New Mexico church responds to $10K fine for holding services amid COVID-19

By Brandon Showalter, Christian Post Reporter

A New Mexico evangelical church maintains that it took measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 after state authorities levied a substantial fine against it for allegedly violating the state’s coronavirus restrictions. 

After Calvary Church in Albuquerque hosted its Christmas Eve services it received a notice of contemplated action from the state's Department of Health stating that the church would be fined $10,000. The church's leadership, however, contend that they followed public health guidelines to reduce the spread of the virus even as it cannot be eliminated. 

"Vulnerable people were discouraged from attending, every other row was cordoned off in the church’s spacious sanctuaries, mask-wearing was encouraged, and family units that came together sat together. We are also confident that we maintained capacity levels in keeping with our state’s current public health order," said a Calvary Church spokesperson in a statement sent to The Christian Post on Friday. 

"In fact, Governor Lujan Grisham praised us earlier this year for our efforts, so we are especially shocked by the incendiary and politicized rhetoric from the governor’s office," the spokesperson added. 

The church was fined for allegedly violating restrictions on in-person worship services and mask mandates implemented by the New Mexico Department of Health. The restrictions, which went into effect on Dec. 15, require churches located in “red-level” counties to cap attendance at 25% of capacity.

Because Bernalillo County, home to Albuquerque and the largest county in the state, is a “red-level” county, the 25% capacity restrictions apply to Calvary Church. 

Gov. Lujan Grisham's Communications Director Tripp Stelnicki criticized the church in a terse statement this week, insisting that though everyone wishes the pandemic was over, "it’s not, and no pro-virus pastor may deem it so."

"So many New Mexicans have sacrificed — and lost — so much in this pandemic," he said. 

"These illegal and selfish gatherings will directly contribute to more suffering and illness in our state. These church leaders should reflect on the danger they’ve unleashed in their communities," Stelnicki said, referring to Calvary Church and Legacy Church in Albuquerque, where services streamed online showed many people gathered together with few wearing face masks, according to local news outlet KRQE.

The Calvary Church spokesperson went on to say that while they have always had a good relationship with their local and state government officials, they will be requesting an administrative hearing regarding the fines, arguing on First Amendment grounds that even during a pandemic they ought not to be penalized for holding services, particularly given recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings affirming Calvary's position on the matter. 

The Supreme Court recently vacated lower court decisions against churches suing Colorado and New Jersey over each state’s restrictions on worship gatherings. In a 5-4 ruling just before Thanksgiving, the high court held that the rights of a Catholic diocese and an Orthodox Jewish group were violated, saying New York state's COVID restrictions on houses of worship "strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty."

"Churches are not entertainment venues like theaters or stadiums. Our congregations provide essential services to our communities. Faith continues to play an indispensable role in helping individuals cope with the direct and indirect aspects of this public health crisis. For instance, Calvary alone has distributed over $1.5 million dollars of direct assistance to those in need in our community over the course of the pandemic," the New Mexico church explained Friday. 

"We will never waiver from our commitment to honor God in all that we do, serve our community according to our calling, and follow best practices as long as this crisis persists. We simply could not take away from healthy people the opportunity to choose to worship at Christmas.”

Legacy Church was also fined for holding services. Earlier this year, Legacy Church sued the state over its COVID orders but a judge denied their request that the restrictions be eased. 

 

Belief in God rising among Gen Z amid COVID-19 pandemic, survey finds

By Brandon Showalter, Christian Post Reporter

COVID-19 has led to a rise in the number of young people in the U.K. who are seeking and believing in God, according to a survey, challenging trends indicating that Gen Zers are the most irreligious generation.

A recent YouGov survey found that Gen Zers in their late teens and early 20s are more likely to believe in God than millennials who are in their late 20s and 30s.

Conducted in late November, researchers asked 2,169 people about their faith, inquiring if they believed in God, believed in some kind of spiritual higher power but not God, believed in neither, or did not know.

Though the poll unsurprisingly revealed that those older than 60 were the most religious age bracket, 23% of the youngest group, those ages 16 to 24, indicated that they believed in God, an increase from 21% when the question was asked of 18- to 24-year-olds in January.

Overall, across all age groups, belief in God decreased by 1 percentage point, from 28% to 27% from January to November. Based on responses to the questions, the percentage of what researchers designated as atheists and agnostics — those who said they did not believe in God or a higher power or were not sure — rose from 51% to 56% over the same span of time.

The study indicated that young people can easily access information about faith on the internet, the main reason for the shift toward belief in God among that age group in addition to less stigma about religious beliefs in their peer groups, yielding more open discussions.

