In 2008, the Shuanghu Church of Puning, Guangdong welcomed a young brother-- Huang Shaoxiong. Called by God and moved by the believers, he chose to stay in this rural church and still serves under the harsh condition since graduation from Guangdong Union Theological College in 2008.
Born in Guangtai Town, Puning in 1984, Huang participated in the service of his local church since childhood. He was baptized in 2001 and was ordained as pastor in 2014. His wife, Zou Mufang, serves here as a preacher from 2009 and received baptism in 2001. They held a wedding in the church in 2009 and have two daughters living inside the church.
In September 2007, Huang started to pray for his future pasture and got a vision from God: he would serve in a church where there are many seniors and children. Half a year later, he went to Shuanghu Church,30 kilometers away from his hometown.
His first impression of the church was bad: the old-down, civil-structure building appeared shabby and moss covered the outside wall that turned black and ugly and the inner wall was bumpy. What's worst, people raised pigs in front and behind the church to the extent that a smell of pig poo could reach the church.
However, he saw a familiar scene while entering the worship hall: a number of simple and enthusiastic seniors were gathering and two choirs of young people and juveniles were singing hymns to praise the Lord. The fact that the believers donated fifty cents, one yuan,five yuan or ten yuan after the service moved him more.
Thus he accepted the church in his heart. On July 10, 2008, he was hired as the church's preacher living in the church.
The new young preacher got a "dark and damp" bedroom; one of whose wall space was full of over 1000 screw holes in the church building. The church brought some household articles, only having a deposit of more than 1000 yuan left. But his love and burden for the house of God was never affected by these conditions.The couple refused the invitations from other churches that provide better and higher salaries.
The church has a large portion of teenagers and Huang encourages them to join the choir. Meanwhile, it has been publishing an internal monthly magazine called Letter for Shuanghu Family since November 2011 for those who can't attend services regularly for work or migrate to cities for jobs. It also has a visit ministry and he visits people here and there.
He hopes to provide a better worship environment for believers. The church is located in Shuanghu Village where there are no believers and has an outbuilding donated by two villagers who once lived here but move to Shantou without any connection with the villagers due to the whole village's disgust.
In his early arrival in the church, villagers tended pigs around the church. A senior couple raised pigs in front of the church, which severely affects the services. "We think that they would stop doing this unless they couldn't move. But amazingly they didn't raise pigs since last year." Behind the church, a household still breed pigs. "Now the meat price is very high. It's hard(to stop them) unless God works." He adds.
He can't open the window of his bedroom because of the smell."When I started to serve in Shuanghu, my girlfriend(or wife at present) who visited me burst into tears the moment she walked into the church. Now we have completely adapted to it after all these years."
But his family suffered severely from the environment. Since the couple and two daughters live in the bedroom with an area of over ten square meters, the air in the room is bad within the shut windows. When it comes to the spring or climate changes, the children always catch an cold. His wife with poor health often sees a doctor and takes medicine.
He still stays optimistic and confesses, "The environment God gives is good." He compares the church as a sleeping lion and plans to build a new church in such difficulties, expecting a revival and the Gospel to spread rapidly on this ground.
