My name is Chen Xiaomei (a pseudonym). Setting up by relatives, I got married and moved from a rural area in Northern Anhui Province to Baohe District, Hefei City. I was once so obsessed with Almighty God that I run away from home for 3 years to do my part for “God”. I didn’t realize how gullible I was until I came to my senses later.
At that time, the family of three lives a simple but happy life
In 2013, when our first child was 2 years old, our little family of three was just as ordinary as many others, living a simple but fulfilling and happy life. My husband run a car repair shop in the market near home and was quite busy at working at the shop every day. Although he had to work very hard, he said it was totally worth it for the sake of our little family. As for me, I was in charge of raising our child at home and taking care of household duties. The idea in my mind was to be a good helpmate for my husband. Parents of both sides were simple peasants, and they would work in factories nearby during the slack season in farming or come to our house to help us.
My husband and I were all introverted and we tended not to talk much with each other in our spare time, but our hearts were linked together and we worked hard together, therefore, our life was getting better and better.
I unwittingly blundered into worshiping Almighty God after mistakenly believing words of a colleague
In 2014, when my first child attended kindergarten at the age of 3, I found a job in a nearby factory, then my life became fulfilling again. I befriended with all my colleagues. One of them was Chenjie who came from Northern part of Anhui Province and happened to be my fellow-townsman. Therefore, I trusted her very much and regarded her as my best friend.
Chenjie often came to talk with me, saying that there was a “female Christ” who was quite mighty. (editor’s note: Yang Xiangbin, the mistress of Zhao Weishan who was a leader of the Almighty God cult, is pitched as “female Christ” by the Almighty God cult to bewitch followers). Chenjie also added that difficulties in life such as rough family life or illness of family members could all go away simply by saying prayers, then all family members could be blessed. Later, Chenjie asked me to believe in Almighty God with her, claiming that “With the blessing of Almighty God, you could be protected from any difficulty or harm.” Under the long-term influence of such propaganda, I, who formerly didn’t believe the existence of any God or ghost, gradually became a prey of the cult, started to unwittingly worship Almighty God with Chenjie.
At first, Chenjie often took me to other people’s house to study teachings of the Almighty God cult with other 5 or 6 people and read Almighty God books together. Chenjie also gave me a Christian name called “Linger”. Chenjie explained that all followers were brothers and sisters, so we could call each other by Christian name instead of the name on the ID card. Later, my house was appointed by Chenjie as a gathering point for the cult activities where we need not only read cult books but also write down study notes, aiming to declare our loyalty to “God” and swear not to betray “God”.
I ran away from home for 3 years to “do my part”, and my life was in a total mess
In 2015, my first child was only 4 years old. The more parties I attended with Chenjie and other followers, the more reliant I was on “God”. Whenever something happened to me, the first thing I would do was to pray to “God” for protection. In order to show my loyalty to “God”, I only made friends with fellow believers that I knew, confining myself in the small circle of cult followers, for fear that punishment from “God” might befall upon us. At that time, I was convinced that anyone who didn’t believe in Almighty God was bad guy and I should shun away from those non-believers.
In June 2015, in order to “do my part” better, I run away from home without saying goodbye and never went back home again. My mind was fully occupied by doctrines of “God”, in which there was one line mentioned, “Believers must completely cut their family out of their lives so that they could devote themselves wholeheartedly, otherwise, they wouldn’t get salvation from ‘God’.”
Actually, in the three years of running away from home, I wasn’t far from home, and I just lived in an urban village in a suburb of Hefei City. The Almighty God cult arranged a rural building for us, and we lived in a group of 5 people who we called “family”. The living conditions were so poor that we had to sleep on the floor and eat only potatoes, cabbages or even rotten vegetable leaves scavenged from the nearby vegetable market for nearly each meal.
The main task they gave me was to deliver notes which were also called “chicken feather letters”. Every time before going out to deliver a letter, I was asked to pledge an “oath” in written, saying that if I dared to betray the “God” or failed to complete the task, then I would inflict upon myself the vilest curse and most malicious punishment, such as being unable to die a natural death, being struck by lightning, being killed by car hit, etc. We were even demanded to swear on our parents, relatives and children with curses as vicious as possible.
We were not allowed to use mobile phones or talk to people outside the cult church. Besides “doing our parts” as required, we could only stay inside to learn doctrines, say prayers, chant poetries, and evaluate each other. In the meantime, we didn’t dare to have any personal consideration for ourselves, or to discuss anything irrelevant to Almighty God. Now reflecting on those days, I felt like that I was living in hell as a result of being completely brainwashed by the Almighty God cult.
I was abandoned by the Almighty God cult after being sick
In April 2018, I suffered from stomachache which hurt like hell for many days in a row. No matter how hard I prayed, there was no sign of any help from “God” to alleviate the pain. On the contrary, my condition was steadily deteriorating. But I was accused of not “doing my part” good enough and not believing in “God” wholeheartedly. In sum, they claimed it was my own fault for not getting any help from “God”.
One night, I was sent home by fellow believers. They left me at the entrance to the village, saying that they just wanted me to take a rest at home for several days. It was not until a later time that I realized being ruthlessly abandoned by the Almighty God cult. They treated me as a liability.
Hearing someone knocking at the door, my husband came and answered. When he realized the skinny figure at the front door was me, he flung his arms around me with an aching heart, asking me with tears all over his face, “Where have you been? Why on earth don’t you come back home in all these years?” My daughter heard the voice and run out barefooted to hug me as well, crying, “Mom, I miss you so much!”
The next day, my husband took me to a hospital to see a doctor. After several days of medical treatment, my stomachache disappeared. Lying on the bed in the inpatient ward, I started to think for the first time about what the Almighty God was and whether I was wrong before.
During the four years of my believing in Almighty God, I received no protection or blessing from the so-called “God”. I offered nearly everything that I had, but obviously “God” didn’t care if I lived or died. The Almighty God cult also preached that a child was just a little Satan or devil, but when my child called out the word “Mommy” loudly at me, everything felt so lovely and beautiful to me.
After coming back to my senses, we live a happy life again and become a family of four
My husband told the news of my being back home to the local village committee, the town government and police station. And I was visited by many people from the local community. Until then, I learned that in the past three years, my husband had been travelling around many places in the vicinity of Hefei city to look for me.
Government departments at all level were also very concerned about me. The officials in the local village, town and police station all came to help me. They showed me the documentary film called “What On Earth is Almighty God”, which exposed the evil nature of the cult with a large number of facts, trying to let me come around to realize that I had fell into traps of the evil cult.
With the help from all parts, I gradually came to senses and determined to break away from the Almighty God cult. Right, the so-called Almighty God is nothing but a lie. The “God” preached by the cult does not exist in the world at all. A better life could only be created by our industrious hands and hard-working spirit.
At the beginning of 2020, when our first daughter was 9 years old, we had another daughter. The former family of three has become the family of four. Because I’m living with my family now, every single day of my life is full of laughter and happiness again.
