The Heavenly Man (6 page)

I encouraged the Shaanxi believers. I prayed for them and placed them in the merciful hands of God. I taught them,
“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22.
They confidently told me, “We will continue by obeying the words from the Bible.”

Everyone wept.

Before daybreak, after a final prayer, the three of us left that place and went to another destination by car. The embarrassed authorities searched everywhere for me but couldn’t find me. A few days later we safely returned home to Henan.

Our trip to the west was a journey of tears and marvellous protection from the hands of evil men. We were truly dependent on God’s mercy, poured out in response to the many fervent prayers of the brothers and sisters.

When I arrived back in Henan I met Brother Xu, Brother Fu, and my dear wife. When I saw them I quoted the
Scripture, “
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:8–9.

Brother Fu was excited to see me. He said, “A few days ago during our prayer meeting your wife had a vision. A voice said, ‘Yun has been arrested in Shaanxi. He needs a great miracle to get him out.’ We told the church and everyone immediately fasted and prayed for you.”

After hearing these words I wept tears of thankfulness for God’s love and mercy.

* * *

Let me tell you what happened to the two young women who accompanied me on the trip to Shaanxi. Sister Juan was so nervous that she had broken down and cried when I first asked her to teach at the meeting.

God has done a wonderful work in the hearts of those sisters. They both decided to remain single so they could dedicate themselves more fully to the work of the Lord. Today, Sister Juan is one of the top leaders of the Born Again house church network. She is as bold as a lion, full of faith and courage!

* * *

DELING
: Our lives were becoming more and more unsettled at this time. Part of me longed to have a stable family life, to have a normal daily routine with my husband at home alongside me.

When we made a firm commitment to follow Jesus regardless of the cost, we didn’t really understand what that would involve! 1983 was a terrible year for persecution in China. Hundreds of house church leaders were hunted like criminals and sent to prison. We were forced to run from the authorities. It was a very tense and stressful time for all of us.

At this time my husband went to Shaanxi Province, preaching the gospel in an area where we’d never sent workers before. Yun had been gone a few days when the Lord spoke to me in a vision and told me he’d been arrested, but that the Lord was going to help him escape.

The vision greatly encouraged me. I realized how much God is in control. We had no telephones and no way of communicating, but the Lord communicated for us!

I was so happy and relieved when I saw my husband’s face again! He looked in bad shape. He’d been hit around the head and hair was torn from his scalp. His whole body was covered in scars and purple bruises, but he was safe. When we heard what had happened and how the Lord of Lords helped him to escape in such a miraculous way, we were so thankful and full of praise to Jesus.

This experience helped me have confidence that whatever Yun would go through was in God’s hands and according to his will.

For months we lived like hunted animals, never knowing where we would sleep at night or when we might be hauled away by the authorities.

The government and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement have fooled many Christians around the world by insisting there is freedom of religion in China, freedom for people to choose. They boldly claim Christians are no longer persecuted for their faith.

My own personal experiences – as well as those of thousands of other house church believers – are quite the opposite. On one occasion when I was arrested the authorities let me choose whether I wanted to be shocked with an electric baton or whipped with a rope. They mocked me and said, “This is your free choice.”

There is “freedom” of religion in China only if you’re willing to do, say, live and worship exactly as the government instructs you. Anyone who desires to live a godly life and obey all of Jesus’ teachings will soon find out how much freedom there really is.

For weeks after I was beaten in Shaanxi I continued to bleed from my mouth. While I was recovering, our church decided to send me to the south, to Hubei Province.

On this trip we experienced many miracles. By the power of the Holy Spirit there were many divine healings.

Because of the efforts being made by the authorities to catch us in that place, my co-workers were very concerned for my safety. They relocated me to northern Hubei.

We slept in caves and fled on foot from one place to another. Our clothes were torn and our hair unkempt. People were disgusted by us and considered us
“…the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world”. I Corinthians 4:13.

