Living Testimonies from China

by Tony Lambert

This is the testimony of Mrs. Yang, an elderly Christian woman living in Anhui province who graduated from university many years ago and is now retired but still very active in the Lord’s work:

“I don’t know where to begin as I have so much to say! First I’ll introduce myself: I was born into a Christian family and when I was little I went with my parents to church and Sunday school. But I was still only a nominal Christian. As we were very poor, I went to church schools for my primary and lower middle-school education, but afterwards went to Shanghai to high school. On May 5, 1950 the school decreed a spring holiday of three days. There was a group of us students who were from the North (including Anhui, Henan and Shandong) who customarily held a morning prayer meeting. On this day the Holy Spirit moved mightily. Under His light each of us recognized our sin and unrighteousness. We confessed our sin weeping before God and repented for three days and three nights. Everybody prayed continually, then with thanksgiving and with praise and we were filled with the Holy Spirit. That day was the day when I was really born again and saved. I had new life and a new lifestyle. (2 Cor. 5:17) I also gladly gave myself entirely to God’s service. The foundation of my faith was planted on the Rock, Jesus Christ. So when the winds blew and the storms came up I did not fall. Later events proved the truth of this reality.

“In 1951 we all applied to various universities and in 1952 I graduated from high school and went to a university in Shanghai. As soon as I joined, I had to undergo thought reform and study the development of society such as ‘humans are evolved from apes.’ But I refused to accept this and raised objections. I graduated in the autumn of 1955. This was just in the middle of the national campaign to eradicate all ‘secret counter-revolutionaries.’ I was labeled in my class as a ‘secret counter-revolutionary’ and as I refused to admit this I was accused at ‘struggle meetings’ right up until the beginning of the new school year. My fellow students were all allocated jobs and left, but I was not given a job.

“Over the last twenty years the grace of the Lord has gripped me. God is with me. Suffering is sweet, joyful and peaceful because ‘we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the greatness of the power comes not from us but from God. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed—always bearing in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.’ (2 Cor. 4:7-11)

“After I retired I studied to serve God with all my time. In my home, God set up a church, the body of Christ where everyone studies the Bible together, prays, worships God and spreads the gospel. God has specially blessed us and in the midst of trials is still adding to the church those who should be saved. May all glory, thanks and praise and power be to the Lamb who was slain!

“Please pray for us as Satan is active. The city is not big but there are many heresies, extremes and cults such as ‘Lightning from the East,’ ‘Shouters,’ ‘Those who Deny Eternal Security after Salvation,’ ‘Seventh Day Adventists’ etc. I believe that God will protect us. In John 17 verse 15 Jesus prays for his disciples, saying: ‘I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one.’ What a wonderful prayer! I testify that who I believe is the true and living God and I testify that only God’s word is the truth and is eternally unchangeable.”

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Here is the experience of a Mrs. Liu living in Jiangsu:

“A few days before Spring Festival 2002 my elder sister discovered she was in the last stages of breast cancer. She immediately was operated on and is now having therapy once a month. Since then I have stopped doing the Bible correspondence course and go to work instead of my sister. I have to get up every day at 2 a.m. to do my shift and then go to look after her. But through all these trials we have experienced God’s grace. God has turned her back to himself through this illness. For several years she went right away from God under the pressure of raising money for her son to go to university. Now God has given her a clear word: Before you heard about me, but now you will know me.

“I have read in the local newspaper the regulations prohibiting house-churches so I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Please pray that God will rid us of timidity and fear.

“The cult, ‘Lightning from the East’ is very active here. They have kidnapped several people. Two house-church leaders were sent an urn from a crematorium inside of which were written various curses. They are very crafty using family connections. But also many believers are stuck at the beginning of their Christian lives knowing only salvation. They have not established a close relationship with God—they only have head knowledge about Him.

