The Heavenly Man (28 page)

Prisoners with life sentences were placed in solitary confinement, small dark rooms with little light or ventilation. Their isolation from the rest of the prison made it very difficult for me to have contact with them.

In God’s provision, not only had I heard about those Chinese prisoners, but they had also heard there was a “Chinese pastor who loves Jesus” inside. They wanted to meet me as much as I wanted to meet them.

They found out I’d been admitted to the prison hospital. These men were so desperate to meet me and hear news about the outside world that they concocted a plan. They each feigned an illness, causing the guards to send them to the hospital for a checkup.

The moment I saw these men my heart was filled with the
Lord’s compassion. They were like wounded animals, completely broken in their spirits and with nothing to live for. I couldn’t help myself and hugged them tightly. I told them, “Dear brothers, you are blessed! The greatest pardon has already come down from heaven for you!”

They were excited, thinking I was trying to tell them their sentences were to be pardoned by the Burmese authorities. They hoped some international court had managed to secure their release.

I continued with tears in my eyes, “Brothers, I know nothing about your situation with the earthly authorities, but I’ve come here to tell you that Jesus Christ is the true and eternal Judge. He offers his life for you. He is the Lord of forgiveness.”

They replied, “We all grew up in families that believed in Buddha, but he has never helped us. How can we receive Jesus?”

I shared the gospel with them and said, “When you die you will not suffer any more, but you will receive eternal life in Jesus. Only Jesus can save you!”

One of the men fell to his knees and held onto my ankles. In his desperation he cried, “Oh pastor, please teach me how to be saved!”

At that exact moment, the prison hospital guards interrupted us. They shouted, “You’re not allowed to discuss religion here!” and ordered the men to leave my room.

I was so frustrated because there was so much more they wanted to say, and so much more I wanted to tell them about Jesus. I prayed God would give us another opportunity to meet.

All prisoners serving life sentences wore red uniforms. I asked my lawyer to bring me a red shirt the next time he visited. I hoped if I wore the same colour of clothing as those
men, then maybe the guards wouldn’t watch us so closely when we met together.

The next time I saw four of these prisoners I asked, “Do you really believe Jesus died for you on the cross?”

They firmly replied, “Yes!”

I asked, “Are you ready to turn away from idols once and for all, and receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? Do you believe his blood can cleanse you from all sin?”

Again they answered in unison, “Yes! We believe.”

We prayed together and they received Jesus into their hearts. They crossed over from death to life. I knew there was no time to lose so I led them all into the bathroom, where there was a tap and sink. I asked each one to bend over and place his head under the tap, and I baptized them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I told them, “Some men live free in this life, only to face an eternal prison in hell. You’re in prison in this life, but from today your names have been written in heaven and you are free!”

Before I’d finished baptizing them a guard came rushing into the bathroom. He shouted, “What are you doing?”

I shouted back, “Don’t worry! I know what I’m doing! I’m a servant of the Most High God!”

The guard just stood there speechless.

I told the four new believers, “From now on, you have the authority to pray for the other prisoners and tell them of the wonderful salvation you’ve received.”

By the Lord’s grace I was able to lead twelve prisoners to Jesus, including a man from Taiwan, Yue Minyu, who was serving a life sentence plus 100 years for drug smuggling. He told me he had previously served time in prison in Taiwan, where the seed of the gospel had first been planted in his heart by a visiting prison ministry team.

I took every opportunity to teach the new believers basic
Bible stories and how to pray. Because of my illness I stayed in the prison hospital for almost two months.

After I contracted the dreaded plague that swept the prison, I lay unconscious for five days in hospital. Even after I recovered I suffered regular fevers, headaches, high blood pressure, and severe gastric pain. Only later did I discover that God had a plan in allowing me to get sick. Not only did it give me an opportunity to share the gospel with the Chinese prisoners, but if I hadn’t been transferred to the prison hospital I would have been sent immediately to a prison labour camp in the countryside to complete my seven-year sentence.

On several occasions the doctors came to inspect me to see if my health had improved enough to leave the hospital. The days before they visited I felt fine, yet when they came to inspect me I suddenly suffered from high blood pressure, or gastric problems, or came down with a fever!

God’s grace was with the new Christians in prison and they grew in their understanding of him. Through song I taught many Bible passages to my new brothers in Christ. Because we were speaking and singing in Chinese, the guards didn’t realize we were discussing the Bible. In fact, the guards and doctors seemed to enjoy our singing. These prisoners’ lives changed dramatically, as only Jesus can do. From being men full of hate and anger, they became full of love and mercy. They reached out to prisoners in hospital who were close to death, spending their own money to buy them food and bring them comfort. They prayed for the sick, and did all they could to share the gospel with them. Each man also prayed fervently for their families in Singapore and Taiwan, asking God to have mercy on them.

They also told me they were praying daily that I would be released from prison, so that I could continue my ministry.

I cry whenever I think of those men and how the grace of God reached them in their desperate situation. We grew close in a short time and experienced true brotherhood. I’ve tried every way possible to have Bibles taken into the prison for them, but so far all my efforts have failed. I continue to cry out to God to provide his Word for those men.

Some people go through their whole life free on the outside but prisoners in their hearts, enslaved to sin and bondage. These men face the most miserable existence possible inside prison, but on the inside they are as free as birds gliding over the mountain tops! They love Jesus with all their hearts.
“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:47.

