The Heavenly Man (4 page)

The officers started to beat them and they rejoiced even more. They said, “Please, sir, hit us on the other side of the face as well!” The Christians were laughing and rejoicing.

The officers grew tired of beating them and finally said, “You Christians are all crazy!” After a final warning, they sent them all home.

I thank God that he saved my whole family.

My father went home to heaven a few years after being miraculously healed of cancer.

I was grieved and happy at the same time. Grieved because I’d lost my father at such an early age, yet happy that the Lord had saved him. God had used my father’s illness to bring our whole family to the foot of the cross.

My mother was just like Anna the prophetess. She
“worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.” Luke 2:37.

I thank God, because he not only gave me wonderful parents, but a very virtuous wife. The Bible asks,
“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” Proverbs 31:10–12.

By God’s grace he found such a wife for me!

Deling chose to marry me because of her love and obedience to the Lord. Our mothers were the matchmakers. Deling’s mother is a very sincere and honest woman who loves God.

The first time Deling and I met I told her, “God has chosen me to be his witness and to follow him through great
hardships and the way of the cross. I don’t have any money and am always being pursued by the authorities. Do you really want to marry me?”

She answered, “Don’t worry, I will never let you down. I will join with you and together we’ll serve the Lord.”

We went to the marriage office together. After answering some questions we wrote our names on the registration form. The clerk asked Deling to leave and wait outside for me. I was then told to go to a separate room. The clerk had realized my name was on the Public Security Bureau’s “Wanted” list. Several officers came and arrested me.

This was the beginning of our life together, but Deling never gave up on me and has never regretted the life the Lord has called her to. She has chosen to walk the way of the cross.

Throughout our marriage Deling has been under tremendous pressure from her own family, from the community, from the authorities, and from every side, but she has remained completely faithful. She decided to stand with me, and has even experienced suffering in prison for the Lord.

I couldn’t have asked for a better wife and partner!

A few days after our wedding my wife and I took a bus to attend an important leadership meeting. Outside the station the leader of the Religious Affairs Bureau from my home district recognized me. He grabbed me by the collar and said, “Be still. You cannot go anywhere. You will come with me to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) office.” He also took hold of Deling’s handbag.

Suddenly the Spirit of the Lord urged me to run! I shouted to Deling, “Run!” and I jumped out of the grip of the officer before he knew what was happening. He dropped the bag and chased me. As he ran he shouted, “Spy! Stop the spy!” Pandemonium broke out in the bus station. I jumped over a
wall and slipped away from the crowd. It was a miracle. People said later the wall was far too high for a person to jump over.

In the commotion Deling also escaped.

The PSB retrieved my wife’s handbag and found the address of the meeting place. They went there and arrested several of the leaders who had already gathered for the meeting.

* * *

DELING
: Let me tell you how I first met Yun. After I became a Christian we visited a nearby village where once a year they held a large baptismal service. I was due to be baptized as a new believer.

It was November so it was already very cold. The baptism started around midnight for security reasons. We figured the PSB would never get out of their cosy beds in the middle of the cold night to arrest us, but we were wrong. Around one o’clock in the morning the PSB came and more than one hundred Christians were arrested.

Brother Yun was the one who had been baptizing the new believers, including me. The PSB ordered us to get into two lines so they could register our names and identify each one of us. Yun was also in line, but when they weren’t paying attention he slipped away. It was as though God blinded the eyes of the officers and they just couldn’t see him.

I had seen Yun a few times previously because meetings were held in his home on Sunday nights, but this experience at the baptismal service left a lasting impression on me. I thought he was a little bit crazy!

According to our custom, our marriage was completely arranged by our respective mothers. After my mother was healed
and saved, she felt she had to find a preacher for me to marry. Yun was the only unmarried preacher in the whole area! My mother visited Yun’s mother and together they arranged for us to get married.

This decision cost my mother dearly. When she announced to my family that I was to marry a preacher, my father and brothers were furious. To them, marrying a preacher was worse than marrying a beggar. They knew Yun had no money so he would not be able to give any gifts or money to my family as a bride price. They tried everything they could to stop it, but my mother held firm.

In those days this was how marriages were arranged in our part of China. These days more young people make their own decision about whom they will marry, although many marriages are still arranged.

