One day of the first lunar month, there were strong winds outside the house. A little voice said: “Grandma, when will my mom come back? I miss her.” Looking at granddaughter, who just turned 4, Tang Jin felt sad and did not know how to answer the child’s question. Because she did not know at all where her daughter was. At that moment, her thought could not help drifting back to the past …

Shortly after Tang Jin accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days, her daughter also accepted it. Though Tang Jin’s husband and son did not believe in God, they did not stop her and her daughter. So, she had a nice family.

In 2009, Tang Jin’s daughter performed her duty outside and had been away from home for one month. In the past, she had been at home after leaving home for such a long time. Thus, this made Tang Jin feel a little worried. During that time, Tang Jin’s husband asked her several times whether something happened to their daughter, for her husband also knew that believing in God is dangerous in the state controlled by the CCP and that it is possible to be captured at any time. His questions made her feel more worried about their daughter. Then she constantly prayed to God to calm her heart.

Several days later, the village cadre and two policemen came to Tang Jin’s house. On entering the door, a policeman said in a harsh tone of voice: “Your daughter has been arrested outside for believing in God. Have you heard of it? ” Before Tang Jin replied to his question, he continued: “Now she is in the detention center. You need to send her some money.” Hearing this news, Tang Jin was very anxious. Then she thought of a sister of the church who was once arrested and her miserable experience in prison. In order to force the sister to betray the church, the police beat her with electric rods and kicked her hard with leather shoes. After the torture, the sister’s hands and feet were hurt seriously. And the tortures left sequela on her. Thinking of this, Tang Jin was more afraid for her daughter. However, she could do nothing but pray for her daughter silently in her heart.

Since then, the calm was broken in Tang Jin’s family. Worried their daughter would endure hardships in the detention center, Tang Jin’s husband could not eat anything or sleep, and always sighed, becoming thinner day by day. Seeing him in this state, plus worrying about her daughter, Tang Jin was so stressed that she often could not fall asleep. In the night, she was always woken up by nightmares. Then as soon as she thought about what her daughter was suffering, Tang Jin’s heart beat thick and then she could not fall asleep anymore, only waiting for daylight. How she was looking forward to seeing her daughter come back home.

Because the CCP police didn’t allow Tang Jin and her family to visit her daughter, Tang Jin could do nothing but count days at home during those days. She didn’t know when her daughter could come back home and how much suffering her daughter would continue to endure. However, Tang Jin’s agony could not be spoken out in this state controlled by the CCP. And she was extremely angry: It’s the law of heaven and earth that we believe in God and worship Him. And we don’t commit a crime. However, we are enduring such arrests and persecution by the CCP. As a result, such a happy family has been spoiled by it.

Forty-five days later, Tang Jin’s daughter was finally released from the detention center. Her legs were so badly swollen that she could not squat down, and her face was pale. Seeing that, Tang Jin wanted to know what cruelties her daughter had suffered in the detention center. However, her daughter did not say anything. In resignation, she had to stop asking. From a fortuitous opportunity, seeing a written testimony of her daughter overcoming the torture of the CCP, Tang Jin came to know her daughter suffered humiliation from the CCP police in the detention center. These police, like animals, stripped her daughter down and took photos, with gales of nasty laughter. How obnoxious they are! At that time, her daughter was only 21 and had not been in love yet but suffered such humiliation. Were it not for the guidance of the word of God, her daughter would not have had the courage to continue on. From her daughter’s testimony, Tang Jin also knew every time her daughter wanted to die, it was God’s loving hand that led her daughter all the time and guided her to go through that hard time. At that time, Tang Jin, with tears pouring down her face, could not help thinking of a passage of God’s word: “For thousands of years this has been the land of filth. It is unbearably dirty, misery abounds, ghosts run rampant everywhere, tricking and deceiving, making groundless accusations,^[1] being ruthless and vicious, trampling this ghost town and leaving it littered with dead bodies; the stench of decay covers the land and pervades the air, and it is heavily guarded.^[2] Who can see the world beyond the skies? The devil tightly trusses all of man’s body, it puts out both his eyes, and seals his lips firmly shut. The king of devils has rampaged for several thousand years, right up until today, when it still keeps a close watch on the ghost town, as if it were an impenetrable palace of demons; this pack of watchdogs, meanwhile, stare with glaring eyes, deeply fearful that God will catch them unawares and wipe them all out, leaving them without a place of peace and happiness. How could the people of a ghost town such as this ever have seen God? Have they ever enjoyed the dearness and loveliness of God? What appreciation have they of the matters of the human world? Who of them can understand God’s eager will? Small wonder, then, that God incarnate remains completely hidden: In a dark society such as this, where the demons are merciless and inhumane, how could the king of devils, who kills people without batting an eye, tolerate the existence of a God who is lovely, kind, and also holy? How could it applaud and cheer the arrival of God? These lackeys! They repay kindness with hate, they have long since disdained God, they abuse God, they are savage in the extreme, they have not the slightest regard for God, they plunder and pillage, they have lost all conscience, they go against all conscience, and they tempt the innocent into senselessness. Forefathers of the ancient? Beloved leaders? They all oppose God! Their meddling has left all beneath heaven in a state of darkness and chaos! Religious freedom? The legitimate rights and interests of citizens? They are all tricks for covering up sin!”

