“Only the Lord Jesus never changes. The world, the family, and the children will always change, but Jesus’ great love will never change. My life experience: At my middle-age, my ex-wife and son died. Then my second wife died too. Since September 27, 1999, 22 years have passed, and now I’m 93 years old... Thank the Lord Jesus for his grace every day!”
An old servant of the Lord, Yuan Xiangzhong, recently wrote a message to a sister who suffered misfortune.
I have known Yuan for more than ten years. From April 20 to 22, 2021, a church worker and I went to Quankou True God Christian Church, Xiao Town, Fenghua District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, to meet with him.
At the age of 80, Elder Yuan began to learn how to use a computer. He can skillfully use and operate various functions of the computer, such as PPT (PowerPoint), typing in Word documents, storing photos, playing music with hymns, composing music through software and so on.
He also has musical “cells”. When he served in Xi'an Church, he, who can sing many hymns, was in charge of the choir. While we were walking, he sang a few hymns to us. At my request, he played three hymns for us with the electronic organ, which sounded very beautiful.
Yuan has a very good memory. As a 93-year-old man, he is not in a state of senility or amnesia. Instead, he can recall his journey of service, the church, the development history of the church in China, and the ancient philosophers of Christianity in China. He can clearly recall these, even down to the exact year, month and day.
Despite his age, he is not slow at all and does not teeter. He led us around the church, to the bedroom, and up and down the three flights of stairs, with a light step.
He followed his father’s example and God’s plan for him to come to the True God Church of Xiao Town – a church with a long history of 104 years – and served there for more than 30 years. He recorded his experience of serving the Lord, and also the experience of those who were dedicated to the Chinese church and the Gospel for their whole lives (including not only church pastors, but also laypersons who were faithful in the Lord). In order to spread the Gospel, he has been writing and recording with the help of his computer. His computer storage contains a large number of textual and graphic materials in this field, including eight articles of his: Chinese Christian Memory, Christian Development in Xiao Town, Christianity in New China, and other precious documents of his own experience and recordings.
(The writer of this article is a staff writer for the Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
