In March 2016, Xiao Zhou quit university without telling her parents about it. As a student at a key university, she achieved outstanding academic results in her study and got an offer for postgraduate study right out of undergrad. But just three months before her graduation, she withdrew privately from the university, giving up the certificate of graduation and bachelor’s degree she was about to obtain.
After quitting university, Xiao Zhou gave a call to his father Lao Zhou and lied that she was busy preparing for graduation. From then on, she disappeared without a trace and no one knew where she went. It wasn’t until three years later that the father and daughter met again. In June 2019, a criminal case related to the “Church of Almighty God” (CAG) organization was cracked, which made Xiao Zhou appear again after vanishing for a long time. It turned out that Xiao Zhou who had been influenced by her mother fell into the quagmire of the cult.
In December 2019, a CCTV Program, "Waiting For Me", exposed the case of the CAG organization’s poisoning and harming society.
Mother and daughter bewitched by a cult
The “Church of Almighty God” was founded in the 1980s, trying to attract its believers in the name of “Christianity” and control them through strict and covert communication channels as well as illegal means such as threats of violence. Besides, through brainwashing, it deluded its followers into giving up their family affection and devoting them to cult organizations. In 2014, an innocent woman was beaten to death by six CAG followers in a restaurant in Zhaoyuan County, Shandong Province. In people's eyes, the “Almighty God” cult is a cold, cruel and inhuman organization, which has destroyed many happy families, including Xiao Zhou's.
Xiao Zhou lived in a family of three, with her father running a textile factory and her mother selling cosmetics. Hers was a happy family. However, since Xiao Zhou's mother believed in “Almighty God”, disputes had frequently cropped up in this seemingly perfect family.
The seeds were sown for the tragedy of Xiao Zhou's family since her mother believed in the “Church of Almighty God” Being deluded by the cult, Xiao Zhou’ s mother ran away from home in 2015 to "preach the gospel" ever since. When still a child, Xiao Zhou began to believe in “Almighty God” under the influence of her mother, with her father Lao Zhou kept in the darkness. After believing in the “Almighty God” cult, Xiao Zhou’s mother told her that "All good things are given to us by God, not obtained through our efforts," and words like this echoed in her ears every day.
Young girl turned into a working “machine”
In March 2016, less than three months before her graduation, Xiao Zhou received an instruction from the CAG organization, which told her to quit university, saying that God had selected her and demanded her to leave university and do her part for God. Deceived and misled by the evil cult, Xiao Zhou privately dropped out of university just when she was about to graduate, and started working for the cult organization.
After leaving the university, Xiao Zhou was taken to a very humble rented house, where she worked day and night like a gyroscope, gradually becoming numb and turning into a working "machine". During those days, she was neither allowed to get in contact with her family or the outside world nor permitted to use any communication tools such as mobile phones or leave her residence arranged for her. It seemed that she had completely vanished from the world. Every day, she would be assigned so much to do that she could hardly sleep more than three or four hours to finish the work.
Father and daughter finally reunited while mother still missing
After Xiao Zhou went missing, Lao Zhou mobilized all his relatives, friends and classmates to inquire about Xiao Zhou's whereabouts. Every day, he cleaned up his daughter's room, waiting for a “miracle” to occur.
At that time, Xiao Zhou got trapped deeper and deeper in the quagmire of the “Almighty God” cult. It wasn’t until three years later when she was rescued by the police that she finally saw her father again. "My father has been waiting for me. There are so many people who love me and whom I love, and never again would I hurt them or fail them." When Xiao Zhou finally met her father after three years’ separation and sufferings, the father and daughter hugged each other and cried. At that moment, she seemed to have gained a new life.
But this family, broken by an evil cult, has not yet become a complete one. Xiao Zhou's mother, who was also deluded by the cult, left home long ago and hasn’t yet come back, with her whereabouts still unknown. Therefore, Lao Zhou took his daughter with him, setting foot once again on a journey to look for his long-lost wife. No one knows how long it will take him to find his wife, but every day, the father and daughter are looking forward to her coming back. It’s a long time since the family of three sat together for a reunion dinner.
