Recently, a Christian visiting a church in China, sat next to a small woman with hands so crippled that she could not even hold her hymn book. He noticed that while many of the people in the church service had Bibles, she did not seem to have one. He offered her one and could see the great joy in her eyes as she took it.

He asked about her crippled hands and was told that during the cultural revolution, Red Guards came to her house searching for Bibles, hymn books and religious material. They found her one Bible which she had hid under the cold ashes of her stove and she quickly grabbed it from them, clutching it in her hands because it was so precious to her.

The young guards laughed at her, spat at her and hit her until she could hardly stand. She cried to them, "Please don’t take my Bible. It’s all that I have to tell me about my Jesus!"

The guards were furious. They took her outside, stripped her, and put her up on a platform to shame her before the crowds. For four hours, she sat with the Bible clutched to her breast, head down as crowds of people mocked and spat on her. They thought that she was ashamed, but she was actually praying.

After refusing again to surrender her Bible to the guards, they threw her to the ground and spread her out in the dirt with hands clasped and arms stretched over her head. They used iron bars to smash her hands until they became nothing but pulp. To this very day, she cannot feed herself.

Now, some years later, her crippled hands held once again the precious book which meant everything to her. This Chinese woman was totally committed to Christ and to His Word with all of her heart..an extraordinary child of God, she is, for the cause of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Many Christians today bear the marks of being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, and indeed, many are still being persecuted even this very moment.

Two years ago, I had the great privilege of meeting a Christian Chinese woman from mainland China who now lives in America. Her name is Mary Xu. Mary was brought up in Shanghai where her father was the president of a bank. Her home was Buddhist and her mother kept a family shrine in the home.

When Mary was 14 years old she became very ill and her father mentioned this one day to his employees at the bank. One of those who heard was a secret Christian. She decided to visit the home during her lunch break and speak to Mary about Jesus. The servant let her in, but Mary was annoyed at the intrusion and sent her away.

Mary's condition worsened and one day her father announced to his employees that the doctors feared that his daughter would die. The Christian woman decided to try again. She was let in to the home and found Mary too weak to talk. She sat beside Mary and said: "They tell me you might die. You must listen to me. I want to tell you about God who loves you and who is preparing a place for you in heaven if you accept His love and put your trust in Him."
Mary told me that she was too weak to resist, so just lay there listening.

After explaining about God's love and the forgiveness that was available to Mary through Jesus' death on the cross, the woman said to Mary: "I know that you are too weak to talk, but I am going to pray a prayer in which you can accept God's love if you would like to do so. All you need to do at the end is say 'Amen'".

Mary said to me, "I wanted to believe, so I whispered 'Amen'". She then added "I was still alive the next day, and the next month. I was still alive the next year, and I am still alive today and I am 74!"

Mary told me that when she recovered, she spent time talking to the woman and eventually joined a small house church where she gained good and solid Bible teaching and grew in her love and knowledge of God.

Some years later, during the cultural revolution, Red Guards broke into the house church during a meeting and arrested all those who were present. Mary was imprisoned for 13 years in a labour camp. When she was eventually freed, she helped to lead a house church and began serving there and teaching people about the Word of God faithfully.

Today she is witnessing to Chinese people who live in the USA and sharing with them the same message of love and forgiveness that the Christian woman shared with her so many years ago. May we continue to uphold in prayer our brothers and sisters who still suffer persecution in China for the gospel.

~ Robyn Claydon