As the wife of a pastor, Zhenzhu (pseudonym) was born in a rural area in northeast China and has ten siblings. Though her father passed away early, her older brothers and sisters helped their mother much. By the time she went to college, most of her older siblings were already married.
Over 30 years ago, Zhenzhu was a first-year student majoring in accounting. One day, her fourth eldest sister told her, "It seems like our third sister follows a Buddhist monk who doesn't shave his head and wants you to come home."
When Zhenzhu returned home, she realized that her third-eldest sister hadn't become a Buddhist monk but had found faith in Jesus. Since her third eldest sister was someone she trusted, Zhenzhu didn't feel any resistance and immediately made a commitment to faith.
Afterward, Zhenzhu was passionate about seeking God, going to church when he was not in class. Later, at the church, she met a young girl who introduced her teacher to Zhenzhu. So, she was fortunate to receive some proper guidance.
Within a few months' walk with Christ, Zhenzhu felt a calling to serve and even considered dropping out of school because she believed she couldn't avoid cooking the books after she entered companies.
She decided to fast and pray to discern God's will. After fasting, she sought advice from others multiple times and even discussed her thoughts of dropping out with the girl. But she couldn't continue her studies and ended up spending time at a spiritual retreat camp.
After the retreat, Zhenzhu returned to her hometown to visit her family. Unexpectedly, she gathered relatives and neighbors together, resulting in more than ten people coming together to believe in Jesus.
She explained that she couldn't preach sermons but could clearly explain salvation. As more people believed, she involuntarily became a standby speaker, and she never returned to school.
After returning home, Zhenzhu unexpectedly established a gathering point. Since she and the others couldn't preach, they read the Bible to share their thoughts, taught each other songs, and took turns in prayer. Later, all those believers became preachers, including four of her relatives.
"As more people believed, some were healed from illnesses, and others were delivered from demonic possession. Slowly, many people simply shared their testimonies while preaching, especially among the elderly who couldn't preach salvation. But at the time, we believed that sharing testimonies was also a form of salvation."
As miracles became more frequent, the number of believers increased, and each person was willing to spread the gospel. The pace of evangelism was incredibly fast, and Zhenzhu had no time to consider going back to school or serving the Lord. As whenever someone believed, the believers called her to come and share the gospel. She began traveling to diverse villages and towns, working almost non-stop throughout the year.
Zhenzhu shared a story, saying, "There was a senior female believer who, after believing in the Lord, was healed of 18 different diseases and delivered from demonic oppression. She became a witness, and many people believed in her. She couldn't pray or preach but would invite me to speak to others."
"She was responsible for gathering people, and I would go to preach salvation. Whatever we prayed for at the time would happen. One person had their hand clenched tightly, and the aged female believer just held her hand, invoking 'open, open, open' in the name of the Lord, and her hand opened."
"On Sundays, many believers gathered in this senior believer's home, which had three rooms. When it got too crowded, they moved to a hill behind her house. They discovered that even that hill was too small, so they decided to separate into over ten locations."
Zhenzhu became even busier, and she began training staff workers. Though they had no materials except the Bible at the time, she had to prepare to conduct training. Soon, a group of young people grew to become competent preachers.
A church worker who came from Wenzhou to serve saw this situation and called people to serve in northeast China. He said, "One female Christian has led 500 people to the Lord; this is the cry of Macedonia. We need to go help her."
After Zhenzhu took the lead, more than ten young people joined her as staff workers. They often engaged in fasting and prayer, praying all night or in the mountains. They baptized twice a year, and the church grew dozens of times in a few years.
However, her second-eldest sister, who ran a shoe factory in the area, wanted to pull her out of the field of ministry. She tearfully begged Zhenzhu to help with the financial aspects because she didn't trust anyone else. Zhenzhu agreed to go to work the next day.
Unexpectedly, Zhenzhu fell seriously ill that night, so her sister didn't ask her to come to work. Zhenzhu remembered her promise to another aged female believer in a nearby village who had been healed through faith in Jesus, and nearly 30 people around her were waiting for Zhenzhu to share the gospel. The Holy Spirit told her, "When you go, you will be well." Zhenzhu got up and continued on her path of service.
Zhenzhu began her ministry at a young age, and for about ten years, even almost twenty, she received no salary for her service.
When she and his husband got married, the money for their bed sheets and covers came from a female Christian who quietly donated it while visiting them.
Initially, the pastor and his wife had no children for many years, and doctors said Zhenzhu had primary infertility. When she was 29 years old, she became pregnant. At that time, all their family members had accepted the Lord, and her sisters encouraged her to have the child, saying, "We will all raise the child together."
Previously, when preaching the gospel, she always left home for twenty days or a month, serving in a different place each day. She preached during the day and communicated and prayed at night. Because of the high demand, they often worked until two or three in the morning.
The wife of the pastor said she didn’t always rest herself, so her body was often severely strained. Once, when returning home from an external trip, she didn't eat or drink for seven days and just lay there. "During these seven days, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even read the Bible, only pray. I think God forced me to rest for seven days and nights." What comforted the pastor's wife was that the church had now nurtured a group of outstanding young workers.
In recent years, she fell seriously ill and saw many doctors, but there were no signs of healing. While enduring the torment of the disease, she advised her husband to share sermons on Thanksgiving.
At that time, it was October, and Thanksgiving was still a month away. When the pastor began to share, he unexpectedly discovered that there were so many appreciation messages to share. From that Sunday on, the pastor continued to proclaim messages of thanksgiving every Sunday throughout November. During this process, believers received healing because of gratitude.
What's more, in the process of constantly listening to the message of gratitude, Zhenzhu was actually healed.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
