In his 40s, Pastor G has served in an East China church for many years. He has been married for many years, with two healthy children — a boy and a girl. However, Pastor G's life was not smooth sailing. He has a certified disability.
This is part 2 of his testimony (see part 1 here):
Road to marriage
Pastor G and his wife were serving in the same church before they got to know each other. At that time, Pastor G was in charge of preaching, while his wife was responsible for the prayer ministry.
At that time, the church was located in an area with many sex workers around. As a single young man at that time, he admitted that working in such kind of place was quite a temptation and test for him.
Pastor G knew that he couldn't win that battle alone, so he contacted his mentor. His mentor asked him to go over and pray with him. Coincidentally, his future wife was praying with them too.
At last, after the prayer was over, Pastor G felt that he no longer felt tempted. Though the environment had not been changed, Pastor G knew that he had won the battle because God had helped him.
At that time, Pastor G served God wholeheartedly. He often led other believers to worship God. Pastor G said, "I'm a good colleague and friend. But I was not confident to be a good husband. None of the girls would be willing to marry me."
Once, Pastor G went back to his hometown and stayed there for two months to handle some business. During that period, his phone was out of service due to overdue charges. But he could not pay the phone bill in his hometown because his phone number wasn't a local one.
So Pastor G contacted a sister of his church with other people's phone and wanted her to pay the phone bill for him. Coincidentally, that sister was living with his future wife. At first, she didn't notice their conversation. But when they started to argue, the future wife recognized the voice of Pastor G. So she told that sister that it was Pastor G instead of a fraud and charged some phone fee for him.
Pastor G said that the bonding between his wife and God was quite strong. And that was why she was pretty and excellent in many aspects. At that time, many brothers in the church liked her and wanted to be with her, while no sister in the church ever wanted to marry Pastor G. His wife told the reason for her love for him, "Because you really believe in Jesus and love Jesus."
After they fell in love with each other, it took Pastor G and his wife three years before they got married. They had experienced many hardships, especially the opposition from the parents of his wife.
The other pastor of his church told Pastor G, "Marriage must be granted by your parents. If one of them disagrees with your marriage, you can't get married." Thus, since then, Pastor G and his wife could do nothing but pray. And many brothers and sisters also prayed for them. At last, the thoughts of the parents of pastor G's wife were changed.
Pastor G said, "I have nothing except my faith for Jesus. I have no house, and I don’t even have any kitchenware. I'm not even a complete man and I could not work like any common man. I told her that if we got married, I wouldn’t even know how to raise our kids. But she said it was okay and she would take care of me and our kids. She really touched me by that."
Getting married
Getting married is always a big deal. When Pastor G got married, he had nothing. Pastor G said that he had 15 dollars at that time, but he put it into the offering box. He prayed to God, "Father, I wondered about what I can buy with 15 bucks. But now I decide to give it to you. I don't count on this 15 bucks. I would only count on your help!"
"Originally we had nothing. But when we were getting married, someone offered some money to us to buy new clothes, someone offered the golden ring which was for her the future wife of her son, and someone offered money to us to take wedding photos. People just gave all the kitchenware we're gonna need. Now we've been married for years, and we've had a son and a daughter. They're both healthy and I'm quite grateful," he added.
Path to ministry
When they were meeting in the church, Pastor G would sing the hymn, his wife would play the piano, and their daughter would play the drums.
Because Pastor G is always dedicated to serving the church, sometimes they may lack money to cover the daily necessities. Pastor G is not alone. Many grassroots pastors would face this problem. He shared his experience of God’s preparation when he was lacking money.
Now Pastor G is leading two churches. But sometimes the church dedication couldn’t even cover the expenses. A schoolmate of Pastor G in seminary suggested that he should stop leading a church, but he said, “Even if there is only one believer in this church, he or she would still be entrusted to me by God. I do this not for money, but for God’s entrustment.”
Pastor G never receives any regular support. But God’s help has always been there whenever he prays to God. Sometimes he may face some difficulties. For example, his kid was sick once. He took his kid to the hospital and paid the registration fee. But the fee for medical examination was 105 dollars. Pastor G didn’t have that much money at that time.
A sister of Pastor G’s church was working near that hospital. So the pastor called that sister and said, “Sister, I need some money to cover the medical expense of my kid. I only have 45 dollars, and I need 60 dollars.” That sister said, “Pastor, I don’t have enough cash. Here is my bank card. I’ll tell you the password of it, and you can go to the bank and withdraw the money you need.”
But Pastor G refused. “Why should I do that? I don’t want to use other people’s bank card! I think that would not be God’s arrangement. If you have cash, you can lend it to me. If you don’t have any, then I won’t borrow any money from you.”
Then Pastor G took his kid home. But a miraculous thing happened just the next day. A car suddenly stopped by Pastor G and another pastor who he had only met once got off the car. “Pastor G, I’ve prepared this sum of money for you for a long time, but I never got a good chance to give it to you.” After saying that, that pastor left. He opened the envelope and there were 60 dollars inside. Then Pastor G took his kid to the hospital.
Recently, when the school fee for Pastor G’s kids was about to be paid, he didn’t have the money or know how could he get this sum of money. However, the next day, Pastor G received a call. Someone called him and said, “Pastor G, I have a sum of money for you. I wanted to give it to you long ago, but I never got that chance to do that.” He always remembered that sum of money clearly. The money he received was 320 dollars, and that sum of money was exactly the school fee for his kids!
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
