The Heavenly Man (18 page)

To follow God is a call not only to live for him, but to die for him also.
“If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 14:8.

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D
ELING
: To be a servant of the Lord in China brings many difficulties. One of these difficulties has been that my husband and I have spent little time together.

I really struggled when Yun went to prison the second time. In a way, I even resented him a little because he always had wonderful stories of how God was blessing him and using him to win many people to the Lord. He was even given a pass, allowing him to leave the prison whenever he wanted!

I was stuck at home with two children and no husband. We barely had anything to eat. My son wasn’t allowed to attend school and we had absolutely no money at all. The pressure on us was so great I nearly gave up.

Some government officials came to my house and told me we had violated the one-child policy. I was ordered to go to our local police station. I left the two children at home to be looked after by our relatives.

I was interrogated and fined ¥ 4000 for having a second child. Because we had no way of paying the fine the PSB came and destroyed the main door of our house as punishment. They also took Yun’s mother away and locked her up without food. In China when someone breaks the law the whole family is held responsible. The Planned Birth Control Office forcibly gave me an operation to prevent me having any more children.

When I returned home I went through a very difficult time. I felt as if I’d been physically, emotionally and spiritually violated. I felt depressed and cried uncontrollably.

When he wasn’t in prison, Yun was preaching and travelling all the time, often with Brother Xu. They were two empty pockets with nothing to give. Once he came home and gave me ¥ 5 (about 70 cents). That was all he had in the whole world.

Please don’t misunderstand me; my husband isn’t stingy. In fact, he’s the most generous person I’ve ever met. He wasn’t able to provide for us simply because he never had any money.

Sometimes it was very hard for me because of his generous heart. I had two small crosses that had been given to me as a sentimental gift. They were precious to me. But one day I couldn’t find
them and I discovered Yun had given them away to another believer. He sees no value in any worldly thing. He just likes to give away everything to bless others. His large heart has been a struggle for me to keep up with sometimes.

The things I admire most about my husband are his close relationship with God and his love for other people. He sees the best in others when nobody else believes in them any more.

I was in the Da’an Prison Labour Camp for 19 months, in addition to the five months I had spent in the detention centre immediately after my arrest. I had been sentenced to three years, but was granted an early release after two years because of good behaviour. The two years had flown by.

Deling was informed of my release. Immediately she came to the prison camp to pick me up. After all the procedures were completed and we were about to leave the administration office, a phone call came in. I was ordered to have an interview with the Chairman of the Political Committee.

We were shocked and wondered what the sudden change meant. I thought something had happened in the church and I was in even more trouble. I told my wife to leave immediately and take my belongings with her, including notes I’d made during my devotional times over the past two years.

When I entered the office of the Chairman of the Political Committee, I saw several top PSB officials waiting for me. I was asked to sit down. The Chairman said, “Yun, the other day when I visited the Provincial Bureau I was specifically asked about your case. They wanted to know if you have changed your behaviour at all. I told them you’ve done very
well the past two years, and you have been a model prisoner. They were glad to receive the news.”

I replied, “I want to thank you and the whole prison administration for caring for me over the past two years.”

The guard handed me the release paper and said, “Alright Yun, now you are free to go!”

I walked out of the prison on 25 May 1993. Deling was still waiting for me in front of the prison gates. All the way home on the bus my wife and I gave thanks for God’s mercy.

When we arrived home the first thing we did was give thanks to the Lord with my mother. I understood the broken heart my mother had for me, and the thousand burdens she had carried during years of suffering. She prayed for me every day without ceasing. We sang a song together, then my beloved wife and I prayed together.

Our two children were fast asleep and we didn’t want to wake them up. I walked into their room and gazed upon their beautiful faces. I was so happy that now I could sit them on my lap and stroke their faces, instead of seeing them through iron bars with a guard listening to our every word.

Outside in the fields it was harvest time, but in our hearts we wanted to reap an even greater eternal harvest for the Lord – a harvest of souls. In the comfort and joy of the Lord we lay down and rested.

The next day I faced a new challenge. The Lord told Deling and me to leave everything, climb a mountain near our village, and seek God for his direction in our lives.

My wife suggested that the training of young leaders was the most pressing need for the Chinese church. I agreed with her. But I knew there was so much work already waiting for me to join. Within days of my release one house church leader had already scheduled many meetings for me. Another brother invited me to travel with him to many
different provinces, training and strengthening the churches. Yet another brother was starting a discipleship training school and he wanted me to come and help.

