Santa Rosa and Yellow Peril

ERS is located in Santa Rosa, California. It is different from other Californian big cities where Asian people make up most of the population. White men make up the majority of the population in this city ,with wine production as their main business. Very few people know that the so called "Yellow Peril" - a major policy to place prejudice against Chinese, started in this city hundred years ago.

The knowledge of the city's shameful history was soon burried under the piles left by San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and soon everyone in the city forgot about it. However, our Lord remembers ....

▲The Chinese stores in Santa Rosa downtown

▲ Chinese immigrant

There was a City Reach Prayer Meeting in Sonoma County held for the city's revival. For several years the intercessors gathered together and prayed for the whole city. The Holy Spirit showed them how to repent for the sins the city had committed. From reading the history of the Sonoma County, they discoverd that Santa Rosa was the city that had started the action against Chinese immigrants in 1880, and eventually, Congress of the United States even passed the 'so called' [Yellow Peril Bills] to formally limit Chinese immigration in 1882. 【Yellow Peril Bills】

Around 1880, When United States was building railways everywhere, Chinese people became their main labor source. The railway construction stopped in Santa Rosa, so many Chinese people gathered and lived in the city. Population doubled and a China town emerged. Once there was an unoffical Chinese mayor, the local residents got suspicious and decided to get rid off all the Chinese people from Santa Rosa. The banner of 【 All Chinese must go! 】 had hung high in the downtown streets. Their power became so strong, it spread throughout the nation. When it reached the White House, the United States congress passed the Yellow Peril Bill.

03/03/2006 Harry Skandera in City Reach Prayer Meeting shared in the City Reach prayer meeting,

"When we gather together in the center of this city, it always reminds me that Santa Rosa has a predefined destination... if you recall the history of Santa Rosa. In this shopping center, wonderful and horrible things happened.We should pray for them both tonight. First let us start our prayer by repenting of our sins... for many generations we've had prejudice against foreigners. Immigration is a very complex and legal topic that we never had a good solution to. However, I do know that God had a polic. This policy is that the place to find the solution in the future is here. The policy starting now, we should repent of what our forfathers did, and make this place a cosmopoliton place, I don't know what to tell you to pray for, but I do know that we also, have made great mistakes before..."

When we attended the City Reach Prayer Meeting in November 2007, we received a warm welcome by the members of the prayer meeting. They told us this about the city's history, "You've already given us great encouragement by attending our meeting, for we have been praying for reconciliation for several years."

Pastor Nita Johnson once spoke to a Chinses Church congregation that： Many American Christian churches are praying for revival, that great revival will happen when the Chinese Church and American Church come together in unity.

The Chinese Church played an important role in the map of God's endtime strategy. ERS is blessed to be located in this city. Santa Rosa has gone through a long period of repentance and redemption. We believe that the glorious day is not far in coming!