People say, youth is romantic, beautiful, striving, and struggling, but my youth has just flowed away like water...
How I used to be
I am Wu Xiaofen (pseudonym), born in 1987 in a rural area of Qingyuan, Guangdong Province. My parents were all farmers who often went out to work to support the family. For as long as I could remember, they rarely communicated with me. Fortunately, I had an elder brother and a younger sister. My brother often took me and my sister to the town for fun, occasionally to the church to listen to singing, while buying candies for us to eat, so that my childhood memories were still happy and warm. After my brother graduated from junior high school, he went to work in Nanhai, Foshan City. At that time, I was just in the sixth grade. Seeing my brother's departure, I had a deep sense of loss.
After finally finishing elementary study, I proposed to my parents that I would not continue my education. Without hesitation, they agreed to my request. That year, I was 13 years old. Packing my bags, I followed my brother to a garment factory. Thanks to a relative who was a manager there, I was taken care of and tasked with counting in the workshop. After four years, I wanted to break out of this monotonous and dull factory life. Later, I worked first as a hotel waitress, and then in a photo printing shop owing to some computer skills I learned in my spare time. It was there that I met a boy who made my heart flutter for the first time. He was from Guangxi at the same age as me, but had started working at the printing shop a bit earlier than me. He was very caring. Especially when I had painful periods every month, he took extra care of me. On my 21st birthday, we lived together. After more than three years of dating, we planned to go to his hometown to get married and hold a banquet just before the Spring Festival of 2011, but I suddenly discovered that he was increasingly avoiding me, spending whole nights out. A close friend told me that he had already found a new girlfriend. At that moment, I felt as if the sky had collapsed...
Where I encounter a Cult
With heartache, insomnia and helplessness, I couldn't step out of the shadow of a failed romance for more than half a year. On the National Day of 2012, my parents and brother invited me back to my hometown. Thinking that I had the time, I agreed. It was naturally joyful for the family to reunite, but I was always depressed, often hiding myself in my room. On the morning of October 3rd, my aunt who married far away in Hunan came back to visit. After entering the house, she whispered with my mother for a long time. Around 11 o'clock, my mother opened my room door and led my aunt in. My aunt came to me and said, “My niece, do you know that humans were created by God? Humans have strayed from God for too long and corrupted by Satan, becoming arrogant and selfish. Your boyfriend is just like that. Don't be sad. Now a great disaster is about to come, and God has incarnated for the second time to save us.” I asked, “Where is God’s incarnation?” My aunt said, “As long as you believe in God, God is by your side. Now God is called ‘Almighty God’. I'll give you a book to read. Once you understand, you'll receive everything.” My aunt took out a thick book from her handbag: “The Word Appears in the Flesh”.
I had no interest in reading, just flipping through it casually and then placing it under my pillow. After the holiday, I brought it back to work. Maybe it's because my emotions still had no reliance, or maybe because I was too bored after work, I opened this book again. “If you dedicate yourself to God without any hindrance from any force, then you will be the one chosen and blessed by God,” this statement had a great impact on me when I longed for happiness. So, I kept learning and taking notes...
What I’ve done in lost youth
It was probably at the end of November 2012, a woman who claimed to be my aunt's sister found me at my rental. She said that reading books was not enough and “communication” was also a must. I didn't know what “communication” meant, so she wrote down an address and said that everything would be clear once I went there. At that address was also a rental in a village within the city, where there was a girl about my age, followed by two middle-aged women. We sat in her bedroom with a small wooden stand holding a very old laptop. One of the middle-aged women opened the laptop and started reading a passage and sharing her thoughts, while the others also shared their “receptions”. This process was repeated three or four times, and the meeting took almost an hour to finish. Afterwards, the “communications” were basically twice a week. Because I liked to take notes, I often talked more than others during the “receptions”, which made the others look at me with new eyes. During one meeting in August 2013, a woman from “above” suddenly came. She asked us to choose a “church leader”. After the voting, she announced me as the “church leader”. I was filled with a sense of achievement instantly. From then on, I was always thinking about the “church”, arranging meetings, collecting “donations”, receiving “newcomers”, and even starting the computer training.
Perhaps because I had to deal with church matters after work and often stayed up late, or because of my irregular lifestyle and not paying enough attention to my diet, I experienced particularly severe menstrual pain in December 2014 and was admitted to the hospital. After I asked for leave from the printing shop, the manager's younger brother, who had been pursuing me, appeared in the ward with flowers in hand. Worried that he didn't believe in “Almighty God”, I intentionally avoided him, because the book said that “Almighty God” comes to break up families, leading those who believe in him into the next era; believers and non-believers are inherently incompatible”. During my hospital stay, he took great care of me, delivering meals and fruits every day, and even personally making soup. Under his care, I recovered quickly and was discharged from the hospital after 4 days. Later, although I strongly wanted to accept him, I was afraid of the “punishment” from “God” and didn't dare to speak out, constantly tormenting myself. My boyfriend waited for me for 3 years and his family urged us to get married multiple times, but I always refused. Eventually, he left in disappointment, and I missed my love. To help me “devote myself more fully,” the “Almighty God” organization asked me to quit my job and take on the role of “community agent leader.” Without a source of income, I still needed to “do my part”. Once something wasn't handled well, I would be “punished”. In a daze, I sank deeper and deeper into the cult trap...
When I wake up
Running from place to place and hiding myself here and there but refusing to return home, I had been completely changed from who I was. In November 2022, while I was sending emails at a gathering place, I was arrested by the public security organs for allegedly using a cult to commit crimes and was criminally detained according to the law. During my detention, I met anti-cult volunteers who patiently educated and explained to me, making me realize that the "Almighty God" I had always believed in was a false god, and that the so-called "Female Christ" Yang Xiangbin and "High Priest" Zhao Weishan were outright frauds. They took our "offerings" to live in luxury abroad, yet requiring us to work for them at all times, deceiving innocent people, and even threatening that "you must obey God unconditionally, otherwise you would be abandoned and struck down by God".
My 10-years youth, from 25 to 35, was lost in this scam.
Here, I want to tell the vast number of young friends and followers still stuck in the mire of cults, to definitely reject cults, protect yourselves from the “mind control” by cult organizations, and do something meaningful for the country, society, and family during the prime of your youth.