Lois Lee, a fellow of the University of Kent’s Department of Religious Studies, said that it's still too early to determine whether COVID-19 has caused certain people to embrace faith in the long run.

“It is highly likely the pandemic has impacted on people’s existential beliefs and practices, but I’m not yet convinced it will have made any group more or less religious in the longer term, though time will tell,” she said, in comments to The Sunday Times.

"Possibly this year’s data indicate that young people are going through that kind of exploratory period more than others,” she added.

The data reveals a change in the longterm expectation that younger generations will become "progressively less religious," according to Stephen Bullivant, a professor of the sociology of religion at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, adding that it's likely that a larger share of Gen Zers is born into relatively religious homes from "Muslim, immigrant Catholic, or black Christian" families.

YouGov also found in another survey that 56% of Britons continue to regard the U.K. as a Christian country.

Seconds After W.H.O., GATES Foundation Hack, Lefty Media SCRAMBLES To Blame One Group | Jason Bermas

Denmark rushes through emergency Coronavirus law

The Local

13, March, 2020

Denmark's parliament on Thursday night unanimously passed an emergency coronavirus law which gives health authorities powers to force testing, treatment and quarantine with the backing of the police.

The far-reaching new law will remain in force until March 2021, when it will expire under a sunset clause.

"I was touched when I saw the whole Parliament standing up and voting for this," Health Minister Magnus Heunicke told Danish state broadcaster DR after the law passed.

"It is time to put aside party politics and be together to do what it takes to bring Denmark safely through this situation."

Jens Elo Rytter, law professor at Copenhagen University, said the measures were unlike anything passed in the last 75 years  "It is certainly the most extreme since the Second World War," he told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. "There have been some powerful encroachments in various terror packages. But this goes further."

Trine Maria Ilsøe, DR's court correspondent, said that Danish citizens could face prosecution under the new law if they refused to comply with health authorities' demands. "It means that you could be sentenced to a punishment if you, for example, refuse to allow yourself to be tested for coronavirus," she said. 

The Ministry of Health will now work with the Ministry of Justice on the details of how the police will work with health officials to enforce their demands.

As well as enforcing quarantine measures, the law also allows the authorities to force people to be vaccinated, even though there is currently no vaccination for the virus.

It also empowers them to prohibit access to public institutions, supermarkets and shops, public and private nursing homes and hospitals, and also to impose restrictions on access to public transport.

Initially, the government wanted to the law to give the police the right to enter private homes without a court order if there is a suspicion of coronavirus infection. But this was dropped after opposition from parties in the parliament.

The parliamentary session was itself affected by the pandemic, with only 95 out of 179 MPs present for the vote, efforts made to ensure that MPs kept a safe distance from one another, and MPs voting by standing up.

CORONAVIRUS & THE END TIMES

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory that the US Army ‘brought the epidemic to Wuhan’

Ryan Pickrell, Business Insider 
USMarch 12, 2020


China’s flag is raised during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Jerry Lampe/Reuters

A Chinese government spokesman said on Thursday that the US Army might have “brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” appearing to push a popular conspiracy theory.

Chinese officials have been trying to reshape the narrative about the coronavirus, suggesting that it might have originated outside of China, even though the center of the outbreak was the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Amid this push, a conspiracy theory that US athletes participating in the Military World Games in Wuhan last fall brought the coronavirus into China has emerged.
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A Chinese government spokesman said on Thursday that the US Army may have “brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” appearing to push a popular coronavirus conspiracy theory in China.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called attention to a comment on Wednesday from Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledging that some Americans who were said to have died from influenza may have actually died from COVID-19.

“When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected?” Zhao wrote on Twitter. “What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US Army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”

In a short thread on Twitter – a social media platform that’s inaccessible in China – Zhao demanded to know how many of the millions of infections and thousands of deaths during the latest flu season were actually related to COVID-19.

The coronavirus first appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, and since then, the pandemic has claimed the lives of thousands of people, mostly in China.

As China has faced criticism, Chinese authorities have pushed back, suggesting that the virus may have originated somewhere else. Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist, said in late February that “though the COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China.”

Zhao stressed the same point in a recent press briefing.

“No conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus,” he told reporters, adding that “what we are experiencing now is a global phenomenon with its source still undetermined.”

One popular coronavirus conspiracy theory that has emerged in China is that American athletes participating in the Military World Games in Wuhan last year may have brought the virus into China. There is, however, no evidence to support this accusation.

The Trump administration has laid the blame firmly at China’s feet. “Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up,” the White House national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, told reporters on Wednesday.

