Brother Zeng married a woman who was not a good match for his family background. To save his wife, who was suffering from depression, he took her to the church. Then, he came to believe even before his wife. He has always accompanied his wife even though his wife suffered from severe depression for many years.
Zeng was born in the early 1960s. At that time, the Great Chinese Famine had just ended, and the Cultural Revolution had just begun. During his childhood, Brother Zeng grew up listening to many revolutionary songs. Unexpectedly, when he became an adult, the Cultural Revolution was ended, and soon after, the reform and opening-up was started.
"For many years, we felt that China was very underdeveloped," he said, "but soon we were amazed to find that the economic aggregate of China surpassed that of Japan in 2010."
"We've experienced a time of great change. Some of our views were quite conservative, especially before the reform and opening-up," he added.
For a time, Zeng suddenly found himself unable to figure out many issues due to the strong impact of new ideas. He would never expect that his mind would undergo an even greater transformation because of faith.
He came to the Christian faith because his wife suffered from depression and was in pain for most of her life. So, Zeng had to accompany his wife to the church for a change.
It was 2001 when they went to the church gathering for the first time. They took someone else's car to the church, and the movie "The Jesus Film" was being played in the car, presenting the story of Five Loaves and Two Fish. Brother Zeng couldn't accept it because he thought it was against common sense and materialist values.
Zeng worked in finance and had always been very rigorous in his approach to life. "I made an agreement with her at the time. First, we must beware of illegal enrichment because I'm quite stingy about money. Second, we must beware of being obsessed. It's fine to believe, but we must not go overboard. Third, we must never do anything that's against the policies of the government." Sister Yang, Zeng's wife, did as they promised, and she remained rather indifferent toward faith. However, Brother Zeng himself seemed to be "obsessed." A few months later, he was deeply drawn to the church.
"When I was in the church, I felt happy in my heart." After studying the Bible for eight months, Zeng still didn't want to follow Jesus.
"I actually have two distinct opposite thoughts in my heart. On the one hand, I felt that I was doing so poorly that I even started to believe the Lord. But on the other hand, I felt happy being in the church because the environment there was clean and the things we shared were clean too. The atmosphere is quite fascinating for me."
Later, Zeng came to believe in the Lord and was baptized together with his wife. After that, the pastor of the church challenged Zeng to serve full-time in the church, but he declined.
"At that time, someone like me was quite rare in the church. Because I was still very young (in my thirties), and I was a brother. There were lots of elderly people and sisters in the church, but there were few young brothers." He recalled, "I would play the piano as accompaniment because I can play the piano a bit."
Subsequently, the pastor of the church was assigned to serve in another church for about a year and a half, and he hoped that Zeng would take his place. He wanted to serve, but he also feared that he might not do it well, because the job of a pastor is to preach, and the contents must not be repeated. Besides, it would be quite a challenge to preach for a lifetime. Moreover, Zeng still had his own job, and serving in the church at the same time may mean that he would have no day of rest every week.
At that time, his child was only one and a half years old, then he decided to pray. He determined that two requirements must be met if he would serve. The first was that his wife must agree with it, and the second was that there must be a clear calling from the Lord. His wife is a very realistic person, and she felt that her condition was even worse after believing in the Lord for seven years. As a result, she didn't approve the plan.
During that time, Zeng often prayed, and for a couple of days, he woke up every day at about 2:30 a.m. "I kept hearing a voice telling me to serve the Lord." However, the problem was still not solved because his wife still firmly disagreed with that plan.
For about half a year, his wife disagreed whenever the pastor, church members, or even Zeng himself talked about him serving in the church. But one day, the Lord suddenly changed her mind and allowed her to approve his decision to serve in the church.
In this way, Zeng first became a Christian and then was called by the Lord and became a pastor.
- Edited by Karen Luo, translated by Nicolas Cao
