The Heavenly Man (19 page)

The leader of that house church network, however, disagreed with me. When I finished speaking he privately rebuked me, “Yun, I can’t believe you’ve used your opportunity to teach such a message. Are you trying to destroy my leaders?”

Not surprisingly, many of the marriages and families of the leaders from that group are in complete disarray. Many appear to be “successful” in their ministries while their families are falling apart. For all the strengths possessed by China’s house churches, this area is one of its weakest points.

Next, we received an invitation to visit picturesque Guilin City. After sharing our vision with the house church leaders there, I was introduced to a Scandinavian brother, who happened to be visiting Guilin at the same time. When he heard our vision he repeated, “Amen, amen, amen.” He asked us, “What can we do to help?”

I told him, “You should co-operate with the vision of the house churches and invest your faith with us. Because you are a white man you stick out in China. But if you are willing to have the heart of a servant, to count the cost and not fear, I’ll take you to train our co-workers in Henan. Besides, we
desperately need you to help us with Bibles and other materials. We never have enough Bibles because our churches are growing so fast.”

My new friend asked me how many Bibles were needed. Without thinking I replied, “Thirty or forty thousand would not be too much.” He replied, “How about 100,000 Bibles right now? We have them available already.” My co-workers and I discussed how to get these delivered safely to churches in many different parts of China.

He later told me, “The Lord has sent us to help you in the vision of unity among the house churches. We haven’t come to China to dominate your work or control anything. We haven’t come to impose our own agenda or to build beautiful church buildings. We submit ourselves to the vision God has given the house churches and we want to serve you in any way we can to see that happen.”

Little did I know at the time how God would closely unite me in ministry with that Scandinavian brother for many years to come. The Lord has used him to be a blessing to both the Chinese church and my own family.

The Lord Jesus was beginning to bring us all into a place of influence where millions of believers could be equipped for ministry. Many overseas believers, both Chinese and Westerners, came to help train our workers, and send them out as warriors for the Lord. Some were moved by the Lord to help provide for the practical needs of the workers. We appreciated this, but we always remembered the help was from the Lord. We were careful never to look to man to provide our needs.

As we travelled around China we had only enough money for our train fares. We had no money for eating or anything else, but the Lord provided so that we always had just enough for each trip.

My family lived in a rickety old home, which was falling apart. We wore old clothes and my children had holes in their shoes. We always believed the best of our possessions, time, and money should go to training the workers so they could go to the poorest and most needy places. We all practised tithing. If we had only ten ducks, we would dedicate the biggest duck and its eggs to the Lord.

While I was in prison each man received just ¥2.50 (about 30 cents) per month, so we could buy small items like paper and toothpaste. But even then the believers set aside a tithe from our meagre income. We stored it up while in prison and gave it to the Lord when we were released.

One day, back at the Oil Station, we laid hands on a team that was being sent to Sichuan Province. Brother Wei asked the young men and women, “You have no money and you are going far from home. What is the one thing you are most afraid will happen to you?”

The new workers responded in one voice, “We are not afraid of going hungry or of being beaten. We are willing to die for the gospel! We are only afraid of going without God’s presence. Please pray he will be with us every day.”

These missionaries suffered much for the gospel. They had to get backbreaking jobs so they could eat and preach the gospel. Some fed pigs, some cut firewood, while others carried buckets of manure. Many people who saw the quality of their lives and the power of their witness believed in Jesus.

Not all of our meetings had glorious results however! Sometimes in the house churches in China not everything operates smoothly, and not everyone is glad to receive our teaching. On one such occasion we were in Shandong Province.

The key leader prepared a meeting for seven days. On the
afternoon of the sixth day, while Brother John was sharing, some of the Shandong believers started to find fault with our message. They quizzed John with some difficult questions about controversial verses in the book of Revelation. John replied, “I’m sorry, there are many hidden treasures in the Bible. Even the great Bible scholars are not sure about these verses.”

One old man, an elder of a church, and two other men stood up and exclaimed, “You teachers from Henan need to shut up! You’re so young and inexperienced. You are dirt-poor and know nothing. How can you teach us when you don’t even know the meaning of these Scriptures?”

The three old men picked up their belongings and started to leave the meeting. They commanded their church members to leave with them. I immediately followed them into the courtyard and prayed in a loud voice, “O Lord, thank you for my honourable brothers. Please help them not to be so angry because we are so ignorant of the Scriptures.”

Two of the disgruntled leaders laughed at me and called out, “Yun, take your soldiers back to where you belong. Roll up your flag and take it back to Henan.”

I knew this incident was a disturbance from the devil. With sincere tears in my eyes I pleaded with them to return to the meeting so we could all pray and seek the Lord’s will. Their hearts were touched, so they quietly returned to their seats. I asked everyone in the meeting to kneel down and seek the Lord. I commanded everyone to repent of his or her sins. The love of God was poured out on all of us. There was much wailing and many broken hearts. I stood up and confessed my own sins, followed by many of the other men and women present.

