In 1999, Xinping was a recent university graduate from northern China with a degree. Like countless others, he traveled south alone, believing that education and a good job would eventually give life meaning.
His first position was at a Hong Kong–invested textile factory on the outskirts of a coastal city. His diligence and sense of responsibility earned the trust of his supervisors. Before long, the factory owner even asked whether he would consider taking on management responsibilities.
Yet beneath the surface of stability, Xinping felt hollow.
"After night shifts, when dawn was just breaking, I would look up at the sky and ask myself, 'Which star is mine?'" he later recalled.
Not long after, he resigned.
A Chance Encounter That Changed Everything
While searching for work in the city center, Xinping met an elderly woman selling fruit on the street. She was over sixty, her eyesight poor, her movements slow, yet she greeted him with warmth and asked him to help weigh fruit and collect money when customers crowded her stall.
When the rush passed, she bought him a boxed meal with meat and vegetables—no small expense at the time—while she herself ate a much cheaper one. During their conversation, she mentioned casually that she was a Christian.
Xinping was not interested in religion, but he was deeply curious about her. Why was such an elderly woman working alone on the streets? Where were her children? She smiled and brushed off his questions, saying she was simply "out for a walk."
He began returning to her stall daily after submitting job applications. Gradually, the fruit stand became the place where he felt most at ease.
Over time, Xinping noticed details that unsettled him: mosquito bites covering her face and arms, the unboiled tap water she carried with her, and her vague answers about where she lived. Eventually, she admitted that she was staying temporarily at a church.
One evening, unable to shake his concern, Xinping decided to look for her. Following the name of the church she had mentioned, he arrived at a dilapidated building scheduled for demolition. The stairwell was dark, littered with debris. He climbed to the top floor and called her name, but no one answered.
As he turned to leave, a thought came to him: If I find her, I will rent a place and take her in.
Moments later, behind a broken wall, he saw her.
She was lying alone on flattened cardboard, surrounded by shards of glass she had swept aside. A light drizzle filled the air. From where he stood, it looked as if she were sleeping among broken glass.
Xinping did not wake her. He left quietly—but his heart was no longer at peace.
Learning Faith Through Shared Hardship
The next morning, Xinping asked the woman if she would consider renting a place together. She would not need to pay rent, he told her—only teach him how to sell fruit.
"I need to ask God," she replied.
She wrote two slips of paper, one marked "yes" and the other "no," and drew one. It read yes. Smiling, she said simply, "Jesus says we can live together."
They rented a small, cheap apartment with two beds. Each day began before dawn. The elderly woman prayed aloud while walking back and forth across the room, then prepared breakfast before waking Xinping to head out for wholesale markets.
Selling fruit was exhausting but honest work. When city inspectors drove them away, income disappeared. When fruit sales slowed, she attempted to practice traditional medicine in parks, hanging a cloth with a Bible verse written neatly by Xinping: "Life does not consist in food, nor the body in clothing."
During those months, she told him her story: born in 1939, a childhood shaped by war and famine, the early death of her husband from cancer, and years of illness and despair. She spoke of how she came to believe in Jesus after dreaming of a church she longed to enter.
Her faith was simple, stubborn, and embodied. She wasted nothing, endured hardship without complaint, and trusted God with childlike confidence.
Xinping listened—and learned.
The Prayer That Marked a Turning Point
As finances worsened, Xinping began to worry about rent and food. One evening, alone in the apartment, he prayed for the first time in his life.
"God, I don't know if you exist," he said. "But if next month's rent cannot be paid, I still have somewhere to go. She does not. If you are real, please help the one who believes in you."
That same night, his former factory owner contacted him unexpectedly. Within days, the owner's wife offered them a vacant apartment to live in temporarily.
For Xinping, the timing was unmistakable.
Soon afterward, their paths separated. The elderly woman returned north, telling him, "My task is finished." Xinping never saw her again—but his faith journey had begun.
From Corporate Management to a Divine Calling
Years later, Xinping built a successful career at a telecommunications company, managing a psychological counseling hotline with more than eighty staff members. Open about his Christian faith, he often shared the gospel with colleagues.
When the project was eventually shut down, Xinping faced a decision: remain in corporate life or respond to what he increasingly sensed as God's call. He resigned and entered full-time church ministry.
Yet even there, he felt restless. Church life, he realized, could become procedural—structured like office work. During a time of prayer, a visiting pastor spoke words that struck deeply:
"You will become a blessing to the poor."
Not long afterward, Xinping left everything again.
Living on the Streets to Learn Dependence on God
He returned to the neighborhood where he had first met the fruit seller. The streets had changed, but the memory remained. He slept on newspapers, lost his shoes, collected bottles to survive, and washed in public restrooms.
When his money ran out, he scavenged discarded meals. Shame faded. Hunger for God grew.
He prayed, read Scripture, repented, and wept. "For the first time," he said, "I truly understood what it meant to live by faith."
He befriended homeless men and women, prayed with them, shared food, and watched lives change. In broken buildings and under leaking roofs, they formed a fragile but genuine community—each contributing what little they had.
Rain, illness, violence, and loneliness followed. Once, he was beaten unconscious by a drunk man. When he awoke in pain, he laughed and thanked God, remembering the sufferings of the apostle Paul.
Becoming a Blessing to the Poor
Four months later, Xinping sensed a new direction through prayer. He temporarily left the streets and returned to the church to care for an injured fellow believer before going back to his hometown to visit his parents.
His decision to pursue full-time ministry was not fully understood by his family. Yet through his journey, his mother came to faith, and her long-standing physical ailments were later healed—an experience Xinping described as a profound reminder that God's guidance both tests and fulfills those who follow it.
Eventually, Xinping returned to church life and began an outreach specifically for the homeless. He later rented a small venue where he continued to lead regular gatherings with a group of believers. These members became the first batch of co-workers in the ministry among the homeless. At the same time, Xinping opened the church's bathroom to the homeless, allowing them to take showers for free.
In the early days, the church relied solely on offerings from members, which were barely enough to sustain its basic operations. To make ends meet, Xinping led the group to collect discarded vegetables from local markets. As the number of homeless participants continued to grow, the church eventually rented living spaces for them. Xinping chose to live, eat, and sleep alongside them for three years, moving out only after his marriage. During those years, he accompanied them through scorching summers and bitter winters, witnessing how lives were gradually restored and transformed.
One of them was Brother Luo. Having lost his parents at a young age, Luo began living on the streets at the age of eight. Recalling those years, he said, "I was very young when I became homeless. When I was hungry, I picked up leftovers to eat, but I was often starving. It wasn't until I met Pastor Xinping that I found a sense of home in the church. I no longer had to worry about where my next meal would come from."
Nearly two decades have passed since Luo returned to society. After joining the church, Xinping helped him apply for an identification card, ending years of instability. Today, Luo has become a volunteer in the same outreach ministry, regularly delivering clothing and daily necessities to people still living on the streets.
Over two decades, Xinping has remained committed to serving the homeless. He continues to distribute boxed meals, clothing, and daily supplies, and occasionally takes them to restaurants for a meal. Reflecting on his period of being homeless, Xinping said that experience enabled him to better understand the deep pain carried by those living in poverty—and confirmed the calling he believes God had placed on his life: to become a blessing to the poor.
(The names of the characters in the article are not disclosed and used as pseudonyms for safety reasons.)
Originally published by the Christian Times
- Edited by Poppy Chan
