“My family and I, we are bound to serve Jehovah.” Story of my father Wang Xiaoguang and my mother Yang Rongli and Wang Yunxiang

My father was the second son to my grandparents and was named “Xiaoguang.” He was the fourth generation of the Wang family that believed in Jesus Christ. My grandfather and his family survived the church disaster in Shanxi in the year of Geng Zi. Under the Republic of China, my great-grandfather once served as Headmaster of “Hongdong Church College” in Hongdong County of Shanxi. During the Anti-Japanese War, my grandfather converted to Christianity. Later, he married my grandmother, who was also a Christian. Influenced by his parents, my father became a Christian at the age of 13 and has remained so for over 40 years. When father was a Grade Two student in junior high school, the Cultural Revolution began. He dropped out of school never returned. At that time, my grandparents lived in Changchun, and they were forced to separate by the turbulence of the time. Grandma took father back to her hometown of Hongdong in Shanxi. Several years later, [my father] became a plant worker in Hongdong County. Father loved reading, especially about human studies and history. After getting to know some church predecessors, brothers, and sisters in Shanxi, he began delving into Bible. At that time, education and academic studies on theology were things of an extraterrestrial nature. Like many others at the time, Father, with the unaffected passion and unadorned understanding, totally submitted himself to the words of God. He read assiduously and kept on thinking day and night. God’s grace and joy were always with him. Before long, encouraged by brothers and sisters, he mounted the rostrum and began to preach. As a young brother, he won much praise and was a beloved figure in the local church. During that period, Father began feeling God’s guidance and concentrated on Bible study and preaching. The call of God later became the mainstream of Father’s service and life, and it greatly influenced the molding of his character. Father has a low-key character and is not good at words. As he spent most of his free time studying the Holy Scriptures, his understanding of the Bible became deeper and deeper each day. However, he moved further and further away from secular affairs and the ways of the world. He prepared speeches with great ease, but was awkward in doing house chores. He brimmed with energy and vitality when discussing the Bible with brothers and sisters, but became slow and somewhat impolite in dealing with strangers. Father and Mother divided work between them by jointly leading the church: mother was in charge of church management and father church shepherding. This way, father’s “unbalanced” character became even more unbalanced. Meeting with him for the first time, some people, especially non-Christians, mistook him as serious and hard to deal with. Although father’s lack of communication skills should be attributed to his lack of training in this field, his behavior often misled others into believing that he was born a poor communicator. When dealing with others, no matter how cautious he tried to be, things would always go wrong. Mother sometimes joked that father was born a Levite, knowing nothing but God and God’s laws. However, father’s awkwardness in social intercourse has not deprived him of friends. Though he knows little about etiquette or seldom speaks convenient words to please others, he has his principles in making friends: being simple and candid, treating others with sincerity. All those who know him © ChinaAid 2010

1

like his temperament. Fellow believers in the church also admire his way of behaving. Many friends of Father’s who I met at an early age remain his best friends through all these years. Even though they lived thousands of miles apart and did not see each other for ten years, their hearts never ceased communicating with each other, and their friendship was not diminished one bit. Father’s awkwardness in social intercourse is perfect for him. [It has] turned out to be his best way in doing social intercourse. Father’s greatest luck in life was his crossing paths with Mom. She helped him settle family matters, created a good living environment for him, and handled church affairs so well that everything went smoothly. Thanks to these [things], Father was able to concentrate on Bible study and church shepherding, and to make the best of his knowledge and comprehension of God. Once, father said to me: “It is your mom who makes my accomplishments possible.” I sensed the gratefulness in his voice. Indeed, his temperament, specialty, and growth environment decided that he needed a good-hearted, intelligent, and Christian wife who had management skills and vision, and would work in concert with him under any circumstance. If Father had set out to find a wife according to these standards, he was bound to fail. Interestingly, it was Mom who made the approach. In the eyes of some people, [interacting with] Father was like being hit by a pie falling from the sky. However, what I can think of are the words of the LORD God: “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” When they met and got to know each other, Mother was a university student and Father, a worker. The difference in their future prospects was obvious. At that time, churches and preachers existed on the edge of the society. To become a preacher was in a sense to alienate oneself from the mainstream society. Mom was one of the first-session university students after the Cultural Revolution, and her future looked very good to merge into the mainstream society. Father had already been serving the church and viewed it as his life career. Making the decision to marry Father in that era meant Mom was no longer hopeful for her secular future. However, for Mom, the difference in social status was no obstacle, and marrying “a preacher with a bleak future” was not wrong. What she hoped for was to marry a brother who loved God as much as she did, and with whom she could follow the path shown by God. That was why she worked so hard to get enrolled in a university. Mother had such a [strong] will because she, too, was from a preacher’s family. Her father, my maternal grandfather, was an orphan and was adopted by a church-run orphanage at an early age. He was determined to live for God and even named himself “Feiwu” (not myself). He became a priest. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, someone asked him to write an article criticizing some famous priests who lacked the understanding of the state of affairs. He refused. Later, my maternal grandparents moved their entire family into a mountain and lived their entire life there. My maternal grandfather did not stop preaching in the poor mountainous area until he passed away. My maternal grandmother was also a Christian. Softhearted, she married my maternal grandfather and supported him all his life, no matter what hardship had befallen her. I was still too young to remember anything when my maternal grandfather passed away. From my paternal grandfather, however, I know many things about him.

