By Ye Hui, China

One morning, in November 2007, while we were gathering at Sister Liu Hua’s house, more than a dozen police officers suddenly burst into the yard, and before we could react, they rushed into the house shouting, “Don’t move!” It was all so chaotic, and I was extremely frightened, so I kept praying to God. The police officers rummaged through the house. Before long, they’d turned the place upside down and found the books and DVDs of God’s words stored at Liu Hua’s home. Then they quickly searched us by force, and found materials on the church’s membership numbers and finances in my pocket. I was really worried, afraid that other brothers and sisters would be implicated, so I silently prayed to God, asking Him to protect them. At this point, one of the police officers grabbed Liu Hua and asked, “Are there any more books or church funds in your house?” When she didn’t answer, the officer, ignoring her old age, shoved her violently, and Liu Hua fell heavily to the ground and lost consciousness. I saw Liu Hua lying motionless on the ground, her face pale, and I wanted to run over and help her up, but unexpectedly, two officers grabbed my arms and dragged me to a car. Other officers went to drag out Liu Hua, and seeing her unconscious on the ground, they went on to arrest others. I thought, “The Communist Party hates God, and once they capture someone who preaches the gospel, they will torture them. Some are beaten and disabled, others are sentenced to jail, with key leaders and workers in particular being beaten to death without any repercussions. Now that I’ve been arrested, and they found the materials on the church’s membership numbers and finances on me, they will surely think I’m a church leader, and won’t let me off easily.” I was pretty scared, not knowing what kind of torture the police would use on me, and if I couldn’t endure it and became a Judas, it would be an offense against God’s disposition. I couldn’t become a Judas. I kept praying to God, “God, I’m so afraid right now, I don’t know how the police will treat me. Please protect me and give me faith. I am willing to stand firm in my testimony!” After praying, I thought of a passage of God’s words: “When you face suffering, you must be able to lay aside concern for the flesh and to not make complaints against God. When God hides Himself from you, you must be able to have the faith to follow Him, to maintain your previous love without allowing it to falter or dissipate. No matter what God does, you must let Him orchestrate as He wishes and be willing to curse your own flesh rather than make complaints against Him. When you are faced with trials, you must be willing to endure the pain of giving up what you love, and be willing to weep bitterly, to satisfy God. Only this is true love and faith” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement). God’s words brought much peace to my heart. God allows suffering and trials to come upon us to perfect our faith. When arrested and persecuted, I was cowardly and afraid of torture, and I saw that my faith in God wasn’t genuine. I shouldn’t consider my flesh any longer; no matter what kind of torture the police used on me, I had to rely on God to stand firm in my testimony, and even if I had to die, I would never become a Judas.

When we arrived at the police station, two male officers interrogated me aggressively, “Who is the church’s leader? Where is the church’s money?” They questioned me until 8 p.m., and when they saw I wasn’t saying anything, they transported me to a detention center. It was really cold at that time of year, and two female officers forcibly stripped me naked and searched me, then locked me and two other sisters in a room without letting us eat, giving us only a thin blanket, and harshly said, “You can all go freeze to death! Who said you could follow Almighty God? Don’t even think about eating while you’ve still got that faith of yours!” That night, the three of us quietly comforted and encouraged each other. We understood that the arrest and persecution were God’s trial, and that we needed to testify for God. No matter how the police tortured us, even if they beat us to death, we would never make a compromise with Satan! We gained faith and strength, and although we were cold and hungry, it didn’t seem so unbearable.

