of China Aid and other members, declaring freedom for the captives and invoking the name of Jesus to bring restoration to all of China's people.

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, at almost midnight, Lina, her daughter and her mother were blindfolded and driven two hours outside of Beijing, then dropped off at a dark crossroads called Bao Ding. Prisoners are almost never released in the middle of the night, and the group is certain her release was a direct answer to prayer.

"Twelve midnight in China is 11 a.m. in Boston," says Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed. "We were in the middle of our team prayer meeting when she was released."

This was not the first answer to prayer Lina has experienced. Last April, she was arrested for petitioning and was scheduled to undergo a forced abortion of her baby, but she was set free two days following an urgent prayer letter. According to reports, the family planning officials "were too afraid and filled with terror to sign their names on her forced abortion order."

"In both of these situations, there was nothing left for us to do but pray," says Ling. "We hope that the hundreds of intercessors, from stay-at-home moms to members of Congress, realize that their prayers saved lives this week."

Following her release, Lina spent the evening in a hotel and returned straightaway to petitioning in Tiananmen Square. Though she was warned that she would have faced five to six years in prison if her baby was a little bit older, she has lost her house and has no choice but to continue petitioning.

Chai Ling directs attention to the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' 'For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?" (vv. 1-7, NIV)

"Our job is not done until justice has been served to Nie and her family," says Ling. "So let's keep on praying, persistently, for justice against Nie's adversary."

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