These were wonderful days filled with God’s presence, and to be honest, I didn’t even feel that I was in prison. I hardly even thought about the seven-year sentence I’d received, for each day was so full of joy and life. Those seven years to me seemed like the seven years Jacob had to wait for Rachel,
“So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” Genesis 29:20.

My family was now living safely in Germany. I wrote to my daughter Yilin, “I’m sorry I can’t be with you right now, but your daddy is on a special assignment for the Lord in Myanmar. As soon as I’ve finished the task the Lord has for me I’ll come to see you.”

Immediately after my seven-year sentence was announced I decided not to tell my family how long I’d received, at least for a while. I knew they were struggling in the West without me, and didn’t want to break their hearts with the news they wouldn’t see me for another six-and-a-half years.

Earlier, about a month after my arrest, the Lord had impressed this Scripture on my heart,
“I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24–25.

As I meditated on these verses, I started to think about my time on the farm in Henan, and how it took about seven months for a seed of wheat to appear above the soil after being planted in the ground. I felt the Lord was showing me that I would need to be “in the ground” (prison) for seven months before he would release me.

Jesus taught me many lessons when I was a seed buried in the prison. I have found the Christian life is not glamorous to the flesh. When a little seed is put into the ground it is not comfortable. It lies in the dark isolation of rough soil for months, suffers in the frozen ground of winter and the heat of summer, and is even covered with stinking manure and fertiliser. Only after it has silently endured all these trials is the seed ready to spring to life and produce a harvest that will feed many.

When a seed is buried in the ground it has no choice but to wait patiently for God’s time for it to spring to life. In the same way I knew it was completely futile to trust in human efforts to get me out of prison. Instead of trusting in human-rights organizations to apply political pressure, I knew my future was completely in the hands of God only, and I would get out only when his time had come.

One day the prison warden came to me and said, “A representative from the German embassy is here to see you. Get dressed and go down to the gate.”

As I walked towards the gate where visitors waited to see prisoners, the lady from the embassy saw me and shouted,
“Today I have good news for you! You are being released! The moment you sign this release form you’re a free man. You’ll need to be a little patient and wait inside the hospital for a few days while arrangements are made to take you to the airport, but from now on you are a free man!”

I signed the form and returned to the hospital, bubbling with joy. As soon as I reached my room I took off my prison uniform and threw it on the floor. The guard didn’t know about my release and angrily threatened to punish me. I laughed and informed him, “I’m no longer your criminal! I’m free to go!”

I feel so sorry that many Christians live in bondage even though Jesus has signed their release form with his own blood. When you’ve been set free, you should act like it!

After I’d been sentenced to seven years, the German embassy had asked the Myanmar government to have mercy on me and send me out of their country. The German authorities said they would take responsibility for getting me back to Germany, where my family awaited me.

By the grace of God, their petition was granted.

Three days later, at eleven o’clock in the morning of 18 September 2001, I was handcuffed and taken by immigration officials to the Yangon International Airport. They were very kind and courteous to me, in stark contrast to how they’d treated me when I was first arrested!

At the airport several staff from the German embassy and some Burmese friends greeted me. One of them was a man named Ding Kai. In prison he was one of my Burmese cell mates. I had shared the gospel with him but he didn’t make a commitment to Jesus at the time. He was released soon after I met him. He told me, “If your God helps you get out of this prison, then I will start to follow him on the same day you get out.”

When they knew I was set free, my Burmese friends called Ding Kai and told him the news. When I arrived at the airport he ran to me and hugged me. We knelt down on the floor and prayed together for him to receive Jesus as his Master. By God’s grace I was able to lead three men to Christ in the last few days in Myanmar.

I boarded a plane to Bangkok, Thailand. News of my release had already reached the ears of Christian friends, who gathered in Bangkok to see me. When I saw them I said, “My work in prison is finished, so Jesus brought me out. I was sent there by Jesus to share the gospel with those who’d never heard about him, and many were saved.”

We linked hands in a circle, bowed our heads, and thanked the Lord for his goodness and mercy.

He is truly the Living God!

Many Bible scholars say that the number seven represents God’s perfection. I’d been sentenced to seven years in prison, but the Lord didn’t agree with that human sentence. In his perfect plan, I was released after seven months and seven days.

On the flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt I was accompanied by a friend who had travelled to Thailand so that he could welcome me out of the prison. A few hours into the flight he asked me, “Brother Yun, were you able to hear any news at all from the outside world while you were in the prison?” I answered, “Not a word.”

“Here, I have something to show you,” he said.

He gave me several Chinese newspapers from the previous week. At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. There were pictures of an aircraft flying into a tall building.

I read the articles and learned that exactly a week before my release, on 11 September 2001, the world had been changed dramatically by terror.

* * *

DELING
: As the weeks wore on into months, with still no sign of my husband’s release, my faith weakened and I grew more and more frustrated.

I had dreamed of the day when Yun would welcome us to Germany and show us around the country that had warmly accepted him four years earlier. He had waited for us while we were in Myanmar for almost two years. I never expected that we would now be in Germany waiting for him, while he would be in prison in Myanmar.

We all struggled in Germany, although local Christians did everything possible to help us adjust. At first none of us could speak German. The food and culture was strange to us. I had never before had to get money from a machine by putting a plastic card into it and pushing numbers! Everything was so strange to me.

As the months went by I slipped into a deep depression. I cried out to the Lord for an answer.

One night I received a dream. I saw various numbers and saw that Yun was being released from prison. The numbers added together came to eighteen. I wrote “18” in my diary and told my children I expected their father to be released on the 18th.