At a noon of July 2014, a message spread like wildfire in the Qixiaying East Village of Zhuozi County of Inner Mongolia: Lan came back and her disease was cured! The "glasses" and "matchmakers" in the village were constantly and mysteriously talking to the onlookers about something...
Lan is the nickname of 61-year-old Li Guilan. In 1983, Li Guilan married her husband Zhang Sangou and they lived in Jinpen Village of Chayouzhong County. A few years later, they had a son and a daughter, who were looked after by her mother-in-law Liang Sannu. Her husband could repair agriculture machinery and he had a part-time job at a goldmine. They had a good life. When Li Guilan finished her farm work, she cleaned the house and took care of her family.
In 2009, Li Guilan suffered from hypertension. She usually took some antihypertensive drugs and there was little harm to her. Her husband Zhang Sangou took care of all things for the family and all her children got married and had their own careers. One day, when Li Guilan was visiting her neighbors in the village, she encountered her childhood friend Zhang Xiuyun(Xiuxiu). Zhang Xiuyun told her that she was a “gospeller”, and she could cure any disease, including her hypertension, and that Lan did not need to take any medicine. What was even more amazing was that there was a kind of "life food" which is inexhaustible. What a wonderful thing for Li Guilan! Li Guilan came home and told her mother-in-law (Liang Sannu), who was a Christian and doubted what Li Guilan said. Li Guilan told her husband Zhang Sangou, and again, her husband criticised her and said "don't listen to Xiuxiu! She thinks she is a god!" Lan said: "She may cure my illness." Her husband did not answer her. A few days later, while Zhang Sangou was not at home, Xiuxiu went to Li Guilan’s (Lan)home to give a sermon. Xiuxiu mysteriously told Lan: "as long as you join the Sanshu Christ (also known as Mentuhui), you don't have to go to the hospital for your hypertension, you don’t need to take medicine, and your illness will be cured. It will also bring many benefits to your family.” Xiuxiu also gave Lan an MP3, and Lan wore earphones everyday to listen to the audio recordings of “Those Believers are not Afraid of Difficulties”, “As Long As You Rely on the Cross”, "There Will Be A Highway There"... Slowly, it seemed like something had been learned... Lan ignored her family and became a true believer in the winter of 2010.
From 2011, Li Guilan(Lan) followed Zhang Xiuyun (Xiuxiu) and went out early and came back late every day and preached about the impending “doomsday”. In order to eat the "blessing food"at an early date, she strictly ate “only two liang of grain in one day”. Lan also secretly bought a small copier behind her family’s back, and distributed copies of "The Sparkling Spirit Journey”, "One Hundred Spiritual Songs” and other printing materials to her" sisters", helped to constantly enlarged their group and held "family reunions". Her strange behavior slowly elicited the suspicion of her mother-in-law Liang Sannu, and she found that she always stayed in the wing house to do something in secrecy. Lan began to be cold to her family. She ignored her son and daughter-in-law who were working in Qixiaying, Zhuozi County and only came back on Sundays. Her daughter also began to suspect that her mother was suffering from Alzheimer's disease or depression.
For a while, Lan was not shy from her family members and called her “sisters” to have "reunions" at home. She also brought in her mother-in-law and asked her mother-in-law to believe in "Sanshu". Later, she went out to a "reunion" for a month. Her husband, Zhang Sangou, had to close his repair shop and look for his wife. Her husband was very concerned that she refused to take antihypertensive drugs, because her disease became more and more serious and she often fainted. Because of the tinnitus caused by hypertension, she thought she was going to heaven while sitting still the whole day. The husband had to close his shop for his wife, and the family moved to Qixiaying Town of Zhuohe County, where her son was working.
She was very unhappy with her husband's decision to move. At first, she remained motionless at home. In order to relieve the stress and burden on their children, her husband continued with his farm machinery repair business. The family thought that moving could change Lan. However, after less than a month , she tried hard to find her "sisters", and continued to develop new members. Every day, she gathered her “sisters” to pray for her family and her health in the cool room of her house. She treated her son and daughter as "enemies", because her son and daughter often tried to persuade her to go to the hospital. She often said that she was under the protection of her god and would be cured, naturally.
On May 1, 2014, her son and daughter came back home for a holiday and hoped the family could have a reunion dinner, but she persisted to pray in the warehouse next to her husband's farm machinery repair station. When her families found her, she was unconscious. They called for the ambulance and sent her to Hohhot Affiliated Hospital. She was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage, but her life was not in danger thanks to the efforts of the doctors. She could not speak clearly and had a little hemiplegia. After waking up, Lan did not speak for several days. At first, she kept crying, then she told her husband that she wanted to call one of the "sisters", but the “sister” didn't answer the phone. She got mad and asked her son to call all her “sisters” in turn, but still no answer.
Every day, she watched her husband, son and daughter take care of her. Her husband gave her massages every day and sat with her. After two months’ treatment, her condition improved, but her actions were still impared. Her son and daughter also cared a lot about her. Every day, they took her out in a wheelchair and told her stories about themselves when they were children, and she cried as she listened. The patients of the same ward often persuaded her. Perhaps because of her illness or because she was moved by her family’s care, Lan started to think about something. On July 13, she held her children’s hands with tears in her eyes and said: “let's go home and have a good life...” On the day when she returned home, not one "sister" came to see her, and the villagers often saw her husband take her out in the wheelchair and talk to her.
(Editor in charge: Yuan Jun)
