On February 2, Beihai Church's staff in Guangxi Province went to a leprosy rehabilitation village to paste Chinese New Year couplets for the elderly believers.
Before the Spring Festival which falls on February 11, the church organized calligraphers to write couplets for the old believers of the leprosy village in Jiaolongtang, Hepu County, Beihai City. The senior pastor Zhang Zhongye wrote the couplets himself. The words and sentences of the couplets were made up by the pastors themselves, such as "God loves us", "God blesses us", "heart is worried less, hands are diligent, happiness is more", "grace is shining", "Emmanuel is shining". The particular words of peace and happiness have always been popular with the convalescent villagers.
After writing the new couplets, the old couplets will remove and the new year's couplets will paste. It's a small job, but it's laborious work: it's an excellent job for every family to climb up and down a chair or a ladder. Looking at the new Red New Year couplets, the old Believers showed a pleased smile on their faces.
In the afternoon, Pastor Zhang and his gathering helped the older adults clean up inside and outside. They went back to Beihai City at the evening around six o'clock.
Most of the existing leprosy survivors in the village have reconditioned for many years. Most of them are 70 or 80 years old and are Christians. Due to various reasons, they failed to return to society, so they had to settle down and spend their old age here. The Church also provides voluntary assistance, material, financial and human resources.
Pastor Zhang leads his pastoral co-workers to visit the leprosy village every year before Christmas and Spring Festival.
Jiaolongtang in Hepu is identified as the last leprosy village in Beihai, the home of Christians suffering from a disease. In 1891, Simon Chapel used to be the earliest chapel in Beihai, which was especially concerned about leprosy patients. In 1993, it relocated to Jiaolongtang due to urban development. In October 2014, Simon chapel hall was rebuilt with the donation of Shanghai Community Church.
- Translated by Abigail WU