© ChinaAid 2010

2

He once went over mountains during a snowy night to a neighboring village several dozen miles away because he did not want to miss the preaching party on the next day. I know he was strong-willed and strict with himself. He kept every [one] of his promises to others, but ignored his own health and died of a gastric disease in his 60’s. He was strict with his children and gave them serious instruction in belief. His willful temperament made him seem unreasonable and a bit hard on his children. However, such temperament also molded his unyielding adherence to his belief, which benefited his children in the long run. His children, two sons and four daughters (including my mom), take Christian faith seriously and have passed it on to their children. Therefore, three generations of the Yang family have been Christians, and most of us [have been] engaged in preaching the gospel. It is worth mentioning that not all of us have been born meek and receptive. Before truly realizing God, each one of us has been more or less through some bumpy roads. But finally, all return to God and have since stood our ground firmly. It is so because their parents, my maternal grandparents, have demonstrated to us the truth, with their entire lives. Such demonstrations reach into the depths of our soul and have become the most important thing guiding us. We saw the demonstration at an early age and weighed it over with our own lives. Even when we went astray due to temporary ignorance, our parents could help and guide us back to the right path. Hot-tempered, my maternal grandfather was not a perfect man, but he was a loyal servant to God. The Lord Jehovah said: [I shall show] “steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.” [After] Xing, En, Rong, and Lin, my mother “Rongli” was the third daughter of her family. She has a temperament similar to that of her father. She never wavers from the direction chosen. Mother has believed in God since an early age, and as a girl, she experienced several visions. Under the nurture of her family, she was determined to serve God quite early in her life. When she heard the news that the university entrance examination was restored, she decided to take it and received wonderful help and guidance from God. Before the examination, God asked her why she wanted to take the examination, she said because she wanted to serve God better. God did not ask again, and Mom began her preparations. On the eve of the examination, a math teacher of hers visited her quite unexpectedly. The teacher asked about her preparations and explained a few problems to her and then left. In fact, Mother and the teacher were just on ordinary terms, and he would be taking the examination himself. Mother had been baffled by his visit until she saw a high-point problem, which was one of the problems the teacher had explained to her. Mother was first shocked, and then she understood that this was a special favor God gave her. After the examination and before the results were announced, God told mom that she had passed. Sure enough, she soon received the admission notification from the Chinese Language Department of Shanxi University. However, an accident happened again. Her purse, with the admission notification inside it, was stolen on her way home. Mom was greatly frightened and had no idea what to do. She prayed to God and a miracle took place again. Early the next morning, her sister, my aunt Enli, who lived in town, hurried back to the village where my mom still lived with her parents. She returned my mom’s purse and admission notification to her. My aunt told Mom that in the previous night, someone knocked hard on her door. My aunt asked who it was, but the caller did not answer and kept on knocking. When my aunt approached the door, the caller inserted something under the door and it was © ChinaAid 2010