The next day, the police interrogated me. One officer fiercely jabbed at my head and said, “Who’s the leader of your church, hag? Who gave you the financial documents for the church? If you tell us, we’ll release you today, but if you don’t tell us anything, you’ll really be in for it!” Facing their relentless questioning, I kept praying to God inside, asking God to protect my heart. Seeing that I wasn’t saying anything, one of the officers got infuriated and said, “If you don’t talk, we have ways to torture you! We’ll sentence you to ten years!” Another said, “I’ll send you to the Siberia of China, to give you a taste of what it’s like to suffer there. We’ll see how stubborn you are then!” They kept trying to make me answer and to tempt me. I just prayed and relied on God in my heart, and didn’t fall into their trap. At 8 a.m. on the third day, four officers called me out to take my photo. One officer, with a fake smile, said, “Do you know why we’re taking your photo? You eat the Communist Party’s food but you don’t believe in the Communist Party and instead believe in God and preach the gospel. If everyone starts believing in God now, who’s going to believe in the Communist Party? You’re opposing the Communist Party! With your enthusiasm for preaching the gospel, you deserve ten years in prison. We’ll put your photo on TV for everyone to see, and make you too ashamed to show your face in public!” After saying this, he smirked and yanked me by my arm to forcefully take my photo. I was furious but also quite worried, thinking, “If the police broadcast the fact that I was arrested for my faith on TV and rile up the public about it, what will my friends and relatives think of me? My neighbors might ridicule me. How would I be able to show my face in public? Would my children be ashamed of me and reject me?” These thoughts made me feel completely drained. I realized that my heart had drifted far from God, so I quickly prayed to God, asking Him to protect my heart. At this time, I thought of these words of God: “There is not one person among you who is protected by the law—you are, instead, sanctioned by the law. Even more problematic is that people do not understand you: Be it your relatives, your parents, your friends, or your colleagues, none of them understand you. When you are abandoned by God, it is impossible for you to continue living on earth, but even so, people cannot bear to be away from God, which is the significance of God’s conquest of people, and is the glory of God. What you have inherited this day surpasses that of the apostles and prophets throughout the ages and is greater even than that of Moses and Peter. Blessings cannot be obtained in a day or two; they must be earned through many prices. Which is to say, you must possess a love that has undergone refinement, you must possess great faith, and you must have the many truths that God requires you to attain; what is more, you must turn toward justice, without being cowed or evasive, and must have a God-loving heart that is constant unto death. You must have resolve, changes must occur in your life disposition, your corruption must be healed, you must accept all of God’s orchestrations without complaint, and you must be submissive even unto death. This is what you ought to attain, this is the final aim of God’s work, and it is what God asks of this group of people” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Is the Work of God As Simple As Man Imagines?). God’s words made me understand that the Communist Party’s arrests and persecution of Christians, and its attempts to create public opinion to slander and attack us, are meant to force us to betray God. Wasn’t I falling into Satan’s scheme by being negative and pained because I was afraid of being ridiculed? Being arrested and humiliated for believing in God is being persecuted for righteousness, and that’s a glorious thing, but I was afraid of being mocked. Didn’t this show that I couldn’t tell good from bad? I’d enjoyed so much of the watering and provision of God’s words, and now that God needed me to testify, I was considering my flesh and concerned about vanity and my pride. I was truly lacking in conscience! Thinking of this, I felt deeply remorseful and thought, “No matter what they do to me today, even if they broadcast my photo on TV to slander me and make people ridicule and reject me, I will still stand firm in my testimony and never betray God!”

