My family lives in the suburbs of Baotou city. My husband comes from Bameng, our daughter is 19 years old and we earn money by doing odd jobs.
Kind “Father”
One night in July 2013, I was exposed to the wind while sleeping. The next morning, my eyes and mouth were crooked and my face couldn’t move. The doctor said it was facial paralysis caused by a stroke. I received acupuncture and drank traditional Chinese medicine. One month passed and a lot of money was spent, but nothing changed. I began to ask about folk prescriptions and visited some small clinics.
While I was having a headache due to my facial paralysis, a relative with the surname of Wang from Bameng came to Baotou and stayed in our home. After she heard about my illness, she told me a free and good therapy to cure it. I clutched at this apparent life-saving straw and asked what it was. She said that as long as I believed in “Three-redemption Christ” and prayed for mercy, my condition would improve. She said that she had been a believer for two years and caught no illness during that time. I wanted to have a try since it was free. I agreed to believe in “Three-redemption Christ”. Wang said, “It’s the god’s mercy to cure illness. You should be loyal, cry and beg with me. You should insist on praying every day and the effect will come.” Then she took out a piece of white cloth with a red cross on it, fixed it on a wall and covered her head with another piece of white cloth. She knelt down and put her hands together. I followed and prayed with her, “A new sister has come to seek mercy from the Father. Please help my sister, cure her illness, evict the spirits and let her recover.” “Holy and pure. As God Father sees good in everything, we will see in the good direction. Amen!”
Following “Father”
Before leaving, Wang left me with a book of “Hundred Spirit Songs”, asking me to sing those songs every day. She told me not to stop praying and forget the blessings of God. If I insisted on believing in “Three-redemption Christ”, God would promise peace and happiness for my whole family. After that, I prayed each day. My anxiety was relieved. One month later, my stiff face muscles becme more flexible. I was so happy that I told Wang about this. Wang was happy for me and sent me a book named “Glittery Spiritual Road”. She encouraged me to copy the content of the book and asked me to eat “life food”, which would enhance my spiritualism. Later, with her guidance, I learned nine tasks of the spiritual road. I prayed, sang spiritual songs and danced heaven’s dances every day. I recited “Glittery Spiritual Road”, sought blessings and took part in rituals with Wang. I was so busy doing those tasks that my family complained a lot. I didn’t care because I felt like a door to a new world was open for me.
As requested by Wang, I told my story to other women and persuaded them to believe in “Three-redemption Christ”. Gradually, more and more sisters became followers. They also hoped for blessings and protection from God and to be without any illness or disaster. Wang asked me to be a leader of those new believers. I was excited and felt my life was so meaningful. In 2014, I resigned from my job as a supermarket cashier. I called for gatherings every day, exchanged experiences, made witnesses, sang spiritual songs and distributed blessing food with other sisters. However, our families opposed us. On several occasions, husbands of sisters came to my house and dragged them away. My husband and daughters also opposed us. My husband said, “It’s OK that that you did those thing alone before, but now you quit your job and bring strangers home to read odd things. What sort of place has our home become!” My daughters said, “How can you eat only 50 grams of food? You are so thin and we are worried.”
Greedy “Father”
However, they couldn’t stop me from being loyal to Father God. Besides the nine tasks, I turned in my savings as a “contribution” on many occasions. In June 2014, when it was time to pay rent, I couldn’t afford it because I had just turned in a “contribution”. The owner then turned to my husband. My husband asked me after coming back home, “How could it be? I gave all the money I earned to you. I asked you to save it except for daily expenses. We should have tens of thousands of RMB. The money is for the dowries of our daughters. Where did it go?” I answered, “The more I contribute, the more blessings we will get. With protection from Father God, what’s the use of money?” My husband was angry. “It’s OK to believe but how could you give our money to others? How can we live without money? You are really obsessed. If you don’t stop, I will leave you.” I argued, “I didn’t spend the money for wrong purposes. I contributed it for our family. Why don’t you feel grateful?” After that, we didn’t speak to each other anymore.
Cult “Father”
In August 2016, during a gathering and prayer meeting in my house, a group of policemen came and took us to a police station. They took all our books and notes and interviewed us. They told us that “Three-redemption Christ” was a cult banned by the state. Altough the teachings of this cult came mainly from the Bible, they were distorted. Most of the believers were deceived like me. I argued that my facial paralysis was cured by “Father God”. A policeman laughed and said, “I guess your money was also taken by Father God.” He said that, because I was young and had received treatment for a month, my facial paralysis had been relieved. At that time, I understood that “Three-redemption Christ” and praying relieved my mental pressure. For those reasons, I became well. The cult lied when it said that disease could be cured without spending money. Its true purpose was to enroll you and get your money. I woke up to reality and said to him, “Since it’s a cult, I will not believe in it. I will not do illegal things. My family needs me. I don’t want it fall apart. I’m lucky to hear the truth from you, otherwise all my money would be by grabbed by it.”
(Editor in charge: Cai Hong)