I spent much time in the northern part of Hubei. Many miracles took place and the gospel was spread to thousands of people. This grabbed the attention of the PSB and the government in the whole border area of Hubei and Henan went on the alert.

The storm of persecution soon came upon us.

Posters were plastered all over the streets of each town, stating that all illegal house churches would be crushed and the leaders arrested. Loud speakers blared all over the countryside, stating that the pastors from Henan were illegal and would be arrested.

Announcements were also made over the radio. People were warned not to listen to us and to tell the authorities if they knew where we were.

We were conducting a meeting in a believer’s home outside Heping town in northern Hubei Province. A cold wind blew from Siberia in the north, causing the temperature to plummet to well below freezing.

News came to us that Brother Enshen had been sentenced to prison just that morning. The situation was so tight, and the risks so great that even our Christian hosts decided they couldn’t accept us in their home that night. They knew they would go to prison for many years if caught hosting us. The mother of the family knelt down and begged us to leave.

I spoke to her and asked, “We are strangers being chased by the police. Can you at least lend us a ragged old blanket so we can spend the night in the wet and cold?” She replied, “If you are caught, the PSB will see that the blanket is from our house, and we’ll be in big trouble.”

Finally, without hope and without even a blanket, my co-workers and I left the house. We walked in the darkness shivering, hungry, wet and cold. Several dogs emerged and howled at us in a mocking tone. It was so dark I couldn’t see my fingers when I stretched my hand in front of my face.

Even our own brethren had rejected us.

This is the way God chose to train us, so that we would cry out and trust only in him for protection and provision. We cried to the Lord with many tears.

The freezing wind lashed us. Zhang Rongliang, myself and the other co-workers walked on, trying to keep warm. We sang songs through gritted teeth. After wandering for a while we came across a haystack in a field. We dug a hole into the straw to escape from the bitterly cold wind, but there was room for only one person. One sister crawled into the haystack. Brother Zhang and I continued to walk on in the dark. We tried to warm ourselves by wrapping an old torn sack around our bodies.

We jogged two kilometres until we came to a large fishpond. All night the PSB searched the village for us, but we were huddled in a bush next to the pond. After midnight the temperature plummeted even further. The wind blew more fiercely and it started to rain. Icy sheets of rain cut us like nails, right to the bone. Our teeth chattered and our empty stomachs groaned. Brother Zhang and I clung to each other, trying to keep warm.

We knelt down on the embankment of the pond and prayed, “O Lord, for the sake of the precious blood you shed
on the cross, please have mercy on our nation. Please disperse the dark clouds over China.”

At about four o’clock I felt so discouraged that I walked to a spot by myself and cried out to the Lord. Suddenly, in the cold, I received a clear vision from the Holy Spirit.

The sky was filled with darkness. A great sandstorm rose up from the desert and engulfed me. I heard the roll of thunder, but there was no rain. Suddenly I saw a great flood coming from the north. A wall of water raced towards me to carry me away. I cried out, “O God, save me!”

Then in the vision I saw a huge jar, about three feet (one metre) tall. It floated in front of me. I grabbed the jar and jumped inside as quickly as I could. Immediately an umbrella fell from the sky onto the top of the jar. I held the umbrella above my head as torrential rain bucketed down, but I was dry. The flood waters swept me away. Rocks and debris knocked the jar around, but I was safe.

While in the jar I lifted my eyes and saw how brothers and sisters from many parts of China were being arrested, beaten and imprisoned by the police. I saw this terrible wave of persecution but I was completely helpless to save them. I just cried out.

After my vision ended I complained bitterly to the Lord, “Why do you have no strength to protect me or the other believers? I know that I will also be arrested. I will fall into the hands of the PSB. I have a mother and a wife. Why are you treating me like this?”

Despite my anger, the Lord didn’t answer me.

I could not return home because I would be arrested. I couldn’t help my brothers and sisters who were being tortured all across China. I felt so frustrated. I couldn’t go forward and I couldn’t go back.

