Brother Z believes that Christians should be concerned about social welfare and be the salt and the light to the world, so that all may witness the good deeds of God’s children. Having served in a church in East China for many years, Z who also participates in public welfare and charity works, shared his stories in an interview with the Christian Times, an online Christian newspaper in China.
Z started with some charity work by himself, when the tasks were challenging, he would work together with a few other Christians to overcome the difficulty. As he became more involved, he ended up registering a charity organization specializing in social welfare to reach more people in need, which includes helping and caring for handicapped people, families in poverty, people who were severely ill, etc.,
Though Z and his co-workers would experience parting forever with some seriously ill people while caring for them, they also tasted joy and amazement. They have seen with their own eyes that a brother, who was in his final stage of cancer seven years ago and expected to live no longer than three months, is still alive and well today.
Brother Z said that people in the last stages of cancer would have great and unbearable body aches, but after they accepted Jesus, they didn’t feel as much pain, and their faces looked peaceful when they passed away.
He shared a story with the Chinese Christian newspaper of a brother in Christ from his hometown of Northeastern China, who passed away in the final stage of cancer. He and three other brothers helped with the funeral and the logistics of cremation. Some family members of the deceased brother came, but they were afraid to look at him because dead people’s faces are usually hard to look at. Brother Z told them, “Don’t worry, when people who believe in Christ died, it would be as if they were sleeping.” The wife of the deceased brother was amazed, “It’s true! He had a smile on his face so big that I don’t remember ever seeing him smiling so glamorously when he was alive.”
“People often doubt our intentions when they first received our help, they wonder why we would help the unacquainted without any reason and provide them with financial help and other provisions, sometimes for years,” said Z. “We don’t ask them to accept Jesus as a condition to receive our help, we just tell them that we are Christians and God wants us to help you. Later they discovered that believers of Jesus Christ are truly different from the others, and as a result, they would request if they can believe in Jesus too.”
“There was a patient with liver cancer, she was spitting blood all over during the last stages. A couple of us believers would wipe her clean while her daughter, sister, and aunt would stand outside the room scared to contract the liver disease. Two other sisters bathed her and changed her with clean clothes brought from church. This is our way of doing charity work for social welfare. Jesus Himself touched people with leprosy 2000 years ago as written in the Bible, we should love them with Christ’s love today,” added Z. “The purpose of our work in social welfare is to spread the gospel, but we must first show Christ’s love in us through our deeds in lives.”
Brother Z had joined hand-in-hand with other charity organizations for social service. People came with zealous passion at first, but as time passed by, the other organizations quit one by one. In the end, only his organization stayed and continued, the remaining 40 organizations all left the service. “They weren’t here for the faith in Christ, they were here to show off. It may work for a little while, but it will not last long if the motives are wrong,” he concluded.
- Translated by J Chao
