The Heavenly Man (26 page)

I’m often asked about the rights of pastors in China. A pastor has no rights, except the rights of a slave! Everyone in this world is a slave. They’re either slaves to sin, or slaves of Christ. Our “rights” are in the hands of Jesus. We must fall on our knees in complete dependence on him.

Christians in China appreciate whenever believers around the world try to help them during times of imprisonment or persecution, but all efforts to help need to be bathed in prayer and rooted in God’s will, otherwise it only seems to make things worse.

The world can do nothing to a Christian who has no fear of man.

My wife and children had been living in Myanmar almost two years when finally, at the start of 2001, a plan was initiated to bring them out to Thailand and then to Germany, where we hoped to restart our life together. The German government granted permission for them to join me, and assured us they would receive the same refugee status as I did.

Because they were so long in Myanmar, a friend had helped us get Burmese ID cards. Numerous Chinese people were being rounded up all the time in northern Myanmar and sent back to China because they didn’t have the correct identification. This was the last thing we wanted to happen to our family, because we were still wanted by the authorities in our homeland. We didn’t think too much about it at the time, but later we realized our ID cards were not issued legally.

In February 2001, I flew into Myanmar for one last time. My family was excited and all preparations had been made for our departure. Deling, Isaac and Yilin were to fly to a town near the Thai border, where they would cross by land into Thailand. I was to travel on ahead and meet them there.

As with most things in our lives, our plans went awfully wrong!

Two nights before I was to leave Myanmar I received a vivid dream from the Lord. I saw my family and me leaving Myanmar. Isaac went on ahead. He was very nervous as he crossed the border, yet he passed through customs and left the country safely.

Next, in the dream, it was my turn to pass through customs. The official asked for my passport and told me to open my bags. He found my Burmese identity card and ordered me into an interrogation room. In the dream I saw the face of the customs official and also noticed the interrogation room was very poor and run down.

I awoke from my dream and saw it was just before five o’clock in the morning. I told Deling, “The Lord has shown me that if we are not careful we’ll encounter trouble when we leave this country. We should pray more and ask the Lord to protect us.”

I also told Isaac the contents of my dream and told him to pray fervently. He left later in the day, flying to the border town of Tachilek in north-east Myanmar. Deling and Yilin were to join him the next day, and together they were to cross the border into Thailand.

Incredibly, just minutes after Isaac’s plane touched down, a war broke out in Tachilek between the Burmese military and the Shan Independence Army! Fierce fighting, shelling and gunfire erupted. All flights to Tachilek were cancelled for weeks. Isaac was cut off from us and there was no way to go to him.

The same day I’d received the dream from the Lord I shared it with the students at the Bible school where we were staying, and asked them to pray. With one voice the students all assured me, “Dear Brother Yun, there will be no problem! It’s easy to cross the border. You have nothing to fear!” I started to feel confident that nothing bad would happen.

My wife, whom I thank God for giving an honest and wise heart, warned me, “You shouldn’t be so positive about this. God has warned you and you must heed it. Make sure you leave your ID card with me. If you take it you’ll surely find trouble.”

I rejected my wife’s advice and ignored the dream from the Lord. The previous few months had been a hectic time of ministry. I’d travelled to many nations and spoken in hundreds of meetings. My mother had recently died and I was still dealing with the grief and pain of her departure. I was burned out and needed a time of rest and refreshing.

In my sorry state, I had great confidence in my own “strength” and “abilities”. The Lord needed to teach me a lesson and humble me. He taught me that if we trust in any kind of resource except him, we will fail. I had placed too much trust in my German passport. Deep down in my heart I somehow believed my passport would protect me from harm and help me overcome problems.

When I look back on what happened in Myanmar I fully realize one thing: God will never change his principles for any person. If you disobey his principles then you will surely fall into trouble.

Because I disobeyed the Lord, I fell into trouble.