3

my mom’s purse, with the admission notification still inside. My aunt opened the door and to her surprise, the caller ran away. Later, Mom and my aunt figured that it was the thief who had stolen the purse. During her registration for the examination, she left my aunt’s address in the purse, so the thief went to my aunt’s house. After these events, Mom knew more clearly about God’s order. God wanted her to know that her enrollment by the university was totally out of His special favor to her. God had granted a great a favor to her and had intervened in her life so clearly, because He wanted her to fulfill His order. Before graduation, Mom had determined to marry a brother who was also a servant of God. She got to know Father. They married and settled in Linfen of Shanxi. At that time, Father and Mother both worked for Shanxi Normal University in Linfen City. Mom had a university diploma and became an editor. Father became a clerk in the Teaching Material Department and worked alone in a long and narrow book warehouse. (I can still recall the smell of the books in the warehouse.) During that period, after school, I would first run to the building where my mom worked to see her and then to the warehouse where father worked, waiting to go home with him. Immediately after their settlement in Linfen, Father and Mother began their church service that lasted for over 20 years. Then, Linfen Church was still under the Three-Self system. In fact, Linfen Church was closely connected with Father’s clan. Even the rebuilding of the church, 100 years ago, had the participation of the clan. The church was rebuilt on the indemnity for the Geng Zi incident, and it had an affiliated hospital. It was named “Shansheng” (Triumphant Good), deriving its meaning from the Roman term for “good triumphing over the evil,” to commemorate all the martyrs that died for God during the Boxer Movement. My paternal grandfather’s maternal grandfather (Mr. Sang) was one of the local believers in charge of the rebuilding. After 1949, the church and the hospital were confiscated by the government. The hospital became today’s “People’s Hospital of Linfen” and the church was taken over by the Three-Self church. (The church building used to be the most outstanding building in the downtown area and there were always countless believers gathering there. Now, it has merged into the sea of shops and even its façade is nowhere to be found.) Over these years, although Linfen church had a depressed existence, they at least had a venue for gathering. Their family having lived in south Shanxi for generations, Grandfather and Father knew most of the believers and preachers around Linfen. As offspring of local believers, Father and Mother naturally became members of local church and participated in the church activities. Because of their talents and loyalty to God, they played a more and more important role in church, and their efforts were recognized by fellow believers. In times when the church is being oppressed and difficulties emerge one after another, only the preachers who work wholeheartedly for the church can truly win the support of the believers. When Linfen Church separated from the Three-Self Church, I was a grade-two pupil in primary school and witnessed many incidents during this earthshaking event. My parents did not tell me the details of the event or the theological theories (I wouldn’t have understood then, even if they had). But now, I understand: they merely wanted to find a way out for this Chinese city with a church history of 100 years, and they succeeded in doing so. Before, there were over one thousand believers under Linfen Church. They all left with the preachers. Now, the number of the believers has risen more than ten times. Clearly, God is with us.

© ChinaAid 2010

4

Not long after their transfer from the Three-Self Church to the house church [denomination], Father and Mother retired one after another to take care of church affairs. Full-time service was the revelation they got from repeated prayer. God also gave them strong backup, helping them brush aside many obstacles and worries. According to the regulations of their unit, they had not reached the age of retirement, but God solved the problem for them. Before I went to the junior high school, my parents started their life as full-time preachers and remain so to present. All these years, my parents, my uncle Yang Xuan, and many local fellow believers have made concerted efforts to build the church bigger and bigger. The Sunday service [has become] more and more formal; there were more and more preachers; and truth instruction became richer and richer. Linfen Church has numerous venues. Each Sunday, services, big and small, are held all over the city. The church also holds all kinds of thanksgiving parties, frat parties, youth parties, Sunday schools, summer camps, and theology training [workshops] inside the church. Linfen Church has its own band. On Christmas, the church held a large-scale Gospel Preaching and sent the gospel to many people. Not long ago, the “Gold Lamp Hall”, the main building of the church built under great pressure, was smoothly completed. Thanks to God’s special mercy and favor, the revival of the church, which the local Christians dared not imagine for a long time, took place in Linfen. Father and Mother made remarkable progress in serving God, but their hearts were not free of worries. The one thing that worried them most was their son—me. After taking up full-time service, they were busier than before. Sometimes they were so busy that it was impossible for the family to get together for a meal. I was a student at that time, and my communication with them was getting less and less. With my growing up, my parents and I found fewer and fewer topics of mutual interest. However, I was not sad about it; on the contrary, I welcomed the situation. In fact, I had become a boy indulged in playing and going my own way without discipline. I had my own hobbies and friends. Free of constraint by adults, I played more freely. In the end, I not only did not mind my parents’ busy life style, but even hoped that they got busier so I could gain more freedom. I once hoped that they would leave before I woke up in the morning, and would not come back before I had played my fill. “Without a vision, the people perish.” Without guidance from their parents, children are likely to go astray. In grade-two in junior high school, I was addicted to computer games and my academic results fell sharply. At first, I at least showed up to school. But in the end, I played truant for a month straight. [My parents] did not know their son had been reduced to such a low state until the teacher talked with them. I resisted school and refused to study so fiercely that they had to accept my dropping out. However, I kept on slipping away for play whenever they were out and even stayed outside over night. At that time, Linfen Church was faced with a severe oppression and Father had to leave the city. On his way out of Linfen, he felt extremely awful. The hardship of the church and the plight of his son piled up on him and reduced him to tears. He, who had instructed many children of God, prayed in his heart to God, asking God to instruct his only son. Maybe in my parents’ eyes, God did not answer such prayer quickly enough. Although I later returned to school, I kept on muddling along in the following six to seven years and gave them no consolation whatsoever. In fact, on many occasions, I © ChinaAid 2010

