The Heavenly Man (22 page)

As soon as we arrived at the hiding place the heavens opened. Torrential rain blanketed the whole of Zhengzhou City and a howling wind rattled windows and blew bicycles over. It was a huge storm. Although it was still morning time, the sky turned black.

I entered the hiding place and was left alone. This dear family treated me like an angel from heaven. They placed a family member outside my door day and night to guard me.

Later, Christian friends told me they had seen a report on the television news on the evening of my escape. The Security Police, the Public Security Bureau and soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army had been mobilized to find me. They searched every house in Zhengzhou from door to door. They set up roadblocks at all the major intersections
and searched every vehicle. Officers were dispatched to every bus station, train station and to the airport.

I was told trained police sniffer-dogs were used in a bid to pick up my scent, but their efforts were all in vain. I was safe in the secret hiding place of the Lord. The storm had hampered the authorities and washed away all traces of me.

God reminded me how thirteen years earlier, during my 74-day fast in prison, he had given me a powerful vision of a series of iron gates opening, one after another.

Now, all these years later, his promise had come true. I marvelled at God’s goodness and faithfulness to me. To this day I consider my escape from prison the most amazing experience of my life.

That night I slept like a content newborn baby in the arms of my Lord.

* * *

BROTHER XU
: After Brother Yun tried to escape by jumping out of the window he broke his legs. They then beat him severely in the mud, smashing his legs further so he wouldn’t be able to walk.

When I saw Yun’s unconscious body being carried back to his cell, his whole face was covered in mud. They had beaten his head so he lost all hearing for a while.

After we’d been transferred to the Zhengzhou Prison I was given the job of carrying Yun to the bathroom and the prison interrogation room, because he was crippled and in terrible pain. In this way we were able to have brief moments of contact when we encouraged each other in the Lord and strengthened each other’s faith. Even if we were unable to speak, just to look into each other’s eyes gave us strength and fellowship. Yun and I go back a long way and have experienced much of God’s grace together.

I told Yun the Lord wanted him to escape. The Lord surely led
me to tell him this. I felt God wanted Yun to escape, but that he wanted me to stay.

One morning the Lord directly showed Yun it was time to escape. As he walked down the prison stairs towards the courtyard, another Christian brother was coming in. The security door was opened for him at exactly the same time Yun walked out!

That brother then ran to our cell and told everyone he had seen Yun walking out of the prison! The prisoners climbed up and looked out of the cell window into the courtyard. We watched as Yun walked out the front gate of the prison to freedom!

This act of God’s mercy and power greatly encouraged us. We once again saw that nothing is impossible for God – absolutely nothing. He holds all our lives in his hands and not a thing will happen to one of God’s children unless it is part of his plan and will for our lives.

I believe one reason why God chose to release Yun in such a manner was because the prison authorities had mocked the Lord and Yun when they smashed his legs. They said, “We’d like to see you escape now!” The Lord is always up to meeting a challenge!

Within a few minutes of Yun’s escape the guards discovered he was missing and a huge manhunt was launched. A thorough investigation was held by the authorities to find out how a crippled prisoner in maximum-security solitary confinement could walk out of the prison and disappear!

Interestingly, the investigation concluded that Yun had received no human help from any of the prisoners or guards during his escape.

I testify that this is entirely true.

It was all the sovereign hand of our Almighty God.

* * *

BROTHER MUSHENG
: I was privileged to witness Brother Yun escape from prison in 1997, by the hand of the Lord.

I had been called to work in the prison yard at seven o’clock that morning. As I walked back to my cell, escorted by a guard, we stopped to be let through an iron security gate. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Yun walking out! We all knew that he was crippled, so to say I was surprised to see him walking is a great understatement! He walked right past me, but the guard with me didn’t see him at all.

It wasn’t until I returned to my cell that I realized I hadn’t seen Yun walk since his legs were broken. I was one of three men who carried him around the prison. The guards even called him “the cripple”. His legs were completely bruised from all the beatings he’d been given. He couldn’t do anything for himself because of his sorry condition. We even had to wash his clothes for him.