But I had learned a lesson from the error I made last time. I turned these offers down and waited with my wife to hear the word of the Lord for us.

After one week of fasting and prayer, I suddenly heard the Holy Spirit tell me these words, “Oil Station”. When the Lord returns his followers must have oil burning in their lamps. He showed us that the oil of the Holy Spirit is the greatest need of this generation. We needed to train workers who were able to carry the presence of the Lord with them wherever they went.

The Lord Jesus made his will clear to us. There were many empty vessels in China, but not enough carriers of God’s oil to fill them up. He didn’t want us to get too busy again, but wanted us to help ignite the flames of many other servants of God, to faithfully serve the body of Christ.

We met with our church leaders and elders. They’d been praying the Lord would give me direction for the church.

I hadn’t yet shared the vision of the Oil Station with the leaders when Brother Fu told me, “I pray for the church three to four hours every day, but I have so little knowledge about biblical truth. Because I can’t read, I can remember only a few Scriptures. I know many pastors and their children have lost their first love for Jesus and have gone back to the world.” Brother Fu wept as he continued, “Brother Yun, now you’ve returned to us. Can you gather our young generation together and teach them to follow the Lord?”

Sister Sheng added, “While you and Brother Chuan were in prison these past two years our church has been like orphans without any guidance. Only a few people have been attending our meetings. The preachers don’t know what to
teach. Some of our co-workers have been forced to leave the ministry and get jobs to pay the fines the police have imposed on them.”

We all wept. I realized it was truly God’s call for us to start an “Oil Station”. Without good training the light of God in our midst would gradually be extinguished.

I stood up and shared the vision God had given me for an Oil Station. Most of our co-workers are simple men and women from farming backgrounds. They didn’t understand. After a few minutes of silence Brother Fu said, “Oil Station! Are we going to open a business? Our whole church has just a little money between us. Now it is the harvest season. We must spend the money to help the needy families, orphans and widows. How can we possibly start an oil station? Could you please explain?”

I laughed and told them, “I want to start a Holy Spirit Oil Station!” They finally understood what I meant.

After prayer, thirty young believers were selected to receive two months’ training at the first Oil Station. It was held inside a cave on top of a mountain.

Until that time our church had experienced God’s great power in our midst, and had seen miracles and many people come to the Lord. But this was the first time we ever seriously implemented a training programme to send new workers into the harvest field. We called the Oil Station the “Prophet Samuel Training Centre”.

During the school, each student was required to read through the entire New Testament and memorize a chapter a day. One month after the start of the class most of the students could quote the whole Gospel of Matthew by memory.

We all lived and ate together in the cave. Before this time there had been many different personality clashes, improper attitudes and jealousies among us. But now that we were all
stuck together in the Oil Station, we learned to pray together and sincerely love one another.

Eighty per cent of the students didn’t know how to pray in public at first, but after a few weeks everyone could pray and had a burden for lost souls.

Every morning we awoke at 4:30 a.m. and washed. At five o’clock we worshipped the Lord. We then prayed for all our co-workers in the field for the next few hours. At eight o’clock the first class of the day commenced. Every day we ate only two meals, at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. We took turns at cooking and doing other chores. In the evening we all had homework to do.

This was a special time. Each day was unforgettable as God showered us with his blessing.

On 5 January 1994, it was my turn to give thanks during breakfast. I noticed the meal was only half the portion we usually had. My wife told me, “We have no more noodles or vegetables left.” Deling and Sister Hannah proposed that we conclude the training that day and let the students return home to put their training into action.

I disagreed! I proposed we should continue being filled with God’s Spirit, even if it meant we had empty stomachs. I said, “If we dismiss the class just because we have nothing to eat, then these soldiers will not be fully equipped when they go into battle. We need to pray in faith and wait upon the Lord to provide.”

That evening, after most of the students were asleep, some of the leaders and I knelt down on the dirt floor of the cave and prayed. The Lord showed us that our priority should be to send workers to the poorest and most needy areas – where people had yet to hear the name of the Lord Jesus.

When we shared this with the students they all dedicated themselves to this task, committing their bodies as living
sacrifices to the Lord’s service. Not long after that evening, letters started coming to us from all over the country. Believers in the most unreached parts of China like Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Tibet, Gansu, and Qinghai pleaded with us to come and help them.