“It probably cost the world community two months to respond,” he added.

Geng Shuang, another Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said O’Brien’s “immoral and irresponsible” comments denigrated China’s efforts to fight the virus.

Dow futures tumble 1,000 points as all-out oil price war adds to coronavirus stress

(NBC) – Stock futures tumbled in overnight trading Sunday as investors continued to brace for the economic fallout from the spreading coronavirus, while a shocking all-out oil price war added to the anxiety. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 1,078 points, pointed to a more than 1,000-point loss at Monday’s open.

The S&P 500 futures indicated a 4 percent drop at the open. The sharp declines in the futures market signaled more turbulence ahead after a roller-coaster week that saw the S&P 500 swing up or down more than 2.5 percent for four days straight.



Saudi Arabia on Saturday slashed official crude selling prices for April, in a sudden U-turn from previous attempts to support the oil market as the coronavirus hammers global demand. The move came after OPEC talks collapsed Friday, prompting some strategists to see oil prices crater to $20 this year.

“Crude has become a bigger problem for markets than the coronavirus,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said Sunday. “It will be virtually impossible for the [S&P 500] to sustainably bounce if Brent continues to crater,” he added. READ MORE

Xi Jinping prediction of a cursed year came true

NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW
KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writer




Xi's prediction of a cursed year came true
Coronavirus proves black swans fly in years ending in '9'

TOKYO -- As the official name COVID-19 suggests, the coronavirus disease raging across the world originated in 2019.

In China, where superstition commands significant influence, netizens had talked about their fear of 2019 becoming a cursed year because it ended in a "9."

History tells them that major events happen in such years, including the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, war breaking out between China and Vietnam in 1979, and most of all, the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.

Adherents to this theory are more convinced than ever that the jinx remains in effect.

President Xi Jinping had warned his Chinese Communist Party cadres in late January 2019 to be prepared for unforeseen incidents (black swans) and highly probable but uncontrollable rampages (gray rhinos) in the year to come.

Initially, the U.S.-China trade war and Hong Kong demonstrations were thought to be the big events of this "9" year.

But the biggest disruption would not appear until December. COVID-19 was a black swan that arrived in Wuhan, multiplied and then flew to all parts of China. Eventually, it turned into a gray rhino stomping across national borders to other parts of the world.

It was not until early in the new year that Xi became aware of the true magnitude of the risk posed by the coronavirus. It took until Jan. 20 for him to instruct the government to take effective measures to contain the spread. On Jan. 23, Wuhan, a city of 11 million, was locked down.

By then, it was too late. As many as 5 million Wuhan inhabitants had already left the city for the Lunar New Year holidays. The initial response to contain the black swan failed.

The public became aware of the mysterious illness early on. But while on-the-ground reports made their way to the central government, a blind eye was turned.

As of earlier this week, China had officially recorded more than 2,700 coronavirus deaths. The delayed initial response, a matter of weeks, was fatal.

The World Health Organization has avoided highlighting this major issue and instead chosen to praise Beijing's later measures, such as the Wuhan lockdown.

But it is precisely China's failures in its first steps that Japan, South Korea and other countries need to learn from.

The rampaging virus has begun to disrupt the political calendar. The annual session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, has now been formally postponed.

"It is an event where 5,000 people gather in Beijing from across the country," one source said. "For it to take place, the number of new infections, at least in Beijing, had to drop to zero," to avoid the nightmare scenario of regional leaders catching the illness in Beijing and taking it back home.

Another official talked about the delay impacting Xi's foreign travel down the road. "It's a real headache," the official said. Chinese and Japanese officials had agreed that Xi would visit Japan around the time "the cherry blossoms bloom."

Xi also had his eye on visiting South Korea in the first half of the year. "We now have to think about the serious situation in both Japan and South Korea, which have seen a sharp rise in infections recently."

On Monday, the day that the NPC was postponed, Wuhan was rattled by unprecedented confusion.

At around 11:30 a.m., Wuhan authorities issued a notice informing people that the lockdown would be partially lifted.

The notice was supposed to restore Wuhan's transport links and allow visitors who have been exposed to the risk of infection to finally travel home. People were excited and began preparing to leave.

But around 3 p.m., Wuhan authorities retracted the notice, saying it was invalid.

Locals could do little but vent their frustration on social media; they compared it to an ancient saying that mocks officials for issuing an order in the morning only to change it by the evening.

This decree had an even shorter shelf life.

Social media denizens also wondered what might be happening within the party. Their suspicions, though, were immediately deleted by internet monitoring authorities.