Those three elders came forward and knelt down in front of the people. They bowed their heads and said, “Brother
Yun, please forgive us for speaking such rude and insulting words.” The whole congregation, when they saw the contrite hearts of the three elders, knelt down and prayed with many tears. The elders asked us to stay and teach for several more days in different places around Shandong.

* * *

Although we were travelling a lot and were very busy, our home life was also experiencing a lot of challenges. As I travelled around China I met many Christian families who were facing tremendous difficulties because of the one-child policy.

The government was trying to force many Christian mothers to abort their second pregnancies. Some sisters were forcibly sterilized to ensure they wouldn’t get pregnant again. Families found with more than one child were fined huge amounts of money and had certain government privileges removed, such as health care and education benefits.

When I heard the stories of many pregnant Christian women my heart was torn. They didn’t know what to do. I prayed and came up with an idea! I told them, “It’s a terrible sin to have an abortion, so that is not an option. If you agree to have your baby secretly, I’ll commit to take it and raise it in a Christian home.”

This pleased these families and soon I felt like Abraham, a father of many!

There were terrible stories behind some of the babies we adopted. Two single Christian women from an area in Sichuan Province decided to join us in ministry. While they were travelling to Henan an evil gang kidnapped them and took them into a mountainous area about two hundred kilometres from Chongqing City.

These two beautiful young women were literally chained up and used as sex slaves for more than a year. Nobody knew what had happened to them. Finally they managed to escape and made their way home, inwardly destroyed from their ordeal.

I travelled to Sichuan and met with the girls and their families. One of them had become pregnant just before their escape. The girl’s parents wanted to abort the baby, but I pleaded with them not to kill the child. They were reluctant, until I told them, “If your daughter gives birth I promise to take full responsibility for the baby.”

A little girl was born, whom I named Yang Mu Ai (“The Shepherd’s Love”). We took care of her for a while until we found a Christian family who agreed to raise her.

* * *

D
ELING
: Because we had two children we were harassed and fined by the local government. Then, without a word of warning, Yun came home one day with a baby girl in his arms! He had been at a meeting where a church leader shared his burden. He already had two children and now his wife was pregnant with a third child.

The authorities came to their home and told them that because of the one-child policy, they either had to agree to abort the baby, or if they refused to undergo an abortion, the mother would be imprisoned until she gave birth, and then the baby would be taken away and murdered.

When Yun heard this, his loving heart bled. He told that brother, “Whatever you do, don’t abort your baby. The Bible says ‘Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.’ Psalm 127:3. Take your wife into hiding and after the baby is born, I will take full responsibility for its welfare.”

This is how Yun started to bring home new babies. In total we
adopted ten or eleven children! I’m not even sure of the number because he didn’t bring all of them home to show me. I kept hearing from others about more children that Yun had taken responsibility for.

Some children came from the families of pastors who’d been imprisoned and tortured. The family just couldn’t bear any more burdens and were unable to raise another child. Another baby was given to us after a young Christian girl was tricked into taking a job in the city. She was raped and became pregnant.

Yun found Christian homes for them, although many of the families who took them in were so poor that we had to continue supporting them financially. We were also very poor but Yun had faith that God would provide, and he always did, somehow.

When my husband first started bringing all these babies home I was angry! I asked him, “What’s wrong with me? If you so desperately want more children why don’t you tell me?” But over time, and after hearing the stories behind each child, I gradually learned to have mercy and patience with my husband.

I grew to understand more of the compassionate heart of God. Because of my husband’s merciful example, many churches started to take care of orphans and abandoned children.

During the special time of training across China in 1992 and 1993 we enjoyed many wonderful and fruitful times with the Lord. When God is blessing us, the devil is always active, doing his best to try to stop the advance of the kingdom of God. Satan tried to extinguish the fire of the Lord through persecution and hardship, but God continually poured his oil into our lamps, making our flames grow higher and brighter!

At the start of 1994 God showed me that the different house church networks must be unified before he would truly pour out his power on China.

Throughout the 1970s there had been just one house church movement in China. There were no networks or organizations, just groups of passionate believers who came together to worship and study God’s Word. The leaders all knew each other. God had brought them together during times of hardship. They learned to have fellowship and trust one another while shackled together in prison. After being released they worked together for the advancement of the gospel. In those early days we were truly unified. Suffering had broken down all denominational walls in the Chinese church.

When China’s borders started to open up in the early 1980s, many foreign Christians wanted to know how they could help the church in China. The first thing they did was smuggle Bibles to us from Hong Kong. These gifts were greatly appreciated and so desperately needed!

