Aubrey's Email

To contribute to the Freedom for Sunny Fund, go to Paypal.  The account is:  theliveart .  Or you can contact me and I can get you Aubrey's number.  Below is the email my friend Aubrey sent out just yesterday--

hey everybody,


i'm writing this tonight pretty much exhausted and overwhelmed, but still hopeful. i'm going to do my best to explain everything clearly, but if something is unclear or if i've missed anything major, please just bare with me. recently i think many of you have probably gotten an email or two from my mom about the situation my fiance sunny has been in. if not, a quick recap: he's been living in hong kong on and off for the past couple of years, and part of china's requirements for residency visa is that you have to go to a government sponsored language school. so, of course, he did so. about a year and a half later (a couple months ago) he was notified that he had broken the contract he made with the school and they were suing him. their claim is that he did not fulfill his agreement with them when he stopped services with the first language school and enrolled in an alternate language school. as a result of his breaking the contract they were charging him with a $10,000 usd penalty. the shortish version of the rest is that they've been going back and forth about it in court for the past two months. yesterday the final verdict is that he has ten days to pay $9850 (which he doesn't have) or he has to serve one year in chinese prison. they require it to be paid in one lump sum and will not allow payments.

we've been on our knees praying about this more than i can say, feeling completely helpless. sunny is a very determined and faithful man and has been handling this as expected, with determination and drive. it's been hard to tell where his emotions are but i know his spirit is strong. i, on the other hand, have not felt so strong. going through times of great struggle is something we all have to do, but it is excruciating to watch the ones you love in pain and fear and not be able to do anything to help them. i would give anything to remove this load off of his shoulders. but i do know, deep in my spirit, that my God loves him more than anyone else could and that He will not leave him alone to fend for himself. when i pray, through the tears, i hear a quiet word, "wait on me, and everything is going to be ok." it's the only thing i have to go on, and i trust it. i trust Him. i also know that "ok" is not always pleasant, but i just have to sit and wait and see. everything in me wants to "do" something, but there is nothing to do. nothing, but to pray.

i believe so deeply in prayer. i believe that God gives us the power to pray because He wants to partner with Him while He does things on our behalf. He is so committed to the relationship with us that His first desire is to work hand in hand with us. so, he tells us to pray. he tells us to pray with faith and know that He is a good and loving God and that He sees and knows all our needs and fears and worries. so we can go to him, with confidence, that we are His priority and ask Him to help us, provide for us, defend us, rescue us. He also says that there is power in agreement, and that when we pray together that it can move heaven. so that's why i write you tonight. you are the ones i love and lean on when things are hard, and you are the ones i really need right now. i don't know what the right answer to all of this is. i don't know what is "supposed" to happen. i do know that sunny is an honorable man and that he did nothing wrong. he is being taken advantage of by a communist government that is accustomed to doing whatever they want to whomever they want, with no recourse. this has not broken sunny's spirit, and if anything has made him even more determined to stand up strong and face whatever comes than ever. please pray with us for God's rescue from this whole situation. i just keep asking the Lord to put an unbreakable bubble around him that keeps anything from hurting him, and also that God will provide the money to pay for his freedom. i know the Father knows what the right answer to this is, and i want to lay down my own ideas and ask for His will to be done on earth, in this situation, as it is in heaven.

then this evening i got a letter from homeland security. we've been applying for his fiance visa for what seems like an eternity, and today they sent me an envelope. i was pretty much terrified to open it, thinking what else can go wrong? mom opened it and gasped. we were approved. he can go to the consulate and then he can come here, free and clear. the visa is valid now and lasts until feb 7. so, the big unknown is what do we do now? what in the world is going to happen? if he has to go to jail for the year, he will miss the feb deadline and we forfeit the right to reapply in the future. so basically, it's come now or never be able to come. which leaves us with me having to move to where he is and him never being able to come to the states. i just can't believe this is God's best for us. there has to be some other provision. just when i think it's as crazy as it's going to get, it gets a little more so.

as big and important as everything that is affecting sunny directly is, it has seemed incredibly selfish for me to focus on the impact it's had on me. but i've been forced to look at it. most of you know i have crohn's disease and have been managing it for over ten years mostly successfully. one of the main agitators of crohn's is stress and i've learned how to manage it for the most part. this has put me into hyper-drive unfortunately. and it is coming out in my health. it's the first time i have literally not been able to get a handle on it at all, and it's been a little scary to be honest. i struggle to keep all things in perspective, to focus on staying calm and peaceful, and to live in faith that what i say i believe is what i walk out. i'm controlling my thoughts a lot better than my body, and i really can't afford to get any sicker. so, a minor issue in comparison to what sunny's suffering, but i do need some prayer as well.