Wuhan authorities gave a bizarre reason for the flip-flop. They said the notice had been issued by a "transport control working group" of a city agency set up to combat the outbreak and that the group did not have permission from unnamed superiors.

Is it possible for such a marginal organization in Wuhan to unlock a lockdown imposed at Xi's behest?

Even in an emergency like today's, this scenario is highly unlikely, considering the party's ironclad rules.

The lifting of the lockdown was retracted because the viral risk remains.

If people start entering and leaving Wuhan, some will certainly make their way to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is especially important to prevent more infections in Beijing, where the NPC is held every year.

The coronavirus has also caused problems for Chinese diplomacy.

As things stand now, countries that have had the most confirmed cases and even some deaths are those that have recently had good relations with China, including Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran. These countries receive waves of Chinese tourists.

But the coronavirus scare is having a considerable impact on the way the leaders of these countries run their governments. Public opinion in these countries is turning harsher toward China and their own governments.

This has helped to turn China's headache into a five-alarm migraine.

Tokyo's warm winter is also in on the conspiracy against China. The capital's cherry blossom tress are forecast to hoist their full canopy around March 20, about 10 days earlier than usual. Beijing and Tokyo had been shooting for early April in planning for Xi's Japan visit, but by then the cherry blossom petals will be littering the streets.

As was the case with the National People's Congress, the absence of new infections in Japan, or at least in metro Tokyo, for a certain period will be a prerequisite for Japan to welcome Xi. Time is running out.

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He has spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting.

US hospitals are preparing for 96 MILLION coronavirus infections and nearly HALF A MILLION deaths, leaked documents reveal

• Almost half a million (480,000) Americans are expected to die from coronavirus 
• 4.8 million will be hospitalized and 96 million infected
• Figures come from leaked slides from a presentation by Dr. James Lawler, a University of Nebraska Medical Center professor and hosted by AHA
• They show the spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with the crisis 10 times greater than a severe flu season
• The shock figures fly in the face of claims made by President Trump who has maintained on many occasions that the risk to Americans is 'low'
• Lawler estimated people with heart conditions have a one in 10 chance of dying from the disease, compared to less than one in a 100 among healthy individuals 
• Trump signed a spending bill to allocate $8.3 billion to tackle the crisis Friday
• US has around 300 cases and 17 confirmed deaths, after Florida confirmed its first two deaths Friday

By RACHEL SHARP FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 03:20 GMT, 7 March 2020 | UPDATED: 13:00 GMT, 7 March 2020

US hospitals are preparing for 96 million coronavirus infections and nearly half a million deaths from the outbreak, leaked documents have revealed.

The spread of the deadly disease could be far worse than officials claim, with 480,000 Americans expected to die from the virus and 4.8 million hospitalized, according to a presentation hosted by The American Hospital Association (AHA) in February.

This puts the crisis on a level more than 10 times greater than that seen in a severe flu season.

The shock figures fly in the face of claims made by President Trump who has maintained on many occasions that the risk to Americans is 'low'.

Dr. James Lawler, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, presented the harrowing 'best guess' estimates of the extent of the outbreak to hospitals and health professionals as part of the AHA webinar called 'What healthcare leaders need to know: Preparing for the COVID-19' on February 26. 

The slides, obtained by Business Insider, suggest that hospitals need to ramp up preparations now to reduce the death toll around the US. 

At the time of the presentation last week, there were more than 80,000 confirmed cases around the globe.

In the US there were around 60 cases and no deaths.

Fast forward just one week, and the US has around 700 cases and 17 confirmed deaths. 

Worldwide, more than 100,000 people have now been infected.

The leaked slides also reveal the significant risks to older people and those with pre-existing health conditions if they catch coronavirus.  

People aged 80 and over have a 14.8% chance of dying if they contract the infection, the slides revealed.

The risk declines with youth, though those aged 70-79 and 60-69 are still placed at a significant risk, with 8% and 3.6% mortality rates respectively.

New York Emergency Room Doctor: There Will Be “Thousands” Of Confirmed Cases In The U.S. “By Next Week”

Michael Snyder



Dr. Matt McCarthy, a staff physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, just went on national television and warned that there will be “thousands” of confirmed coronavirus cases inside the United States “by next week”. I certainly hope that he is completely wrong, but obviously, he has a better vantage point for observing the progression of this outbreak than any of us do.

As an emergency room doctor in New York, he is dealing with potential COVID-19 cases every single day. And as you will see below, he says that he has had to “plead to test people” and that it is a “national scandal” that more people have not been tested.