God’s word gets to the heart of the matter and reveals the evil essence of the CCP, which is an evil demon that has always been hostile to God and hated God. Since God became flesh to express the truth and do the work of salvation of mankind, many people have believed in Him. Seeing this, the CCP is very angry, because it fears that people all follow God, understand the truth, distinguish it and see through its ugly features so that no one can be deceived or controlled by it. For this reason, the CCP government builds prisons everywhere and intends to arrest all believers in God. As a result, many Christians are forced to flee, dare not to live in their houses; some are arrested and incarcerated for failure of fleeing; some are subjected to torture and cruel treatment to the point of being crippled or killed. The CCP government uses these means to treat believers in God in order that they betray God and dare not to believe in Him anymore. The CCP is really so despicable! It publicly declares to the world it allows religious freedom, but at the same time it secretly arrests believers in God. It takes advantage of its power to block people from believing in God, suppress them and restrict their freedom of religion. Obviously, the CCP is a lying horde of demons. What’s worse, the CCP police threatened and scared Tang Jin’s husband and son: “If there is someone in your family who believes in God, you will be implicated.” Under their threats and inducements, Tang Jin’s husband and son began to restrict Tang Jin and her daughter’s belief in God. However, she and her daughter did not back down, but even more saw through the evil, despicable and ugly features of the CCP as well as its essence of hating the truth. And meanwhile, they had more confidence in following God.

Several years later, Tang Jin’s daughter got married. But the CCP police’s persecution was far from over. One day in 2014, the police called Tang Jin and asked what her daughter was doing and whether her daughter was preaching the gospel outside. Hearing this, Tang Jin realized that the police did not let her daughter go, and that her daughter was still monitored and was in the danger of being captured at any time. Because of being monitored by the CCP government, her daughter could not get in touch with the brothers and sisters of the church, and could not live a life of the church. So her daughter was deeply pained, but could only pray to God silently.

In the first lunar month of 2015, it was time for the whole family to get together, but Tang Jin’s family met with separation. One day, a sister of the church took a risk to inform Tang Jin’s family that the CCP government had begun to carry out a new round of arresting believers in God who were once arrested and had their information recorded and that her daughter must leave home as soon as possible. If her daughter still stayed at home, she would be confronted with the danger of being arrested again at any time. Encountering the choice, she felt an intense battle raging in her heart: On one side was her own safety and on the other side was her baby. She was loath to part with her baby. However, when she thought of the despicable acts and cruel torture of the CCP police treating believers in God, she, in tears, nestled her ten-month-old baby in her arms, kissed its cheeks again and again, endured pains to entrust it to Tang Jin and said: “Mom, from now on, I’ll be not at home. You’ll bear a heavier burden. After knowing I’m not at home, the CCP police will certainly force you to speak out where I am. They’ll even force our family to besiege you. You must rely on God more for fear that you might fall for Satan’s trick.” After finishing the words, she dropped her eyes to her baby’s face once again. Thinking about the fact that her baby started to learn to call “Mom,” she could not help but weep tears. This sight brought pain to Tang Jin, and she fought back the sorrow in her heart and comforted her daughter: “I’ll care for the baby well. Rely on God in everything when you’re outside. I believe God will lead us.” Her daughter nodded and tore herself apart from the home. Gazing at her daughter’s receding figure, Tang Jin really wouldn’t like to be separated from her daughter, but she had to let her daughter leave. On thinking of the despicable behavior of the CCP government, she still had a lingering fear. Her daughter could not be at home and take care of the baby. She knew all of the pain was from the CCP.