Even after our engagement my family made sure I didn’t have anything to do with Yun, so even though his village was just 1.5 kilometres from mine, we didn’t have another chance to meet or talk before the wedding. Yun’s father passed away before we were married, before I had a chance to meet him.

I was just a child, aged 18, when our wedding day arrived. My mother told me Yun was a very poor preacher but I should marry him, so I didn’t question it. I had no idea what marriage meant. I had no way of knowing what the future would hold. I was just a young wide-eyed girl, very simple and innocent.

Before the wedding Yun and I went to the marriage registry office to apply for our marriage licence. After we’d completed the formalities I waited outside for a long time but Yun didn’t come out. I decided I couldn’t wait for him any longer and returned home.

Only later was I told that when Yun wrote his name in the registry office, the clerks noticed that he was wanted by the PSB for being an illegal preacher, so they arrested him on the spot! They already knew he had been preaching the gospel all over the province.

This was the start of our life together! Because of the delay when he was arrested, it took a little more than one year from the time we were engaged to the time Yun and I were married.

Our wedding day took place on a nice sunny day on 28 November 1981. Elder Fu presided over the ceremony, which was held in Yun’s home. There were more than twenty tables set, and eight to ten guests were seated at each table, so about 200 people came. According to our culture, the wedding took place at the groom’s home and neither of my parents were permitted to attend. My brothers and sisters, and all of Yun’s family and relatives were present.

I remember there was preaching and then Elder Fu blessed us and suddenly we were married!

On our honeymoon we travelled to a meeting in another place. A sister was travelling with us also. When we were just outside Nanyang City the leader of the Religious Affairs Bureau in our home district recognized Yun. He grabbed my husband by the collar.

This sister and I rushed into the ladies’ toilet and began to rip up Yun’s Bible and some other Christian books, because we knew he would get into big trouble if they discovered his books had come from overseas.

That man started to shout out all the crimes Yun had supposedly committed, and in the excitement Yun brushed him off and ran away. I caught up with him later in the day.

Three or four months after we were married, we were together in a meeting about 30 kilometres from our home. Yun had been arrested but managed to escape from custody, so from that time he became a wanted man and was unable to return home. He therefore went on the run, preaching the gospel all over China.

Brother Xu introduced us to Zhang Rongliang for the first time and Yun teamed up with Zhang. Xu and Zhang led different house church networks but Brother Xu told my husband, “You go as a
representative of our movement, make friends and be a blessing to Zhang’s group.”

The stress of having my husband on the run from the police, and the daily pressures of life were too much for me at that time. Around that time I conceived but after a few months I suffered a miscarriage. We lost a baby boy.

It was very stressful to go to the train station or bus station and see “wanted” posters on the walls with pictures of my husband, a fugitive of the law.

It has certainly been an interesting time being married to Yun! The womanly instincts in me have often craved for a more settled existence and a structured family life, but persecution has usually made this impossible.

The church in our area started to grow in grace and in number as God radically saved many people and sent them out as soul winners. Soon, however, opposition arose against us. Because so many people were believing in Christ the authorities became aroused. Before us, there had never been a Christian in our entire village.

My mother was identified as the leader of our church and was persecuted by the authorities. They placed a large dunce hat on her head and paraded her through the streets. She was forced to attend “re-education” classes, to “help her reform her incorrect views”.

After I took over as leader of our church the pressure diverted off my mother and onto me. The authorities frequently came to question her about my whereabouts, but she usually just ignored them and pretended not to understand a word they said! After a while they left her alone, thinking she had lost her mind.

At the age of 17 I was arrested for the first time for preaching the gospel. In the years to follow we were often arrested and interrogated by the Public Security Bureau.

Instead of weakening us, the persecution just made us stronger. The more pressure there was, the more fire and love
there was to spread the gospel. We were like the children of Israel while they were enslaved in Egypt,
“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” Exodus 1:12.

In 1977 my father died. He had been weak and malnourished for some time, and finally, at the age of 66, he passed into the presence of God. The cancer the Lord had healed him from in 1974, however, never returned!

His funeral was very emotional for me. Even though I knew he was saved and in heaven, I missed him terribly. He was totally supportive of my ministry, and was proud of me, always encouraging me to serve the Lord with all my heart.

