"Mr. Wu, these are some oil paintings made by a sick Christian woman. If you need them, please contact her who can't work but lives by painting."
I received a message on February 9 from a female church staff surnamed Liu. Seeing more than a dozen pleasing oil paintings, my heart was moved: What amazing grace! A cerebral infarction patient can make so many beautiful pictures. God heals those who believe in him, helping them in trouble.
Without the gift of God, the power of faith, or the love from other believers, Zhang Qiang would not support her lifestyle.
Liu said the 31-year-old Zhang was stunned when she was a child. Since then, she has suffered from a mental illness accompanied by tics disorder. With impaired backward walking, she has needed to take medicine from childhood all the way through adulthood. She was forced to drop out of school after the first year of junior high school because of her illness. Being financially tight, she was diagnosed with cerebral infarction last year. After seeing a doctor, she planned to go to a big hospital to get a stent, aiming to prevent potentially life-threatening complications. But after the examination, the doctor told her that she could only receive conservative care because the stent could not be placed due to her vascular and heart diseases. She stayed at home undergoing hormone therapy.
Now living alone with her mother, Zhang attended the church with her Christian grandmother since childhood and was baptized into Jesus’ family. Later because of her illness, she could no longer go to church or group meetings, but pastors and church staff of her group came to visit her and beg God to lead her back to the church. Coming back to the small group meeting again, she is engaged in reading the Bible, listening to sermons, praying, and praising with other believers.
Liu told me that we could only pray for her, and she relies on selling her paintings, as she suffered much and her family is less fortunate.
Although they may not be masterpieces, this collection of more than ten paintings shows the grace of Christ, representing a Christian's joy, expectation, and hope.
(The article was originally published by the Gospel Times and the writer reported it in Dalian, Liaoning Province.)
See the full gallery of Zhang Qiang's oil paintings here
- Translated by Abigail Wu
