In Shaanxi Province, a 90-year-old minister continues her devoted service to the Lord.
Born in 1935 as the eldest daughter in her family, she (unamed for security reasons) covered every housework she noticed since childhood, as her father served as a village official and her mother was ill and bedridden. Though diligent and responsible, her mother would scold her whenever she mentioned the desire to attend school. The little girl wanted to learn literacy. She had one opportunity to sneak away to school, but upon reaching the classroom door, she only heard the teacher announcing, “Class is over.”
This minister followed the Lord after experiencing healing from a serious illness. In 1977, in her early 40s, she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and an ovarian cyst, leaving her unable to walk and nearly terminally ill. Her daughter, already a believer, invited fellow believers to their home to pray for her mother. They lifted her onto the bed and invited her to confess her sins and pray. Though she did not speak, she wept for about 30 minutes and continued sobbing for another 10 minutes. Then she stood up and was able to see the guests downstairs. She decided to believe in the Lord from then on.
After that, she and two fellow workers, along with their children—six congregants—began holding gatherings with only a scattered Bible borrowed from an elderly Christian. After 1980, they frequently attended services at Nanxin Street Church near Hepingmen (Peace Arch). Each Sunday, they set out on foot at 4 a.m. to attend worship service.
When the minister came to faith, she was eager to visit the church frequently during the week to pray and study the Bible, except for joining Sunday worship services. Her dedication bore fruit; her supervisors allowed her daily attendance to church twice due to her careful maintenance of essential machinery at the sewing machine factory where she worked.
In September 1985, with support from pastors at Nanxin Street Church, the local government approved the establishment of a meeting point for Christian activities in the western suburbs. This initial site, the predecessor of today’s church, was located in a rented farmyard of about 100 square meters, with a monthly rent of 50 yuan (7 US dollars). Later that year, the church rented a large garbage pit, and under the leadership of the senior elder, the congregation filled in the pit and constructed a house with an asphalt-felt roof on the leveled ground as their meeting point.
Recalling the challenging times of filling the pit, she shared that everyone worked tirelessly, often without food or water. While overseeing the construction site, she spent nights in the tent and met all kinds of rats. In the felt-roofed kitchen, swarming with flies, she had to cover her head with a plastic bag as she used a fly swatter, soon filling the ground with black flies.
The minister had long envisioned purchasing land, and eventually, the opportunity came. In the late 1980s, the church raised 2,200 yuan (approximately 300 US dollars), enabling to buy 1.28 acres of land. Despite challenging conditions, the church community steadily grew as the Sunday worship attendance exceeded 500 a few years later. By the late 1990s, the congregation had grown to over 800 members. Along with this increase in church members, another blessing came—a new church building costing 3 million yuan (around 415 thousand US dollars) was completed.
Now, this church has thousands of registered believers and ten ministry groups, with four full-time ministers and over 200 volunteers.
Despite her advanced age, the minister remains strong physically, supporting one another with her husband. She often expresses her unwillingness to be a burden to her family or church staff and desires to be a humble vessel, continually repenting and used by the Lord for as long as possible. She hopes the younger generation of church co-workers will unite to fulfill the holy mission the Lord has been doing in their church.
