Pastor Shan Luan, who looks like he's in his 40s, has been serving the church for more than 20 years. He is a warm-hearted and honest person with a strong Northeastern accent. He looks just like a good friend to the common people.
He told his farming experience in the early days of his ministry. It’s a story about how the wonderful and great God strengthened his faith in ministry through this event.
Farm for supply and the land was offered by the Lord
In 2003, Pastor Shan Luan was a young man. He was just married, and God had already called him. He was working in the suburbs of a city in the north of China, but the economic conditions for preachers at that time were not good. So he prayed to the Lord, "Lord, since you have sent me to serve here, please provide for me in my daily life."
After the prayer, a sister who lived in the suburb said she had 12 hectares of land for him to grow crops. In fact, according to locals, this piece of land was not very good. But since it came to him after praying, he decided to contract the land to grow corn.
The land that was lost and regained
It had already been agreed, but not long after, that sister said, "Brother Shan Luan, I have contracted the land to someone else, and he has bought corn seeds and fertilizer, so now you can't grow anything on it."
Brother Shan Luan was also very helpless when he heard this, but he did not pay for the field himself, so he could not say anything. He could only pray, "Lord, do you allow me to grow crops on this piece of land or not? That sister said to let me grow crops on this piece of land, and now she says that someone else has contracted it. Is this your arrangement for me or not? Please make the way for me."
However, when it was about time for the farmers to plow (when it is time to sow seeds), that sister came to him and said, "Brother Shan Luan, you could come and grow crops on my field. The man who had rented the land said that he would not grow anything on it."
Brother Shan Luan asked, "Didn't you rent it to someone else? Didn't you say that the man already bought seeds and fertilizer?" That sister replied, "Yes, he bought them, but he said he wouldn't plant anything on them, so you can plant anything you like on them." Brother Shan thought that this chance had come about after his own prayer and that the land that had been lost was now back, and he believed that it was the Lord's guidance. He found another brother, and together they leased the land.
No experience in farming
In fact, Brother Shan knew the reason why that man gave up the contract after he had already bought seeds and fertilizer. It was because the land was considered a second-class field by experienced farmers—that is, the water would soon be gone after it was poured on it.
According to experience, when there has been no rain before sowing, they must water the field before sowing the seeds.
However, 20 years ago, local agriculture was not mechanized, so plowing, planting, and fertilizing all required manual labor. One needed a four-wheeler to pull a large bucket to the well with enough water to pump water and then used the water pipe to pour the land one acre after another. In this way, the process of farming would be complicated, and the farming time would be elongated. If the field was small, it was fine. But watering 12 hectares of land was a huge project for him. As Brother Shan is not a local, he is not familiar with the local villagers, so it was difficult for him to ask for help. In order to save money and time, he and his partners decided to take a risk by sowing seeds without watering them.
However, other people would water before sowing seeds, and some villagers mocked him when they saw that he didn’t water the land before sowing seeds. But no matter how they thought about him when the seeds were sown, Shan and his brothers rented a house in the village. While farming (and other subsequent work, such as thinning, fertilizing, applying pesticides, etc.), they also spread the gospel to the local villagers. There were relatively few people in the village who believed in Jesus, and when they preached, some believed while others did not, and at that time, most people would not believe.
After some time, the seedlings were growing in the field, but the growth of his corn seedlings was very poor. There were only 100 seedlings every 400 meters. It was not only sparse, but the seedlings were as thin as a hair, and they looked like they would die at any time.
Hopelessness
Let’s do a simple division. There were less than 100 plants every 400 meters, which means that on average, only one plant was on the land that was four meters long. From a distance, the ground looked almost like a desert. At this time, some villagers began to mock him, saying, "We told you that you needed to water the land before you sow, but you did not listen. You believe in God, right? Then pray to your God to let it rain!" This is an absolute disgrace to the preacher, but there was nothing to debate because it was the only possible solution. So Brother Shan and his partner prayed together, asking the Lord for mercy and then looking for a remedy. They decided to go to the big well in the village to draw water and water the fields.
Unexpectedly, just when they went to the pump, the pump was broken, and the villagers were waiting for water, so they asked them to pay for the repair of the pump. Not much water has been pumped yet. Only two hectares of land had been watered; 300 yuan was spent on diesel fuel, and 400 yuan was paid to repair the pump.
The secretary of the production brigade came up with a way to help him. He advised Shan to rent 20 tractors, hire some people to plow the land in a day, and then hire some farmers to sow the seeds again. Although it would be quite helpful, the cost would come down to 8,000 yuan. In addition, he would need to buy some new seeds. The cost was really too high!
Brother Shan declined the kind suggestion of the secretary of the production brigade and decided to dig a well in the field. They hired someone to drill the ground. According to the rules, they would not pay until there was water. In the end, there was no water after the land was drilled for 20 meters. The people who dug the well left, the villagers who watched the bustle left, and the secretary of the production brigade shook his head and also left. Brother Shan Luan and his partner went home and prayed again. Brother Shan prayed and said, "Lord, have mercy on us. Did you not send me to farm the field?"
In despair, God promises peace
When Brother Shan opened the Bible, he read this psalm: "My heart is not proud, O LORD; my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore."