The next morning I entered the customs hall at the Yangon (Rangoon) International Airport, before boarding my flight to Thailand. Immediately I started to feel uneasy. The scene before me was exactly the same as in my dream. The very same officer as in my dream looked at my passport and told me to open my bags. He saw my Burmese ID card and immediately his countenance grew serious. He took me into a side room and ordered me to wait. Straight away I realized I was in the same run-down interrogation room that the Lord had shown me in the dream.

Because of the outbreak of war in Shan State the airport authorities were on high alert for anything suspicious. When they found my false identity card, and realized I couldn’t speak Burmese or even English, they presumed I was somehow connected to the Shan fighters. They paid no attention to my German passport because they were certain it was counterfeit.

As I waited in that lonely room my heart filled with grief and remorse and I began to repent to the Lord for my pride and disobedience. I cried out and sobbed great tears, and prayed, “Lord, I’m sorry I paid no attention to your warning. I now accept whatever punishment you have in store for me.”

This was the second time I’d been arrested because I was burned out and my ears were closed to hearing the Lord’s warning. My second imprisonment in China in 1991 also came about because I was burned out and trusted in my own strength. I didn’t learn my lesson well.

If you are a worker in God’s kingdom, or ever hope to serve the Lord, let me warn you from the words I wrote down in my notebook that day while I was waiting in the airport interrogation room. In large letters I wrote, “Beware! Beware! Beware! God’s worker must never, ever disobey God’s principles!”

Those Christians who have a public ministry are most in danger of falling into trouble, because they can easily be tempted to listen to the applause and praise of men. If you are a preacher, beware! You must cry out and ask God to help you listen only to his voice, not to the crowds of people who pat you on the back and place you on a pedestal. God’s principles are often the opposite of our own. While we hope people will like and accept us, Jesus taught,
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you.” Luke 6:26.

Never be satisfied with God’s calling or his gifts in your life. Be satisfied with Jesus Christ himself!

Many people hear God’s voice calling them to catch fish for the kingdom of God. The disciples heard Jesus say,
“Let us go over to the other side.” Mark 4:35.
They then rowed out onto the lake, taking
“him along, just as he was, in the boat.” v.36
. Jesus was soon asleep, and a fierce storm arose.

As you go out in your ministry, make sure Jesus isn’t asleep on your boat! You can try to row your boat or operate your ministry in your own strength, but you’ll not get far while Jesus is sleeping. The disciples found that
“the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.” v.37.
Wake Jesus up and make him the Lord and Master of everything you do! Too many churches and ministries have welcomed Jesus into their midst in the past, but today they are operating in their own strength and plans while Jesus sleeps in their midst.

Soon, three guards from the airport police entered the interrogation room and began to ask me stern questions in Burmese and English. I couldn’t understand a word they said, which seemed to make them angrier.

They searched my bags and found some personal photo albums from my family’s time in Myanmar, including pictures of an orphanage, of some friends, and some of rural scenes. These photos convinced the police I was an overseas spy or a reporter, and they started to treat me roughly. My passport showed I’d been in Myanmar eight times over the past two years. These eight visits had been to see my family, but to the police, this was firm proof that I was involved in illegal activities.

They also found a number of name cards of Christian leaders I knew. The next day several pastors throughout the country were interrogated by the authorities, as they attempted to find out who I really was.

As soon as the authorities realized my family had been living in northern Myanmar they started to search for them. The police told me, “We’ll easily find where your family is hiding and they’ll face the same punishment as you.”

At that time I had no idea that my wife’s and daughter’s flights had been cancelled and all my family were still inside Myanmar. I told the police, “I assure you that my family is no longer in your country. They have already left for Germany where the government has officially welcomed them.” When the interrogators saw how confident I was, they believed my family must have already left.

My hands were handcuffed behind my back and I was made to stand on one leg. From eleven o’clock in the morning of my arrest, to five o’clock in the afternoon of the next day – a total of thirty hours – they beat me severely with long sticks, and repeatedly kicked me. My arms and legs, back, private parts, and my neck and head were bruised and bloodied from being beaten mercilessly. Even when I changed the leg I was standing on they would beat me, shouting, “Who gave you permission to stand on your other leg?”