By the winter of 1978 we started to baptize people for the first time. The only safe way was to cut a hole through the ice on the river and baptize the new believers in the freezing water during the night while the police were sleeping. On many occasions we baptized hundreds of people in the rivers and streams of southern Henan. Sometimes the Lord did a miracle so that nobody felt the freezing water. Some even commented that the water had felt warm!

In the late 1970s multitudes of people were coming to the Lord daily. They were in great need of training and being established in the faith. Even though I was just in my early 20s, I was seen as a mature leader and one of the old Christians because I had come to the Lord in 1974!

The year of 1980 was a phenomenal year for the church in Henan. We remember it as the year when God constantly did outstanding miracles and divine healing, and the words of Jesus came supernaturally to many people. That wonderful year saw tremendous growth in the church. Later, many of the converts from 1980 became leaders of God’s church throughout China. Henan Province became the Galilee of China, where many of Jesus’ disciples come from.

In one meeting in the Nanyang area hundreds of people – Christians and unbelievers alike – saw a vision of a beautiful boat floating on a sea of clouds above the meeting place. Many sinners repented and gave their lives to Christ as a result of this sign and wonder.

In Fen Shuiling (“Watershed Hill”) village, also in Nanyang, an unbeliever was dying after a protracted illness. His family had never heard the gospel. One evening Jesus appeared to that man and said, “My name is Jesus. I have come to save you.”

Fen Shuiling village is situated in a remote mountainous area where preachers had not yet visited. It had no church or pastor, so when I first visited there I was surprised to find the gospel had spread to many villages and that dozens of families had put their faith in Christ. Jesus himself had preached the gospel to them! These new believers were now hungry to receive teaching from his Word.

In December 1980, a few weeks before Christmas, the devil used a new way to try to tempt and deceive us. Instead of torture and force, he started to use subtle suggestions and sly trickery. The government called a gathering of 120 religious representatives from all over our county. Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist and Christian leaders were all invited to attend.

At that time we didn’t know anything about the Three-Self Patriotic Church that the government was forming. “Three-Self” stood for the movement’s three guiding principles: Self-Propagating, Self-Supporting, and Self-Governing. Most Christians considered it a good thing, and rejoiced that a new day appeared to be dawning when believers could worship freely without interference or persecution. I went to the meeting completely open to the idea of joining the new church, and was even open to the possibility of being a leader for our area if that was what God wanted.

The meeting was organized through the joint co-operation of the local Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) and the PSB. In that meeting they intended to select the committee members and the chairman for each religion. The chief of the RAB invited me to the meeting because I had a reputation for proclaiming the gospel and also because I owned a Bible.

More than 90% of the delegates wanted me to be the chairman of the Christian Association, but a few publicly slandered me, saying I was a false pastor because I had never attended a seminary.

One man named Ho was my main accuser, because he wanted the job of chairman for himself. He claimed to have believed in Jesus since he was in his mother’s womb! It was well known, however, that Ho had denied the Lord during the Cultural Revolution and that he believed in an extremely liberal man-centred theology.

During the meeting Ho proudly announced that he was a better-qualified pastor than I because he had attended a seminary and had also studied in a missionary school before 1949. He assured the delegates that he was the right person to take care of the affairs of the church in our area.

Ho said the government should oppose my co-workers and me, because we went everywhere illegally preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and casting demons out of people. He said we should be stopped because we disturbed the social order and threatened peace and stability.

In the meeting this man started shouting at me in anger. I kept quiet for as long as I could, but then I felt the fire of God rise up inside me, like Jesus when he confronted the money-changers in the temple.

When Ho had finished his speech the PSB leader stood to his feet and urged him to continue to speak out against the “false Christians such as Yun”. Gleefully rubbing his hands
together, the leader said, “Please tell us everything you know about how Yun and his co-workers have disturbed the social order. Confess the dirtiness of your Christianity. Tell us how these false pastors are trying to destroy our nation.”

Ho felt honoured and rose to his feet again. He proudly declared, “We true Christians have many complaints against false Christians like Yun.”

I felt so angry that this man had spoken slander and disgraced God’s church in front of unbelievers. I could contain myself no longer. I stood up on my chair and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to shut up!

