“I've never felt inferior when it comes to marriage. I feel that God covered my weakness with His power so that my advantages could be shown to women,” said a minister who lost his left arm in cancer.
Tall and slender, Brother Wang has been married to a Christian woman for over a decade. As a full-time preacher, he is blessed with a stable income and an apartment—an outcome that seemed impossible for many ministers in China who “lived by faith” over a decade ago. Yet, through a mission in Sichuan, God miraculously provided a way.
Encounter With His Wife
Wang’s life took a turn when he was diagnosed with late-stage bone cancer at 19. He survived after undergoing an amputation of his left arm. Upon leaving the hospital, Wang encountered the Christian faith. He experienced a spiritual rebirth through a youth fellowship and later pursued theological studies. After graduating, he began serving as a full-time preacher in his hometown church.
Wang's wife, Xiao Wei, was a university student at the time. During her vacation, her mother, a new Christian, brought her to the youth fellowship, a vocal class, and a Bible study group. Coincidentally, Wang was in all three classes.
“I was the teacher in the young fellowship, my voice stood out in the vocal class, and I led the Bible study. God has made my strengths fully evident to my wife,” Wang recalled.
As a teacher at the young fellowship, Wang was required to keep in touch with university students who returned to their hometowns during school vacations. Without smartphones, they communicated via text messages. Mistaking Wei for another church member, Wang frequently contacted her. Their interactions soon blossomed into mutual affection, and Xiaowei has started serving in the church.
An “Extraordinary” Date
Their first date was more of a negotiation, early in the morning at a park.
Wang laid out his expectations for marriage: believers should not be “unequally yoked” with unbelievers; love for God must surpass love for one’s spouse; and his partner would need to support his vision as a lifelong preacher. Thus, if she wanted to marry him, they could face financial difficulties, such as living in a rented apartment the whole life or subsisting on simple meals like porridge.
Xiao Wei nodded her head. But Wang seriously asked her if she could carry the burden of a possible relapse of bone cancer in him again. “I also suffer from a disease.” Wei responded, “I have polyps in my throat.”
His heart was relieved as this was not a serious illness. The first date ended. He asked Wei to pray for marriage as the two could not make it if the communication with God was ineffective. However, God would lead them together if this aligned with His will.
Hindrance on the Road to Marriage
After their relationship was announced official, Wei’s parents vehemently opposed it. They disapproved of Wang’s health, income, and vocation, even calling him “a man who shouldn’t exist.” Despite this, Wang held firm, trusting in God with innocent faith.
Later God called Wang to do a mission in Sichuan after the Wenchuan Earthquake broke out in 2008. He obeyed the calling and served in a mountainous village in Sichuan, which paved the way for his future marriage.
Raged at his decision, Wei's father who worked outside his hometown called his daughter to stay at home and wait for his return. But Wei defied him, purchasing a train ticket to Sichuan, instead. Back home, her father’s frustration led to illness, and her mother also fell sick.
When Wang and Wei reunited in Sichuan, he had mixed feelings, thinking that they would break up if he could not handle this issue well. Knowing that Wei's parents fell sick in a call, Wang led Wei to pray together. They both burst into tears in the prayer. God told him, “Why don’t dare you to face it as your relationship is built upon prayer?”
After the prayer, they purchased two train tickets to return to their hometown. But Wang could not reach Wei through the phone in two days. Wei eventually answered the phone on the second day, simply saying that his father was going to have surgery. “My father doesn’t want to meet you. If you insist, he said that he would embarrass you,” she added. “Tell Uncle that I would meet him, even if I would be embarrassed,” he replied. In less than a day, he was told that Wei's father would like to meet him.
Waiting at a bus station, he saw a tall man beside Wei’s mother, knowing that that was her father. However, he hid himself out of fear. “There was a voice saying in my heart, ‘What do you fear?’ I was thinking to myself: No, why should I fear? We come together because of prayer.”
Then he regained his courage to hold the hand of Wei to greet her parents. Her father said, “You must have your apartment and steady income if you two are together.” His heart was reassured that the uncle had accepted him to some degree, only under some conditions.
Marriage Achieved Through Mission
At the time, it was nearly impossible for a full-time preacher to meet such financial demands. When Wang was troubled by this, God opened him a way to make money.
During the mission in Sichuan, he came to know a missionary who owned secret ancestral prescriptions to make plaster to cure diseases. Learning about his situation, the missionary shared with him prescriptions to cure asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. He shared this with Wei’s father, who was pleased to know the “steady business.”
“I didn’t have an apartment, but my father-in-law agreed because of the prescriptions. Then we had a wedding. That’s how God got me married.”
Now God has blessed him abundantly. In recent years, he was able to secure his own apartment and enjoy a steady income.
- Edited and translated by Karen Luo
