“Let the hot stairs burn our weak waist,” this was a message from Sister Ju Wanzhen, a volunteer in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Before sending this message, on WeChat, she sent me some pictures of her and her sister lying on a concrete staircase to ease their tired bodies in the sunlight.
In July 2020, with a new unexpected cluster outbreak in China's coastal Dalian, citizens who have just resumed their daily life, work, and study are now fighting against the pandemic again. Churches have to suspend their worship services again after reopening two weeks ago.
Reports said that for nucleic acid testing, Dalian dispatched a total of 8,107 medical staff and 30,000 volunteers and set up a total of 2,069 centers in the main battlefields of medical care, transportation, and communities.
Sister Ju Wanzhen, an unknown pianist from a church in Dalian, and a teacher of musical instruments, bravely marched to the epicenter of the outbreak in Dalian Bay as a volunteer at a testing site from July 25.
In the summer, it is hot and unbearable in the airtight protective clothing. They worked from six o'clock in the morning until late at night. When they took off their protective clothing, their hair and clothes were completely wet, and their hands white and skin peeling in their gloves. Looking at each other, they smiled with relief.
I asked her: “Are you afraid? Would you like to go there?” She said: “I'm afraid. This is the epicenter of the outbreak, which is also the source of the new cluster outbreak in Dalian. I'm not afraid, if I'm afraid I won't go. I'm willing to go because this is the Lord's will. Whether intentionally or not, it is God's arrangement. Fighting against the pandemic is the order that we can’t escape. The new crown pneumonia is like Satan; we can’t be afraid of him. The most effective tactic is to fight against it and obey God.
She added, "I pray to God every day for the safety of my friends and I, for the safety of Dalian, and for the restoration of a normalized situation as soon as possible."
I asked her: “Some of your sisters encountered opposition from family members and crying from children. Have you encountered resistance? And what do you think about this tiring and hard work?
“Obstruction cannot stop the pace of volunteering,” she said, “we all come forward whenever we are needed. Because the duty of the teaching profession is obedience”.
She answered, "Thank the Lord! I was not hindered by my family, on the contrary, they supported me. Good or bad things are all from God’s will and under his grace. When we are doing things, God is watching... Now, my companions and I have been here for eight days."
- Translated by Abigail Wu