Once I took a train with various house church leaders to the southern city of Guangzhou, to receive Bibles from our Western friends. After a day or two of fellowship we boarded the train again and headed home with our precious gifts. We were so happy and full of love for one another.

However, after a few years these same mission organizations started putting other books at the top of the bags of Bibles. These were books about one particular denomination’s theology, or teaching that focused on certain aspects of God’s Word.

This, I believe, was the start of disunity among many of China’s house churches.

These booklets told us we must worship in a certain way, or that we must speak in tongues to be a true believer, or that only if we were baptized in Jesus’ name (instead of in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) could we be saved. Other teachings focused on extreme faith, still others argued for or against the role of women in the church.

We read all these booklets and soon we were confused! The churches started to split into groups that believed one thing against groups that believed another. Instead of only speaking for Jesus, we also started speaking against other believers who didn’t conform to our views.

After a while our foreign friends started giving even more things to us. They gave money, cameras, and other things they felt were necessary to help us serve the Lord more effectively. I clearly remember how this caused division among the leaders. In our evil hearts we asked, “Who got the most
books?” or, “Why was that brother given more money than me?”

It was a real mess. Within a year or two, the house churches in China split into ten or twelve fragments. This was how so many different house church networks came into existence.

It was easy for a house church to split. Sometimes an outsider would come and spend time with a group of second or third-level leaders. They would hand out “support” money and their contact cards. Within a short time a new movement would be established. In their zeal to help, our foreign brothers were actually causing the house churches to split and be weakened.
“For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.” Romans 10:2
.

I’m not saying it was purely the fault of our foreign brothers! Our own hearts were in error and we easily succumbed to temptation. I’m also not saying we don’t need or want help from Christians around the world. We do! We have tremendous needs and we pray that God will provide however he chooses, including through foreign Christians. But the motive in giving and receiving must be pure, and these gifts should only be given through the existing church leadership, so that younger leaders are not tempted to use these gifts to usurp the authority of the leaders above them.

The leaders could no longer walk together in unity before the Lord. We felt that to do so would be to compromise our new beliefs!

This situation gradually worsened for more than fifteen years, until some house church networks believed they were the only ones who held the truth, and despised other groups as cults that should be avoided at all costs. The leaders no longer spoke to or loved one another.

As we travelled around China we met with believers
from many different groups and networks, and noticed the spirit of denominationalism was rampant. The Lord gave me a burden to seek unity among the house churches, so I started to look for like-minded leaders who shared the same vision.

I met with Zhang Rongliang, the leader of one of the largest networks. Zhang was the brother I had sheltered with all night next to the freezing pond many years before, when a wave of persecution threatened to sweep us away. He was also the brother who gave me his scarf the night I was arrested and sent to prison in 1983.

When I told him my vision for unity, Zhang laughed, “That’s impossible! The different groups you want to bring together are typical cults. We’ll have nothing to do with them!”

I was so upset I wanted to punch him, but I knew Zhang had been deeply hurt by the other leaders. In years gone by Zhang had greatly respected Brother Xu, the leader of the Born Again house church network. One day Zhang heard Xu was conducting meetings in a village about twenty kilometres away.

Having not seen Xu for a few years, Zhang decided to ride his bicycle to talk with him. When Zhang arrived at the entrance to the village, Brother Xu’s co-workers – who had been posted outside to watch for trouble – stopped Zhang and refused to let him enter. They didn’t know who Zhang was. In their zeal they refused to go and check with Xu, and ordered Zhang to leave. The truth is that if Brother Xu had been told Zhang was outside, he would have come and hugged him dearly.

Because of many sorry incidents and misunderstandings like this, distrust and bitterness sprang up in the hearts of many house church leaders against one another.

I also travelled to the eastern cities of Shanghai and Wenzhou, where I met with some old men who were leaders of the church. They weren’t able to accept my vision for unity. They said there was no way they’d ever work with the other groups.

I left greatly discouraged and deeply grieved. I felt like giving up. The vision for unity seemed impossible, but the Holy Spirit told me, “Don’t cry. You’re not my first choice to bring unity among my people. Several others were called but did not persevere in the vision.”

I re-dedicated myself to the Lord and to the vision he had given me. God encouraged me from Matthew 19:26,
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The first breakthrough came when I met with Brother Xu and his sister Deborah in 1994. I shared the vision for the Chinese church to take the gospel outside China as missionaries, but told them this would never happen as long as the house churches remained divided and full of hate for one another. The servant of God, Brother Xu, said to me, “From today we will live for the same vision. We will love each other like Jonathan and David.”

Brother Xu and his group became the first to join the unity movement.

We arranged for Zhang Rongliang and the leaders of his Fangcheng Church to meet with us. This was a big step because of the tension that had existed between his group and Brother Xu’s group for many years. The day before Zhang arrived we had a time of prayer. Brother Fan said, “Brother Xu, I believe the Lord has given me a word for you, but I’m not sure you can accept it.”