It dawned on me that Yun was trying to escape. I immediately fell to my knees and begged God to save his life as I thought the guards had purposely let him out into the prison yard so they could shoot him. I climbed to the cell window and watched him cross the yard and disappear through the gate.

There were probably thirty prison guards in the yard at the time, but no one noticed Yun escape! He even walked right past several of them.

A short time later a great rainstorm came.

Back on the third floor of the prison, the guard noticed Yun was missing just a few minutes after his escape. He searched everywhere, calling out “Cripple, where are you?” To start with the guard was quite relaxed, but as the number of places Yun could have been hiding diminished he grew more and more anxious. After about five minutes he raised the alarm and the whole prison was in an uproar over Yun’s escape.

The prison authorities interrogated us but we truthfully told them we hadn’t helped Yun in any way. Two of the guards lost their jobs.

The morning after my prison escape I asked my friends to contact a house church leader in Zhengzhou, to let him know I had escaped, and to tell him I would visit his home that evening after dark.

The same morning at about 11 a.m., my wife received a vision from the Lord. Deling had been released from prison about two weeks before my escape and was hiding in a believer’s home.

In her vision she saw I had been released. I was sitting in front of her and my face looked joyful and content. I asked my wife to assemble all the church elders and co-workers so we could have a meeting. She pointed her finger at me and said, “Don’t you dare! Don’t you have any fear? Are you not afraid to die?” I smiled at her and said nothing.

In response to her vision, Deling caught a bus to Zhengzhou. The first place she stopped was the home of the leader I was planning to visit that evening!

When my wife entered the old couple’s house they asked her, “Are you aware that God’s servant Brother Yun has escaped from prison?”

Deling stuttered, “Can you repeat what you said? Is it true? Has he really escaped?”

My wife slumped down in a chair and shared the vision she had received from the Lord earlier that morning. The brother laughed and exclaimed, “Ha! This proves that communication from the Lord is much faster than any telephone or computer!”

That evening when I arrived at the house I was amazed to see the face of my dear wife, and a number of co-workers who had assembled to see me.

The morning before God took me out of the prison he had shown me in a vision that my wife was free. She had then received a vision that I was free, and now, by the mighty hand of God, we were together! We hugged and sang together from Psalm 126:1–3,

Even though I was free, I longed to return to the prison to visit my co-workers and share with them what God had done. It’s hard to explain how close the bonds are between Christian brothers in prison. I missed them and was concerned for their welfare.

* * *

DELING
: About two weeks after my release from prison I was secretly staying in the home of two sisters. One day they went out
and the Lord gave me a clear vision. I saw Yun was free and was preparing to go somewhere for a meeting! I asked him, “How did you escape? Why are you so busy?” He replied, “The Lord helped me come out. Now I must go and preach the gospel.”

When the two sisters returned home I told them the Lord had shown me Yun was no longer in prison. At this time all the Christians were sure Yun would either be executed or imprisoned for life, so the two sisters didn’t believe me. They said, “Oh, you must miss him very much!” and “We’re sorry that you’ve suffered so much because of your husband’s imprisonment.”

They thought I was crazy! One was laughing at me and the other was concerned. She stared into my eyes to see if I’d lost my mind. I ignored them and caught a bus to Zhengzhou.

A few hours later I was told that Yun was free!

The whole incident of my husband’s prison escape, and the way God told me about it in my vision, completely enlarged my understanding of God’s greatness. For the first time I really knew that absolutely nothing is impossible for him!

* * *

YUN
: The church leaders in Zhengzhou wanted us to leave the area and move as far away as we could, for they believed it was too dangerous for us to stay in the city.

The police were still searching everywhere for me. My escape was a major embarrassment for the government and especially for the prison authorities.

