By Zheng Rong, China
A Walk Down Memory Lane
One fall afternoon, the warm sunlight floods every corner of the streets and the plaza, a gentle breeze rustles the gingko trees, their golden leaves fluttering like little yellow butterflies flying off the branches and dancing with the wind. In one corner of the square, a little boy, nearly ten years old, is happily playing on a swing with the help of his parents. This scene of a happy, harmonious family is fully laid out before Zheng Rong, watching from the window of an apartment building across the way. She quietly watches as her mind travels back to the past …
Zheng Rong is a Christian. She’s had a gentle personality since she was a little girl and she and her husband loved each other very much after they were married. She got along well with her parents-in-law, their 9-year-old boy was smart and energetic and had excellent grades. Although their family life was simple and ordinary, it was very warm and happy. However, with the atheist Chinese Communist Party in power in the country, believing in and worshiping God is not allowed. The CCP madly arrests and persecutes Christians in an effort to turn China into a zone of atheism; Christians who just want to lead a simple, happy life encounter one difficulty after another.
Uninvited “Guests”
May 27, 2014 was a gray, overcast day. The swallows were flying very low, and it looked like rain. Zheng Rong was in the courtyard bringing the dry clothing in off the line when she suddenly heard the sound of a car quickly braking coming from outside. Before she even had a chance to see what was going on, four unfamiliar men burst into her home. One of them quickly strode over to her and said coldly: “We’re from the police station. We’ve heard you believe in Almighty God, so we wanted to come find you to figure out what’s going on. Come to the station with us!” Hearing this, Zheng Rong couldn’t help but feel anxious, thinking: “So they’re CCP police here to look for me. This atheist party has always been an enemy to God, and ever since God appeared and began working they’ve been madly opposing His work and brutally persecuting Christians. As soon as they get their eyes fixed on a Christian, that person won’t get a single day of peace again. But in my faith, whether it’s going to gatherings or performing my duty, I’ve always been very careful about my comings and goings. How do they know about my faith? Could someone have reported me?” It was so sudden that Zheng Rong hadn’t prepared herself at all; she felt panicked, and all she could do was plea to God nonstop to give her wisdom and courage so that she could calmly face the police interrogation. Just then, she thought of these words from God, “Do not fear, Almighty God of hosts will surely be with you; He has your back and He is your shield” (“Chapter 26” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These words very clearly came to the front of her mind, giving her confidence and courage; she calmed down considerably with the soothing of God’s words. She thought: “Yes! God is the Ruler of all things and His authority surpasses all. No matter how savage Satan is, it is still subject to God’s orchestrations and the police won’t dare do anything to me unless God permits it.” Thinking that God was with her, that He firmly had her back, she no longer felt afraid.
Zheng Rong’s husband came back from buying produce just then. Seeing several burly, fierce-looking unfamiliar men standing in the courtyard, he rushed to ask: “Who are you? What are you doing here?” One officer gave him a disdainful up-and-down look, and said: “We’re from the police station. We heard that your wife believes in Almighty God, so we’re here to find out what’s going on. She’s coming with us.” Hearing this, he asked, uncomprehendingly: “Her faith doesn’t break any laws. Why are you taking her with you?” An officer barked back at him: “We have to justify our reasons to you? Get out of the way!” Not giving him a chance to respond, the other two officers forced Zheng Rong into their car.
The officers drove off, leaving Zheng Rong’s husband standing there in the courtyard, stunned.
The CCP’s Sinister Plot
With a crackling of thunder, raindrops started coming down and the sky became even gloomier.
Zheng Rong sat in the car, feeling some trepidation. She didn’t know how the officers were going to treat her; all she could do was silently call out to God to protect her from becoming a Judas.
The officers took her to the interrogation room after they arrived at the station, and asked her: “Why do you believe in God? Who converted you? Who is your leader? Where do you hold gatherings?” Zheng Rong refused to say a word. An officer then yelled at her: “We’ll still convict you even if you don’t say anything! This is an atheist Party and we’ve never believed there is a God; we absolutely do not allow people to believe in God. You’d better tell us what we want to know, otherwise we’ll place your case on file and thus your child can’t go to school. Your husband will get pulled into it too, and you’ll do prison time. All you have to do is give us the name of one other believer and we won’t start a file for you.” Zheng Rong thought of her son and husband being dragged into this because of her faith and felt her heart weaken. She thought: “This pack of demons are so despicable, so shameless. They’ll stop at nothing. If they really don’t let my son go to school what will he do in the future? Maybe I should just …” A passage of God’s words suddenly sprung to mind then: “I will give no more mercy to those who gave Me no jot of loyalty in times of tribulation, for My mercy only extends so far. Furthermore, I have no liking for anyone who has once betrayed Me, much less do I like to associate with those who sell out the interests of their friends. This is My disposition, regardless of who the person may be” (“You Ought to Prepare a Sufficiency of Good Deeds for Your Destination” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words were a reminder for Zheng Rong. She realized: “God most detests those who betray Him. The CCP wants to use my child and husband to force me to sell out my brothers and sisters, to become a shameless Judas, betraying God and losing my chance at salvation. The CCP is so despicable—I absolutely can’t sell out my brothers and sisters!” After that, no matter how they interrogated or intimidated her, she didn’t utter a peep. Seeing she wasn’t answering their questions, the police found another officer to come play the “good guy” and say some nice things to her to entice her to give up information on her brothers and sisters. She continued to pray to God and lean on Him, and saw through Satan’s trickery. She didn’t say anything.
Seeing none of their tricks were working, the CCP police tried something else. At around 5:00 p.m., they got her sister-in-law to come try and convince Zheng Rong. She said: “Zheng Rong, just tell them everything you know, then you’ll be able to go home. Even if you’re not thinking of yourself, you have to think of your family and your child’s future….” Zheng Rong clearly saw that her sister-in-law was being used as a police mouthpiece to try to persuade her, so she refused on the spot, saying: “We believers in God just read God’s words and pursue the truth so we can live out a human likeness. We’re on the right path in life and we’ve done nothing criminal. There’s nothing to say!” The police saw they couldn’t get any information out of Zheng Rong, so in the end they had her husband pay a fine for the crime of “disrupting social order” and then let her go back home.
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