The meeting was in an uproar. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and with mighty words from the Lord I proclaimed, “This meeting does not please God!” I pointed my finger at those people who claimed to believe in Jesus. “You shame-faced people will be judged by the Lord. The Bible says believers and unbelievers should not be yoked together. How can light and darkness dwell together? God’s church has no communion with idols. The Lord and his church will judge you!”

Before I finished my words some Christian brothers and sisters came with tears in their eyes and pulled me down to my seat, pleading with me to stop before I got myself into deep trouble.

The PSB and the religious leaders were infuriated. They stood on their feet and banged the table with their fists. They threatened me, “Who do you think you are that you can disrupt this meeting? You will never be allowed to attend another meeting like this again!”

As soon as I heard those words I stood up again and declared, “I’m leaving now. Don’t you ever invite me to a meeting like this again!”

This is how the Lord led me to give my life for the gospel
in China, and to work for the growth of the house churches. From that day on I clearly understood that the kingdom of God can never mix with politics. The ultimate, stated aim of Marxist teaching is the complete eradication of all religion. The pure bride of Christ can never be controlled by an atheistic government or led by men who hate God!

The true church is not an organization controlled by the rules of men but a holy collection of living stones with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.

As I walked away from the meeting hall I felt as free as a bird. A new song came into my heart:

I prayed, “Lord, where can I go? Lord, what will my future hold?”

The Lord immediately reminded me from Jeremiah 1:5–8
“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord,’ I said, ‘I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.’ But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.”

Over the ensuing weeks and months the Lord started to teach me to know the difference between his church and the Three-Self Church in China.

We knew the government had only created the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, and allowed “open, legal” churches in a bid to control Christians and to promote their own political agenda inside the churches.

We see the Three-Self believers as caged birds. Yes, they are able to sing to the Lord, but their environment is controlled and their wings are clipped. They are free to sing only within the restrictions imposed on them. In the house churches we enjoy the freedom to fly around wherever God leads us and to sing from the depths of our hearts. We have been released from the cage and we never intend to return!

It is a known fact that birds confined in cages have a hard time reproducing. This is also true of most believers confined within the Three-Self Church structure. House church Christians love to be free, to roam around the country wherever the Lord leads them, and to proclaim the gospel to all people. Reproduction has been occurring at a rapid rate!

We know there are many true followers of Jesus attending the government-sanctioned church in China today. I personally know many of them and have grown to appreciate them. It’s not with the caged birds in the Three-Self churches that we have a problem, but with the corrupt leadership and the political power used to control people.

These leaders have severely restricted what Three-Self Church pastors and members are allowed to do. Ministry is not allowed without their permission. Evangelism is discouraged. All outreach to children is strictly banned. They even decree that certain parts of the Bible cannot be preached, such as the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. They are not allowed
to teach on divine healing, or the deliverance of demons. The entire Book of Revelation is banned!

In the house churches we simply couldn’t adhere to such control and interference. We believe that Jesus is the head of his church, not the government. We broke away from the Three-Self Church and took a firm stand against all attempts to bring us under its control.

In response, the authorities in China launched a long-running “bird-hunting” season. They cannot stand those free birds who refuse to come under their control. Sometimes they manage to trap birds and cage them behind iron bars, but even within those cages the free birds have laid eggs and reproduced, winning many souls to the Lord in prison.

At this time I started my career of “fleeing evangelism”. That is, we preached the gospel and then had to flee from one place to another being pursued by the police, just like Jesus had told his followers to do:
“When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.” Matthew 10:23.

In July 1981 I narrowly escaped going to prison after I was arrested while leading a meeting of 120 house church believers. As the police car drove me to the station the tyre deflated and I was able to escape into the night. That night as I lay down on the wet ground I cried out to God, “Why are they treating us like this? Why can’t you protect us?”

The Holy Spirit reminded me of two Scriptures:

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21.

“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30:20–21.

The Lord again reminded me of his call to preach the
gospel to the west and south. God’s grace is sufficient for me, and his ways are higher than ours. We must submit ourselves to God and embrace whatever he allows to happen. Sometimes there are times of peace, other times struggle and persecution. But both are from the Lord, to mould us into the vessels he wants us to be.

At the time most of our co-workers couldn’t go home because the police were searching for them. If they returned home they would be arrested immediately. Therefore they fled to different counties and towns to preach the gospel.