I was told later that the Public Security Bureau even sent undercover female officers to house church meetings in the city, pretending to be Christians. They said, “We are friends of Brother Yun and we heard how the Lord helped him escape. Do you know how he’s doing?” They were hoping to elicit some information on my whereabouts.

Because both Deling and I had been arrested, our children had to be sent to another province to be cared for by a Christian couple. Arrangements were made for us to be reunited with our dear children.

One swelteringly hot summer’s day, my family and I met with some house church leaders. My little daughter Yilin rushed into the room shouting and crying, “Mother, the police are coming! Father must escape right away!”

We ran onto the roof of the house and were preparing to jump when we were told the police officers had gone in a different direction and weren’t looking for us. We were relieved, yet this incident reminded us of the pressure we were under.

At this time Deling started to share with me that she was praying God would open a door so we could have a more settled family life. She was deeply concerned at the impact such a stressful lifestyle was having on our children.

I wasn’t in good health at this time. I felt great pain in my chest and couldn’t breathe properly, so I went to a clinic and got an X-ray. The doctor grimly told me, “You have either tuberculosis or a tumour.” He wanted to admit me to the hospital immediately. My wife also advised me, “It’s God’s will for you to rest.”

At first I stubbornly refused to be admitted. I wanted to keep on meeting with Christians, but the house church leaders from my home town visited and told me, “You must stop working and spend some time waiting upon the Lord. The authorities are searching for you everywhere. Under no circumstance should you return home, both for your own sake and for the sake of the other believers.”

For the first time since I preached the gospel as a 16-year-old boy in Henan, all the doors firmly closed to me. My escape from prison had become well known and the authorities
were doing everything possible to hunt me down. Church leaders knew that if they invited me to speak and the PSB raided the meeting, they would all face severe penalties. It was just too great a risk for them to take, so they advised me to lie low and keep out of public ministry.

During my period of illness I really struggled. I didn’t really want to rest in God alone. Instead, I wanted to rest in the
work
of God. I realized again that I was a labourer who worked without real peace from the Lord. I loved
doing
things for the Lord so much that it had become my security and my source of joy. God wanted to remove this idol from my life.

My illness also allowed me to spend more time with my wife and children. We prayed together and waited upon the Lord to tell us what steps to take.

One morning during prayer I was overcome by the Lord’s presence. He spoke to me like a friend, “I will send you to a new place. You won’t understand a single word of their language. There will be many strange faces before you, but you must obey my command: ‘Go and awaken those people!’”

I shared these words with my wife and children. They didn’t know what to say. I hid the promise inside my heart.

On another occasion I was meditating upon the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry. The Lord spoke to me,
“Quick! Leave…immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.” Acts 22:18.
He continued, “Yun, you must hurry up. Leave China. Do not delay! Your witness for me in China is complete. The people will not accept your ministry among them any more for they are too frightened.”

The next day I received a telephone call from a dear friend. His words – spoken without any knowledge of what the Lord had told me – confirmed God’s leading. He said, “Brother Yun, the Lord has shown me he is preparing a new
ministry for you. It’s the fulfilment of what he called you to do as a child: ‘Go west and south and preach the gospel.’”

After that call I fully realized the Lord was leading my life in a drastically new direction.

I shared everything with my wife. Deling agreed from the bottom of her heart that the Lord wanted me to leave China and go to the west and south.

I had one major problem. I had no passport and had never travelled outside China in all my life. I couldn’t apply for a passport because I had a criminal record. If I applied I would be immediately arrested.

We prayed and committed this need to the Lord.

A short time later I met with some Christian brothers. When I shared what the Lord was calling me to do, a businessman with a passport felt the Lord prompt him to give his passport to me. He said, “Brother Yun, here is my passport. Use it as the Lord leads you. Don’t worry about me. If trouble comes to me later because of this, I will accept it.”

When we looked at the passport we noticed another problem. The picture of this brother looked absolutely nothing like me! He was balding and wore glasses. I had shaggy hair and completely different features. This brother was also much older than me!

