Fight.Robbery.Smoking.Drinking.Gambling.These words may remind you of gangbangers and the underworld, while it's hard to associate them with the past life of a modest pastor.
It's interesting in the Bible that John, one of the twelve apostles, was given the name "Boanerge" by Jesus for his hot temper, which means Son of Thunder. Similarly, Pastor Lei who names himself "John" was once a grumpy goose who used to stab other people and perform violence to his wife.
Recently the 34-year-old pastor shares his life experience in an interview with Christian Times, claiming that the two key turning points lie in being called by the Lord at an early age and the transformation of his marriage.
Muddling life
John Lei was born in a village of Henan in 1983 and had a rich family. His parents lead a local house church. Though he followed his parents to the church as a child, he became a street gangbanger when he was a pupil. He got into fights, gambling and robbery with a bunch of friends, who also drank alcohol and smoked. He even stabbed people and was arrested by the police station. His muddling life lasted for over a decade.
Seeing their only son addicted in the sinful life, his parents who prayed for him also tried to lock him in the house but he was beyond control. Some of his friends were murders,sentenced or executed by shooting.To break off his relations with those bad people, he was sent by his parents to work in Shanxi.
Bored of empty days
In the new place he was nominally employed while he didn't work.He lived on the monthly support from his parents and went to malls and park every day.He lived like this for almost three to four months.
However,the unexpected emptiness and boredom struck him. Feeling that it was better to die than to live like this, he called his parents and told them that he wanted to believe in Jesus if they allowed him to return to the hometown.
He went back to Henan in around 1999.
God called him
At that time his home church started a training program for young people and he joined in. Though he was a student of the theological class, he went back to play with his old friends and resumed his evil life.
The turning point of his life was that he was called by a voice on the evening of Christmas 2000. He described, "I heard somebody call my name when I walked into my yard. I thought that someone called me on the second floor of my house, I arrived there and found none; I stepped down and saw no one in the living room.I heard a voice call my name twice." The second day he shared the experience with his teacher. After praying for him, the teacher said to him, "God called you." He was totally transformed after that.
He says,"When I came out of the office, I felt everything changed. My attitude and perspective --I felt that that tree was so green and the church roof was red, a very bright color. My hatred for my classmates disappeared. I felt great joy and really good! It was the first time that I experienced such joy since my birth! Since then, I gave up smoking, drinking and gambling, dissociating from my old friends. Everything was cut off immediately without any struggle."
Saying goodbye to the past life, he started to serve in the church. After graduation from the theological program, he became a theological teacher for the young. In addition, his parents were glad to see his change, believing that God answered their years' prayer.
Pastored the church alone
In 2003, he was recommended by his mother church to pursue further theological education in a seminary located in a city of the Eastern China. Since the seminary values pastoring and evangelism, Lei commenced to plant a local church and engaged in full-time evangelism and nurturing from the following year. He has been committed to church planting and nurturing in that city from then on.
His church now has a congregation of more than 100 members and the pastoral staff consisting of four full-time workers and one part-time worker. In the beginning Lei mainly nurtured young migrant workers for there were a large percentage of migrant workers then. Among them, around the half who attended the Sunday school in their childhood quit school and worked in the city. They came to the church after being reached and the rest were brought to the church by their Christian roommates.
But the high mobility of Christian migrant workers led to the church's instability. Then Lei turned to shepherd the locals in 2012 and in that year the church had a stable congregation of 100 to 200 believers.
His obstinate character has brought both advantages and disadvantages to his ministry. "It's hard to nurture others for my stubbornness and establish relationships with people owing to my strong character.", he states, "Of course it's beneficial. In the toughest time when I planted churches in Qingdao with a monthly income of one or two hundred yuan, I sticked to it thanks to my unyielding personality ."
Currently he's on good terms with his workers. "Compared to the past, my personality has been honed much softer."
Conflict in his marriage
Lei also has a tough wife. There was no spiritual elder or worker who paid attention to and helped their marriage.The church leader acted violence to his wife who therefore hid a knife under the pillow to kill him.
In 2014, he and his wife joined in a couples camp in which they were both changed. Since them, domestic violence leaves them. "What touched me the most in the camp was that I saw my selfishness that I didn't sacrifice myself as Jesus for the church. My wife changed from being picky and criticizing me to tolerating and helping me. " His marriage broke his false self.
Moreover, they holds camps for husbands and wives in China, which bring hope to many couples.
"God is my inheritance"
In 2010, his family suffered from serious financial difficulty. The couple had a daughter and a son six or seven months old, but they almost had no penny. Lei nearly gave up his ministry. It was a period when he took reflection on himself whether he could continue the service.
He speaks that one evening when he was praying, the Holy Spirit gave him a verse, "The Lord said to Aaron, 'You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.' (Numbers 18:20)"
This verse helped him go through the most difficult days during his service. "It shows me that I should not have inheritance in the world for God is my inheritance."He adds.
Translated by Karen Luo