One day in October 2015, the baby was in a dangerous fever and constantly cried out for her mother in the hospital. Knowing the baby was ill, Tang Jin’s daughter, who missed her baby very much, took a risk to go to the hospital secretly to see it. After the baby’s release from the hospital, Tang Jin’s daughter dared not stay at home for long, nor did she want to part from her baby so soon. Seeing her daughter was a little weak, Tang Jin said to her: “Don’t worry. Your second aunt and I took turns looking after your baby. Well, when you’re away, don’t forget to depend on God more.” Hearing the words, her daughter nodded and spoke to her: “Mom, don’t worry about me. I’ll stay with brothers and sisters, and God’s love accompanies me all the time as well. I’ll be fine.” Then her daughter left home. Looking at her daughter going farther and farther, Tang Jin clasped the baby to her chest, and could not stop her tears from falling down her face. How she wished her daughter could stay with the family and the baby could be in the mother’s company. But she knew clearly this was impossible. This state controlled by the CCP does not allow Christians to believe in God and follow God at all. She knew she could not have her daughter hurt for the sake of her will. She believed that whatever difficulties and hardships she and her daughter faced, God would lead them to get through them.

On June 29, 2017, the village cadre and two policemen came to Tang Jin’s house again. Seeing them, Tang Jin’s heart jumped: Has my daughter been arrested again? When hearing the police ask about her daughter, Tang Jin knew her daughter was not arrested and then her heart was relieved. The police told her: “If your daughter comes back on the Mid-Autumn Festival, tell her that she has to go to the police station. We’ll ask her something.” A month later, the police came to ask Tang Jin why her daughter didn’t go to the police station. Because of a long succession of interrogations of the CCP police, Tang Jin’s husband and son often forced her to get her daughter back. When she saw her husband and son were in fear of the CCP police’s despotic power and that they followed the CCP police to demand to know her daughter’s whereabouts, she felt weak inside and did not know what to do. Tang Jin knew clearly once her daughter came back, she would fall into the “tiger’s lair” again. In her weakness, Tang Jin prayed to God: “O, God! Facing the questions from my husband and son as well as the constant interference and questions from the CCP police, I feel pain in my heart and don’t know what to do. May You guide and help me.” After praying, Tang Jin saw a passage of God’s word: “Perhaps you all remember these words: ‘For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ You have all heard these words before, yet none of you understood their true meaning. Today, you are profoundly aware of their true significance. These words shall be fulfilled by God during the last days, and they shall be fulfilled in those who have been brutally persecuted by the great red dragon in the land where it lies coiled. The great red dragon persecutes God and is the enemy of God, and so, in this land, those who believe in God are thus subjected to humiliation and oppression, and these words are fulfilled in you, this group of people, as a result.”

God’s word again encouraged Tang Jin. She knew for believing in God, suffering such pain is commemorated by God. In such a state, one who believes in God will unavoidably suffer the persecution from the CCP. However, God’s wisdom is eternally exercised based on Satan’s schemes. God wants to obtain those that bear witness to Him and are of one heart and one mind with Him through the persecution of the CCP and various kinds of tribulations. This is what the CCP government has not thought of before. The CCP government only thinks about how to persecute Christians and ban their belief, but God tests their faith through its persecution. These tribulations help the maturity of their lives. After understanding God’s will, faced with questions of her family and the CCP police, as well as defamation and irony from her neighbors, Tang Jin no longer felt pain, and instead, she knew it was a rich banquet that God prepared for her. So she secretly made an oath: No matter how my family question, no matter how the CCP police interfere, I’ll face and experience it calmly.

One day, Tang Jin’s granddaughter, with a rubber band in her hand that her mother used, happily said, “Uncle, I’ve found a rubber band my mom used from the drawer. Last night I dreamed of her….” Hearing this, Tang Jin prayed for her daughter silently. Thinking of having God’s presence, she was willing to continue onward relying on God, however difficult the path was in the future.

Footnotes:

1. “Making groundless accusations” refers to the methods by which the devil harms people.

2. “Heavily guarded” indicates that the methods by which the devil afflicts people are especially vicious, and control people so much that they have no room to move.