I’m Li Xiaoli, 28 years old, live in Xiashihao Town,Guyang County, Baotou City of Inner Mongolia.
In the afternoon of June 3rd, 2011, my father and I went out looking for my mother in a rented car, who had not been home for half month. As he was delirious while driving, the car swerved off the road and rolled down along the steep slope. I was seated behind him, suddenly feeling dizzy, when woke up I found myself unable to move and he was heavily stuck under the car. This was the darkest day of my life, finally they couldn’t bring him back because of hemorrhage, so my father died on the way of finding my mother…
Till now I can remember the words my father said to me, “Xiaoli, your mother has changed since became a believer, the god is everything to her. It’s also my fault beating her in a fit of anger, do you believe she will come back with us?” I comforted him, “she will surely come back, for so many years, she’s ever really mad at you?” But he shook his head and said, “it seems like she’s determined this time, I’m afraid she will divorce me, last time she said if I don’t believe in the god she won’t live with me. So this time we have to persuade her well not to believe in whatever it is, we ordinary people just wish to live a normal life.” He kept saying that along the way…
My mother’s name is Liu Xiulan, born in 1958, three years younger than my father. They grew up in the same village, were the childhood sweethearts. They never fought, at best quarrelling, and once father caved in, my mother giggled. After the 90s, father had a job out of hometown for a few years, driving for an engineering team, leaving my mother alone at home looking after my grandparents and me. Later seeing that the housekeeping was too hard for her alone, my father came back to the village and contracted land for the planting of greenhouse vegetables with mother. They had some savings after few years, so bought an apartment in town and sent me to study in the county. In short, although our family was not very rich, not very poor either, with the hard work of my parents, we had refrigerator, color TV and lived happily together.
The start of a nightmare
However, just like the weather is unpredictable, the winter of 2009, father fell over while helping people unloading the cargo, resulting in his left leg fracture. During the period of recovering, father had very bad mood and mother had to take on all the work at home and do massage for his injured leg every night before going to bed. It was mother’s good care that cheered my father up and I was very moved by the love between them.
But during finding doctors for father in different places, my mother got to know a woman called “A Hua”. She told my mother something like “you have a husband-restraining destiny, your previous incarnation was the creditor of your husband, in this life you will suffer to pay back, maybe your whole life”. My mother only received primary school education, was very superstitious, so she was terrified and asked how to resolve it. “A Hua” said, “believe in the god with me, you will be fine, the god will protect you and all your family will get rewards, block off disasters and evil things.” In this way, mother started to fall for the cult listening to “A Hua” ’s nonsense.
At first, we had no idea she believed in the god, she didn’t say anything, acting same as before. However, around the time between New Year’s Day and Spring Festival of 2010, my mother has always been out. Father didn’t know she was a believer until the summer of 2010, his leg was fully recovered then and when he sent vegetables to the county he met with mother’s fellow believer from the same village. He asked what kind of religion she believed in, the villager said it was a new popular Christianity. Although my father was also half-educated, after all he had seen something around the world, he knew that Christianity was a lawfully permitted religion but he never heard of a new popular Christianity, and the villager couldn’t explain it well. So he was confused about this and decided to ask her clearly.
The almighty god guarantees the “peace”?
After pumping my mother for details, my father finally knew that she was a believer of Almighty God. But back then we had no idea that it was a cult, only afraid that a honest housewife like her might be fooled, it’s better not believing in any god. However, mother insisted in doing this and told us that this almighty god is the “real god”, it would create a “country of god”, the “female Christ” would give you peace and rewards. After following this “god”, any disease would disappear and any disaster would be avoided. And that “the end of the world” was about to come, only this almighty god could protect us all. I thought it ridiculous and bust into laughing after hearing it, while my father kept shaking his head, scowling.
After we knew her secret, she simply openly put their "party" several times in our home. Mother started to persuade my father and me to believe in the “god”, we didn’t agree but didn’t strongly hold her back either. During that time, I first had contact with the material sent by the Almighty God. Although had a low literacy level, mother studied it very carefully, regardless of day or night. She said she would let the “holy talk “of the “female Christ” guide her whole life. Father became increasingly fed up with all of this, “what will you eat without working? We are all going to starve.” But mother became obsessed with this and went out more often, starting to lose the personality she had used to have.
Gradually mother wouldn’t take care of father with all her heart as before and left alone the works in the field. She wouldn’t do cleanup, left the house in a mess and even didn’t have time to cook. Father had to suppress his indignation thinking of that it’s very difficult for her taking care of the whole family with all these years. So he persisted in working, though handicapped by poor health. And I just got married then and lived with my mother in law, only could help him in some housework.
In the first half of 2011, mother started to “evangelize” away from home. Once she had been out for near one month and father couldn’t stand it any longer and had a real row with her. But my mother told him, “Proselytizing one more person, one more karmic reward for us. The ‘female Christ’ knows everything, she will reward us.” Father advised her not to mess about and live a normal life. But my mother never listened and countered, “what I do is to ask for the reward for the family and guarantee the peace, can your leg recover without the god’s bless?”
Actually, father’s leg had a leftover from the injury, it hurt a lot when there was cloud and rain, but he never said a word about it. Hearing what she said he got even angrier, “my leg has not totally recovered, what’s the use of your everyday praying!” We didn’t expect these words stimulated her, she thought her heart to the god was not devout enough and willing to show her “godliness”
Taking advantage of the “Labor Day” vacation of 2011, father brought the vegetables of the greenhouse to the market for sell, and also specially bought one truck of fresh vegetables from the Province of Hebei. When putting the newly earned money into the bank, he found out there was a 10 thousand yuan of shortage in the account, and he only earned 4 thousand out of these days’ hard work. It turned out to be that my mother “donated” the money to the “god” to show her godliness. Father was shaking with anger, he had a fight with her and gave her a spank. That day mother left home with her little “evangelizing” bag. I came to console my father as soon as I knew it, I found that it has suddenly aged him enormously which made me very sad as a daughter.
Just like that, my mother has not come back for more than half month, father has been asking around and found that villager, he told us “A Hua”once had taken her to Tuyouqi of Baotou to “evangelize” and had no idea if this time went there too. Tuyouqi was over 50 kilometers away from my home, so father rented a car to look for my mother with me. He would have picked her back this time but unfortunately forever passed away for it…