He continued, “I feel that when Zhang Rongliang and his leaders arrive you shouldn’t sit down with them and talk straight away. You shouldn’t even pray with them at first.
When they arrive you should immediately get on your knees and wash their feet one by one.”

Brother Xu, who leads millions of believers across China, immediately responded, “I accept this as a word from the Lord. I’ll certainly wash their feet.”

The next day Zhang Rongliang and his co-workers arrived. Everyone greeted each other and sat down for a meal. Then we all started to talk. For thirteen years there had been no contact between the two groups. Each side was sure they were correct and that the other group was, at best, believers who had strayed from the narrow path and had embraced dangerous beliefs.

The atmosphere deteriorated until it became like a business meeting, with everyone talking at once about different subjects. Many old wounds resurfaced and it became apparent the two groups were as far apart as they’d ever been. It looked as if Brother Xu had missed his chance to wash their feet.

Suddenly Zhang slapped his knee and announced, “All this talk is a waste of time. Let’s pray and then we’ll leave.”

Brother Fan pushed Brother Xu in the back and instructed him, “Quick! Get some water and do what the Lord told you to do!”

Zhang was praying with his eyes closed when Xu knelt down in front of him and started gently to take his shoes and socks off. Zhang opened his eyes and was amazed. He couldn’t believe the great Xu Yongze, leader of the largest house church movement in China, would ever kneel down and wash his feet! Zhang cried out and wrapped his arms around Brother Xu in a warm embrace.

Deborah Xu then brought out a bucket of warm water and started to wash the feet of Zhang’s co-worker, Sister Ding. The two of them knelt down on the floor and hugged and wept.

Thirteen years of rumours, bitterness and jealousies were washed away. Everyone in the room sought the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness. Many confessions of sin were made from one leader to another. It was a powerful time. Puddles of tears formed on the floor of that blessed place.

We sang together,

These two house church networks committed to work together wherever possible from that day on. Our hearts had been totally conquered by God’s love.

The Lord put a deep burden in the heart of Brother Xu to be reunited with other house church leaders as well. Together we visited many more leaders from other groups. All those leaders who wouldn’t align themselves with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement were asked if they wanted to join the unity movement, which we called the “Sinim Fellowship”. We believe the “Sinim” mentioned in Isaiah 49:12 (KJV) refers to China,
“Behold, these shall come from far; and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”

We prayed with them and shared the vision for unity. Slowly the Lord granted us favour and these leaders began to see the importance of being united for the sake of the Lord.

Many leaders had never even met Brother Xu before, yet they had opposed him because of what they’d been told by others. When they heard from his own lips what he believed, and saw how his life and character displayed the gentleness and fruit of the Holy Spirit, they realized they’d been lied to. They embraced Brother Xu as a true man of God and a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the barriers fell down, and unity grew deeper and stronger. The leaders started preaching in each other’s churches, singing each other’s songs, and strategizing together in the work of the Lord.

By the start of 1996 many of the top leaders had agreed to unify, but the second-and third-level leaders, especially the younger brothers, still couldn’t totally accept each other. They didn’t want to give up their own methods.

I made a covenant with God for the sake of unity among the Chinese church. I told him, “Lord, from this day on I won’t eat eggs or meat until the leaders genuinely accept each other.” One day at a leaders’ meeting one brother noticed I wasn’t eating eggs or meat. He asked why. I told him, and immediately he stood up and made an announcement, “From this moment on I too refuse to eat eggs or meat until the house churches are unified.”

In October 1996, five men were elected to be the first elders of the Sinim Fellowship. They were Brother Xu Yongze, who was voted the Chairman, Zhang Rongliang, Wang Xincai, Shen Yiping and myself. Each man represented a different house church network.

In November 1996, the leaders of the five networks met
together in Shanghai for our very first official Sinim meeting. God again moved in a fresh and powerful way, breaking down barriers. Some leaders confessed they had harboured ill feeling against the other groups for many years. They repented before God and asked forgiveness from those present.

Brother Xu stood up and said, “We don’t want to follow our own pet doctrines any more. We want to learn from one another’s strengths and change in whatever way the Lord wants, in order to make us stronger and closer to Jesus.”

Although not all differences were ironed out, the leaders got to know each other for the first time, and saw how they had far more in common than they had reasons to remain separate. They also found their theological differences centred upon issues that weren’t essential to the faith.

Each group clearly heard how God was moving in wonderful ways among the other groups represented in the meeting, and gave glory to God. We decided to speak in each other’s churches, and to share Bibles and resources between us, so that one or two groups would not end up receiving the majority of help from overseas Christians while other groups got nothing.

On the second day, all the leaders took communion together. It was probably the first time in more than 50 years that the top leaders of China’s church had taken the Lord’s Supper in unity.