"My life is a miracle, so I want to live for the Lord. If it weren’t for His care, how could I have been out in a wheelchair for 20 years and shuttle to the hospital for hemodialysis alone in recent years? God keeps us alive to bear witness to glorify His name."
A male believer named Wang Zhangwei is from a disabled fellowship in Linfen Church, Shanxi. Seeing many believers living around him, he opens his home as a meeting site where Christians listen to God’s words and pray together there every Wednesday when he also can share some sermons. He also serves in the disabled fellowship, sending scriptures to other members, gaining joy and satisfaction.
In people's eyes, he is unfortunate, as a car accident in his youth completely changed the fate of his family, followed by high paraplegia, the departure of his wife, and the torture of uremia. But in his eyes, these were precious trials that God gave him to endure.
Recalling his experiences over the years, Wang kept counting on the grace of God.
On the National Day of 1999, when he drove a truck through the village in his early twenties, he accidentally crashed into the village memorial gate.
"I had a blackout and could not remember anything. When I woke up, I had been lying in the hospital bed for many days, with the lower part of my body losing its feeling," he recalled.
The doctor told Wang that he could no longer stand up, as he was paraplegic at a high position due to an injured spinal cord. In addition, the employer had no money to pay for compensation, so his stable life was shattered. In 2003, his wife left him and his young children, never returning.
The daily medication made him so miserable that he did not even want to live. However, seeing his elderly mother and young son, he thought he could not abandon them.
After being discharged from the hospital, together with his mother, he lived in the village. During the recuperation period, his Christian mother served him as a "cook" and a "medical nurse", taking the burden of the whole family on her thin shoulders.
"It can be said with certainty that without my mother’s hard work, I would not be here now."
Speaking of his mother, his heart was full of gratitude and indebtedness. Being a Christian for many years, his mother went to the meeting site in the village every Sunday. Although she was not literate, she learned how to frequently pray and sing hymns.
Christians from the local meeting site often came to visit him, bringing a special gift - the Bible. He began to read it, as he had nothing to do in the hospital bed. In the beginning, he just read the stories since he did not understand the scriptures with many foreign names. Reading more, he saw between lines a benevolent, just, and holy God who always loves sinners.
Although his wife abandoned him in times of his needs, God’s love for him would not be shaken.
Reflecting on his journey over the years, Wang found that though he lived in sin before, God always loved him. Church members’ intercession and frequent visits swept away the gloom in his heart, encouraging him to live on. After regaining his strength, he began to help his elderly mother while in a wheelchair to cook and wash clothes. Every Sunday, the two of them went to worship God in the local gathering place, praying and reading the Bible.
God also blessed him in many ways, as he successfully applied for a low-rent housing spot, where they lived more comfortably. Without furniture and decoration, this hard-won new house made him very grateful, as, in the bright and spacious new building, they could use a flushing toilet and take a bath, no more cooking over woodfire.
Diagnosed with uremia in 2017, he had to go to the hospital for dialysis three times a week. Each time, he had to wait in line for the entire morning to be treated. Before each hospital visit, he begged God to lead the dialysis treatment.
In order to help other patients to have confidence in overcoming illness, Wang shared the gospel and his testimony of being called, combined with his own experience.
In March 2020, his mother, who had taken care of him for many years, passed away. Apart from grief, he knew he should rely on God to live, as he had to face everything alone henceforth.
God’s love and grace were always with him. Over the years, in addition to "A Cup of Water" Charity Fund in Linfen Church, pastors and members of the disability fellowship often visited and supported his family. Several Christian neighbors also took turns to take care of him, helping him with laundry, cooking, and other housework.
In the midst of his illness, he also experienced God’s protection. He had bedsores on his hip which never healed. On the second day of the first lunar month of this year, on the way to the balcony, his wheelchair suddenly flipped over his leg, which bled. It happened that his son was not at home and his cell phone was not nearby, so on the cold ground, he prayed to God who heard his prayer. After a while, a female believer living nearby came to visit him, asking another female Christian for help. These two elderly believers in their 70s helped him up to get out of danger. Unexpectedly, after a period of rest in bed, Wang was delighted to find that not only the wound on his leg but also the bedsore had been healed. He was thankful for the miraculous healing.
"In addition, I also ask God for changing my son's heart to fall down before Him and serve," he concluded.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