As I discussed in a previous article, up until just a few days ago the CDC has had extremely restrictive guidelines for who should be tested for the virus.  Only those that have visited China recently and those that have had close contact with a known victim were supposed to be tested.  Obviously this allowed a lot of potential victims to fall through the cracks, and now we have a major outbreak in the Seattle area.

Why couldn’t we have been able to test anyone that wanted to be tested from the very beginning?  In South Korea, they have already “built drive-thru coronavirus screening locations”… Health officials in South Korea tested 10,000 people for the coronavirus on Friday alone. This week, they built drive-thru coronavirus screening locations, giving hundreds of patients an assessment of their health in just 10 minutes.

The US announced its first coronavirus case on the same day South Korea did. But six weeks later, less than 500 potentially infected Americans have gotten tests, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency’s official test count — which had previously been updated daily — was stripped from the CDC site on Sunday, though US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told ABC the same day that the US had tested 3,600 people. There is absolutely no reason why we can’t do at least as well as South Korea.

Pope Francis cancels second day of engagements after being taken ill as Coronavirus sweeps Italy

There are fears among some that Pope Francis may have contracted the coronavirus as it has been reported that he has canceled events for the second day in a row today after falling ill. This comes in the heels of Italy reeling from a worsening coronavirus outbreak which has so infected more than 500 people and caused 17 deaths according to The Sun. 

As of this report, the Vatican has declined to report whether or not the Pope will be tested for the virus. It was reported that the Pope celebrated Mass, as usual, this morning and will go ahead with some private meetings even though yesterday he was too unwell to travel to a mass on the other side of Rome and stayed in the Santa Marta guesthouse where he lives in the Vatican.

According to a spokesman he had a “light indisposition”. The recent concerns for his health had been raised the day before after he was reportedly seen coughing and blowing his nose during an Ash Wednesday service in St Peter’s Basilica,  Italy.  Many of the faithful Catholics wore face masks, but others chose not to do so as they kissed the Holy Father and shook his hand.


Ricky Scaparo is the pastor and founder of the international ministry End Time Headlines. A ministry that provides resources to equip believers and to inform the discerning of the signs and seasons in which we live. His mission is to inform his readers and viewers of prophetic events and how they are unfolding before our very eyes through news and headlines presented from a prophetic perspective in light of the Holy Bible.

American Eyewitness Says Coronavirus Could Be 'Rumblings of Something Bigger'

Alexandra Rodriguez knows firsthand the horror of the coronavirus in Wuhan. A Christian American teaching English in Wuhan, China, she was quarantined in Wuhan until the U.S. government was able to fly her and other Americans home. In her first media interview since she came home, she described to me on my podcast how she felt as she waited and prayed to get out. She also believes the problem is worse than the Chinese government is admitting.

In the past week, I interviewed Chinese missionary Dennis Balcombe, also an American, who described to me how Christians are responding to the dangerous virus now known as COVID-19. He shared incredible insights into what God is doing through His people, including the sick coming for healing and people turning to churches for hope.

Then Pastor Frank Amedia, who has connections to Chinese Christians he believes are reliable, says that there have also been healings and confirmed that people are swarming to churches at the same time that the number of deaths are in the tens of thousands—much higher than the 2,100 or so that the Chinese government says have died.

Both Balcomb and Amedia reported what they heard from their Chinese sources via telephone and the internet. But Alexandra Rodriguez was there. So when I learned one of my friends knew her through his church, Faith Assembly in Orlando, Florida, I tracked her down. She gave me one of the most incredible interviews I've ever had—an exclusive for my Strang Report podcast and Charisma News.

I wanted to learn from someone who was there and was quarantined, and I wondered what she thought this coronavirus means in a spiritual sense. She told me the disease could be the rumblings of something bigger—perhaps even prophecy coming true.

"My hope and prayer is that everything smooths out and that eventually they get it contained," Alexandra told me. "But it could be the rumblings of something bigger. I believe that the Lord works in mysterious ways. And I've seen His hand in all of this. It could be prophecy coming true. It could just be one of those things in the world that happens and then we move on. My prayer, again, is that it all settles down."

Back in September, when Alexandra got the opportunity to go to Wuhan to tutor students in English, she was excited about it. But what was supposed to be a 10-month stay was cut short to six months when the city was quarantined because of the coronavirus. She was stuck in the city for several weeks until the U.S. government got her home. Some of her colleagues, though, are still stuck in Wuhan.

As of Thursday evening, Feb. 20, the official death count for the coronavirus in China is 2,118, according to the New York Times. But Alexandra says that from her understanding of the Chinese government and the way things are run in China, she "100% [believes] the numbers are probably far higher than what they are reporting to the world."

