Once a soldier, now an associate pastor in Zhejiang Province organizes church members to participate in public charities every year.
As deputy director of the Red Collections Committee of the China Association of Collectors, director of the Red Collections Committee of the Zhejiang Association of Collectors, and other titles, Kong Aiqing, director of the council of Jiaojiang Church in Taizhou City, only calls himself "Little Brother" when talking about his belief and charity experiences.
Picking up a bible left behind on the station floor in 1985, Kong, a worker at the Taizhou Passenger Terminal, opened the book and saw the sentence: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", which shocked his heart. He began to read the Bible and attend church.
Moved by the sermon of a 23-year-old minister in the Jiaojiang church, he caught the desire to work for the Lord in the same way. From then on, he attended the Bible training courses held by the Taizhou Christian Council and the correspondence courses of Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. He also studied at Zhejiang Theological Seminary. After receiving a theological education, he gave up his business career and became a full-time minister.
In the 1970s, Kong, at the age of 19, was sent to the countryside to work, then joined the army where his childhood idol Lei Feng (a Chinese hero) had served. He had many friends in the army and liked to drink together with them, but he stopped drinking after believing in Jesus.
After being a minister and associate pastor, he always reminded himself to refrain from eating and drinking in believers’ homes. He hopes to serve as much as possible without disturbing the private lives of church members.
In the 1980s, the Central Communist Youth League launched a school-aiding activity for children in poverty-stricken mountainous areas. Kong and his wife also participated and helped two children of the She ethnic group (a boy and a girl), though they did not rich. They funded the two children to graduate from primary school and junior high school respectively.
The girl is now a mother of two children. After graduating from junior high school, she started working in a handicraft workshop. Under the influence of Kong, she often went to church to listen to sermons.
They keep in touch with each other, and these two children are like another pair of children from Kong's family. They bring mountain products to Kong and Kong sends them seafood from Taizhou.
Kong went to Myanmar more than ten years ago. The local people were poor and their living conditions were bad. Kong gave all he had to the local people and even borrowed money to donate. He understood the love of the great missionary Hudson Taylor to China. "I went there full and came back with nothing,” he said.
As a follower of Christ, Kong organizes Christians to donate materials to the poor, benefiting people in the provinces of Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Yunnan, Sichuan, and even Myanmar. They care for Xinjiang students studying in Jiaojiang by giving them warm clothes. On hot summer days, they send cool drinks to sanitation workers and other outdoor workers, as well as donate floor fans to low-income farmers and poor households.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival, together with the Taizhou Municipal Charity Association, they went to nursing homes and homes for the disabled, carrying out haircuts and free clinic activities, making dumplings, and giving moon cakes.
The church also gave anti-cult training and patriotism education for both believers and unbelievers.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