These young workers, filled with God’s oil, were welcomed and appreciated all over China. They became gospel warriors. On 16 January our church elders laid hands on the young workers and sent them out into the field. They scattered from our home base to all parts of China.

Our biggest challenge was that we had no money to support the new workers.

When I returned home at the end of training, there was a registered letter waiting for me from a brother, saying he urgently needed to contact me. We had no telephone in our village so I travelled into the nearest town to make a call from a shop. I was shocked to hear an American answer! He was so excited to hear from me!

His Chinese was not very good, but I understood that he wanted to come and see me. We planned to meet in Zhengzhou City the next evening, but somehow our communication broke down and I couldn’t find him. I visited several hotels but he was not staying in any of them. I returned home discouraged.

I found out later that he had stayed in a small hotel and cried all day as he thought he had missed the opportunity to see me. He didn’t give up however, and again he sent a message to my address. I once again made the long journey to Zhengzhou and this time we met!

After greeting each other he said, “The Lord clearly told me to contact you and give you this gift to support your workers.” He handed me an envelope full of money.

This time I returned home with my heart bursting with
gladness. After I shared what had happened we were so happy that the Lord had provided for the needs of our workers. We all knelt down and thanked the Lord for his provision. Although this money would run out, this incident strengthened our faith to trust him for the future.

Many house churches in southern Henan and Anhui began to rise up for the Lord at that time. Zhang Rongliang’s group started the “Gospel Month” movement. Between Christmas and the Lunar New Year, each church member was required to lead at least three people to Christ. The standard was higher for church leaders, who had to lead at least five people to the Lord during the same period.

In this way the gospel spread rapidly and the house churches experienced tremendous growth. After the first Gospel Month initiative, 13,000 new believers were baptized!

Those new Christians were then trained and challenged to participate in the next year’s Gospel Month programme. At the conclusion, just two years after the initiative began, 123,000 people were baptized! The following year and the ensuing years saw spectacular growth again, but
“it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure”. Genesis 41:49.

The Gospel Month continues to this day, and has contributed to the exponential growth experienced by house churches all across China. More and more workers desired to come and be trained at the Prophet Samuel Training Centre, resulting in teams of new workers being sent out.

Many of the workers from the early schools returned to the cave on the mountain and gave wonderful testimonies of how God had helped them in their ministries. This encouraged and strengthened us even more.

Also during this time Deling and I put our efforts into
uniting the Chinese house churches for mission. We travelled across China, training churches to send their workers out as pioneer evangelists and missionaries. We encouraged each place to start training centres. The vision for training spread quickly as they saw what tremendous growth it brought to the work of the kingdom of God. Soon hundreds of workers were being sent out.

On our travels we visited an old sister in Guangzhou, who had a special message for my ears alone. She warned me, “Yun, you should not only love the Lord, but from now on you should love and stay with your wife also.”

This admonition cut deep. I admitted, “Since we married I’ve not been able to spend much time with my wife. I’ve been in prison or on the run for about ten years. From now on I will change my thinking. I’ll put God first and my family second. We’ll travel together into the harvest field, growing together as we minister for the Lord.”

I believe my second imprisonment was a crossroads for my marriage. The Lord warned me that if I didn’t repent and change my priorities, I would lose my family. I did change, and have never regretted it, even though many of the other house church leaders disagreed with my stance. Some believe the Lord’s work should be made a priority before the family. I started to put my love for God first in my life, my love for my family second, and my love for ministry third.

Once, not long after my release from prison, I was invited to speak to a group of house church leaders. I spoke on the importance of putting our families above our ministry. As I shared from my heart, I saw tears welling up in the eyes of many of the leaders. They needed to hear such a message. When I finished they all clapped and continued to weep. I spoke from my own experiences, and also the testimonies of many brothers and sisters in China who’ve lost their fami
lies because they paid more attention to travelling and preaching than to their own flesh and blood.

I taught that the church should not give in to Pharaoh’s trick, when he tried to convince Moses and Aaron to leave their women and children behind while the men went to worship the Lord (see Exodus 10:10–11). I encouraged the leaders to include their families in their ministry for the Lord, and even to take their spouses and children along with them if possible. I pointed out that even the apostles faced a similar dilemma, promoting Paul to ask,
“Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?” 1 Corinthians 9:5.