Back to Jerusalem: The Testimony of Mecca Zhao

by Tony Lambert

We continue our series on the origins of the Back to Jerusalem Movement with the testimony of Mecca Zhao who was a member of the Back to Jerusalem Band in the 1940s.

I was born in Linhsien [Linxian], Henan. During my father’s lifetime we had to flee to Shanxi province because of famine. In the midst of our poverty the whole family turned to Jesus. After this our living conditions gradually improved.

At the age of three my mother died and I was left in my oldest sister’s care. At ten my father died and I was dependent solely on my second oldest brother. As a child I fell in line with the older members of my family in believing in the Lord but when I grew up I did not believe there was a God. Now when I think of my rebellious attitude it grieves me to think how I must have wounded the heart of God. Thank God He did not deal with me according to my perverse ways but rather drew me with loving kindness. He saved me. He changed me. He called me and made me into a new creature in Christ Jesus. He adopted me as a son and made me into an instrument fit for His use.

On July 7, 1937, the day on which the war [Sino-Japanese] broke out, my second brother died. My education was only half complete. The way before me was dark. I found myself in dire straits. There was nothing to do but give up my studies and join the army. Young and without experience I began an unsettled life in the world. Everywhere I turned I seemed to be up against a blank wall and I almost died. Before long I had to return home because I was ill. The local church was opening a short-term Bible school and I was compelled by my oldest brother to attend. Truly God had kept His hand upon me even though I was not aware of it.

During the meetings there were many people who testified to the reality of God but I considered it only superstition: I did not approve and certainly did not believe. Three weeks of the month’s meetings had already passed and I still had not changed, neither did I care to read the Bible and still less to pray. One day at noon, in a despondent mood, I picked up the Bible and aimlessly opened it up to the verse, ‘I will teach thee the way wherein thou shalt go’. (Psalm 32:8) The words came to me with force gripping and piercing my heart. The question, ‘Can it be that there is really a God?’ came to my mind. I reasoned thus: ‘If there is no God, how could such a pleasing, appropriate, beautiful voice be heard by one who was in the valley of darkness with no way out?’ I immediately said aloud: ’O God, are you real? Then what else am I waiting for? My hope is in Thee! Since you have given me this promise I pray Thee show me the way wherein I should go! And I believe that I have received this for which I have prayed.’

One night, after the evening worship, when all the others had retired, I resolved to pray all night, asking God to show me the way. Although I did not know how to pray I returned to the church and fell on my knees. Immediately I broke out in perspiration although it was in the dead of winter and the ground was covered with snow. I prayed for a long time, the words just flowing out. After a short silence there appeared before my eyes a strip of white paper on which was written the word ‘Mecca’. I knew this was a new name God had given me which embraced His plan for my whole life — but at that time I had no idea what ‘Mecca’ meant. I rose from my knees with great joy.

The next morning I could not restrain myself. Before all the people I testified: ‘It is not necessary for you to tell me again for now I know that Jesus is the true God, the living God. I have heard His voice and He has shown me clearly the way wherein I should go.’ But, alas, no one could interpret the meaning of the new name. In Chinese the first syllable [mai] means ‘wheat’ so the most satisfactory meaning we could arrive at was in John 12:24: ‘Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.’ The second syllable [jia] means ‘to add’ — ‘but if it die, it bringeth forth fruit.’ And so I willingly consecrated my whole life to the Lord’s use and purposed daily to walk — the Way of the Cross.

At that time my zeal was very fervent. After the meetings closed, without counting the cost I began to give myself to voluntary preaching of the Gospel. In the past I had not read my Bible and I did not understand its truth, so all I knew was to tell people to believe in a living Jesus. God gave me special power in prayer. At each service, we only read the Bible, sang and prayed. Every time I prayed the Holy Spirit Himself worked convicting the hearts of the people so they wept and confessed their sins. All those present were amazed; I myself could not explain it. I could only thank the Lord and praise Him for His great power. This continued for half a year but the devil was working in great power assaulting me on every side, especially when I prayed. He often brought fearful beings to frighten me, causing me to pray less and less, until finally I dared not pray at all. I did not dare to enter my bedroom in the day time because another brother had seen a red dragon on the top of the roof. Gradually I fell into temptation. My spiritual life became colder and colder. On top of all this the [Japanese] invaders arrived in our town! I secretly escaped and again found myself a soldier in the army. I walked the way of the world, the ambition for gain and position taking the place of God in my life. I was as the horse and mule with no understanding. In my disobedience I did not realise how God’s heart was grieved.

