Meicheng is one of the major cities in the east of Guangdong Province. Years ago, there was a devout Christian named Yang Xiaomei (a pseudonym). She used to have a happy family and lived a prosperous life, but the evil “Almighty God” cult found its way into her family and dragged her whole family into an abyss of darkness.
She set foot on the road of “paradise” in pursuit of “immortality”
It was one evening in the summer of 2012 when two people came to Yang Xiaomei’s place. They claimed themselves to be her fellow believers and wanted to discuss Bible with her. They introduced themselves to be “Sister Lai” and “Nanxi”. After showing her the two books, The Bugle of the Truth and The Word Appears in the Flesh, they said that the era of Jesus she and others believe in had ended and here came the new era of “Almighty God” who was in charge of the fate of whole human race. They added that in the past, Jesus could only save believers’ souls. But in the new era, both souls and flesh of believers could be saved by “Almighty God”. In curiosity, Yang Xiaomei asked whether the new “Jesus” could turn followers into immortals. They said “of course” and “that was exactly the difference between Jesus and ‘Almighty God’”.
Seeing that Yang Xiaomei was intrigued, they made more efforts to preach fallacies to her, such as “Catastrophes are about to befall the whole human race in the world while only those who believe in ‘Almighty God’ could survive”, etc. Under the influence of their inculcation for several days, Yang Xiaomei soon went out with them to do the “Communion”.
From that day on, she stepped into the abyss of pure evil. During more than three years of believing in “Almighty God”, the elderly in her family weren’t taken good care of by her, and her child lagged behind in schoolings while she was in a complete mess, yearning for a life in “heaven” all day long.
She led her son into “heaven”
In early 2013, although Yang Xiaomei had been deeply obsessed with fallacies of the “Almighty God” cult, she was still unwilling to follow its requirements which called followers to “give up families and run away from home to wholeheartedly do their part”. She just couldn’t help thinking her family and her beloved son who was studying in the fourth grade of a primary school.
To further mislead Yang Xiaomei, a local chieftain of the cult talked to her alone, “Since our fate is in the hands of ‘Almighty God’, you should set your mind at rest when leaving your family, husband and son to ‘Almighty God’. Do you still have any doubt about God?” Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaomei wavered.
Desperately, Yang Xiaomei decided to have it both ways so that she didn’t have to give up either “Almighty God” or her son. The best solution she came up with was to make her son believe in “Almighty God”. In this way, together with her son, she began to listen to songs, read books and watch videos that were all about “Almighty God”.
At first, she exerted a gradual influence on her son once or twice a week. Later, she would take her son to watch disaster videos, do the so-called “eat and drink God’s words” and sing songs about “Almighty God” until bedtime every day. At first, her son only had a hazy notion about “Almighty God”. Then gradually, he became uncertain as to what to believe, eventually he turned to be wholeheartedly devoted to “Almighty God”. Under her influence, her son stepped onto the wrong path of believing in “Almighty God” as well. He used to do well in his studies and have a sunny disposition, but he changed a lot after becoming a cult believer. He was in low spirits in class and his grades plummeted. And gradually, the little boy turned to be reclusive, introverted, and not interested in socializing with his classmates.
She put her heart and soul into “working for God” in order to “go to heaven”
At the end of 2013, Yang Xiaomei put all her efforts into “preaching the gospel” in pursuit of an early “flesh and spirit salvation”. Because of her hard work, she was soon promoted by the “Almighty God” organization to be the leader of a local church in Meicheng. Additionally, for the reason of her good looks, she was arranged to participate in the filming work for the “Almighty God” organization in Guancheng.
According to requirements of the “Almighty God” organization, she was not allowed to reveal her whereabouts during filming. Therefore, she didn’t contact her family for 6 consecutive days after leaving home. After this incident, her husband advised her not to believe in “Almighty God” anymore, over which the couple quarreled frequently. Especially in Year 2004, in order to show her faith in “Almighty God”, Yang Xiaomei spent most of her time on attending cult parties and learning “God’s words” while neglecting her family. For that, her husband became more and more discontented with the “Almighty God” cult. Her so-called sisters “comforted” her after knowing about her family dispute, “believers and nonbelievers belong to different worlds. Why not make a change by working out of town. I heard that you could be better paid there. And it is better than working part-time.”
Yang Xiaomei thought there was no reason for her to refuse it since many other fellow believers had let go of their families. And she was convinced that “Almighty God” would definitely “take good care of” her son and her family members as long as she could devoutly “do her part” for “Almighty God”. So, Yang Xiaomei made up her mind and resolutely cut her family off. To show she really meant it, she vowed to abandon family and wrote a letter of guarantee before leaving home, stepping on the road of working for “Almighty God” wholeheartedly.
She finally realized the so-called “Heaven” was actually a gate to Hell
Because Yang Xiaomei’s missing came out of the blue, her husband freaked out. He went out alone to search for his wife, leaving their son to elders in the family. He knew nothing about the exact whereabouts of his wife except that she bought a coach ticket to Guancheng city. He turned to the aids from both the government and the society after his efforts failed. With the help from the government, he finally found his wife at a rented house in the rural-urban fringe zone of Guancheng city. There, his wife was doing the so-called “eating and drinking God’s words” with some dubious characters.
However, despite her husband’s since pleadings, Yang Xiaomei firmly refused to go back home, nor did she speak to him. So, her husband had to ask social workers for help through arrangements of the government. With the patient help from professional anti-cult volunteers, she finally calmed down and started to do rational thinking. Through careful analysis, she gradually realized the words that “Sister Lai” and “Nancy” had told her, such as “going to hell”, “being condemned to a frying pan”, “suffering from retributions”, etc., were all lies used to frighten her. The reason why she was not allowed to make phone calls or write letters during the period of her “doing the part” was to prevent her from going back home so that all she could do was to serve the “Almighty God” cult.
At last, Yang Xiaomei came to her sense. Because of her ignorance and her desire to pursue the “immortality”, she mistakenly put her faith in the false “God”, mistook “Hell” for “Heaven”, and almost embarked on the dark road with no return. With the help from the volunteers, she finally realized the evil nature of “Almighty God”, and decided to get rid of the mind control and break away from the evil cult.
Yang Xiaomei went back home with her husband and reunited with her family. With the aid of the volunteers, her son also returned to his normal life and schooling, gradually getting rid of the influence of “Almighty God”.
Now, Yang Xiaomei is determined to make amends for the past by taking good care of her family and repaying the society with all her energy and efforts in the rest of her life.
