Editor's note: This is part five of the Christian testimony series: a story of a legendary old-generation preacher with the heart of Saint Francis. (To see part one, part two, part three & part four)
“Mr. Huang Detang was an extremely rare saint with the heart of Saint Francis. He had a habit of fasting every morning and going up the mountain to pray before dawn, which continued beyond age ninety, regardless of the wind, frost, rain, snow, no shade on the mountain, or clothes getting wet,” said Rev. Shao Shengtang from Ningbo Centennial Century Church in Zhejiang.
Mr. Huang was born in Xiaowantang Village, Xiangshan County, Ningbo, Zhejiang, in 1886 and died in 1981. He was a rare old volunteer pastor who had encountered strange grace. Many of us now may not experience this and not understand, but this is a true testimony.
Huang was not an ordained pastor or an elder in the church, but he was far more than an ordinary pastor.
He made a “dedication covenant”, which said, “In despair of my foot pain, I besought Jesus to heal my foot disease and forgive my sins. How blessed am I who was saved and became a child of God! To reward the Lord for his salvation, I decide to dedicate my body to God. Forwards, at the Lord’s disposal, whether in cold or hot, hunger or thirst, suffering or persecution, I’ll follow the Lord to the end without regret. I make this covenant, so daughter-in-law, relatives, friends, or other people can’t obstruct me.”
Healed by God, he could walk with a limp, and soon after was no longer limping. He could even walk more than 50 kilometers a day, barefoot on rocky mountain roads.
According to Pastor Sheng Zufeng, Huang had a strange habit, that was, at the end of the lunar calendar, he left his home to the mountain to pray for the Chinese New Year. Without eating and drinking, he didn’t go back down until the third day of the first lunar month, while hile others all gathered at home during the Chinese New Year Festival. Even during the Cultural Revolution, a great persecution period, he did not cease this godly habit.
(The article is originally published by the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
