Ah Yu is a diligent, kind and simple peasant woman from Gaozhou, Guangdong Province. However, she had a very unhappy married life. In order to get rid of difficulties in life and change her fate, she was credulous about a lie that people who believe in God could be blessed by God, and that they could avoid troubles and misfortunes and lead a good life. That was how Ah Yu got roped into the trap of the Almighty God cult and put her whole family into a desperate situation.
Life is difficult or even overburdening
It is said that every single girl would dream a happy married life long before they are married, and Ah Yu is no exception. But in more than 10 years after being married, Ah Yu endured hardship that no ordinary people could bear. Her husband suffered from mental illness and lost capability to work, so Ah Yu had to sell clothes alone on a market stall to support two youngsters and two elders all by herself. The difficulties in life were so overwhelming to her that she felt like there was a boulder weighting a thousand pounds over her weak shoulder.
However, the most intolerable thing for Ah Yu was not her financial difficulties, but the violence her husband inflicted upon her during the onset of his mental illness, ranging from punches and kicks to sticks and knives, therefore, Ah Yu was often nearly beaten to death and got scars all over her body. Due to financial difficulties, the lack of scientific understanding of her husband’s illness, and her inability to seek social resources to solve her family problems, Ah Yu had to grin and bear violence from her psycho husband, mourning and grieving her fate that she was living an inhuman life and only as good as dead.
Ah Yu met a “nice old woman” after being beaten
One day in 2012, Ah Yu was selling clothing in her market stall with her otherwise unattended husband. Out of nowhere, her husband had a psychotic episode and started to beat Ah Yu. Although they were surrounded by many bystanders, no one stepped up to help until her husband stopped beating her.
Once again, Ah Yu was black and blue after this sudden assault, lying on the dirty and hard market floor and unable to move. A stranger old woman came forth from the crowd to Ah Yu’s side, helped her up, wiped her tears and comforted her, “God will bless good people like you.” Then the old woman bought a liquid medicine from nearby chemist shop to disinfect Ah Yu’s wound. While applying the medicine for Ah Yu, the old woman said, “God will bless you. Don’t dwell on it. Do your business later after you’re fully recovered.”
Two months later, the kind old woman visited Ah Yu at her stall again along with several other women, saying they were her relatives. They brought some fruits and snacks to Ah Yu, ate together with her, and spent more than 800 Yuan on buying Ah Yu’s clothes. For that, Ah Yu was very grateful and felt that she met good people.
Ah Yu fell into the trap and went astray
Half a month later, the old woman talked to Ah Yu again and asked about her family. Unsuspecting Ah Yu vented her grievances to the old woman.
The old woman persuaded Ah Yu, “Your psychotic husband is too scary. I am worried about you and afraid that he might kill you someday by accident. Psychos won’t be held accountable for killing people. Why don’t you believe in God with me? I used to lead an unhappy family life as well, and I was not in good health, but everything changed after I believed in God, my family life is much better now, so is my health. Believing in God can expel misfortune, keep you safe and sound. No matter what difficulties you encountered, you could pray to God. As long as you believe in God, your husband would be slowly getting better, and you won’t be beaten by him.” “Nowadays, there are more and more disasters in the world, and earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and plagues. Only when people restore their faith in God by bowing down to and worshipping God again can they keep disasters and misfortune at bay, otherwise, they will hardly escape from sufferings.”
Then, the old woman listed many so-called “miracles” and emphasized, “It won’t take up lots of your time. All you need do is to sing songs, read books and attend parties when you are free.”
The words of the old woman made Ah Yu mistakenly thought that she found a “magic key” to solve her sufferings in life. Therefore, Ah Yu placed her hope for a better life and fate on the so-called Almighty God, not knowing that she already fell into the trap set by the Almighty God cult preachers.
“Filial children, harmonious conjugal relation, safe and healthy family……” these are what Ah Yu pictured a happy family should have, and they are also her initial motivation to join Almighty God cult. However, after believing in Almighty God, not only didn’t she achieve her dreams but also everything she dreamed of drifted farther and farther away from her.
The lost lamb went to jail
At the beginning, the “brothers and sisters” (believers of the Almighty God cult) of the church often visited Ah Yu to listen to her complaints about her sufferings, comfort her, care about and help her, which warmed her suffering-ridden heart and made her believe that she had found needed support and hope for her life ahead. But things turned complicated with her deepening faith in “God” .
The doctrine of the Almighty God cult says, “Those who are unwilling to leave the world and give up parents and pleasure of flesh are ones that rebel against God and are subject to be destroyed.” “Study at school is meaningless, so as family, money, marriage and work.” “Everything in the world is meaningless except for pursuit of truth.” At that moment, Ah Yu was stuck into a dilemma, on one hand, it is her family that needs to be taken care of by her, and on the other hand is the Almighty God that is allegedly able to bring about fortunes to her family and herself.
Finally, in order to get “God’s praise and protection”, to become “one of the chosen ones by God so that she could be saved from being destroyed when the doomsday comes.” Ah Yu gave up her responsibility for her family and firmly followed the “God’s commands”. All that she was thinking was how to gain praise from God by making sacrifice to God or accumulating good deeds to please God. She often went out to get together with her “brothers and sisters” several days in a row, to sing “God’s songs” and dance “God’s dances” or to exchange her gained experience. Since then, she was no longer in the mood for doing her business, looking after her elders, taking care of her ill husband, and raising her under-aged children. She was so obsessed with the Almighty God that she went around to pull other people into the cult and participated in illegal cult activities. The family that she once tried so hard to support was on the verge of being broken.
In October 2014, Ah Yu was arrested for taking part in illegal cult activities and put into prison. In prison, not only did she show no regrets, but also she firmly believed fallacies in those Almighty God cult books, thinking that it was the arrangement of God and a test or ordeal, believing that she could be one more step closer to God as long as she could endure the trial from God. She was totally unaware that all the care and love she received after believing in Almighty God were all faked, and that the Almighty God cult had already put her family and her into a desperate situation.
She became a prisoner, and her husband was sent to a mental hospital. The elders and children in her family got no one to turn to, and she cried with grief every day, all of which were the “fortune” rewarded by believing in the Almighty God.