The Lord used these circumstances to show me that he
wanted all of my heart to be totally committed to him. In my desperate condition a new song began to form in my mind:

I shared what I had seen in my vision with Brother Zhang. I told him, “We must leave this place now. The Lord will protect us. He’ll be our shelter.” We continued our journey without even waiting for dawn to come.

I had a deeper understanding that no matter what situation would come my way, I would be in the hands of the Lord, and he would rescue me. I started to march ahead again, according to God’s calling.

I felt ashamed and guilty for how I’d complained to the Lord, but he was patient and loving to me, not treating me as I deserved, but gently helping me like an eagle tending her baby chicks.

* * *

DELING
: In the early 1980s we enjoyed sweeter fellowship and closer unity than ever before. The pressure meant we had to rely on the Lord and on each other for our very survival. The love of the brethren brought great comfort to my heart. At this time we also witnessed the greatest number of miracles in our ministry for the Lord. Supernatural visitations, divine healings, and people being delivered of demons were common occurrences.

Despite the hardships – or rather because of them – the church experienced rapid growth. Revival fires from the Lord ignited all across China.

Some remarkable incidents took place that led multitudes of people to the salvation of the cross.

In my village of Yenzhang a Communist Party secretary named Zhang had persecuted and tortured Christians for years. Like the Apostle Paul before he met Jesus, Zhang seemed to delight in destroying the church.

One brisk winter evening my mother, Brother Fu, some co-workers, Yun and I went to Yenzhang village. We visited a Christian family and prayed for them. About thirty Christians gathered so we decided to have a meeting.

A neighbour overheard our worship and made a report to the Party secretary, Mr. Zhang. He sent a team of Public Security Bureau officers to the house. They came with batons and ropes to arrest us and take us to the local police station.

The Party secretary had a brother who lived in a nearby village. This man had a mental illness. At exactly the same time that the PSB were dispatched to break up our meeting, the devil put a murderous spirit into the mind and heart of the secretary’s brother. That insane man grabbed his 80-year-old mother and murdered her by cutting off her head with a rusty knife. He then threw her corpse into a latrine outside the house.

Brother Fu was leading the singing when the officers ran into the courtyard of the house where we were meeting. The police
kicked in the door and beat Brother Fu severely with their batons. For what seemed like an eternity they tortured the elderly man until he was almost dead. They then bound his unconscious body tightly with ropes. There was nothing we could do but pray for our beloved pastor.

They threw Yun’s mother to the ground and viciously kicked her. As they were about to bind her with rope they noticed some young people in the meeting. They used the ropes to bind them instead and took us all back to the station.

That night they left us in the cell, intending to deal with us at daybreak. During the night a chilling report came to the secretary, “Your younger brother has killed your mother! Your mother’s body has been found lying in the latrine with her head cut off!”

The secretary ran home and forgot about persecuting us. In the morning we heard the news and cried out to the Lord to have mercy on the secretary and his family, that they might repent and receive forgiveness.

When the secretary reached his home he found his brother lying on his bed. He asked him, “Where is our mother?” He replied, “I’ve already killed her and thrown her body in the latrine.” The secretary shouted with great anger, “Why have you done this terrible thing?” The insane man replied, “Why have you been persecuting the Christians? Because you have persecuted them, I have killed our mother.” He then pulled out the long rusty knife and tried to attack his own brother, but was prevented from doing so by the PSB officers who had accompanied Zhang. They bound him and took him to the police station.

The PSB and all the people in the area believed this incident was the judgment of God on Zhang’s family for persecuting Christians. The authorities left the believers alone from that time on. This incident amazed everyone in the village. They all confessed, “Jesus truly is the living God.” The entire village became Christians and received baptism.

All the Christians showed genuine love and compassion to the secretary and his family for their loss. The family was deeply touched and they all humbly received Jesus. I was reminded of the Scripture, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.

Many of the new Christians from Yenzhang village made commitments to serve the Lord wholeheartedly. They decided to take the gospel to other areas that had never heard the name of Jesus before.

In various ways and through the spilling of much blood, the gospel spread rapidly during the struggles of 1983.