Hou Yunxing lives in Shuanghe village, Huangying County, Wulong District. He was a happily married man with two daughters and two sons. However in spring 2007, abetted and tempted by cult worshippers during his stay in other counties, he took part in the group activities of the Eastern Lightning cult. Worshippers publicize “Eastern Lightning” through manipulation and entice other bewitched villagers to take part in their activities, which does great harm to people’s property and security. This cult brought inerasable shadows to Hou’s family, resulting in hatred between Hou and his children and nearly cost the life of his wife.
When his wife was seriously ill, he sought treatment everywhere and spent all his savings, but still his wife didn’t get any better and his family was in extreme poverty. One day, an Eastern Lightening worshipper from Nanchuan bumped into him on the street and began chatting with him. He told the worshipper about his wife’s illness, disabilities for labor and need for care, and that he had spent a fortune whch left his family in great poverty. A drowning man clutches any straw. The worshipper from Nanchuan began to take advantage of his anxiety and tried to imbue his mind with the teachings of Eastern Lightening. He said, "For all those suffering from diseases, as long as they believe in our god, they can recover without medicine or any medical care or cost. All they need to do is to pray three times a day, have the food of “life” and have faith in our god. In this way, your wife can have herself cured and you could even become government officials, and bring wealth to your family." At that time Hou was completely bewitched and lost his mind, so the worshipper took the chance to manipulate him and even began to threaten him. “If you don’t follow me to believe in our god, misfortune will fall upon you. Your wife will never get cured, or even die. You will also become greatly ill and your children will have accidents. It won’t be long until your family is totally broken. “Under such threats, Hou could only do as he was told and joined the Eastern Lightening cult. Then he followed the cult worshippers in Nanchuan to publicize the cult in places such as Wulong and Guizhou and befog people’s minds. What’s more, he left his wife to her own illness. On one occasion, his wife got sicker and nearly passed away, but he still did nothing. It was his son that took his mother to hospital and saved her life.
Seeing Hou obsessed with practicing and publicizing the cult and not doing farm work or caring for his family, Hou’s daughter-in-law began to contemplate how to save him from his obsessions and make him return to his normal life.
“This god you are talking about has done us no good, brought us no food or water, and distracted us from normal life. Can’t you see that our land is now covered with weeds, left uncultivated, and our family is getting ever poorer?” However, he wouldn’t listen to his daughter-in-law. He acted stubbornly, and even tried to convince her to join the cult.
With such persuasion having no effect, she thought of another way to change his mind. “If you insist on practicing this cult and not keeping away from these people, no one will take care of you when you are too old to take care of yourself. Then, no one will take you to hospital when you are sick and you will be all alone.” Thus Hou began to think twice. He realized that he would be so lonely if no one was there to care for him, and that all those years of cult worshipping hadn’t done him any good and almost cost the life of his wife. His children also became estranged from him. Seeing the his stubbornness soften, his daughter-in-law made more efforts to persuade him by showing him all that had happened to the cult worshippers around them. Families were broken and had fallen into poverty step by step, and some members were even dead. Listening to all this, Hou finally came to his right mind. He said, “I finally realize that ever since I started to believe in this cult, my wife hasn’t recovered and my family has not become happier. And this evil cult has destroyed so many families I know. I won't practice it again. ”
With the earnest and patient persuasion by his daughter-in-law, Hou finally made up his mind to cut off contact with the other cult worshippers. To show his determination, he changed his cell phone and number, and kept himself away from those people. He returned to himself and to his family.
His children were all delighted by his decisions. “We finally have him back.” They said. Each child took out some of their savings and borrowed some money from the bank. Together they built a 2-acre cold-water fishing pond with their own quota of land and good cold-water resources.
Hou made use of his spare time to take part in aquaculture training courses. During the courses, he learned and took notes conscientiously. He also bought some learning materials for fish farming and grasped the techniques. Now his cold-water fish are growing strongly, with the big ones reaching 5 to 6lbs. The total yield per acre is around 500 to 800lbs. With a unit price of 15 yuan per lb, the total annual revenue for this pond is about 20,000 yuan.
Ever since Hou cut contact with Eastern Lightening, he devoted himself to fish farming. With a stable family income, his wife was able to get cured and recovered, which brought great delight to his children. Now Hou lives a happy and loving life. He talks about the evilness of the cult to everyone he comes across. (Edited by Lu Yuan)