5

hated them for being preachers and forcing me into becoming one. The occupation did not let me feel the warmth and happiness of a family, but only trouble and dispute. The huge gap between the promise of the Bible and my feelings made me feel antipathy against high-sounding words, and once I even believed that my parents’ belief went awry. Family education helped me accept Christ at an early age. My parents were fervent followers of God and they would not accept me as an ordinary believer. They wanted me to completely merge into this Levite family. When they offered the whole of themselves on the altar, their son seemed to be an additional immolation sacrifice. What they lacked was the proper way of guidance, instructing their son in God’s way, loving him with God’s love, and letting him know the direction and value of his life. They failed to do so. Comparatively, they were more sensible than me and already accepted the adult’s way when they were my age. Subconsciously, they thought I should be able to understand them and consequently, they omitted the complicated guidance procedure. Such a simple and rough method greatly dissatisfied me. Still young, I did not know how to express myself, but I indirectly fought back with evasion and playing. However, I was already revived and had obscure feelings about the glory on preachers. Under their constant insistence and education, I found myself forging ahead, following their idea. When I grew older and met the inertia to taking on preaching as my career, the awkwardness in my heart began to clearly manifest itself. I not only lacked the driving force, but was also troubled with many emotions. Trying to become a preacher, my heart was seething with intense aversion and resistance. Particularly when I recalled those bad feelings, I could not face God with a calm heart. My torment was because of Him. If it were not for Him, my parents would not have been so incomplete, my family would not have been so peculiar, and I, myself, would not have been so contorted. Finally, God spent a long time and used many methods to open my heart, elevate my mind, and enlighten me on the things I failed to understand before. In this evil world, no one could break away from pain. God wants to bear the pain for the people, and following His orders, His servants set out to bear the pain for others. Bearing the pain for others means sacrifice of one’s self and even one’s family. So God said: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who won’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” It was not that Father and Mother were not willing to love me intensely, but that there was another thing in greater need of their love—God’s church. They may have failed to strike a perfect balance between their son and church, but that was unavoidable and excusable. They may have lost their temper with their son, but that is because they are also blessed sinners. They may not have been released completely by the power of the Gospel and failed to express their love to their child, but they grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, an era of extreme hardship in China when the people’s spirit was devastated, and consequently, their love had already been oppressed. Most importantly, even if they sacrificed their son for God, God had already repaid them a hundredfold with His son Christ. (God is the one who truly sacrificed His own son.) Before the incomparable feat God intends to fulfill via them, (let alone that I did not really lose anything, even if I thought I had) it should be accepted happily. God showed me that my parents have been a generation of preachers through countless hardship. When I was counting my losses and gains, © ChinaAid 2010

6

I should have noticed that they (my parents) did not ask their parents for love and fairness, though they were from harder years. They tried hard to respect and revere their parents. Although my parents had shortcomings of their own, they had paid the price for church and their offspring and had made the best of their wisdom and strength. Before God, they can stand His test and they are happily looking forward to the return of the Lord. On their integrity, only their Lord can comment, and it is improper for me, their son, to do so. Looking back at the history of Linfen church, I have witnessed “His” growth throughout these years. “He” seems to be my younger brother, growing up together with me under father and mother’s intensive care. In these years, “He” did receive more care from father and mother. Because of “Him”, I was left out in the cold and sometimes seemed more dejected than Him. At this point, I found that I was in fact jealous of Him, like the oldest son being jealous of the libertine. Although I was slightly neglected by my parents, God personally acted as my father. God bears in mind, and has mercy on His servants and wants to do something for them in a much better way. Now, I am much more respectful to my parents. I am deeply proud of them. The Lord’s glory will be on those who love Him. “As for my family and I; we are bound to serve Jehovah.”

© ChinaAid 2010

7