With not enough to eat, not clothed warmly, chasing back and forth over the mountains, meeting the enemy in battle, not knowing when death might come — such was the existence I endured for several years. Then I fell captive into the hands of the other faction. Behind prison bars I tasted to the full the bitterness of confinement. The hope for gain and for higher rank had altogether gone. My spirit gradually revived. I asked the Lord: ‘Is this the kind of life that “Mecca” means?’ He responded by bringing two maps before me. One was of Ningxia and the other was an old city called Mecca on the Red Sea. Later when I consulted an atlas it corresponded exactly with the vision the Lord had given me. However, I still did not know what it meant. Another time He showed me a big, bright road leading westward. I still was unclear but kept all these things in my heart.

God was thinking of me and gave me a ray of hope. He promised me that at the age of 25 I should leave prison and aged 27 I would take up the work committed to me. It happened exactly in this way. In May of my 25th year I was released and in July of my 26th year I came to the Northwest Bible Institute in Fengsiang. In my 27th year I went on some preaching tours during vacation. In January I went to Gansu province and in the summer to the place I had seen in the vision — Ningxia. We may truly rely on the faithfulness of God.

After passing through seven or eight years of sore testing I came through at last to a state of peace and calm. Had it not been for my Heavenly Father’s great power which was my sole protection, I should long ago have returned to dust. Although greatly weakened because of the hardships, even so I was much stronger than when I had left home years before — a thin, weakly specimen of humanity! Hallelujah! This was God’s wonderful protection of His child that He might use him in the Northwest. Yes, Lord, I am willing for Thee to use me as Thou dost please. I am the clay.

The way I came to a clear understanding of the way I was to go and of the name ‘Mecca’ was as follows: When I entered the Northwest Bible Institute, God used his servant Pastor Mark Ma to unravel to me the puzzle. [NOTE: details of Mark Ma’s testimony are given in China Insight March-April 2003.] The commission which I had received was to go westward to preach the Gospel to the Muslims until I reached the city of Mecca in Arabia. This corresponded exactly with the commission given through Pastor Ma to the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band of which I now became a member. Thus God had especially prepared for me a group of Christian workers with whom I could co-operate. From this time I used my new name ‘Mecca’.

The promise of Psalm 32:8 has been constantly fulfilled in my life. During the past few months there has been a persistent feeling of distress in my spirit, a great burden on my heart. I could only conclude that I had only a few more months in school. Then I realised that I had had a prejudice, and cast it out. From the time that I returned to the Bible Institute last summer [1946?] after my visit to Ningxia I had thought that the time for any members of the Band to open permanent work in the Northwest had not yet arrived. Certainly there must be at least two more years before I myself could go. What then was the cause of this sorrow and burden over the past few months? What did God want His child to do? The Lord said, ‘I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt... And now come, I will send thee to Egypt.’ (Acts 7:34)

How could I receive the same commission that Moses was worthy to receive? I seemed so weak and inadequate. But God took pity on my weakness and cleared up all my difficulties. He used Zechariah 4:7 (Who art thou, O great mountain? Thou shalt become a plain), to give me strength to respond to His command. After this it was made clear to me that when I go forth this time I am to go by way of Xining, Qinghai, to Kashgar in Xinjiang. I am to stay there a somewhat longer period of time, thus being a kind of herald trumpeter, a vanguard under the Lord’s leadership, for the other members of the Band to follow. He also appointed His servant Timothy Tai as my fellow worker.

The obstacles are many but I have the Lord to go before me and open the way. Let us stand still and see the mighty works of God! May He give me the strength sincerely not to count my life dear so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I thank my Father God that He has counted me worthy to suffer and die for the Name of the Lord and that He has implanted a desire in my heart to accept this as His will for me. May I hold on and be faithful to the end. Amen.

The above testimony, a true story of my life, has been given that the Name of the Lord may be glorified. I also pray He may use this to put it on the hearts of many that love Him to pray for His weak and wayward child, that he may not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, but, trusting in God’s mighty power that he may take the Gospel all the way to the City of Mecca.

[Published in 1947 Prayer Call of the Chinese Back-to-Jerusalem Band produced by the friends of Miss Helen Bailey, a missionary from Woodleaf, North Carolina, who served with the Southern Presbyterian church in Henan for 14 years and then 10 years as an independent missionary.]

In a future edition we hope to publish details of Mecca Zhao’s journey to the remote area of Dulan in Qinghai to preach the gospel to the Muslims and Tibetans.