It’s another Thanksgiving Day. The past days have given us much to reflect on and we are totally grateful. Here I share the grateful testimonies of some Christians.
The gratitude of Aunt Huainv
Aunt Huainv is a sister who lives in northern Shanxi Province. Some days ago, God listened to her prayer that people in her village repaired her collapsed cave house.
I got to know this sister five years ago. Her family was very poor: her husband died young, her son became mentally disabled, and her daughter-in-law remarried, leaving a little child to her. She is also blind in one eye. The family was so poor that the cave house they lived in leaked badly when it rained. She had to lay pots and pans all over the place to hold the leaking rainwater. What is commendable is that this sister has firm faith in the Lord who will not abandon her, so she often asked us to pray for her.
Later, we reported her situation to the CC&TSPM in Yaodu District, Linfen. In response, the church’s “One Glass of Water” charity program and fellowship of the disabled took out funds to have her cave house repaired.
The village listed her family as an exact poverty-stricken household, and people from all levels of government often came to visit her, bringing her gifts in parcels of various sizes. Organizations also sent her ill son to the city for free treatment for several months, who is now mostly recovered. Her ‘little’ grandson has been recruited by a college in the provincial capital to study nursing with free tuition fees and subsidized living expenses. She thanked God for not forgetting her and often caring for her, a helpless poor widow.
A pastor’s service
A missionary sister shared her opinion that the church had stopped worship gatherings because of COVID-19 the pandemic, but since last month, the bible study service in her village has been active, and they received special grace.
Once, after a Bible study and prayer, she was moved. Due to the lockdown caused by the pandemic, the spiritual life of believers was also locked down, so she proposed to start a series of Bible studies every afternoon.
After sending their children back to school during every lunch break, the sisters in the village gathered together to study the Bible. They have almost finished studying Genesis by now. Every house takes turns to hold the studying in each afternoon. The hosts will often treat the members with well-prepared fruits and snacks.
During the sessions, they read the Bible together and the main speaker will share the teaching. Then they will have a discussion on a key verse, followed by final prayers in response. Chapter by chapter, they also creatively sum up each chapter into one word. For example, the first chapter of Genesis can be summed up as “division” as God divides everything. The second, “union” as God builds up a family to make two one. The third chapter is “eating” as the ancestors sinned by coveting the forbidden fruit. They thus fell helpless to the power of sin. The fourth chapter is “killing” as the first murder of mankind happened. Such a simple and clear method makes everyone remember the contents of the Bible deeply. This kind of study is very popular. At most, there were more than 30 people, even brothers and sisters from other villages came to the study.
A father saved again
My 80-year-old father has experienced the wonderful grace of God many times. In the winter of 1999, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and God treated him. He prayed with my pious mothers, read the Bible, and testified about the virtues of God.
Two days ago, when he was having a walk in the morning, he fainted on the ground. For nearly 40 minutes, he prayed to God to strengthen him. Then slowly he recovered and insisted on walking home. This near-miss experience really made him feel that God’s grace had saved him again.
A son who commits himself to serve God
After my son graduated from college, I had all kinds of worries about his work. At first, he worked in a local network company. After the "honeymoon" period, he often complained about all kinds of unhappiness: the influence of the working environment, the complexity of interpersonal relationships, the interpersonal struggles and competitions, the confusion when he first stepped into the society, and then he had the idea of resigning.
Later, we asked God to lead us. He yearned for a warm atmosphere of loving each other in the Lord, so he came to an online literature ministry. Gradually, we saw that God led him on the right path and his life changed gradually.
We worked together for his change. Every night, we would “meet” online. We were delighted to see that my child had changed. We attended church services, visited believers, visited famous pastors, and shared testimonies. Many people moved us with their help. The child gradually matured in spirit, and sometimes gave us a lot of encouragement and comfort. He changed from being passively receiving our instructions to being willing to take part in church and fellowship services on his own initiative, and he signed up for a seekers’ class and was willing to be baptized.
(The article is originally published by Gospel Times.)
-Translated by Charlie Li