Believing the Lord had told me to preach his gospel among the nations of the world, a time was set for me to leave China and a ticket was purchased from Beijing to Frankfurt with Air China on 28 September 1997.

The day before my departure I taught all day at a house church Bible school that I had helped establish in the Beijing area. When I shared that God had commanded me to take his gospel to the nations of the world the students were deeply touched, and prayed fervently for me with many tears. I asked them to pray for me continuously from that evening
until noon the next day, by which time my flight would have departed. These young men and women stayed up all night calling on the Lord in prayer, asking him to protect me and grant success. On many occasions since that day I’ve remembered the deep love those beautiful students had for the Lord and for me. Today they are serving God all across China in remote areas like Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

The night before the flight I was very nervous. I’d never been on a large aircraft before. I knew that if caught, I would be detained on the most serious charges and would surely – unless the Lord intervened – face the death penalty once the authorities realized I’d escaped from prison. I wanted to make sure I was acting according to God’s will, and that we had his seal of approval. If anyone had expressed a reservation to me that evening I would probably have cancelled my plans. But not one of my co-workers or the students gave me anything except words of encouragement and confirmation.

Three co-workers and I also stayed up all night seeking the Lord’s protection. By morning I felt exhausted from struggling all night, like Jacob when he wrestled with God. I kept thinking about what might happen to me, and what I would say if the airport officials questioned me. I was also concerned because it was just a few days before National Day on 1 October, so security in Beijing was tighter than usual.

During intense prayer at dawn, one of my co-workers said, “Servant of God, don’t panic. I’ve received a word from the Lord for you.” The message was from Genesis 27:20,
“Isaac asked his son, ‘How did you find it so quickly, my son?’ ‘The Lord your God gave me success,’ he replied.”

This verse greatly encouraged me and summarized what had happened to me. In response to the prayers of many, the Lord had put the whole thing together quickly. One day I was in prison with broken legs and no hope or future. Now,
just a few months later, I was preparing to leave China for the first time in my life, even though I was a wanted “criminal” with no passport or identity card.

I replied by quoting the Apostle Paul,
“So keep up your courage…for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” Acts 27:25.

Before dawn the Lord gave me a strong word of warning, “When you enter the customs hall at the airport, say only what I instruct you to say” and with it came a Scripture, “
When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” Proverbs 10:19.

Outside Beijing Airport I called Deling and the children and asked them to pray for me. Deling sounded very calm, because she had perfect peace that God was leading me to leave China.

Because I’d never been through airport procedures before, one brother showed me how to fill out the forms, where to check in, and where to pay my departure tax. I then walked into the customs area, remembering what the Lord had told me, “When you enter the customs hall at the airport, say only what I instruct you to say.”

I waited in line for my documents to be checked. Finally I reached the front of the line. I handed over the passport and boarding pass. The officer looked at the picture and then at me, and started to laugh, “Ha! This photo isn’t you! It looks nothing like you at all!” He then held the passport up for the officers in the other booths to see. They too laughed contemptuously.

This may sound difficult to believe, but I felt completely calm inside. I’d been nervous the previous night, but the Lord had made it clear that I was to leave China and now I was one hundred per cent confident I was in his will. A supernatural peace flooded my heart.

The officer then went into a side office, came back and again said, “It’s not you!” He was determined to find out who I was. I stared with a look of intense fire directly into his eyes.

Several minutes passed and the line of passengers behind me began to grow impatient and chastised the officer for taking so long. Sensing their growing anger, he told me to stand to the side while he processed the other passengers.

When he had finished he told me, “It’s obvious this passport doesn’t belong to you. But even if I let you go, there’s no way you will get permission to enter Germany. They’ll place you on the next flight back!”

Incredibly, he stamped my passport and said, “Go!”

There was no human reason for the officer to do this. All I can say is that the Lord was in control of the situation, influencing the officer to do his will.