She tells me that when she first heard about the coronavirus in late December, the Chinese media presented it as if it were nothing more than a new strain of the flu and encouraged people to wash their hands.

"They treated it in the media there as if it wasn't an emergency," she says. "So I had heard about it. And it was right about that time that some colleagues of mine and I went off for winter holiday. So we left the country to visit Thailand for 10 days. We came back two days before they shut down the city."

When Alexandra and her friends returned to Wuhan from Thailand on Jan. 21, she says the city was like a ghost town. No one was entering or leaving the city, and the few people they did see were always wearing masks. It was a bit frightening to find out a few days later that no one was allowed to travel unless it was essential.

Alexandra says she and her colleagues purchased provisions to last for a couple weeks and then shut themselves up in their homes. It was a frightening battle to get out of the city, she says. She received a news story that reported the American embassy was offering passage out of China for American citizens. But when she called the embassy to say she wanted to leave, she found out the report was fake news. The U.S. hadn't confirmed a plane yet. At this point, she began panicking.

Finally, through connections in the U.S., Alexandra was able to email the embassy and let them know that if and when a charter plane became available to leave Wuhan, she wanted to be on it. She was placed on a waiting list.

"I sent the email and it was just silence," she says. "I waited and I waited. I waited about three days, and I was talking to my colleagues back and forth. We were all trying to get out."

When Alexandra's friend received a call from the embassy saying they had a spot for her, she was able to secure one for Alexandra, too.

"I'm really grateful that I was able to get on the flight because I know there were some people who are trying to get out who didn't make that first flight," she says.

After stopping in Alaska to refuel, Alexandra's plane landed in Ontario, where the passengers were quarantined in a military base in case they showed signs of symptoms. She says they arrived in early February.

She remembers many rumors that were circulating about the virus starting from a pinpointed market that sold exotic meats. But she isn't convinced those rumors were true.

"Now there's speculation that it might have been around for a lot longer," she says. "And it was a lot of hush-hush. They didn't want mass panic. China was desperately trying to keep it under wraps, although more and more people were presenting with symptoms."

So what does this mean for Christians in China and specifically in Wuhan? Alexandra says most churches aren't meeting anymore, since people are staying in their homes. In fact, public meetings of any kind are outlawed right now because of the quarantine—and religious meetings were the first to be shut down.

As of now, there's no telling how this outbreak will affect China's future. But Alexandra is praying this virus would come to a swift end. I hope you'll join her in that prayer. While this coronavirus could certainly be a sign of something bigger, let's agree in prayer that God will show mercy and allow this virus to be contained.

I think you'll want to listen to my full interview with Alexandra and get her full, exclusive story on what's going on in China. Click here to listen.

Interview with Wuhan Pastor - English - Part 1 of 2 (From the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak)

CORONAVIRUS: Reports of Supernatural Healing, Revivals in Midst of Coronavirus Outbreak

9:30AM EST 2/18/2020 STEPHEN STRANG


Reuters

Whenever you turn on the news, you're bound to hear something about the coronavirus right now. Some say it's not as big a deal as it's made out to be, while others are sounding the alarm that it's even worse than is being reported. But what the media isn't telling you is how the coronavirus is affecting the church—and how God is moving in mighty ways even through the outbreak.

As dangerous as this virus is, it's no match for the power of the Holy Spirit. Recently, I interviewed Dennis Balcombe, a missionary to China for the past 40 years. He shared some incredible insights into what God is doing through His people, including the sick coming for healing and people running to churches for hope.

I also recently had an eye-opening interview with Pastor Frank Amedia, whose ministry, POTUS Shield, has a close alliance with the Christian community in China. Amedia's sources, whom he believes are reliable, can confirm Bolcombe's report. Amedia has been on my Strang Report podcast many times, offering prophetic and spiritual insight into our culture. This time, he sheds light on what God is doing in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

"We've had reports of Christians being healed of this virus by the power of God and the healing of God," he says. "My sources tell me the same thing, whenever there is this kind of a problem—like there was with SARS."

Amedia says the coronavirus is the third plague to hit China in the span of this generation. He points out that when the people can't rely on their government, they look for help elsewhere—and that's when the church has the opportunity to shine brightly with the gospel.

"We're being told that people are coming in swarms to churches, house churches, that there's gospel and evangelism going out in the streets, person to person, that there's supernatural healing."

