Pastor Zheng Lingyi is a native of Yongnian County, Handan City, Hebei Province, and has believed in the Lord since childhood. He was admitted to Yanjing Theological Seminary in 1988 and ordained as a pastor in 1994. In 1999, he went to Taiyuan Church to serve and contributed to the establishment of the Taiyuan Bible School. He has been a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, the senior pastor of Jinyuan Church, and the current director of the Taiyuan Christian Council.
Pastor Zheng Lingyi was baptized at the age of 19. When he graduated from high school, the college entrance examination was not resumed, so he went to study medicine with a famous local doctor for two years. Then he discovered that medicine could cure the body but not the soul. At the Christmas service in 1986, he saw the passage of Isaiah 54:2 on the note. He knew it was God's call to him.
Therefore, Pastor Zheng came to Yanjing Theological Seminary to study, and after graduation, he served in his hometown church. He received a delegation from the Church of Handan City in 1994 to take over the pastoral oversight of the church in Wu'an City and Shexian County. He learned that there was no church in Wu'an City and Shexian County, and after that, properties were bought and churches were built in Wu'an City and Shexian County.
Once, when Pastor Zheng led a church revival in a county for the first month of that year, some contradictions in the church could not be resolved, and he even preached in the case of a high fever. He led a study of 1 John, preaching the gospel of reconciliation. At the end of the sermon, everyone wept and prayed to confess, the church moved toward unity, and his disease was cured after seven days of infusion.
When he just graduated from the seminary, God moved Pastor Zheng to build a church in his hometown through the passages about Solomon building a church. He prayed with believers in Zhengying village of Yongnian County, bought four acres of land, and built a church that cost more than 1 million yuan. There is also a training center, which provides free accommodation and trains many volunteers.
In 1999, God called Pastor Zheng to serve in a church in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, where he rented a miserable house. Without relatives there, he encountered many difficulties, including his employment and the education of his children. In the face of the pressures of life, he believed that God had a good guide. He was sent to the Jinyuan Church, where he served for more than 20 years and later prepared a training center.
Pastor Zheng went from managing pastoral care to evangelizing and training volunteers, and he also regulated the management of church sites according to law. He participated in social welfare and charity, and the number of local churches continues to expand. The chapel in the tourism area of the Gu County of Jinyuan District was built according to the old church style and was rebuilt and completed on the old site of the Church of God. The new church of Jinyuan has been built, which has become a window to display the Christian Church in Shanxi Province.
After the establishment of the Christian Training Center in Taiyuan City and even Shanxi Province, they reached a consensus to promote Christian ethics. The training center offers courses in patriotic education, systematic theology, the model of the worker, Romans, history of the Old Testament, homiletics, church history, the survey of the Minor Prophets, pastoral letters, Hebrews, prison letters, general letters, the Writings, Corinthians, the Major Prophets, the Pentateuch, English, as well as courses in sacred music and music theory. Since its establishment, the training center has trained more than 500 volunteers for grassroots churches across Shanxi province, and many students have been admitted to theological colleges for further study.
While he was serving, God prepared for him to buy a house and for his children to get married and get jobs. Then, God healed him of his illness.
On April 12, Pastor Zheng was sent to Shouyang County, Shanxi Province, to preach. When he first went to a church there, there were only about six people in the first sermon and ten in the second sermon. Later, he gave basic training to these believers and baptized six people. At present, there are more than 30 people in that church, and the whole families of many of them believe in the Lord. At present, there is only one church, and the following five churches are being prepared for approval. Every month, he would drive more than 100 kilometers to preach and work there for two weeks.
(The writer of this article is a staff writer at the Gospel Times.)
-Translated by Nicolas Cao
