Editor's note: As the sixth-generation Christian in her family, a female believer surnamed Huang is a mother of three children. The following is the first part of her family and her personal faith story told from her point of view.
In my hometown, a small fishing village in south China, missionaries came to preach the gospel in the early 1900s, when my great-great-grandfather became one of the first three people in the village to believe in the Lord.
My aunts and uncles who had graduated from school took special care of my family, as my mother who got good grades dropped out of junior school to work given that there were too many brothers and sisters in her family. When I was young, I looked forward to them riding a bicycle to see my mother, since I could follow them back to my grandmother’s house.
As part of her routine, my grandmother engaged in attending services, visiting, practicing singing, and cleaning the church every Saturday afternoon. Watching the back of my grandmother cleaning while singing hymns, I followed her to clean the pews, wipe the table and mop the floor.
When I was about 9, my whole family went to a church in Jieyang City in Guangdong Province one night to listen to a pastor from afar. On the road back home, we found my grandmother was lost. Mom comforted me and asked us to pray without fear to God who would help to find her. Finally, she was found, and He seemed to teach me that one day my grandma would leave me and return to heaven.
Until suddenly one day my parents told me that my grandmother was seriously ill. As soon as I entered the door, I heard her singing, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in the Lord, but to trust and obey." She blamed me for cycling too fast, asking me to sit next to her to sing hymns with her.
Though my grandmother left us two months later when I was 11, I used to rush into my grandma's house to ask my grandfather, "Grandpa, where did my grandma go?" Later I made up my mind to seek after the knowledge of God so that I would see in heaven again my grandma who might recognize me.
Besides being at home, my grandfather generally appeared in two places, either in church or at the home he visited or on the way to visit.
Suffering from the same disease, my grandmother passed away two months after illness, while my grandfather lived a healthy life for ten years after being cured of the disease. During these years, he was even more enthusiastic about building new churches in the village and serving the church. In my memories, the first thing he did when he woke up and the last thing before he went to sleep was to manage the church building in the village.
In the testimony during the inauguration ceremony of the new church, he said a sentence with tears, "I love my church and miss her with prayers. I will work harder for church ministries until I can do no more."
After the death of my grandmother, my grandfather took care of my great-grandmother for decades, providing a fixed amount of money to those in need.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
