Pastor John Lei (34) used to be a hoody committing all kinds of crimes in the past. While he had engaged in home violence, which caused his wife put a knife under her pillow, he is now a father of two children in a happy family.
A few days ago, Pastor John shared with CCD his life and how grace had changed his life.
1. He used to be a hoody.
John Lei was born into a well-off family in a village of Henan in 1983. His parents were the local church leaders. However, he did not pursue faith like other children of Christian parents and became a street hoody.
Due to his stubbornness and desire to be stronger than others and his rich family background, John Lei began to live his life as a street hoody in elementary school. Together with his friends, he involved himself in fights, drinking, smoking, robbery and gambling; he had even stabbed others with a knife and had been arrested by the police station several times. From elementary school to middle school and after he dropped out from school, John Lei lived this kind of life for more than 10 years.
His parents were worried about him because of his bad lifestyle. Apart from unceasing prayers for him, his parents had tried to ground him at home; but, failed. "We had a two-story building and my father and my mother would watch both the front and the back of the building to prevent me from going out. Though they would watch until midnight, I would jump off the building after they went to bed. The building was 3 to 4 meters high." John recalled.
Some of his classmates who lived as hoodies became murderers and others were sentenced, some were even sentenced to death. Because his parents feared that he may end up like one of them, they managed to send him to Shanxi to work with their friends' help.
2. He felt bored.
"I felt bored and empty after dropping out of middle school so I decided to go back to Henan and believe in Jesus." John briefly shared his reason for coming to believe in Jesus.
In Shangxi, he did not do any real work although he had a so-called job. His parents would send him money each month and he would go shopping and visit parks. Having nothing to do, he felt empty and bored with his life. "I had done nothing except to go shopping and visiting parks everyday for the last 3 to 4 months even though I was young. I truly felt my life was meaningless and this kind of life did not deserve living." John said, "I would rather die, although I did not long to commit suicide."
In emptiness and boredom, John called his parents. He said to them, "If you allow me to go back to Henan, I would believe in Jesus." So he went back to Henan.
3. God called him.
John returned to his home in Henan in 1999 when the local church happened to be holding training class for young people. At the prime of his youth, John, at age 17, attended the class.
"After returning to Henan I went to associate with my former friends for a while though I had attended the training class." John started to share how he was called to the ministry. "On one Christmas, I heard someone calling my name and I felt that I was called by God. After that night, my life was completely changed."
In the beginning, John attended the church's activities and took the training class; but, he did not see any fundamental change in his life because smoking, drinking, fighting and gambling still attracted him. Christmas day of 2000 was the John's 18th birthday. "We celebrated Christmas on the street and my parents, being the church leaders, asked me to distribute gifts to people." John described what happened to him on that night in detail. "When I walked into our courtyard, I heard someone calling me. I thought someone was calling me on the second story of our building so I climbed upstairs. No one was there so I went downstairs and found no one in the sitting room either. I heard someone calling my name twice."
The next day, John went to the church's training class and told his teacher what happened to him the night before. After his teacher prayed for him, he told him, "God was calling you."
The night's experience and his teacher's prayer for him drastically changed his life. "After coming out of the office, I felt that I had become a new person, including my attitude and what came into my eyes. I felt that the trees were so green and I found that the church's roof was red and it was bright. I found that my hatred for towards my classmates was gone, feeling very happy and joyful. That was a joy I had never experienced before in my life. Ever since then, my habit of smoking, drinking and gambling disappeared and my relationship with my old friends was cut off too. All at once, all these bad things went away from me without me struggling at all.
Called by God, the changed John said goodbye to his former way of life in great joy and began to serve in the church. After he graduated from training class in the church, he started teaching in the training class and lead young people.
4. He left his hometown and built his own church.
In 2003, 21 year-old John was recommended by the local church to go to a seminary in Huadong to further his theology study. The seminary paid great attention to shepherding churches and mission. From his second year, John started building a church by himself in the area and became a full-time missionary in the church. The church grew from having only himself to having more than 100 believers and 4 full-time coworkers and a part-time coworker.
At the beginning, John was mainly responsible for pastoring those believers who came from other places to work in that area. They were mostly young. Among those believers who are working, about half of them had gone to Sunday school since they were small and were evangelized by others when they came out to work after dropping out from school. The rest of them were brought to the church by their good Christian friends at work.
Because those believers were not local residents, the church could not become stable. "It is tiring to pastor those believers because many of them would leave the church every year. After I raise up some believers, they would leave the church because of marriage or change of work, so I feel sad every year." John said.
In 2012, in order to stabilize the church, John began to work on transforming the church by focusing on pastoring the local residents. Ever since then, the church began to become stable with about 100 to 200 believers from surrounding cities.
John's stubbornness and desire to be stronger than others brought him benefits and problems in his service. "Because of my stubbornness, I had difficulty in pastoring and building up relationships with others." He said, "Of course, there are also benefits. When I had only about 100 yuan each month building the church in Qingdao in a most difficult time, because of my stubbornness, I made a breakthrough in the end."
Now John had a good relationship with his coworkers. "Compared to the past, I have become more gentle after some sufferings." He said.
5. "My wife hid a knife under her pillow."
Pastor John Lei is married, with a son and a daughter and he described his marriage to be "very happy". However, they had lived under the shallow of family violence before.
John was stubborn and so was his wife. "We fought with each other so much that his wife put a knife under her pillow to kill me." He said.
Talking about the reason for his marital challenge, he said that he did not have any spiritual seniors or coworkers to care for and help his marriage when he was serving and leading a church alone.
In 2014, John and his wife attended a gathering for couples which mysteriously changed them both. "Ever since then, although we still quarreled with each other, we never engaged in family violence."
"In the gathering, I saw my selfishness and my wife was changed from being picky and blaming me to accepting and helping me." John exclaimed, "The gathering for couples saved me, my family and our church. Thanks to God! Now, we hold national gatherings for couples to bring hopes to many couples."
Concerning marriage, John realized that God created man; but, marriage would shape people.
Personally, marriage broke his false self to pieces.
6. "The Lord is my inheritance."
John exclaimed that the two turning points for him were God's calling and the change of his marriage. In 2010, his family went through a great financial crisis when his son was only 6 to 7 months old and they had no money at all. Because of that difficulty, John almost gave up on his service.
"I felt that was a period when I stopped to check whether I could go forward." John said, "One night, as I was praying, the Holy Spirit moved me with God's word to Levites that God is their inheritance in Numbers 18:20.
This verse helped John through the most difficult time in his service when he almost wanted to give up. It gave him strength. "It let me realize that I shall not have any inheritance on the earth and the Lord is my inheritance." He said.
translated by Alvin Zhou