After the photo was taken, the police took me back to the interrogation room. One officer took the documents about the church’s membership numbers and finances from my bag and threw them onto the table, glaring at me and shouting, “Today you must explain clearly where these things came from! If you don’t speak, you’ll get a ten-year sentence!” Seeing that I wasn’t answering, he fiercely jabbed my head with his finger and said, “You old bag, I’ve seen many like you. If you don’t confess today, you’re risking what little life you’ve got left! We’ve got five teams rotating to interrogate you. We’ll see who can outlast whom!” This made me feel scared, as I thought about how some brothers and sisters had been tortured with bamboo sticks under their fingernails and others had been force-fed pepper water after being arrested. I wondered if they would do the same to me if I remained silent. If they tortured me and put me in jail for several years, would I be able to endure it? I was over 50 years old, and my health wasn’t good; what if they tortured me to death? I kept praying to God in my heart, asking Him to give me strength. At that moment, I thought of some of God’s words: “The utmost faith and love are required from us in this stage of work. We may stumble from the slightest carelessness, for this stage of work is different from all the previous ones: What God is perfecting is people’s faith, which is both invisible and intangible. What God does is convert words to faith, to love, and to life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Path … (8)). God’s words gave me faith and strength. No matter what kind of suffering or trial I faced, I had to rely on my faith and stand firm in my testimony. Only in this way could I be perfected by God. I thought about Job’s suffering under Satan’s temptation. When he lost his vast herds of cattle and sheep, his immense wealth, and his children, and his whole body was covered in painful sores, Job still had faith in God. He preferred to curse his own flesh rather than complain about God, and he continued to praise God’s name, thus standing firm in his testimony, humiliating Satan, and receiving God’s approval and blessings. My being captured and persecuted was Satan tempting me, and it was also God trying and testing me. I had to follow Job’s example and not complain about God, even if it meant dying, and I had to rely on God to stand firm in my testimony and shame Satan. From then on, no matter how the police interrogated me, I didn’t say anything. Seeing that they couldn’t get anything from me, the police told another team, “Find a way to pry her mouth open, there’s quite a lot of money on these documents. Make her confess the details on the church’s money and leaders. Don’t let her sleep until she talks!” The second team of police consisted of two young men. They stood on either side of me and pounded my shoulders hard with their fists, demanding to know who the church leaders were. I felt a bit faint, sitting on a stool, trembling all over, and unable to speak. They didn’t let up and continued to pound me with their fists. After a while, the chief of the Public Security Bureau came in, grinding his teeth, and said, “You still haven’t confessed after all this time? Who gave you the church’s financial documents? If you don’t tell us today, you’ll be in for it!” Hearing this, my heart pounded, and I quickly prayed to God, “God, it seems like they won’t let me go. I can’t overcome this on my own, I’m willing to rely on You. No matter how they torture me, I will never be a Judas!” At that moment, I suddenly felt my stomach churning and began to vomit. The police, seeing that I was vomiting all over the place, moved away. I seized the opportunity to grab the documents on the church’s membership numbers and finances from the table and used them to wipe myself all over. Then I threw them on the ground and stomped on them to ruin them, which made the police furious and turn pale. At that moment, the chief of the Public Security Bureau received a phone call, informing him that his mother-in-law had passed away and that he needed to rush home, so they had to stop the interrogation. I knew this was God’s protection and I was deeply grateful to Him. The police interrogated me a total of eight times, but they didn’t get any information from me, and so eventually, they sent me to a detention house.

At the detention house, two female officers took me to a small room and berated me, “We’re going to peel your skin off, you old hag!” Then they took scissors and cut off each button from my clothes. Next, they stripped me and threw away my shoes. After the inspection, they made me walk barefoot across a courtyard to another room. I felt utterly humiliated, and was very angry and distressed, so I kept praying to God. I thought of a passage of God’s words: “It is tremendously difficult for God to carry out His work in the land of the great red dragon—but it is through this difficulty that God does one stage of His work, making manifest His wisdom and His wondrous deeds, and using this opportunity to make this group of people complete. It is through people’s suffering, through their caliber, and through all the satanic dispositions of the people of this filthy land that God does His work of purification and conquest, so that, from this, He may gain glory, and so that He may gain those who will bear witness to His deeds. Such is the entire significance of all the sacrifices that God has made for this group of people” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Is the Work of God As Simple As Man Imagines?). The enlightenment of God’s words made me understand that in being captured and humiliated, although my flesh suffered a bit and my pride was damaged, this was suffering for the sake of righteousness and for the sake of gaining the truth, and that this suffering was valuable and meaningful. Being persecuted also helped me gain discernment and see more clearly the great red dragon’s wickedness and shamelessness, and I came to abhor and reject it from my heart. Thinking of this, I no longer felt ashamed, and I resolved to stand firm in my testimony to shame Satan.

