When I am discouraged, tired, or near despair, I look at a small photograph pinned to the wall over my desk. In this photo, Pastor Allen Yuan Xiangchen and I are seated at a small table in his Beijing apartment. A friend of his had taken me down backstreets and alleyways to a nondescript building and a tiny, ground floor apartment to meet him. There was no appointment secretary, plaques of honor, pictures for sale, or adulating followers. What I found was a rather small man and his wife – two saints.
Pastor Yuan began his ministry right after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. He opened a prayer room in Beijing where he baptized new believers. Because he refused to join the state-sponsored, national church, he was arrested in 1958 and sentenced to life in prison for “counter-revolutionary crimes.” He spent the next 22 years of his life in prison doing forced labor. He had no Bible and no contact with his family during these years. Upon his release in 1979, he immediately returned to what he had been doing when arrested. People would pack his small apartment to pray and to hear Pastor Yuan teach from the Bible. He did not conceal what he was doing nor did he consider it to be “underground.” He said he no longer feared what the authorities might do to him.
During my visit, he asked one question after another about my faith and how he might pray for me. He was concerned that I live as a faithful witness to Jesus in my country and among my family and acquaintances. Toward the end of our visit, I asked him how he kept from losing hope during the years of hardship and separation from his family. He immediately responded by quoting the opening verses of Psalms 27-
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.
The face of this saint glowed with confidence as he spoke these words. In this frail body and watery eyes, I witnessed strong and vibrant hope. Years of abuse, privation, and cold had not crushed hope. His testimony was not that he had overcome his oppressors but that he had decided to hope in the Lord.
Pastor Yuan died on August 16, 2005 but his testimony lives. His testimony of hope gives me hope. His picture reminds me to choose to be confident in the One who has defeated evildoers, adversaries, enemies, and even death.
