Some time after the Spring Festival this year, I had dinner with some church members, and during the meal, Shasha shared the testimony of how her great-grandmother, Mei, came to Christ.
Mei was born into a wealthy family. Her mother was the third wife of a wealthy merchant, and Mei lived a life of luxury in her youth. It was a time when Western learning was spreading eastward and a revolution was raging. Because her family lived in the coastal area, which was more open to the outside world, Mei's feet were not bound as a child, and she was even able to attend a foreign school.
When Mei was 20, her father arranged for her to marry the son of a wealthy merchant. However, this man was a playboy, and his love affairs with other women were well known. Mei was reluctant to marry this scum, but she had no choice since her father demanded that she comply. Fortunately, her mother arranged for Mei to run away to avoid the marriage. So, she left her hometown and came to a beautiful island.
Talented and competent, Mei soon began working in a Christian hospital and even continued her studies there. Mei devoted her entire life to practicing medicine as an obstetrician-gynecologist, and although she never married, she adopted several abandoned children and formed a loving family.
Yet Mei, who worked in a Christian hospital with other co-workers who shared their Christian faith with her, remained unmoved when she was preached to. Not until more than 20 years later. By then, Mei’s children were grown and studying abroad, but the counter-Japanese war broke out. After following the other refugees to the home front, they lost contact with Mei.
After not hearing from her children for many years, Mei became sick with longing for them. So, the Christians around her told Mei that she needed to come to Christ because He would be her help. And Mei began going to church, praying, and reading the Bible, and finally became a Christian.
After the war was won a few years later, Mei's children returned to their hometown. Not only were they all successful in their careers, but one of them was even a hero in the War of Resistance. Mei thanked God for protecting them all. From then on, she became a very devoted Christian and continued to attend church until she was in her nineties.
Mei's mother, who missed her daughter, traveled all the way from Lingnan to the island to visit Mei. But since she was old and weak, she fell seriously ill from the hard journey. When she was dying, Mei and other brothers and sisters in the church prayed for her constantly, and she miraculously survived.
This was God's way of letting Mei's mother make arrangements before she left this world, and she passed away peacefully a week later. Since her mother was not a Christian, Mei was amazed by such an experience.
Mei's descendants are all devoted Christians, and some are currently serving as core church staff.
- Translated by Joyce Leung