After being detained for thirty days in the detention house, the police charged me with “disturbing public order” and sentenced me to one year of labor re-education. In the labor camp, I was in a room of about 10 square meters crammed with 20 people, and work began every morning at 6 a.m. The police constantly assigned us tasks, and if we didn’t complete them, we weren’t allowed to eat or sleep, and we had to work overtime at night. Whether it was day or night, whenever we were called to move something, we had to go immediately, carrying 60 to 70 pounds of items up to the third floor by ourselves, and if we moved slowly, the police would yell at us and berate us. By the time I reached the second floor, I was unable to move and I’d fall at each step, and I had to inch my way up to the third floor. I ended up exhausted, drenched in sweat, and with my legs weak each time, and after finishing, I had no time to catch my breath before immediately having to do other work. I worked like my life depended on it every day, fearing punishment or an extended sentence if I didn’t complete the tasks, often ending up with headaches and dizziness, and nearly fainting on several occasions. After working all day, I had to stand guard for two hours at night without dozing off, leaning against the wall, or moving around freely, and any violations resulted in punishment and scolding. When it finally came time to sleep, sleeping was also a torment, as four of us had to squeeze onto a one-meter-wide bed, and I’d have to squeeze into a small gap to barely lie down, unable to turn or move, as the other inmates would shout at me for any movement. My legs would hang out of the bed, cramping up in the freezing cold. I also often had nightmares about being captured or interrogated and woke up in a cold sweat. We were always hungry, and when it came time to eat, those of us who believed in God received only thin, watery food, without any oil at all. In the labor camp, each day felt like a year. Every day, I thought, “When will these dark and miserable days come to an end?” I felt quite weak, so I prayed to God. I thought of these words of God: “No matter how God works, and no matter your environment, you are able to pursue life and seek the truth, and seek knowledge of God’s work, and have an understanding of His actions, and you are able to act according to the truth. Doing so is what it is to have true faith, and doing so shows that you have not lost faith in God. You can only have true faith in God if you are able to persist in pursuing the truth through refinement, if you are able to truly love God and do not develop doubts about Him, if no matter what He does you still practice the truth to satisfy Him, and if you are able to seek in the depths for His intentions and be considerate of His intentions” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement). “Have you ever accepted the blessings that you were given? Have you ever sought the promises that were made for you? You will surely, under the guidance of My light, break through the stranglehold of the forces of darkness. You will surely not, in the midst of darkness, lose the guidance of My light. You will surely be the masters of all creation. You will surely be overcomers before Satan. You will surely, at the downfall of the kingdom of the great red dragon, stand up amid the myriad throngs as proof of My victory. You will surely stand firm and unwavering in the land of Sinim. Through the sufferings you endure, you will inherit My blessings, and will surely radiate My glory throughout the entire universe” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Words to the Entire Universe, Chapter 19). God’s words really comforted and encouraged me. An overcomer is someone who, amidst persecution and tribulation, can still practice the truth, overcome Satan, and bear testimony for God. But I became negative and weak at just a little suffering. How could I overcome Satan like this? Being able to suffer these hardships and have the opportunity to bear witness for God was God exalting and blessing me. With this in mind, I felt that this suffering was valuable and meaningful, and I was willing to submit and rely on God to experience it. In this way, by relying on prayer and the guidance of God’s words, I got through a year in prison. By the time I left the labor camp, I had lost over thirty pounds and was left with aftereffects in my hands.

After leaving the labor camp, the Communist Party didn’t loosen their surveillance over me, and they placed an informant in the village just to watch me, to see if I was still believing in God or attending gatherings. I lived a life as if confined within a picture frame, unable to attend gatherings or preach the gospel, so I had no choice but to leave home to do my duties. During those years, people from the police station often came to my home to interrogate my husband about my whereabouts, and they often called my son and daughter-in-law, urging them to come find me. One day, my daughter-in-law met me on the street and insisted that I come home with her. When we got there, my son, with tears in his eyes, said, “The police station keeps calling when you’re not home, we can’t get any peace! We know that your faith in God is a good thing, but the Communist Party opposes it, and if you continue to believe in God, they won’t let our children attend school, and our lives will become unbearable. You’ve got to choose, your God or this family?” Hearing this, I thought, “If I continue to believe in God and preach the gospel, my relationship with my son and daughter-in-law will collapse, and they won’t care for me in the future. What will I do when I’m old?” I prayed to God in my heart. At this moment, I thought of these words of God: “When God and Satan do battle in the spiritual realm, how should you satisfy God, and how should you stand firm in your testimony to Him? You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God). Through God’s words, I understood His intention. The circumstances I was facing were a test, and I had to stand on God’s side and satisfy Him. My son and daughter-in-law were persecuting and obstructing me, but the real culprit was the Communist Party, trying to use these tricks to force me to betray God. I couldn’t let Satan’s schemes succeed, and I had to rely on God to stand firm in my testimony and shame Satan. No matter what my life will be like or whether my son will care for me, it is all in God’s hands, and I am willing to rely on Him to experience it. I knew that I couldn’t practice my faith and do my duties at home, so I found a way to leave home and continue doing my duties.

The great red dragon has been pursuing me for many years, and the more it persecutes me, the more I hate and reject it from the bottom of my heart, and the more I remain steadfast in my faith, follow God, and do my duties. Thanks be to God!