It was extremely hot and humid in that room. For thirty hours I wasn’t offered a single drop of water or any food. My lips were chapped and my dry throat screamed for water, but none was given me. The few times I needed to go to the toilet the police wrapped a shirt around my head to conceal my identity from people outside the interrogation room.

As the long hours wore on I tried my best to stand on one leg as the police continued to vent their fury on my body. I tried to block out the pain and focus on the Lord Jesus. I thought of how my sufferings were in stark contrast to the sufferings of Jesus. The Lord was beaten because he obeyed God’s will, whereas I was being beaten because I disobeyed God’s will.

In one respect the beatings were not as bad as I have experienced in China because the Burmese do not use electric batons. Yet because I was suspected of being a spy during wartime, they didn’t hold back anything. I knew if they continued I would surely be beaten to death, yet in my heart I felt it was not my time to go to heaven yet.

I cried many tears and my heart was heavy. From the depths of my soul I cried out, “My Lord, why have you forsaken me? Will you not use me any more? I’m so sorry. Please share your heart with me, Father.”

Even as they beat me I repented of my sin, and waves of the Lord’s forgiveness washed over me.

A picture flashed into my spirit from the Lord. I saw Moses tending sheep in the wilderness, all alone and with no one to speak to. I immediately understood that Moses had to be faithful tending his sheep in isolation, before God could trust him to speak to Pharaoh’s court. In the same way, God wanted to see if I would be faithful in this foreign country where I could not communicate with anyone, before he would release me to speak before crowds of people in his name again.

I was greatly comforted. The Lord had not forsaken me.

After the beatings came to an end I was placed in a prison cell. The first thing I wrote in my journal was:

* * *

DELING
: When I was told Yun had been arrested again, I felt more guilty than when he was arrested in China, because even though God had warned my husband of impending trouble I had allowed him to carry his ID card with him. When he had been arrested in China we couldn’t do much about it. But this arrest somehow seemed to be due to our foolishness rather than strictly for the sake of the gospel.

I’d been so happy that we were all leaving for Germany. For years I’d dreamed of us living together as a family again, with a measure of security in our lives.

Now, incredibly, our plans had been smashed to pieces at the last possible moment.

I believe this incident was the Lord’s wake-up call to us because we thought once we arrived in the West our lives would be easier. He showed us that regardless of where we are, our lives will be difficult and we will encounter opposition.

We were unable to travel because of the outbreak of war along the border. Because of Yun’s arrest the authorities knew our names and were searching for us. We were told not to try to travel on any transportation that required us to use our ID, as we would surely be arrested. Most likely, we’d be deported back to China, where we would face severe punishment for leaving the country improperly, in addition to problems resulting from Yun’s prison escape and departure from China in 1997.

I could hardly believe what was happening. After waiting for years to join Yun in Germany, that dream looked as distant as it ever had. My husband was in prison. Nobody knew what would happen to him. Isaac was cut off from us in the midst of a war and we had no way to get to where he was on the border.

For two weeks we went on the run, praying nobody would ask for our ID cards. Yilin and I were placed in the back of a vehicle and driven a long distance across the country to an area near the Thailand border. Christian friends helped arrange for us to
be led, on foot, across rugged mountains into Thailand. We were placed in a straw hut in the middle of the mountains, and ordered by the smugglers to stay inside, rest, eat, and wait for their return.

Each day seemed like an eternity in that little hut. We prayed a lot, but things were so intense that our nerves were on edge. We really knew we were in the midst of a fierce spiritual battle. Satan was throwing everything he could at us, all at once.

One night we were still awake after midnight when suddenly three Burmese men came and told us it was time to leave. They said we weren’t allowed to speak a word, and forced us to remove our shoes and walk barefoot.