campaign. Unregistered Christians were labelled “spiritual pollutants” by the authorities and the TSPM. Hundreds of house church leaders were rounded up and sent to prison labour camps. In Henan many believers were executed for their faith in Jesus.
During this wave of terrible persecution, Brother Xu shared with me some important thoughts. He said, “The future of our Chinese house churches needs careful consideration. We should be faithful in small things while believing for big things from God. We have to learn whatever the Lord wants to teach us from his Word, from life, from our experiences, and from our sufferings. Therefore we should initiate a prayer effort and look to God’s mercy and revelation. Let’s set up training centres and take the gospel to allparts of our nation. We need to be better prepared to equip the troops in order to establish God’s Church.”
Brother Xu wrote a booklet called Building up the Chinese House Church. In this booklet he outlined seven main biblical principles that we should focus our activities on. I thanked God that we now had a more definite plan for the house churches to march forward. Until that point we didn’t really have a nationwide plan to win all of China. From 1983 until today the gospel has spread and thousands of workers have been sent to strategic unreached areas.
Being obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we turned our focus on Shaanxi Province, which had received little gospel witness. The few rural churches there were in great need of solid teaching and encouragement. Shaanxi is the home of Xian, China’s ancient capital city. The province had a reputation for being more resistant to the gospel than most other Chinese provinces.
When I joined a prayer meeting in Henan, the leaders told me they had received a letter from the Shaanxi church, begging us to send workers into their midst to train them how to plant new churches. They told me, “For the last few days we’ve been fasting and praying about their request. Brother Yun, we believe God wants you to go to the west, to Shaanxi. We want you to take two of our co-workers immediately to Shaanxi. Although these two sisters have no preaching experience, you can teach them on the way. They are warriors of the gospel, wholeheartedly dedicated to saving souls.”
Before we left for Shaanxi that evening we asked God to prepare the hearts of the people to receive his Word. While praying, I suddenly saw a terrible vision that shook my soul. The others told me I startled them when I shouted out, “Hallelujah! Jesus’ blood has overcome you!”
Everyone stopped praying and asked me what the matterwas. With sweat on my brow I told them, “I saw a terrible evil vision. A black, heinous creature came after me. It had a horrible twisted face. It pressed me down on the ground and sat on my stomach so I couldn’t get up. With one of its hands it grabbed my throat and started choking me. With its other hand it grabbed some steel pliers and tried to shut my mouth with them. I could hardly breathe. Then I saw a great strong angel fly toward me. With all my strength I poked my fingers into the eyes of the evil creature. It fell to the ground, and I was carried away to safety by the angel. I shouted, “Hallelujah! Jesus’ blood has overcome you!”
After telling what I’d seen, we prayed and shared the Lord’s Supper together. We committed ourselves to the care of the Lord. The three of us – the two young sisters and I – arrived in Shangnan County in Shaanxi. Shangnan is an isolated mountainous district in the extreme south-east of the province. Most of the impoverished people there had never seen outsiders before.
The local believers were informed of our arrival and three days of meetings were hastily arranged. Leaders from several counties gathered. On the first day I shared the history of the cross throughout church history and mission. On the second day, around 1 p.m., I lost my voice. The believers
During this wave of terrible persecution, Brother Xu shared with me some important thoughts. He said, “The future of our Chinese house churches needs careful consideration. We should be faithful in small things while believing for big things from God. We have to learn whatever the Lord wants to teach us from his Word, from life, from our experiences, and from our sufferings. Therefore we should initiate a prayer effort and look to God’s mercy and revelation. Let’s set up training centres and take the gospel to allparts of our nation. We need to be better prepared to equip the troops in order to establish God’s Church.”
Brother Xu wrote a booklet called Building up the Chinese House Church. In this booklet he outlined seven main biblical principles that we should focus our activities on. I thanked God that we now had a more definite plan for the house churches to march forward. Until that point we didn’t really have a nationwide plan to win all of China. From 1983 until today the gospel has spread and thousands of workers have been sent to strategic unreached areas.
Being obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we turned our focus on Shaanxi Province, which had received little gospel witness. The few rural churches there were in great need of solid teaching and encouragement. Shaanxi is the home of Xian, China’s ancient capital city. The province had a reputation for being more resistant to the gospel than most other Chinese provinces.
When I joined a prayer meeting in Henan, the leaders told me they had received a letter from the Shaanxi church, begging us to send workers into their midst to train them how to plant new churches. They told me, “For the last few days we’ve been fasting and praying about their request. Brother Yun, we believe God wants you to go to the west, to Shaanxi. We want you to take two of our co-workers immediately to Shaanxi. Although these two sisters have no preaching experience, you can teach them on the way. They are warriors of the gospel, wholeheartedly dedicated to saving souls.”
Before we left for Shaanxi that evening we asked God to prepare the hearts of the people to receive his Word. While praying, I suddenly saw a terrible vision that shook my soul. The others told me I startled them when I shouted out, “Hallelujah! Jesus’ blood has overcome you!”
Everyone stopped praying and asked me what the matterwas. With sweat on my brow I told them, “I saw a terrible evil vision. A black, heinous creature came after me. It had a horrible twisted face. It pressed me down on the ground and sat on my stomach so I couldn’t get up. With one of its hands it grabbed my throat and started choking me. With its other hand it grabbed some steel pliers and tried to shut my mouth with them. I could hardly breathe. Then I saw a great strong angel fly toward me. With all my strength I poked my fingers into the eyes of the evil creature. It fell to the ground, and I was carried away to safety by the angel. I shouted, “Hallelujah! Jesus’ blood has overcome you!”
After telling what I’d seen, we prayed and shared the Lord’s Supper together. We committed ourselves to the care of the Lord. The three of us – the two young sisters and I – arrived in Shangnan County in Shaanxi. Shangnan is an isolated mountainous district in the extreme south-east of the province. Most of the impoverished people there had never seen outsiders before.
The local believers were informed of our arrival and three days of meetings were hastily arranged. Leaders from several counties gathered. On the first day I shared the history of the cross throughout church history and mission. On the second day, around 1 p.m., I lost my voice. The believers
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