For a girl, 20 years old should have been the age of beauty and innocence, but for Liu Xiaojuan (a pseudonym) from Guangxi, it was the beginning of a nightmare. As Liu Xiaojuan and her mother were drawn into the “Church of Almighty God” by her grandmother, who strayed into the evil cult, she quit her job and ran away from home to preach the so-called "gospel", which wasted her ten years of precious youth.
According to Liu Xiaojuan, her mother was weak and sickly since childhood. Her grandmother tried everything possible to find a way to improve the health of her mother. In 2005, Liu Xiaojuan’s grandmother got exposed to the “Church of Almighty God” by chance. At that time, she was working in Guangdong with her mother to make a living. After becoming a believer in the “Church of Almighty God”, her grandmother contacted her and her mother to force them to join the cult organization. Besides, her grandmother gave their residential address to the "Church of Almighty God" cult members in Guangdong.
Initially, Liu Xiaojuan and her mother didn't believe in the “Almighty God” cult. Then, her grandmother said to them, “The religion we believe in is Christianity, which persuades people to do good deeds. Believing in it can help people dispel diseases, get out of suffering, escape disasters, and live a good life.”
Later, the "Almighty God" cult organization in Guangdong found Liu Xiaojuan and her mother. Soon, their rented house became one of the meeting sites for the "Almighty God" cult members. They met three times a week to listen to the "Almighty God" cult tapes and study the so-called doctrinal books. After several brainwashing sessions, Liu Xiaojuan and her mother began to believe in the “Almighty God” cult.
"They thought I studied hard and had a deep understanding of what I had studied, so they transferred me from the meeting site in my rented house to another one to serve as a team leader," Liu Xiaojuan said. In June 2008, Liu Xiaojuan quit her job to devote herself to “evangelizing”.
After becoming a follower of the “Church of Almighty God”, Liu Xiaojuan indulged in the meetings and preaching all day long. In 2008, she returned home from Guangdong Province and stayed home for two months, waiting for further arrangements from the cult organization. In the meantime, her father and elder brother tried to discourage her, but she remained unmoved and devout in her faith in the "God”.
The "Almighty God" cult instigated its followers to leave home to preach the cult. So, for the first time, Liu Xiaojuan ran away home for “believing and preaching”.
When Liu Xiaojuan left home, she had only 200 yuan on her, which was soon used up. The "Almighty God” cult organization gave 50 yuan a month to the “instructors” who ran away from home and had no savings. With the 50 yuan a month as her living expense, Liu Xiaojuan went from village to village by bike, distributing leaflets to draw people into joining the cult. Every time she went to a village, she would eat and live in a stranger's home.
In 2012, Liu Xiaojuan received a letter from her superiors, who told her and other believers, all known as "deacons of the gospel", to make some trouble for the country. Then, Liu Xiaojuan and other believers began to intensify their efforts in organizing meetings and spreading heresies. Every day, they shouted in the streets and villages with a loudspeaker in hand, and they even went to schools to carry out propaganda activities.
"The first day we went to a school, some staff from the school kicked us out. We went to another school and sneaked in to give out leaflets. When the school staff found us, they locked us inside the school immediately and called the police," Li Xinjuan said. "One day, the police told me that they would send me home and they asked me to abide by the law instead of spreading heretical fallacies. However, I refused to let them send me home so as to protect the ‘organization’."
In the village Liu Xiaojuan came from, many people were believers of the “Almighty God” cult, so they warned Liu Xiaojuan not to reveal her home address to the police as they thought it might affect them adversely. So, Liu Xiujuan would rather be punished by the law than disclose her home address.
The legal punishment didn’t make Liu Xiaojuan wake up to reality. Instead, she became more and more obsessed with the “Almighty God” cult. Later, when she returned home, her father urged her not to be addicted to the “Almighty God” cult anymore, saying it would only harm herself and others too. However, Liu Xiaojuan didn’t pay any attention to her father’s advice. Her father, being both worried and angry, said to her: "Now, the pork has gone up to more than 10 yuan a jin. What do you eat and drink since if you are idling about doing nothing?” Hearing her father's words, Liu Xiaojuan thought her father had raised her only as a means of earning money. Just then, Liu Xiaojuan’s "superiors" sent a note to her, comforting her not to be afraid but to hold on, for the sake of the “Almighty God” cult. Afterward, Liu Xiaojuan ran away from home again after dark.
She continued to go from door to door, persuading people to join the “Almighty God” cult and “preach the gospel”. Being out of money and afraid to use her ID card, she took a temporary job and lived in a rented house, which also served as a meeting site for the cult members. After it was reported to the police by the public, Liu Xiaojuan and her accomplices were arrested by the police and punished again for violating the law.
"The bitter of tribulation has no boundaries. A person can still survive as long as he turns around to mend his way”. Beginning from 2015, the anti-evil-cult volunteers began to guide Liu Xiaojuan away from the mind control of the evil cult of “Almighty God”. At first, Liu Xiaojuan was very resistant to them, because she always believed that she was right in believing in the cult.
Through the patient persuasion and analysis of the anti-evil-cult volunteers, Liu Xiaojuan opened her heart to them little by little. She came to realize the errors she had made in the past ten years since she strayed into the evil cult of "Almighty God". Also, she felt remorse for having harmed not only hurt her and her family but also society. Now Liu Xiaojuan has woken up to the truth and joined the ranks of anti-evil-cult volunteers, so as to help those still addicted to the "Almighty God" cult to break away from it as soon as possible.
"I have wasted 10 years of my youth under the influence of the heretical fallacies of the ‘Church of Almighty God’ cult, and I have violated national laws because of obsession with the cult. I hope people will not take this road of no return as I did,” said Liu Xiaojuan.
