Lixin county, Haozhou city, one of China's most poverty-stricken counties in the northeast of Fuyang, Anhui, lies along a provincial road. Haozhou and Lixin both belonged to Fuyang and they still use the same long distance code, 0558, with different vehicle license numbers though. They were both using Wan K, but now Haozhou is using Wan S. Fuyang and Haozhou are now on the same level.
Lugou Christian Church in Lixin is a very small village, which is very difficult to get to, with no direct buses. Instead travelers rely on three-wheeled vehicles. Lixin Church is registered by Anhui Haozhou Christian Three Self Committee and Christian Council and located in the old Lugou township government. The Lugou township government was revoked during reforms, when towns were removed and villages were combined, so the believers spontaneously bought the house and site of the government offices as a place to worship. The church is a big room of 200 square meters filled with pews and the rural brothers and sisters from 3-4 kilometers around come to the church to worship. On Sundays there will be more than a hundred people worshiping in the church, mostly elders and women.
Due to the increase of church goers, the church needed an extension with a second floor as the prayer room which cost over 90,000 CNY, including a porch building, rooftop repair, and stair installation. The most straitened circumstances were after the extension in April 2008, when they still lacked 17,000; on Feb. 23, 2009, a believer's brother, Brother Wu from Mengcheng fell off the roof of the reed canopy breaking bones, and spent at least 30,000 CNY on medical bills. The church anxiously sought help from outside and did receive some. Earlier, Lugou Church went out to raise money but didn't raise much. Due to limited funding, they started sending letters of solicitation, but some letters were returned due to unclear addresses, so it failed again.
Lixin County is not only one of the national-level poverty-stricken counties, but also a poverty-stricken county in Anhui with the most Christians at over 70,000 believers. Lugou Church is located in the remote rural areas with no access to the major roads and it takes half an hour to get to town. Because the young people all go to cities to work, the rural economy is very underdeveloped. The church goers are mostly seniors with some women and children and the donations are a few kuai or several mao (less than $1 USD). Except the most urgent balance for the extension, the biggest daily expenditure of the church, and the most needed expense, is one fluorescent lamp, one loudspeaker and one electrical water fountain. One landline phone was removed due to lack of money. Other than the annual revival gatherings, the church does not host dinners.
