My name is Zhang Aiyun (a pseudonym). I’m a countrywoman through and through. My hometown is located at the foot of Guangwu Mountain which is a 5A scenic spot at Nanjiang County, Bazhong City, Sichuan Province. Years ago, in the face of such of a charming scenery with four distinct seasons and beautiful mountains and rivers, I was not in the mood for appreciation of it because I was obsessed with the illusionary realm of "God".
Our family was from countryside, and later my son settled down in Chengdu City through hard work. Because my son and daughter-in-law were all so busy at work that they didn’t have time to look after their child, I went to Chengdu to help them with daily housework and take care of my grandchild. Usually when they went to work, I took my grandson to the vegetable market to do grocery shopping then went back home to prepare meals, after which I would go to the park in the community to chat with my peers while babysitting my grandchild. Days of my life back then was quite fulfilling.
It was in 2012 that I got contact with “Almighty God”. On that day, when I was with my grandson in the park as usual, a woman in her 30s came over and said that she wanted to preach “Gospel” to me, claiming that “Almighty God” was the reappearance of the Lord Jesus and it was “the second incarnation of Christ”. She also said that the finishing touches of “God’s work” were bound to be completed by “Almighty God”, and that one could be endowed with “eternal life” if blessed by “God”. For several days, she always came to the park to keep filling me with those ideas. She also gave me two books about “God”, namely Three Stages of God’s Work and The Word Appears in the Flesh, and taught me how to pray. After about half a year, I felt that “Almighty God” was not as marvelous as what she touted, so I gave it up.
In 2014, we met again, and she talked about “Almighty God” to me once more. However, for some reason, I was fascinated by her mythology this time and fully believed in “Almighty God”. Therefore, I followed her to preach “gospels” and started to do the so-called “eat and drink God’s words”. In order to have my family blessed by “God”, I indulged myself with the glorious heaven described by the “Almighty God” cult. Gradually, I was completely brainwashed by fallacies of the cult and firmly believed in it without a shadow of doubt. Anyone who either didn’t believe my words about “Almighty God” or tried to dissuade me from believing in “Almighty God”, I would regard that person as a “demon”, an “evil spirit”, or a “God-forsaken soul”.
In 2017, I became the leader of the paperwork group of the local “Almighty God” organization just because I graduated from a primary school and could read and write. My responsibilities included safekeeping the book Communion with God, SD cards and other books, arranging work for Zhu Wen (a pseudonym) to preach to “Almighty God” followers, summarizing my experience and organizing my learning materials so as to make a copy for other believers, making digital copies of content on SD cards about “Almighty God” to other believers.
Since I became the leader of the paperwork group, I had been so busy at gathering, preaching and sorting out materials that I didn’t have time for doing housework or taking care of my grandson. Seeing that I was too occupied all day long to help with housework, my son curiously asked me what I had been doing lately. I was so proud of what I was doing that I didn’t hide it from my son. Not only did I tell my son everything I knew about “Almighty God” but also asked him to join the cult with me. My son was shocked and immediately asked me not to believe it anymore, declaring that it was an evil cult.
My son’s words sounded ignorant and ridiculous to me at that time. I was convinced that it was my pious work in “God’s family” for years that put our family under the protection of God so that we could be health and our family enjoyed prosperity and peace. Therefore, I was deeply disappointed with my son when he said “Almighty God” was nothing but an evil cult and asked me to break away from “God” right away. Since then, I had been unwilling to take care of my grandson or do housework. Every day, I was obsessed with self-brainwashing by “eating and drinking God’s words”, and was busy with preaching “gospel” from place to place and persuading believers into “offering tributes” to “God”.
In November 2018, all the “Almighty God” books, publications, SD cards and so on were all seized by the police. At that moment, I didn’t have any regret in my heart because I firmly believed that “God” would protect me from any harm, let alone an iron door. I silently made up my mind to be a “witness” for “God” as I believed the situation that I was facing was merely a “test” from God. But in just a dozen days, my belief wavered because the stories that I was preached were totally different from real-world cases that I saw with my own eyes.
I was told in the teachings of “communion with God” that the police were as evil as Satan so that they would beat or swear at prisoners whenever they wanted. Therefore, I was quite afraid when put into prison at first. But after a period of observation, I found that they never scold or hit anyone, nor did they torture anyone as rumor had it. On the contrary, they were very kind to me, cared about my life, provided me with brand-new daily necessities, and talked to me in a mild manner.
The police officers often helped me analyze reasons why I ended up in prison. There were mainly two reasons. Firstly, I was ignorant of laws so that I had no idea that I violated laws. Secondly, I was greedy so that I longed for the existence of “God” to fulfill my unrealistic desires. Therefore, the police officers arranged for me to study laws and regulations, and to learn about difference between religions and evil cults. Gradually, I understood many hows and whys, and figured out that the “Almighty God” I once firmly believed in wasn’t “God” at all but a fake one made up by a few people, where the leader of the church was Zhao Weishan and his wife, Yang Xiangbin, played the role of the so-called “female Christ”. It was the “doomsday theory” fabricated by them that roped me in, causing my family torn by dissension and discord.
Through continuous study, I fully understood that the “Almighty God” cult was an illegal organization that was never registered by the state, and that it had been tagged as an evil cult by the state since 1995. As a Chinese citizen, I must fulfill my obligations while enjoying various rights provided by the state, among which abiding by disciplines and laws is the fundamental one.
After understanding facts and truth, I felt deeply ashamed and remorseful because I realized, it was my ignorance and stupidity that isolated me from my family and relatives at the age when I should enjoy the happiness of a family union.
I wanted to say “Sorry” to my family and relatives, especially my children. They all once tried to dissuade me from believing in the “Almighty God” cult but failed one after another, just because of my bigotry. As a result, we were separated by iron bars and I felt quite guilty about having them worry about me.
I also fully realized the evil nature of the “Almighty God” cult from the bottom of my heart. And I understood that there was no such thing as “eternity of life” in the world and that no one could change birth, death, illness and old age which were all part of the natural law. Furthermore, the family happiness could only be gained with mutual affection among family members and tolerant attitude towards each other, and a bright future could only be created through hard work with both hands of our own.