In our interview, Amedia also shared some other shocking things about the coronavirus that the media isn't reporting. As of right now, the virus has reportedly killed more than 1,700 people and infected over 71,000. But Amedia doesn't believe those numbers are true. According to Amedia's sources, the numbers of deaths and infections are much higher than media outlets are portraying. In fact, he says the number of deaths is allegedly in the tens of thousands.

"What we're hearing is that while this was being kept suppressed by the government of China, people were dying in Wuhan, which is the capital of the Hubei province in the central area of the industrial area of China," Amedia says.

"... We are told that people were dying before it was even admitted. The hospitals didn't know what to do with them. They told them to return home, to stay in their homes, and they were dying. And most of the widespread stories we're getting is that many of them were cremated quickly—some cremated and not even identified for their families, who are still looking for people. They just didn't deal with it appropriately."

Neither is the virus restricted to Wuhan, as some may report, Amedia says. Instead, it's spread to the four corners of China, and there are actually quarantines in many areas. Amedia says this isn't just something his Christian sources are telling him, but also his industrial sources such as businessmen.

The doctor who discovered the virus, who Amedia says was a Christian, brought his concerns about the coronavirus to the attention of the government in late December. In response, the government arrested him and seven other scientists and forced them to sign documents stating that they were wrong. That doctor has since died from the virus.

Now, though, Amedia says there is record of over 2 million Chinese signatures that were requesting transparency, truth and free speech in China.

But where did this virus even come from? Amedia says it did not come from a marketplace as was previously thought. Instead, he believes it came from a P4 laboratory, which was located about 20 miles from the marketplace that was originally believed to be the starting point for the virus.

"These are high-level, bio-safety, viral laboratories," he says. "... This laboratory was established in a joint venture between the French government starting back in 2004 as a response to the SARS [virus] so that the Chinese government would have a research lab for humanitarian purposes and to develop vaccines."

But the French-backed out of that joint venture a few years ago when they found out the Chinese had taken and replicated this laboratory, Amedia says, using it for privately owned businesses. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is speaking out about this, though some label his words a conspiracy theory. According to Amedia, the Chinese ambassador is not denying that it could have come out of this lab, which surprised the White House.

Will the public ever know what really caused the coronavirus? Will the full truth ever come out? We might never know, but God can still continue to move powerfully through this horrible situation. That's why Christians around the world must keep praying for this virus to be contained and eliminated. But we must also pray that in response to this frightening epidemic, people will keep flocking to Jesus Christ and create a revival in China.

Will you join me in prayer? Be sure to listen to my full interview with Amedia to hear the many more details he shares about this coronavirus.

Coronavirus: A Door Opened in Wuhan, China

FEB 07, 2020





Dear Brethren,

I thought you might be interested in the current situation of Wuhan.

A few months ago, a pastor I know, along with church members, was preaching the gospel on the streets of Wuhan. He kept on street preaching even when Christians were not encouraged to share the gospel. But nothing stopped them from proclaiming the gospel, not even the plague.

Now it is the 10th day since the city has been separated by quarantine, and protective masks are the most valuable thing in Wuhan. Money is useless because you can’t find a store that sells the masks. People are in a desperate situation. In response, our brothers and sisters preach the gospel and give out tracks and free masks. They are sharing the word of hope and comfort from God. They have become more and more favored in the city, even in the authorities’ eyes.

These churches in Wuhan keep themselves away from all the rumors and political issues, they just do what a true Christian should do in this situation: preaching the gospel and being wittiness of true peace and true hope that come from Jesus Christ in front of the non-believers who are in panic and hopelessness.

A police officer came to one sister, listened to the gospel, and left with the track and mask happily. After a while, another police officer arrived, heard, and left with the tract and a mask also. Shortly, the first one came back saying another officer would like one too. Soon four more officers came! They are the ones who used to be concerned about the message. But now they came to Christians for help, and they bow down to our God.

The yellow (Christians wearing yellow suits for protection) has become the most beautiful color in the city. Christian gained the respect that they never had because of their willingness to risk their health to serve.



I thank God for their witness and full of joy for our Lord’s amazing work. Please put them into your prayers. Lots of them are overloaded. Compared with the doctors and nurses, their load is even more massive. For they know, that is the opportunity God gave to them to gain people to Christ. The opening may go soon.

Your brother,
P. Z.

Coronavirus: Dr Li Wen Liang "The Hero Who Told The Truth"

All across China, people are talking about Dr Li Wen Liang. He was the doctor who discovered the novel coronavirus and in the early morning of 7 Feb, 2.58am, he was promoted into glory and went home to be with our Father in heaven.

