Ten years ago, Sister Chen Mingfeng lost her daughter in the magnitude 8.0 Sichuan Earthquake that caused more than 70,000 deaths and another 18,000 missing.
Just five or six years before the disaster, Chen became a Christian. Currently, she regularly attends Sunday services held in Gospel Church in Miaozhu, her hometown in Sichuan.
At the 10th anniversary of the quake, she shared how she walked out of the loss of her daughter by her faith and with the help of the church.
Chen who had a son and a daughter contacted the gospel in 2002. Two years later, her daughter who worked in a power plant in her forties followed Jesus. The daughter had a 13-year-old boy.
On the Sunday just before her death, she joined in the service. When a quake struck the city, she who was working and other colleagues were buried under the ruin. Their bodies were never found.
After the disaster, Mianzhu Gospel Church gave Chen a condolence pay of 5,000 yuan.
Chen didn't stop attending services. She went through that difficult time by singing hymns and listening to God's word. "Don't abandon God." Even if the calamity fell on her, she never blamed God, but only considered her life "miserable".
"God took her away when there was a need. We've no idea when we will be taken away by God." She added.
Her conviction that her daughter went to the place where God is and she would also go there gave her much comfort. However, it took her more than one year to walk out of that pain. "If I didn't believe in God, I would not be sure whether I'm alive today or not." She added that she prayed for every problem in her life.
Now she goes to church twice a week. She is a member of a Bible group among the elderly. Despite inadequate knowledge of God, she, convinced of God's mercy and forgiveness, said that she would strive to know God through singing hymns and sermons.
Thanks to her children who purchased social insurance for her, she has a monthly income of over 1,000 yuan.
She still lamented on her deceased daughter. "She didn't get any spiritual or worldly blessing. Now her son has a job."
In addition, some Christians help earthquake victims with their service.
After the disaster, Elder Feng and a few church workers provided relief goods like tents, clothes, and quilts to the victims. After some time, they helped families who lost the main labor force like husbands and sons or drowned in sorrows do farm work. They have accompanied the victims for five years.
Feng said, "Rather than merely pay a visit and give some things to them, we go through thick and thin together."
As of now, they still visit the affected areas where they served five or six times a year.
- Translated by Karen Luo
