By Dujuan, Japan

I was born into a poor family in a village in rural China. Because of my family’s economic hardships, I would sometimes have to go without eating, to say nothing of snacks and toys. What’s more, all my clothes were hand-me-downs from my older sister. Because her clothes were usually too big for me, my classmates would laugh at me and refuse to play with me. I suffered greatly throughout my childhood. From that point on, I resolved to myself: When I grow up, I must make a lot of money and rise above my peers. I won’t let others look down on me again. Since my family had no money, I was forced to drop out before graduating from junior high school and work in a medicine factory in the county town. In order to make even more money, I would frequently work overtime until 9 or 10 p.m., but, despite my efforts I earned just a small pittance. At some point I heard that my sister was able to earn in five days selling vegetables what I earned in a month, so I quit my job at the medicine factory and went to sell vegetables. After a while I found that I could make even more money selling fruits, so I decided to start a fruit business. After I married my husband, we opened our own restaurant. I thought that now that I owned a restaurant, I would be able to earn even more money. Once I could earn a considerable amount of income I would naturally win the admiration and regard of my peers and, at the same time, I would also be able to live the lifestyle of an elite. However, after managing the business for a while, I found that we couldn’t make that much money. I started getting anxious and worried. When would I be able to lead a life that others would admire? Continue reading “Fortune and Misfortune” →

By Yang Mei, China

In 2007 I suddenly fell ill with chronic renal failure. When they heard the news, my Christian mother and sister-in-law, and some Catholic friends all came to preach the gospel to me. They told me that as long as I turned to the Lord, my illness would be cured. But I didn’t believe in God at all. I thought that illness could only be cured through scientific medical treatment, and that any disease that couldn’t be cured by science was incurable. After all, was there any power on earth greater than the power of science? Faith in God was just a kind of psychological crutch, and I was a dignified state school teacher, a person who was well-educated and cultured, so there was no way I’d start believing in God. As such, I turned them down and began looking around for medical treatment. Within a few years I’d been to virtually every large hospital in my home county and throughout the province, but my condition still hadn’t improved. In fact, it was getting worse, but I stubbornly clung to my own way of looking at the situation and insisted that science could change anything, that curing illness was a process that takes time. Continue reading “Returning to Life From the Brink of Death” →