Yi Lin is a fifth-generation believer in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong Province, where most believers are from Christian families. Even when the children are grown, they usually marry fellow church members.
During the Qingming Festival, Christians take flowers, sickles, and hoes to the cemetery. After weeding, cleaning, and adding fresh soil, they often sing hymns, pray, and reminisce.
Every time Yi Lin stands in front of his parents' graves, he recalls various memories with them. His father was strict; he was mischievous as a child and was often given "bamboo fish" to eat, which most Chaoshan children hated. Moreover, whenever he could not recite Bible verses or avoided Sunday service, the punishment would be doubled.
His father was a church leader back then, and as Yi recalls, his father would assign him tasks, big and small, under the guise of "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
Yi's mother always silently supported him from behind the scenes through prayers. During the day, she not only managed the family's affairs but also took care of the believers' needs in the village. At night, she helped the children with their homework and mended clothes for everyone in the family.
Yi set up a brick factory when the reform and opening up policy in China had just begun. However, due to the smoke and dust from the factory or his continuous hard work day and night, he contracted tuberculosis. At that time, it was as frightening as lung cancer is today. The night they received the diagnosis, the whole family gathered in a circle to pray loudly to the Lord as usual, and his wife's tears flowed like a spring. After the prayer, Yi calmly said to his wife and children, "God just told me that He would heal me."
A veteran traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who was an inheritor of century-old medical knowledge prescribed him Chinese herbal medicine, combined with Western medicine from the county hospital. Yi slowly took the medicine for three months, according to the doctor’s instructions.
One day, Yi Lin went to another area to collect payment and pick up a week's supply of medicine. He hung his handbag on the motorcycle while entering the restroom, but when he came out, the bag was gone. Inside it were invoices, delivery notes, contracts, official seals, and so on. At that moment, with no computer backups, he kneeled with a sudden 'thud,' and said, "Lord, now I have nothing besides the sickness in my body, and outside of me, there's only You."
After praying, he first went to the client's office, but to his surprise, they immediately called the accountant to audit the accounts and paid the remaining balance. They also reassured him not to worry and even sent someone to accompany him to report to the police and declare the relevant documents null and void. When he returned, he went to get a refill on his medication. The doctor told him that tuberculosis could not be treated casually and he needed to undergo an examination first, so he went to have an X-ray taken.
Thirty minutes later, the doctor examined the X-ray repeatedly, yet found no sign of tuberculosis. He said to Yi, "Machines do not lie. It seems that what you have been speaking of—God healing you—is indeed true. Your God must be quite the expert!" Yi returned home and shared with his family that, indeed, God had healed him.
- Translated by Nonye Nancy
