30 years ago, when 19-y-o sister Li Donglian stepped into a decrepit church which was one hundred years old, she was touched and made a promise to God that she will build a beautiful church for God, if she could earn some money in the future. Today, as the founder of a ceramics company, she is preparing to build a ceramic church.
Jesus gives her the dream of church building
Sister Li's belief began with unjust treatment when she worked as a temporary worker at a factory at the age of 19. She asked a few friends to take care of the products for the next so that she can go out to play. However, she found that all she did yesterday were taken by other employees. What's worse, she was framed and accused of stealing when she was simply taking the fruits of her labor back. She was very angry that there is no place to address an injustice. Then, an aunt who believed in Jesus told her that Jesus is our God and he can understand her sadness. After that, she was brought into the church.
At the beginning, she was attending at a house church and simply caught God's words which were shared by a shepherd. Later, when she came to a century-old church in Jingdezhen City which was built by the British missionary,the young girl was touched: How can the Almighty Lord live in such a bad place? If possible, she prayed,, please bless me in my finances so I can build a magnificent church for you."
Experiencing God in the establishment of Enguan company
In 1995, sister Li was laid off from the Administration of Materiel of Jingdezhen City and she started her building ceramic business. She invested 5 million yuan in 2002, taking Jingdezhen Decoration Materials Factory and renamed it to Enguan Ceramics CO., LTD. She explained "Enguan"which in Chinese means God's grace is the champion.
Sister Li experienced God's miracle when she had just taken over the company. At 4 P.M. on December 16, 2002, she officially took over Enguan and gave the original staff a half-hour orientation meeting, telling them that now the enterprise was called the "Enguan". At 5 o 'clock in the afternoon, sister Li stepped into the factory for the first time with the wife of the shop-owner of the original company. The woman looked at the new product and exclaimed, "Who is the genius that can make the brick become straight ?" Li was confused for she did not even know that the original production of brick is curved. The woman said, "If the production of the brick was as such, I would not be selling the company to you." At that moment, sister Li picked up the original product, which was useless because the four corners of ceramic tile were stuck up. Someone joked that the original product could run like a boat on the water, if it were given an engine. Because, before sister Li took over the company, several companies were in a negative state because they had no way to solve the problem of the bending of bricks. After she took over, without even doing anything the brick was straightened.
Dedication with her gratitude to the construction of the church
Now that she was earning some money, sister Li still didn't forget her promise. She mentioned twice to the shepherd of the century-old church that she can give financial support, if they were willing to rebuild the church. However, at that time, the church was under a reform, and for two years they had no action. The idea was eventually put down temporarily.
In 2009, she was in contact with the elder Feng Kai of ShenYang City, who knew that the Northeast Seminary was preparing to be rebuilt. She hoped to be able to do something. She found that she could dedicate the ceramic tiles for the façade seminary building. When she was asked to choose one building, she decided on all of them.
In order to prevent the ceramic tile from being damaged by the frost, she put the homogeneous ceramic tile,which was produced only by her company, into a refrigerator to be tested for more than 20 days. She was specially contracted to produce the ceramic tiles which were used by four buildings of the Seminary. And she delivered directly from Jiangxi to Shenyang by five trucks.
And not only the Northeast Seminary, as long as the local church needed ceramic tiles, she would satisfy their need for free. Now, she has provided ceramic tiles to at least a dozen churches.
Sister Li believes her dedication is not worth mentioning. She is very grateful that the Seminary and the churches could accept her offering which allows her to have a share in the holy work. She said, "God has given so much grace to me. As a Christian I don't know how to thank God. With a grateful heart, I am glad to do these things."
Eager to Build a ceramic church for God
In 2010, her factory was at the end of the gas pipes, causing production costs to rise and her company to be in trouble with operations. Then she sold the houses she took over from the original owner's company for office use. She bought another 100 acres of land and established what is now the Enyuan ceramics co., LTD. Then she planned to build a ceramic church. The church building was in the budget stage now.
Within those years of belief and business experience, Li Donglian summarized, whatever you do, if you become the joy of God, then you will win the triumph. She often prayed, "Lord, I am willing to offer my today, please be my direction and may I be your joy."
Note: Li Donglian has won titles of top ten female entrepreneurs, the top ten outstanding youth of Jingdezhen City, model workers in Jiangxi province, and also the ESTP pioneers of Jingdezhen City, woman pace-setter, the Olympic torch bearer, and such honors.
Enyuan ceramics co., LTD. which was named as the advanced enterprise in re-employment of Jingdezhen City, outstanding private enterprise of the City, a City level enterprise in observing contract and keeping promise , key tax payment enterprise of Zhushan City, etc.