Looking only to the Lord, Brother Shan knew they would be able to sleep peacefully in the bosom of the Lord.
People can only see the despair in the environment, but the God believed by Brother Shan and his partner is the "living God". He prayed constantly at night, and then all the villagers were surprised that it rained the same night! And the rain continued for a day and a night, watering the land completely. God had taken care of them.
They also saw how small human effort was before God's grace. The rain affected millions of acres of land. However, they have no regrets for the effort they made to water the field, but only gratitude.
Meet a conscientious merchant
Then they saw the wonder of God. After the rain, the seeds began to sprout on the formerly bare land. If only 10 percent of the seedlings were produced before, then it gradually increased to 70 percent. For this piece of second-class land with no watering, the germination rate of 70 percent was already a surprise. Since there were many fields, they hired local villagers to thin the plants and naturally preached the Gospel to them while hiring people to work: "You see, God has let it rain!" The villagers had to believe it. Because the seedlings grew in batches, they were thinned three times so that there was more chance to communicate with the local villagers, and the local people began to know that there is a God.
With all the new sprouts coming out, they found there was much to be thankful for. Because it was supposed to be necessary to spread agricultural chemicals (weeding) for a certain period of time after the seedlings came out. But when they went to buy agricultural chemicals, the people selling agricultural chemicals knew about their crops and did not sell them anything. So they listened to the explanation of the store owner of agricultural chemicals. When the new plants came out, they were especially grateful to the store owner because if they had applied agricultural chemicals, the coming sprouts may have been killed by them. They were amazed by the store owner’s behavior of not selling them agricultural chemicals in order to make a profit, thinking that it was also God's grace and protection.
The last plant came out first
From the situation of seedlings, they also discovered that the field was not thinned in one day (at that time, there were no seeders present, so the field could not be thinned in one day), because there was much land, and the thinning lasted about a week. During the farming period, they also needed to organize the gathering, and they had to attend the gathering on Saturday and Sunday, so they did not thin the seedlings on Saturday and Sunday. After the rain, they found that the seedlings thinned after Monday had come out first because the seedlings planted later had gained the power of the rain. This also showed Brother Shan Luan that his worship of God would never delay work!
The Lord watches over the city
Farmers know that crops need careful care in the early stages of planting. Until the seedlings are all out and thinning, fertilization, spraying, and weeding are over, the rest will only be handed over to "God". In addition to looking forward to good weather, people could do nothing else. So many farmers also look for other jobs between the summer and the autumn harvest. For the ones who cannot go to the cities for a job, diligent people would only go to the field to check the growth of the crops. When autumn came, they waited until the corn was ripe and ready for harvest and checked the field more often so that it would not be stolen. Brother Shan Luan saw that there was no need for labor, so he left the village to do other work and returned only in the autumn harvest.
Brother Shan said that the local people lived in houses close to the fields, and there were many thieves. Every farmer's crops may be stolen more or less, and there are paths before and after their land, so many people may pass by his field. If someone wanted to steal some corn from his land, there was nothing Brother Shan Luan could do to prevent it. But they were thankful that they lost only about a four-wheeler of corn that year, which locals considered normal. Other farmers lose more. The locals wondered, "Gee, why don't thieves steal from him? Why do they only steal from the locals?"
He knew that this was the Lord's protection. No one ever watched their land from the time they finished planting to the autumn harvest.
The farce of harvest and the grace of the Lord
It was harvest time, and Brother Shan and his partner came back to harvest. Originally, it was barren land, but that year, this land ushered in a large harvest. Because of the vastness of the land, they need to hire people for the autumn harvest. But then the hiring went awry due to a lack of experience. Generally, when threshing corn, the wages of men and women were different. After all, the strengths of men and women were different, and their work was different. But Brother Shan and his partner were kind enough to hire men and women for 30 yuan per day. It was normal for a man to have a wage of 30 yuan per day and a woman to have a wage of 20 yuan per day. But they paid 30 yuan per day for all of them, and when it came time to do the heavy work, the locals quit. No one was willing to load cars because loading cars requires strength, and women can't do it. The 9-meter grain cart came, the men were gone, and there was no one to load the corn onto the truck. But corn was only about 20 cents a pound back then. Watching it get dark, Brother Shan Luan and his partner gritted their teeth and decided to do it by themselves, and an old man kindly accompanied them all night without sleeping until dawn before loading all the corn onto the car.
The villagers came the next day, and to everyone's surprise, an old man and two young men stayed up all night and loaded the corn from 12 hectares of the field onto the truck.
This time, they shocked the villagers again. “Two young men who believe in the Lord are really special.” Speaking of this farming experience, Brother Shan Luan has numerous testimonies. Although there were setbacks in the sale of grain later, in the end, they again experienced God's preparation.
That year, after deducting all expenses, they netted 10,000 yuan, which was a substantial amount of money at the time, especially on land that locals believed would lose money.
But for Brother Shan Luan, his harvest was not only 10,000 yuan. He gained the faithfulness of God, the wonderful preparation of God, the mercy of God, and the protection and care of God. He knew that God is a helper in despair, and he depends on him all his life. He remains steadfast on the path that God has shown him.
(The name in this article is a pseudonym.)
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