Back in December last year, he was arrested for being a whistleblower 'spreading rumors' about the mysterious pneumonia-like virus. This morning we found out he was, in fact, a fellow brother in Christ. Our hearts are deeply moved by his sacrificial choice to spread awareness about the virus despite the risks he faced, especially to his reputation and to his own health.

He continued to care for patients up until he was infected himself. What a legacy to leave behind what it means to be like Jesus to those hurting in a time of crisis.

He chose to be an example of Immanuel, 'God with us' to the people of Wuhan.
Can you imagine the joy he must have felt as he entered into eternity and heard the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant"?

So today, please pray for his family, especially his wife who is also infected and 8 months pregnant with their second child. May God heal them supernaturally n give them grace, peace, strength and comfort during this time.

Dr Li Wen Liang penned a deeply touching Chinese poem below of how he would miss his family, his beloved Wuhan n quoted 2 Tim 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Here is a captivating, heart-touching Chinese poem I've tried to translate into English. It was written in memory of Mr Li Wenliang, a Christian doctor and whistleblower who died from the coronavirus himself after being punished for issuing the first warning about the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

我不想當英雄。
我還有爹娘，
還有孩子，
還有懷孕臨產的妻，
還有許多的病人在病房。
盡管正直換不來善良，
盡管䢛途迷茫，
可還是要繼續進行，
誰讓我選擇了這國這家，
多少委屈，
等打完這仗，
垂淚如雨仰天遠望。

"I don't want to be a hero.
I still have my parents,
And my children,
And my pregnant wife who's about to give birth,
And many of my patients in the ward.
Though my integrity cannot be exchanged for the goodness of others,
Despite my loss and confusion,
I should proceed anyway.
Who let me choose this country and this family?
How many grievances do I have?
When this battle is over,
I will look up to the sky,
With tears like rain."

我不想當英雄。
只是做為醫生，
我不能眼看著這不明的病毒，
傷害著我的同行。
還有那多無辜的人們，
他們盡管已奄奄一息，
可眼睛裏總望著我，
帶著生命的希望。

"I don't want to be a hero.
But as a doctor,
I cannot just see this unknown virus
Hurting my peers
And so many innocent people.
Though they are dying,
They are always looking at me in their eyes,
With their hope of life."

誰成想我競死了！
我的靈魂分明在天上，
望著那張白色的病床，
床上分明是我的軀體，
軀體上還是那熟悉的臉龐。
我的父親母親在哪？
還有我親愛的妻子，
那當年我苦苦追求的姑娘。

“Who would have ever realized that I was going to die?
My soul is in heaven,
Looking at the white bed,
On which lies my own body,
With the same familiar face.
Where are my parents?
And my dear wife,
The lady I once had a hard time chasing?"

天上有一道光！
那光的盡頭是人們時常說起的天堂。
我寧願不去哪裏，
我寧願回到武漢我的家鄉。
那裏有我新買的房子，
每月還要還貸的賬。
我怎能舍得，
我怎能舍得！
沒有兒子的爹娘，
該有多麽悲傷；
沒有了丈夫的寶貝，
該如何面對這未來的滄桑。

"There is a light in the sky!
At the end of that light is the heaven that people often talk about.
But I'd rather not go there.
I'd rather go back to my hometown in Wuhan.
I have my new house there,
For which I still have to pay off the loan every month.
How can I give up?
How can I give up?
For my parents without their son,
How sad must it be?
For my sweetheart without her husband,
How can she face the vicissitudes in her future?"

我分明死了。
我看見他們把我的軀殼，
裝進一個袋子。
在袋子的近傍
有許多死去的同胞，
象我一樣，
在黎明時分，
被推進火的爐堂。

"I am already gone.
I see them taking my body,
Putting it into a bag,
With which lie many compatriots
Gone like me,
Being pushed into the fire in the hearth
At dawn."

再見了，難舍的親人。
永別了，武漢我的故鄉。
但願你們在災難過後，
還記得曾經有人，
努力地讓你們盡早知道真相。
但願你們在災難過後，
學會正直，
不再讓善良的人們，
遭受著無盡的恐懼，
和無奈的悲傷。

"Goodbye, my dear ones.
Farewell, Wuhan, my hometown.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You'll remember someone once
Tried to let you know the truth as soon as possible.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You'll learn what it means to be righteous.
No more good people
Should suffer from endless fear,
And helpless sadness."

“那美好的仗我已經打完了，
應行的路我已行盡了，
當守的道我守住了。
從此以後，
有公義的冠冕為我留存。”
《聖經》提摩太後書4.7

"I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness."
2 Timothy 4:7, Holy Bible