My name is Mu Baojun and I'm 32 years old. I converted in 2006, and was the first believer in my family. Being the eldest son with a younger brother and sister I am the only one who didn't even graduate from middle school.
The reason that I dropped out of school at 15 is because my father was an alcoholic who also smoked. He did not take care of us growing up and he abused us. He also refused to pay our tuition because he spent all of his earnings on alcohol. My father was a veteran and because of his behavior my mother has a strong temper. Because of this I left home at 15 and worked odd jobs to pay my siblings' tuitions. I despised my father when I was a child and always complained about him. It would be lying to say the complaints are gone, but God has healed and chosen me and when I learned that I felt relieved. God is fair and loving and only after following God did I realize what purpose He had for me.
My mother and the 15 year-old me worked hard so my siblings could continue their education. As for me, with neither a happy childhood nor an opportunity to study, I was very upset and didn't know what lay ahead of me. Only I knew how the joys and sorrows of my working days tasted. I worked as a waiter, factory worker, security guard, and many others. In this way I worked till 2006 when I applied to be a waiter in a hotel, and things started to change.
The manager assigned me to karaoke even though I applied to be a waiter for the restaurant which was the most familiar position for me. I didn't understand why I was assigned to karaoke. It didn't suit me with its complicated customers. I took the job even though I was very unwilling, because of my father's omission and abuse toward his family. However, I felt miserable because neither the job nor my family was what I wanted.
I was 20 at the time and the strong unwillingness and worry made me doubt my future. I didn't know what to do and was always hesitating, so I thought I could use the help of a church. There happened to be a sister who knew me and took me to the Xintianbu Church. I went there twice and both times the pastor wasn't there, so I didn't believe. Later on I told myself that it didn't matter if the pastor was there or not so I didn't go back. I started working in the karaoke, and just like I imagined the place was full of filth. There were drug addicts, prostitution, exotic dancing and others. I knew this wasn't the right job for me but deep down I couldn't see a way out.
I didn't know God at the time so I was unaware of his special plan. One day I was very depressed and sat outside the karaoke trying to stay away from the filth. There was a lady who also felt blue and we sat together and chatted a little. She told me that she wanted to quit because the manager kept reassigning her, and her only, to different departments. He would say this floor didn't suit her (each floor of the hotel has one department and its staff cafeteria). The lady was reassigned to several departments before she met me at the karaoke. I told her my story of the church and she asked me if I was looking for a church. I said yes and she replied "Thank God! I'm a believer and I will take you to the church."
The next day after work, the lady took me to a young adult fellowship in a house church. I thank God I converted and studied the Bible there. Later, the lady told me that she understood God's plan. Her frequent reassignment was from God to meet me. It became obvious why God brought me to the current job. Indeed, God always knows!
After I worked at the karaoke for a year, I opened my own store. The lady who took me to church left after the demolition of her house. As for me, I stopped working and went to the church for Bible training and led some young Christians in study. In 2009, my wife was introduced to me by a sister. Later, we got married and had two kids.
In 2012 my father died. It was an actual occasion of demons killing people, but I experienced God's great power through it. When my grandfather passed away, my father was possessed by demons. He wouldn't eat or drink. One of our relatives was an exorcist and she dealt with ghosts for people. She couldn't cast the demons out of my father, so she told us to find another way or return to Datong (a city in Shanxi). We went back to Datong and asked a church elder to pray for him on a Sunday in 2010. My father converted several days later, and he was healed. However as his physical condition got better and better he lost his faith. When his condition again worsened, he became rebellious and denied the existence of God saying, "There was no God." He died like the demoniac from Gerasene with his body full of bruises from his pinching and pounding. My mother said he didn't look like a human being when he ate. It was a Sunday when he passed away and the day before I had told him to go to church. He doubted God would heal him since the hospital couldn't. That Sunday evening, I lay in bed thinking of his life and I couldn't find any words to describe it. At midnight I was ready to sleep but I couldn't, and I felt something in front of me: sometimes my father, sometimes my grandfather and sometimes a skeleton. I got up and prayed saying, "Lord, please rebuke the demons to leave my place." After praying like this for half an hour, I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Satan leave me!" The demon said to me, "I know you're a son of God and His servant. I can't harm you. I will leave but this isn't over. (My grandfather worshiped the shrines of dozens of our ancestors and these spirits were not contented with the example of my father)" I fell asleep after the prayer.
In the winter of 2014 I was sick. At first I thought it was a small cold with a sudden fever at night, and I would be fine with some medication. I didn't realize it was worse until I had alternating fever and chills. I went to the hospital with the diagnosis of Myocardial Ischemic Arrhythmia. The doctor said it was not a big problem and sent me home to rest. After a while I was still feeling unwell with a high fever, cardiac arrhythmia, coughing and panting, sweating, and insomnia. After having a fever for over a month, my blanket was soaked. I couldn't eat and lost a lot of weight. One night I felt like I was dying, with no strength to struggle any more. In a vision, I saw 4 demons coming to me dressed in colorful clothes, saying "Who said you could have medicine and who gave you the medicine? You belong to us!" I prayed "Lord, I'm willing if you want me to leave this world for heaven. Otherwise, please help me!" After a month of struggling I felt rather tired so I prayed to God "God, I don't want to live anymore and I feel terrible. Please take me!" At that moment, a Bible verse came to me: "Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me. And I say, 'O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.'" (NRSV Psalms55: 5-6) God made my way. I started taking traditional Chinese medicine and gradually recovered. The old traditional Chinese medicine doctor only told me the diagnosis after I started to get better in order to not scare me. He said I had Typhoid Pulmonary Tuberculosis with damaged organs and I could've died.
My mother and I thanked God for this. The Lord is my God and He takes care of me! With the prayer from the brothers and sisters of the church, I recovered. A sister told me during a fasting prayer that "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin)." (IPeter4:1). I responded "Thank God! This is His plan." I am healthier now but am still not able to do hard work. Sometimes we are also short financially, but God will provide. Thanks to the brothers and sisters! Thank God! God chose me and he also got what he deserved in me!
(The author is a believer from Shanxi Province.)
