By Dan Wooding
CHINA (May 20,
2000)-- After
traveling the world now for 30 years as a journalist, I
thought I'd
just about seen everything. But then I met Sister Esther, a
diminutive
and dynamic Chinese Christian and she topped all my previous
experiences.
The surprise
took place during
a recent visit to China, when my wife Norma and I, had
been invited
to attend Esther's wedding to a Christian man. The
ceremony was
held in an official church in a city I cannot name.
After the
moving ceremony,
in which I briefly participated as an ordained minister
from America,
Esther took over the microphone and, in her white wedding
dress, began
preaching to the packed congregation. During her
30-minute sermon,
she didn't pull any punches. She told the people assembled,
many of
whom were not Christians, that they needed to "believe in Jesus."
Then, in a
moving moment, she
asked her mother, once a committed Communist, to step
forward.
As the congregation watched in hushed silence, she then
led her
mother in a public "sinner's prayer."
Esther later
told me, "I became
a Christian when I was 13 years old, after walking by a
Christian
church. The first time I came in contact with Christianity
I knew it
was true. I was so thrilled to hear about Jesus Christ that
I knew I
had to follow Him." Later she listened to Christian radio
coming from
Hong Kong to strengthen her faith.
Her conversion
caused her great
anguish, as her father was a local Communist cadre
who was considered
in his city to be a hero because he had fought against the Japanese
during World War II and in the Chinese civil war for
Chairman Mao.
"Both of my parents were shocked with the news and told me
that they
did not approve, as this had caused them to lose face."
She went on,
"One night, my
father scolded me very hard and I got so depressed. I just
cried for
hours. But then the Holy Spirit told me, 'You are God's
child and you
are upset because you have allowed the devil to work in
your life.
Do you believe in the devil or in Jesus?' I said I believed in
Jesus.
Then the Holy Spirit made me think of the story of
Job. I then
said, 'My Lord, I love you and want to serve only You.' The
Holy Spirit
then revealed to me that if I wanted to win people to Christ,
I must suffer
persecution."
The persecution
did continue
for Esther. "Whenever I would come in from church, my parents
would be
very angry with me and scold me very hard," she said.
"After many years of this,
I asked Jesus, 'Lord, why is my life so hard? I think maybe you
don't love
me."
She said the
answer came one
day when she rode her bicycle to work. "When I reached a
bridge in
my town, I felt God telling me, 'If you want to be like a
doctor and help
people, you first have to understand what it is to be
hurt.' He
then prompted me to begin reading 1 Corinthians 13. I then
realized
what it means to love people. I knew that I had to understand
people's hurts
to be able to help them. I told the Lord, 'I'm very happy,
because I know
that You love me.'"
She added, "I
am also now very
happy to be a Bride of Christ so I can work for Jesus
among my people."
NOT A HAPPY MARRIAGE
Esther
explained that in those
days, her parents did not have a happy marriage and she
had to share
a bed with her mother. "I know my mother did not like my
being a believer
and so, I would wait for her to go to sleep and then I
would pull
the covers over my face and turn on my radio and listen
quietly, the receiver
pressed close to my ear, to the Christian
broadcasts coming
from Hong Kong. It was like having a Bible School coming to
me and I
was greatly built up in my faith because of these broadcasts."
Soon, Esther,
despite being
threatened with losing her job, began openly witnessing to her
colleagues
at work and teaching the Bible at a local church. She
also began
wearing a cross around her neck as a public confession of her
faith.
(She still wears it today.)
Earlier this
year, her father
passed away. "Before he died, I was able to lead him to
Christ.
Then I led my mother to a faith in the Lord. Their marriage was
restored
and their marriage went from a Communist marriage to a
Christian marriage.
After they became Christians, they really began to
love each
other," she said.
"Before I got
married, I asked
my mother if she would be willing to make a public
confession at my
wedding in front of everyone who knew her. She agreed and
that is why
she prayed publicly with me after the wedding ceremony. It
was a wonderful
occasion for me."
Women, as I
soon discovered
on this visit, play a leading role in the Chinese
church. Many
women bring their husbands to walk two hours to church each Sunday
then, after
the service, walk another two hour back home. "They do it
because
they love Jesus and also want to be with other believers," Esther
explained.
She went on,
"When I think
of the courage and faith of my Chinese brothers and
sisters, I want
to cry. They are so committed to Jesus. I think they are the
best brothers
and sisters in the world."
Esther revealed
that the government
has decreed that no one under eighteen years of
age can
be taught the Bible, but that doesn't make any difference to
her. "I
teach a weekly Sunday School class," she said.
"I still listen
to Christian
radio and I take notes and the Holy Spirit teaches me God's
truths,"
she said. "I know that, in America, you have many wonderful
Bible teachers,
but I want you to know that I believe the best teacher is
the world
is the Holy Spirit."
I told Esther
that I had heard
that there had been a great revival in China, possibly
now with up
to 80 million believers there. "In the countryside around
where I
live, some 90 percent of the people are believers," she
said. "Many
miracles take place in the countryside and there are healings
there after
people pray.
"However, so
much of the population
lives in the city and so many of the young people there
are not
being reached for the Lord. This is why I am so fervent in
sharing the
Gospel with them. If a young person goes to church in China,
they are
looked down upon. So few people go to the official church
and they are
usually only the older people. So we have to reach the city
youth of
China."
She said that
the countryside
Christians mainly attend House Churches, also known as
Family Churches.
"They are very committed and pray for hours everyday
and, if they
can get a Bible, they study it. Those who can't get Bibles,
often listen
to Christian radio and copy down the Bible by hand as
it is read
over the air.
During our
visit to China,
Esther and her new husband acted as hosts for us. I got a
real insight
into her heart for the Lord when we met with students at a
university to
share with them that we wanted to find friends in America
for them
to correspond with through our Bridge of Friendship China
program.
We had lunch with them on the campus and she asked them if they
would all
join hands so she could bless the food. She then prayed,
"Lord, I
ask You that these students may learn the
truth about You."
As a footnote to
this story,
I discovered that, after Norma and I had left the city were
the wedding
took place, the senior pastor of the official church
was summoned
by the local communist authorities who had discovered that I,
as a foreigner,
had taken part in the wedding. He was severely
censored for
allowing me to do this. This news vividly illustrated to me
that China
still does not have the religious freedom it claims!
THE
CHINESE BRIDE
.
.............