“Recently we heard a brother preach about how to experience the Lord in our everyday life and to build a close relationship with Him. In the modern church too many meetings are too formal and do not allow people to experience God. Only those who have a close intimacy with God can go ‘outside the camp’ and suffer for him. May God help us to find the Lord Himself in real life and to experience His reality.”

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A church worker in Inner Mongolia related his experience:

“I have resolved to study the Bible harder from the gospel radio programs. But my aim is not to become a missionary myself. Our church has not reached the point where it can send out missionaries. Also, my own character is not mature enough to take that step. I just want to do a good job leading the young people’s fellowship and together with the elders develop our church as well as spread the gospel to my fellow-workers in our work-unit.

“As we lack workers in our church, I lead Bible studies and have been delegated the task of setting up a daughter church. At first I was very driven and exhausted as everybody was watching how I performed. But now under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the gospel radio training I have changed my old habits of one person trying to do everything. I have gradually established a team with each member having their responsibilities. We submit to each other and no one is ‘boss’ (including myself—I only lead a group Bible study). Thus in an orderly fashion the church now has people responsible for leading the singing, prayer, visitation, training of new converts etc. And I am no longer exhausted! As I realize now from the gospel radio classes that I have no-one to teach me here, I encourage everyone to give their opinions. I am only a believer called to serve. I want to be open to their criticisms so I will do better. This method has been very effective, thank God! I have grown and everybody respects me and cares for me and this is mutual.

“The mutual care of the believers and mutual confession of faults has now been evident in the church for nearly a year, but the number in our church has already grown from 80 to 110 and we have set up a young people’s fellowship.

“I am in charge of Bible training and the mother church has agreed that a sister who is a voluntary worker and who used to take it in turns with me to set up meeting points and evangelize the countryside should take over my original job.”

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Another Christian in northeast China highlights the danger of extremism:

“I am a village Christian, in Liaoning, meeting in the home. Our church was set up in 1993. There were so many believers that if you arrived late you could not find a spare stool. Most of the preachers were housewives with no great education who preached fervently what was on their heart. We have no pastor or elders. At first there were no church regulations, and we did not associate with the big TSPM churches. But over the last two years the church has said it must preach ‘to the times.’ As it is the Last Days, we should be ‘separate and holy.’ So at New Year we can’t eat jiaozi (dumplings) nor can we paste up red New Year gospel texts over the door. We can’t eat mooncakes, nor celebrate our parents’ birthdays nor allow unbelievers to attend their funerals. Even Christmas is forbidden. We should not associate with unbelievers—this is called ‘holiness.’ If you do, then you can’t be saved and go to heaven. Many have fallen away as a result and many families torn apart. They quote scriptures to ‘prove’ their point. If anyone dares to disagree they are expelled.

“We are insufficiently grounded in the Bible to answer back, so we are angry in silence and sometimes don’t attend meetings. In May our leaders were arrested. So now they say if anyone asks if you are a believer you should deny it. Meetings are held at different times and locations. Our church also meets on the mountaintop saying this is the way of Jesus, the ‘wilderness road.’ [NOTE: it may be this is a cult called the Wilderness Sect.] They even say the door of grace has been shut and we can only await the Lord’s coming. So eventually they expelled us publicly, labeling us with imaginary sins. They commanded the believers not to associate with us or speak to us. We now meet separately to pray and sing, reading the Scriptures even more. God has opened our eyes to see that their doings are unscriptural. We have made contact with the church expelled by them and they are sending workers to feed us. We take the Bible as our standard and do everything in accordance with it. We take time to visit every believer in their home and share God’s Word with them and encourage them in the love of God. But some still refuse to receive us. The church we left tells them they should just obey blindly, as it’s not their responsibility whether they are going astray or going aright, but the leadership’s. May God remove the spirit of error from their hearts and pour in His truth! May God unite our church and revive it again! Please send us some books as since we became Christians we only have our Bibles and no other Christian books whatsoever. The church forbade us from reading other Christian books and even to listen to gospel radio. Please send the booklet on heresies and extremists.”